After a long search for a room, the Salsa Club was able to have its first meeting shortly before the end of the semester.
The club, founded by Adolfo Ramos, 24, digital entertainment and game design major, had its first meeting on Nov. 2 in hopes of encouraging students to explore salsa dancing.
“The club is mostly for fun. We want to promote salsa here on campus and to get more students into bachata, and cha cha cha,” Ramos said.
For more than a month, the club struggled to find a room available for the hours they needed and a regular classroom doesn’t have the space necessary to hold the meetings.
On Oct. 6 the club was finally approved to use the Activities Center for its meetings but because there were some events already planned, the first meeting had to be pushed back until Nov. 2. Meetings took place every Tuesday in the activities center from 7 to 9 p.m.
“The first three days they learned basic salsa combinations,” Ramos said.
He added that most of the students who joined the club this semester were beginners including Michael Diaz, 28, EC campus police graduate.
“So far the experience has been good. I’m not a dancer so I am a bit slow picking it up, but the people teaching us are pretty good,” Diaz said.
The lessons, Diaz said, have been rushed due to the delay of the lessons.
“The sessions are going a little fast for me but I know they are trying to get a lot of info out in a short amount of time,” Diaz said.
Next semester Ramos hopes to have the meetings in the Activities Center again as this room offers a big space capable of accommodating the 40 to 50 students that attend the meetings.
A cabinet for next semester was already chosen by club members’ votes and the adviser will continue to be Eduardo Barajas, math instructor.
Still the cabinet is looking forward to finding new advisers to hold two to three meetings per week. One of which will be dedicated to the preparation of the salsa team for performances, Ramos said.
Auditions for the salsa team are expected to begin within the first four weeks of the spring semester. The team could be made up of four to eight 8 couples wanting to perform at EC, other salsa venues and possibly other colleges.
“Rooms are a first come first served basis so as soon as I get the paper work done for the room I would like, hopefully it will be assigned to us,” Ramos said.