Salsa Reno leads dance explosion

Photos:

You feel the bass beating through your head as the nightclub atmosphere fills your senses. The room is packed as you bump into random couples laughing and dancing. The feeling is relaxed, and the dancers are having fun, and this is the scene Thursday nights at the Pearl Champagne Lounge in the Grand Sierra Resort, where two hundred and fifty people have been regularly gathering to learn how to salsa dance for free.

The lessons are taught by BB Flanders, the founder of Salsa Reno. Salsa Reno is a dancing movement that began about two years ago when BB started teaching in the Reno area. His classes have grown to be so large that he is maxing out the air conditioning in the studios he teaches at. Because of this demand, clubs such as Pearl have stepped up and allowed Flanders to host the events in their clubs.

"The managers here at the Pearl Lounge want to make this an event," Flanders said. "I presented them with the idea, then they took it to the next level. It's not just about dancing to them. They want it to be unique."

Flanders also hosts salsa classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced students on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. The classes are held at Starlite Ballroom and Dance Center. The program is set up in five levels. The first three are the basic foundation.  Salsa 4 is a laundry list of moves that are essential to salsa, and Salsa 5 focuses on intermediate sequences that isolate certain parts of your body to move independently.  You start with Salsa 1 which is basic salsa, Salsa 2 is a little more advanced and Salsa 3 continues down the line.

"The thing I love most about the classes is that they are so diverse," Flanders said. "People of all ages,and ethnicities come to my classes. They are from all walks of life."

"BB is a sort of marketing genius," said Roger Best, one of Flanders' students. "The classes are set up so that people in the higher classes teach people in the lower classes, giving them more experience. They attain the experience of teaching and also work on their dancing skills."

The classes run about forty-five dollars a month for each level, and include all the parties you can go to. The more you practice, the better dancer you'll become. Flanders has found this to be true in his own life. Flanders has trained with several professional dancers in the Sacramento and Oakland areas.

"Realistically, to be a good dancer, you would need to come to class twice a week and go to every party," Flanders said. "My goal is not just to teach you salsa, but also to make you into a good dancer who knows their body and can handle themselves on the dance floor."

The students who attend the classes have become a self professed community and say they notice if another person is gone. Flanders said that he loves seeing people get to know each other, and his students seem to agree.

"Coming here is like having a second family," said Kassia Thormahlem, BB's marketing director, event coordinator and student. "Everyone is respectful of one another and fun to be around. It's one of the strongest points of the class. We are a community."

So whether you are looking for a good party, dance lessons or a community Thursday nights at the Pearl Champagne Lounge are a comfortable environment to learn and play. The goal is to pack it out to six hundred people, so, for now at least, there's still plenty of room for more.