Dancers sway their hips to the sharp, cracking sound of Latin percussion sticks, embracing a new partner with a maskless smile with every new song.
More than 80 people have assembled inside Pancho’s Vegan Tacos on Fort Apache after midnight on a Friday for this salsa dance gathering. For many, it’s their first time on a public dancefloor in more than a year.
Pancho’s has brought back Latin dance events since coronavirus restrictions loosened earlier this summer. Likewise, the weekly salsa and bachata nights that were canceled indefinitely in 2020 have come back to Dance Starz Cafe on South Jones, Casa Amigos on East Flamingo and El Toque del Sabor on East Tropicana—and the list goes on. Last weekend, Rhythms Dance Studio housed Las Vegas Super Weekender 2021, a salsa festival with master workshops, social dances, competitions and performances.
A few DJs and dance studio owners hosted invitation-only dance parties during the pandemic, with security at the door to count heads. But running an event requiring close contact, heavy breathing and sweating in a cramped indoor space was a quick way to draw the attention of COVID-19 compliance regulators.
“Social dancing was completely illegal,” says Raphael Salomão, an independent salsa and bachata instructor. “How can you do a couples dance if you are 6 feet away?”
Even with vaccinations available and the state’s mask mandate loosened, some dance organizers declined to talk with the Weekly about their events, as if they were running a speakeasy during Prohibition. “It’s [still] kind of taboo right now,” Salomão explains.
Pre-pandemic, it was easy to find salsa dancers shimmying and spinning at local restaurants, bars and studios most nights. Some bought tickets to salsa festivals months ahead of time, like Las Vegas Super Salsa Congress 2020, which was canceled due to COVID-19.
Salsa dance instructor Jose Velez closed his Feel the Music Dance Studio on North Rampart Boulevard for four months last year, dropped prices and taught via Zoom. He says he missed watching his students improve. “I look to see that glow in their eyes, like, ‘OK, I got it.’ If they have the deer-in-headlights look, I have to find another way,” says Velez, a Puerto Rico native with more than 30 years of teaching on his résumé.
Even after Velez opened his doors again, social distancing meant he could only teach footwork in person. “It’s like someone trying to learn how to swim without going into the pool,” he says.
This summer, Feel the Music moved to 101 S. Rainbow Blvd., a more visible location. And after a tumultuous year, more and more students are coming back, Valez says. On a recent Wednesday, about 20 dancers faced a mirrored studio wall in his salsa partnerwork for beginners class. Besides the masks some wore with their salsa heels, one other change stood out: Pre-pandemic, students would routinely change partners; now, they must stay with the same partner throughout class.
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