When most students think about taking extra-curricular classes to get them into shape or to relieve stress, the majority turn to spinning, power yoga or Pilates. What most students don’t know about is the class offered every Wednesday at 7 p.m. which can provide great exercise and a deviation from the stress of classes.
Salsa classes were introduced to John Carroll University by a group known as “Latin Flow,” comprised of seniors Reid Peirce and Vicente Davila, and juniors Ignacio Davila and Paulin Byusa.
The group, which performed for the last time at John Carroll’s annual Dance Ensemble show, incorporates salsa dance moves along with Rueda, another type of dance that, according to Peirce, translates to “wheel” in Spanish.
“[Rueda] is essentially a salsa version of swing dancing that is actually far more fun and not boring at all,” he said.
Most of their dances, learned in classes or taken to the stage, are mostly improv style and tend to be freestyle.
“It seems like it’s a lot of choreography, but really we just build up a few moves for our performances and wing it when we get up there,” said Vicente Davila.
Latin Flow was created last year after their first Dance Ensemble performance. Originally it consisted of Peirce, and the Davila brothers, until Byusa joined as the forth.
“Although we aren’t an official team that would recruit dancers, we wanted a name for ourselves, so that’s when we came up with Latin Flow,” said Vicente Davila.
Peirce said the group’s premise lies with throwing together moves for fun and coming together for a performance.
“That’s when the real fun starts, and that’s the point of it all,” he said.
Unfortunately for “Latin Flow,” with Peirce and Vicente Davila graduating this year, the two remaining juniors will have the ever-difficult task of maintaining an interest in students for the salsa classes.
“Girls always find an interest in learning how to dance and they find salsa amazing and want to learn it,” said Ignatio Davila. “Guys, don’t, and if you don’t have the guys, you can’t have the girls.”
Although the group won’t be together in the fall, Peirce still stresses the importance of building popularity of the dance at John Carroll.
“We want to get people to come out and learn how to dance in a new and different style,” he said.
After its last performance, Latin Flow has taken its final bow in hopes that they made a difference around campus, one that will hopefully continue with the weekly salsa classes.
“[Dance Ensemble] was the grand finale of it all,” said Peirce. “It was doing something that people normally don’t do at John Carroll – it was adding flavor.”
