Students practice their salsa moves each Monday and Wednesday at the Salsa Forever classes held at the L’Orizzonte restaurant in Varcaturo, Italy. (Sandra Jontz / S&S)
If the only salsa you’ve tried is a dip you enjoy with chips, it could be time to broaden horizons.
Berk Tanyeli did.
“I wanted to try something new, so I signed up for salsa,” said the 33-year-old Turkish sailor who works at Joint Forces Command Naples and takes the twice-a-week class after work in Varcaturo.
Ask him to show you a dile que no, a setenta, or an enchufala, and he can.
“At the beginning, I was very hesitant about joining the class,” Tanyeli said. “The first two lessons were really hard for me. But afterwards, I kinda liked it and I said ‘why not?’
“Besides, I have a really nice partner. and she’s up to the torture of dancing with me,” he joked.
On Monday and Wednesday evenings, Tony Maruiello teaches about 30 students the ins and outs of the intimate styles of salsa dancing, warming up with basic steps in a sort of line-dancing formation before moving on to the partners stage.
“I have a passion for it,” said Maruiello, who has been dancing for more than 10 years.
Two classes are at the L’Orizzonte (the horizon) restaurant in Varcaturo each of those weekdays, one running from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the second beginning at 9:30 and running until about 11 p.m.
For Hungarian soldier Linda Toth, the lessons are more than time to shake the hips.
“I want to know a different kind of culture and this is one of the easiest ways to meet Italians,” said the 24-year-old salsa student. Turns out, classes are rather diverse, with students hailing for the Italy, Hungary, Turkey, and the United States. Most lessons are done in Italian, but at times, Maruiello switches to English, the seemingly common language of the assorted group.
“I love the instructor, I love the class and the people. If you attend a course and you don’t like the people, it can poison the whole thing,” Toth said.
“But I’m also interested in dancing, and I want to dance salsa on my wedding,” she said, laughing (her fiance doesn’t quite know he’s a fiance yet.)
Maruiello teaches everything from Salsa Cubana to Merengue, Rueda de Casino, and Bachata, said his cousin and business partner Enza Maruiello.
From start to finish, taking each and every lesson they offer to progress from mild to medium and eventually hot salsa dancers, the courses they provide cover a nine-month period, she said. The course costs 25 euros a month.
See previous After Hours reviews here.
Salsa Forever
Varcaturo, Italy
Prices: 25 euros a month.
Specialties: Salsa Cubana to Merengue, Rueda de Casino, and Bachata.
Dress: comfortable attire.
Clientele: it runs the gamut.
Hours: Monday and Wednesdays, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Location: L’Orizzonte (the Horizon) restaurant in Varcaturo, on Via Orsa Maggiore, off the Domiziana.
Web site:www.salsaforever.it.
