Cathie Aoyama and Peter Ha Making salsa cool for school. Meet Cathie and Peter, teachers at New Westminster Secondary School and instructors of the school's Salsa Caliente Dance Club. By Stephen Dancey and Jennifer Perry

 

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. You're both well-known to many people in Vancouver's salsa scene, but for those who don't know you, please tell us a little about yourself...

Cathie: I am born and bred in Vancouver and currently work as a Spanish teacher at New Westminster Secondary. I am also one of the teacher sponsors/instructors of the NWSS Salsa Caliente Dance Club, an extra-curricular dance club at our high school.

Peter: I’m a high school math teacher at New Westminster Secondary School. I was born and raised in New West, but my family’s background is Vietnamese. I have a wife who I love very much and we have two cats, Toby and Milo.

One of the best things about Vancouver's salsa scene is its diversity and multi-culturalism. How did you get into salsa dancing?

Cathie: I started dancing ballroom with a friend and then moved into LA style Salsa soon after. I dabbled in Colombian style Salsa and then was introduced to Cuban (a.k.a. Casino) after that, which is the area in which I remain today.

Peter: I was originally a swing dancer. I went on a cruise in the Caribbean one year when I saw all these Latinos dancing salsa. I thought it was the coolest dance ever so when I got back home, I convinced my dance partner to take lessons with me.

Tell us about some of your mentors, who inspired you when you started in salsa? Or who inspires you now?

Cathie: When I first learned, I learned from a friend of mine out on the floor at the club and he just kept making me get out there until I got it. Let me tell you there were some pretty embarrassing moments out there! I started taking lessons here and there to learn more but the real learning took place out on the dance floor at the clubs. You really learn how to follow by dancing with all the different leads.

Right now I take lessons with Julio Montero who in my opinion, has got to be one of the smoothest Cuban dancers I have ever seen. I have a lot of respect for him as a dancer, a teacher and as a person.

Other than that, I would say the kids at the high school are always an inspiration. I took a break from dancing for quite a number of years and when we started teaching the kids, they renewed my passion for the music and the dance. They really love it and they are so fast at learning new things! They learn everything in no time and with so much energy.

Peter: My original teacher was Leon Hawrylenko from Dance With Me Studio, and then my next teacher was Diego Sanchez from Grupo America.

What drew you to Cuban salsa? What do you like about it compared to other styles of salsa?

Cathie: Well like I previously mentioned, I did LA and Colombian Style Salsa before and I really enjoyed it. Approximately 15 years ago, a Cuban dance instructor in town (Armando Pastor) was looking for dancers who wanted to learn Cuban Style Salsa (Casino) and was asking people out in the dance scene to come out to learn. He asked me if I was interested in learning Casino and Rueda de Casino with other dancers in the scene and I fell in love with this style. Rueda de Casino is like a game and you switch partners throughout the song. It can be very exciting and spontaneous. As for the draw of Casino, I listen to mostly Cuban music and for me, the Cuban style of salsa dancing fits so perfectly with this music and the Afro-Cuban rhythms. When I first started dancing Cuban, it immediately felt like a perfect fit for me as well and though I sometimes still dance in the other styles, I prefer to dance in the style I love the most, Casino.

Peter: It’s not as structured as LA, and the Rueda is a good teaching tool for the students because they learn to do moves as they are called. This is excellent in the beginning when the boys are new at free styling.

Let's talk about the NWSS salsa club. It's a high school club, one of many clubs at the school - how did it get started? Why salsa rather than something that might have wider appeal like hip-hop?

Cathie: New West Sec offers a lot of different extra-curricular clubs and actually does have a hip hop club and a established dance program so the Salsa club was something new for the kids. Peter had started working at the school and was teaching LA style salsa after school. He found out that I danced and we started to work together to promote the club. I mentioned Rueda de Casino to him as something new to teach the kids. Since Rueda de Casino is like a game (with random calls being called and the dancers reacting to each call) we figured it might be something the kids would get into. He agreed and we went about learning everything we could about Rueda and about teaching it to the kids. We were right about the kids getting into it; they loved it and still do.

