Salsa comes to Sisters - for all dancers

Dance is communication, and never is that more evident than when watching the Salsa. Sisters folks will have the opportunity to participate in that conversation starting Thursday, May 1.

Dance instructor Victoria Tolonen, who is also a Bend Realtor, is offering two classes at Three Sisters Dance Studio.

A four-week session is planned with a beginning class scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and an intermediate class set for 7:45 p.m. Tolonen's classes are open to both couples and singles. Anyone wishing to enroll should come early the first night to register.

"Salsa is easy. It's also fun and sexy. As long as you've got two feet, I can teach you to dance," Tolonen said.

Tolonen likes her students to rotate partners throughout her class to help the men learn to actually lead and the women to truly follow.

"If they've come with a spouse when they get back to that spouse (after rotating), they have learned a lot more, rather than just compensating for their spouse's mistakes. Generally, the women want to lead, and that's not how it works on the dance floor," Tolonen said.

"In the dance (of Salsa) the man invites the woman to do certain moves, and she responds to his invitation," said Tolonen. Although the woman's goal is to follow the man and make him look like a good leader, his purpose is to show her off. "The dance is a very intimate conversation without words," she added.

According to Tolonen, the Salsa is a blend of Cuban, Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean influences. When the Cubans started coming to New York and Miami in the late 1960s and early '70s, they brought their music, and that music combined with the brass sounds of American jazz created the music we know as Salsa today.

A competitive roller skater for eight years and a competitive cheerleader for six, Tolonen had always danced solo until the first term of her freshman year at the University of Oregon.

"I took a ballroom dance class, and I went 'oh, it is so much more fun to dance with a partner,'" she said.

From that simple awakening, Tolonen with seven other students started a Salsa performance group in Eugene.

"We were the first one in the state," she said.

In addition to Salsa, Tolonen teaches West Coast Swing. She also teaches at The Wine Shop, Anytime Fitness and Jokers in Bend. On Wednesday nights she additionally hosts Salsa Night at the Old Mill Martini Bar, where people can come in to practice and dance for fun.

For more information contact Tolonen by phone at 610-2114 or by e-mail at [email protected]