The loud drum beats, and trumpets can be heard from outside the pub. The vibrations of frantic feet can be felt yards away from the door. The energy of the dancers is palpable from the moment one enters the room.

This is the scene at Havana Nights, a Latin dance party held Fridays at Johnston’s Ballybay Pub in West Syracuse. An average of 200 people comes to dance to a variety of salsa, meringue and reggaeton music until the early hours of the morning.

‘The movement and the energy is what I enjoy most about dancing at Havana Nights,’ said Leticia Izquierdo, a freshman biotechnology major. ‘Even if you don’t know how to salsa that well, you end up dancing anyway, and having a great time.’

Havana Nights began as an extension of La Familia De La Salsa, a dance performance team that has been based in Syracuse for the last three years. La Familia’s goal is to promote cultural diversity through Latin dance, and after a growing interest in different forms of Latin dance, Havana Nights was created.

Havana Nights recently began having SU Latin Nights, in which a free bus brings students from main and south campuses to the Havana Nights venue every 45 minutes.

‘The students expressed a lot of interest in Latin dance, and they love it,’ said Brian Bromka, artistic director for La Familia. ‘It’s a very communal dance with a lot of energy, where people are yelling, clapping and stomping all the time.’

Havana Nights is known for its particular form of salsa, called Salsa Rueda. Rueda is a combination of colonial Spanish waltz and African rhythms, and is now a very popular street dance in Cuba.

Rueda is a group dance with specific steps in which the dancers move around in a circle and a leader calls out different moves that involve something as simple as clapping to an intricate move.

‘Havana Nights is one of the only outlets for the Ballroom Dance Organization to perform and dance in Syracuse,’ said Marina Podokshik, sophomore English and textual studies major and president of BDO. ‘It’s a very different type of dancing than what most people our age are used to. The music has a lot of rhythm and emotion to it.’

There are beginner ‘survival’ lessons offered right before Havana Nights takes place, but all skill levels are welcome and present on the dance floor.

‘I’m not really a big dancer, but I wanted to try salsa out,’ said Jacob Wickham, graduate student in environmental and forestry biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. ‘You get easily intrigued by it and want to learn. It’s 10 times more fun than you would think, and all the interaction with different people keeps you coming back every week.’

The social aspect of Salsa Rueda is what appeals to most of the dancers, as it is a drastically different than the usual weekend dance experience.

Nikhil Bodhankar, graduate student in electrical engineering, said meeting new people and forming friendships is one of his favorite parts of Rueda and Havana Nights.

‘You dance with everyone and anyone,’ Bodhankar said. ‘You get to know a lot more people, especially since you’re not dancing with just one person the whole night.’

A single move in Rueda is completed by one partner moving down the circle, giving a lot of opportunities to meet new people and socialize. There are not a lot of people seen standing still at Havana Nights; people are either on the dance floor or chatting on the side, drinks in hand.

‘It’s something different to do other than going to frat parties and bars,’ Podokshik said. ‘It’s a different scene, but you meet a ton of new people.’

Not only do the dancers meet a wide variety of new people, but they are also introduced to various cultures through the different types of music.

The music played at Havana Nights comes from all over Central and South America, from countries such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and Columbia.

‘The music at Havana Nights is a great way to highlight the different aspects of art and the different cultures in Syracuse, especially through the music,’ said Dodji Modjinou, second-year medical student at State University of New York Upstate Medical University. ‘There’s a lot of diversity in the music and the people present as well.’

Though there are a large amount of students present at Havana Nights, all age groups are represented on the dance floor. Young people are seen interacting with the local residents of Syracuse through dance.

‘There’s good interaction between the local people of Syracuse and the students,’ Bodhankar said. ‘I think the union of students and locals is an important thing, a good thing.’

Havana Nights is held every Friday except the first Friday of the month. There is a $5 cover charge and an additional $5 for the survival lesson. Bromka is unsure if there will be another SU Latin Night before the end of the school year, but students are still welcome to attend.

‘You don’t have to get all dressed up for dancing at Havana Nights,’ Bodhankar said. ‘You can just go out, dance salsa and meet a lot of people that you end up becoming friends with.’

If you dance

What: SU Latin Night

When: Every Friday except the first of the month

Where: Johnston’s Ballybay Pub

How much: $5 cover

Published on April 15, 2007 at 12:00 pm