Dance, Ruling the Night

THIS is why I love salsa,” said Joseph Smith, a dance instructor whose confident hold on his partner, Ashley McKenna, had the attention of nearly 80 students on a recent evening at the Ballroom Legacy dance studio in Sea Cliff. As the trumpets soared over a Latin rhythm, he spun Ms. McKenna through a series of twirls and dips that had the audience cheering.

“I’ve been dancing my whole life,” Mr. Smith, 31, from Glen Cove, who owns the studio, said later. “Salsa and waltz are the roots of all dances. Waltz, if you do it right, feels like heaven. With salsa, you can just be free.”

 

Dance parties, often preceded by dance lessons, can be found on most nights somewhere on Long Island as dancers create their own “Mad Hot Ballroom” moments. Many are sponsored by dance studios or groups, but nightclubs like the Winner’s Circle in Westbury also get into the act with lessons and D.J.’s. Weekends are especially busy, with everything from tango and salsa to foxtrot and swing listed in the Social Club Calendar, a monthly dance newsletter.

Here are four possibilities.

 

Ballroom Legacy

On a late fall evening, this sleek, spare ballroom had the charm of a house party in a SoHo loft. Its 1,600-square-foot polished oak floor was punctuated with sofas, folding chairs and tables with flickering votive candles. A trophy from the 2005 Stardust Ball, a Long Island competition, overlooked a modest buffet on a table at one end of the room.

After Mr. Smith’s 45-minute lesson, a D.J. playing a mix of ballroom and Latin music soon had the casually dressed, mixed-age crowd on its feet. Although there are usually more women than men, many of the women take turns so that everyone can dance.

“Dancing is a fabulous alternative to singles’ bars,” said Sheila Rindler, 61, a psychotherapist from Freeport. “I find this way of meeting people is so much nicer.”

 

The Winner’s Circle

Salsa and mambo take center stage at this nightclub in Westbury, which features dancing to a D.J. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Most of the salseros are Latin, and the crowd includes multigenerational families and large groups of friends who gather for a night of dancing that rarely starts before 9 and continues into the early morning. A large oval bar occupies one end of the dance floor across from a mirrored wall. The lighting is low, and colored spotlights rotate above. More than a dozen tables flank the dance floor, but they must be reserved.

“When the crowd starts dancing, it’s as if the whole club moves together,” said Sybil Sternlieb, 67, from Upper Brookville, a frequent visitor. After 11 p.m., the D.J. changes to a club mix of salsa, reggaetón and Latino rock for a younger crowd, and dancing becomes more freestyle.

 

Mirelle’s

At the most recent of the monthly events sponsored at this Westbury nightclub by the Argentine Tango Lovers of Long Island, a vibrant evening of tango, known as a milonga, featured performances by professionals and dancing by enthusiastic amateurs. The nightclub’s ballroom was lighted by chandeliers and surrounded by tables offering a view of the dancers.

One of them, Jennifer Gabetta, 29, from Lake Ronkonkoma, was learning to tango with her Argentine husband, Pablo, 30, and brought her recently widowed mother-in-law, Dora Gabetta, 62, from Central Islip, to the party.

“I feel that it will help to heal her if she comes here,” she said. “Anything I could be depressed about is gone the moment I begin to dance, and I hope it will do the same for her.”

The sophisticated crowd is multicultural, with many Latin Americans reconnecting to the music of their childhood. Stories of love and loss are told in the sob of the bandoneón, the distinctive accordionlike instrument that is the voice of tango.

“The music, it gets anyone,” said George Sauer, from Riverhead, who would not reveal his age. “It’s like the spirit and the soul awakening.” He said he spends nearly half the year in Buenos Aires.

Many in the well-dressed crowd wore traditional black with red accessories, the women in close-fitting slit skirts, the men in collared shirts. Dancing shoes are brought to the club in a bag so that the suede bottoms that help dancers glide on the dance floor won’t be roughed up by city streets.

Then there is the romance. “In tango you breathe together,” said Sherry Palencia, 64, the club’s president, who lives in North Babylon. “It’s one body and four feet.”

 

Swing Dance Long Island

In the rustic Brush Barn in Smithtown, owned by the Smithtown Historical Society, Swing Dance Long Island, a nonprofit group, holds monthly dances with live music. Recently it was Lil’ Cliff of Lil’ Cliff and the Cliffhangers, a four-piece band, who greeted the crowd with a cheerful, “Nice to see you flapping out there.”

About 100 dancers of all ages, some wearing full skirts or Hawaiian shirts, were doing the swing, the Lindy and the rumba.

“It’s great exercise and it gets you out of the house,” said Tom Adams, 45, from Hauppauge, president of the group. Karen Kwartler, 57, from South Setauket, a founder of the group, said: “You never see people swing-dancing without a smile on their face. Dancing brings joy to your heart.”