Steamboat Pilot & Today

It seems as if the entire city has learned how to salsa since Robin Getter opened The Center for Movement Arts.

This weekend, Getter will give those people a chance to show off what they've learned and take their dancing one step further.

Sam Gill from Boulder and Paula Gonzales from Colombia will be at The Center for Movement Arts to teach advanced salsa classes for couples and salsa styling for women.

Styling is a way of embellishing basic salsa movements.

"Women will learn flourishes like a hand flip or a hip movement," Getter said. "A lot of people in Steamboat have taken classes, and I want to push them and give them some new material.

"Salsa is great because the basic steps are not hard. It's fun and sensual, and it's easy, but you can move it up to a more advanced level."

Getter met Gill at his Boulder school, Bantaba World Dance and Music, where she takes African dance classes.

"African dance is their main thing, but they have a lot of ethnic teachers from other cultures," Getter said. Gonzales, who will teach in Steamboat with Gill, is visiting the United States for a year or two and teaching at Bantaba.

On Saturday night, after the Salsa for Couples workshop, a group of teenagers who have been learning salsa rueda will give a demonstration. The group of about eight has been meeting once a week since last summer. Getter invited a teen salsa rueda group from Boulder to perform with the Steamboat teens.

Dance instructor Charles Horton has been working with the teens on and off since last year.

"They're doing a lot of advanced moves," he said. "They're awesome. I love teaching adults, but there's something really fun about working with these kids and enjoying their youthful energy."