Beginners learn the ropes of Cuban-style salsa dancing every Tuesday night at Platinum in Corvallis

Tuesday nights in Corvallis have never been hotter, thanks to the local salsa dancing duo Rumbanana.

At 7 p.m. on a weeknight, Jeannine Hart took a break from tearing up the dance floor at Platinum to enjoy a glass of wine. This physician and mother swing dances with her husband, but she's new to the clave-infused Afro-Cuban rhythms that filled the local club.

Hart was just one of about 25 students to pack the dance floor for the first in a 4-week series of beginning Cuban-style salsa classes led by Rumbanana's Mike Eskeldson and Simona Boucek.

Hart wants to convince her husband to join her at Platinum next week. Lori Ritter, a nurse and a friend of Hart's, said she's hoping these classes will help her nab a cute salsa dancer.

"It's fun, great exercise, looks good and is sexy," Ritter said of the sultry footwork.

Eskeldson and Boucek began teaching casino rueda classes at Platinum in February, and call the positive response of participants and local salsa instructors "amazing." Students range in age from middle schoolers to retirees, and represent myriad backgrounds and levels of dance training.

"Our big focus isn't to make people exceptional dancers or professional performers," Boucek said. "We want people to get exposed to this really fun dance, enjoy the music, have fun and relax after work on a Tuesday night."

"It's a social dance," Eskeldson added. "There's lots of dances that are taught very formally. This is the type of dance you can do in someone's backyard."

Emphasizing the social nature of the Rumbanana classes, which include frequent partner switches and mingling breaks, Eskeldson joked that he and girlfriend Boucek "just want people to party with on the weekend."

But in addition to making new friends, those who attend the couple's classes learn enough Cuban-style salsa moves to dance socially.

"Rueda" is Spanish for wheel. Couples in casino salsa dance together in a large, rotating circle. "Casino" refers to the dance halls of Cuba in the 1950s. Unlike other styles of salsa, such as L.A., New York or ballroom, Cuban-style salsa is looser, Boucek explained.

Men and women dance close together, taking smaller, earthy steps, as they sway their hips to the salsa grooves.

Kathy Volmert and Michael Swearingin appreciate the sultry dance's emphasis on closeness. Volmert and Swearingin spent the school year apart, while she studied at Cornell University in New York, and he attended Brigham Young University in Utah.

Now that the two lovebirds have reunited for the summer, the last thing they want is a formal dance style with a stiff frame that keeps them apart.

This week, Rumbanana students received a crash course on the fundamental structure of salsa — six steps over eight counts of music. They learned moves such as the basic step, a forward-and-back sequence that takes partners away from each other; the guapea, where the lead and the follow come together; dame, a partner change; and un fly, a hand clap.

Each move has a Spanish call and a hand gesture that informs dancers what to do. Because it has a caller, casino rueda can be likened to Cuban square dancing, the instructors explained.

Lizzie Tuttle and Jess Byers, best friends and eighth graders at Cheldelin Middle School, decided salsa classes were the perfect way to start their summer break.

"We thought we should do something out there, different," Jess said. He was impressed by how much they learned in just two hours of instruction, although the dame proved challenging.

After class, some budding salsa ingenues dashed out of Platinum, needing to return to their lives as husbands, wives, parents, doctors, students and engineers. Others lingered, eager to dance just one more song. A few settled in for a beer and a round of pool.

No matter what the days ahead hold for the salsa students, they can look forward to next week's class, when they'll again take a virtual vacation away from the pedestrianism of Corvallis and enjoy a sample of steamy Cuban culture.

Mary Ann Albright can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.

Cuban-Style

Salsa Classes

Rumbanana offers month-long beginning salsa courses from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays at Platinum, 126 S.W. 4th St., Corvallis. The series costs $40, or $35 if people register online. No previous experience or partner is required, and students under 21 years of age are welcome.

An intermediate class meets on Mondays.

For more information, see Rumbanana's Web site www.rumbanana.org.

Friday Night Salsa

Platinum offers salsa night at 10 p.m. every other Friday, the next being June 10. Must be 21 years of age. $3 cover charge applies.