Peter: When I first started teaching, I wanted to teach an extra curricular activity. I loved salsa, and there were no other program that taught any kind of partner dance at the school. I started teaching it after school and my initial class had about 30 students who loved it. At the end of my first year, I met Cathie and I found out that she used to dance as well. She became a co-instructor with me the following year, and we had an expansion of the club. We thought that teaching Rueda would be useful since it got everyone involved and helped teach the students moves by name. I had learned a little of it here and there, and Cathie had danced it before; when it first came to Vancouver (she forgot the names of most of the calls though). Cathie started ordering instructional DVDs from Cuba and Miami, and that is how we learned most of our club’s Rueda moves. We then started hunting for all-ages venues for our students to attend, and that’s how Cathie came into contact with Ramses and Debbie Padilla who organizes the annual Cuba Baila! event, which became the first venue our students were ever able to attend. The students were so excited by the dancing that they saw that we ended up making a team to compete the following year.

With all the dance shows on tv and recent movies about dancing in schools, dancing has become a more widespread and popular activity now. But teenagers are very much concerned with appearances, being cool, peer pressure etc. Do any of your dancers talk about how their peers view their involvement in salsa dancing?

Cathie: We definitely have to combat that as we have way more follows than we do leads. At the beginning, it was really difficult to get the boys involved but as the group becomes more and more well known at our school, it becomes more normal of a thing to participate in. I think that the student body has seen what the kids in the Salsa group are capable of and that everyone in the club looks like they are having so much fun, so things are improving in the area of getting more boys involved. It is not equal by any stretch of the imagination, but slowly improving.

Peter: Our club is well known in the school, and the dancing is well respected. That said, male students are more difficult to find and keep, not because they would be viewed down upon by their other male friends, but because they are afraid of looking foolish in front of the girls (this is high school, after all).

Have other local schools followed your example?

Cathie: I believe that there is a group at King George Secondary in Vancouver with Mike Warrington and Nina Perez that focuses on Rueda as well and Michael Gabriel Rosen also has a youth after school program in East Van, Britannia I believe. We would love to have more groups out there in the high schools so we could organize a massive rueda. That would be fantastic!

For you personally what have been some of the highlights of the club? What have you achieved over the past few years through your salsa club and the NWSS performance team?

Cathie: I would definitely say the ¡Cuba Baila! Competition (2007) and performances (2008) (put on by Debbie and Ramses Padilla) and the Vancouver Salsa Congress in 2006. The community has been so welcoming and the students have been learning so much from being more involved with more experienced dancers, local and international. The Cuba Baila competition in 2007 was especially interesting as it was the only time we entered to compete against professional teams. Though pretty intimidating, it was still a great experience. This past Cuba Baila event was amazing too as both student teams did a phenomenal job and danced their hearts out. They were very well received and we were so proud of them.

Peter: Having students excited to come to class is a weekly highlight.

Performing at the Vancouver Salsa Congress and competing in the Cuba Baila! last year against professional teams was a big deal for our club, as we are amateurs. It was so much fun that this year we ended up having two teams performing at the Cuba Baila!

I think the biggest highlight for me though, is when people tell me they are surprised that these are high school students who are dancing and that they are excellent dancers. It makes me proud.

What words of advice would you give to people new to salsa, who are just getting into it?

Cathie: Just to keep at it. It can be a little frustrating for some to learn the footwork but once you get it and learn to really listen to the music and to play with the moves, it is the most freeing thing in the world. The people in the salsa scene are great people too and we are lucky here in Vancouver to have many different events for people to go to during the week. There are a lot of opportunities here to learn many new things about the different dancing styles and about the different music.

Peter: Go dancing. Classes are important, but you learn much more by dancing at a club.

And what are your plans for the future? Where will we see you in five year's time?

Cathie: I am currently dancing with a great group of people and we are planning to present at the San Francisco Salsa Congress in February 2009. The Salsa Caliente club will continue and Peter has plans to expand on the different dances offered in the program. I will continue to organize and/or find more all-ages events so that the students can get out and practice their dancing.

In five years, I plan on doing what I am doing right now, dancing and learning more and more with each passing day!

Peter: I’m just gonna keep teaching the kids and search for more all-ages events for them to go to. It would also be nice if other schools started forming teams and we could have some kind of inter-school league (non competitive, of course).