Nina Rubinstein and Tony Castro demonstrate the proper posture for the rumba at a library social dance session on July 15.
The beats heard on July 15 at the township library came from the first of three planned summer social dance nights there.
Participants were encouraged to come out whether or not they had a dance partner; they would be matched with other solo attendees for social dancing with groups or partners in an informal setting. Instructors Tony Castro and Nina Rubinstein taught the night’s dance: the rumba.
Jasmine Riel is the teen librarian, but she organized the adult dancing and asked Castro, her uncle, to teach the session with Rubinstein.
“They social dance all the time …” Riel said of the duo. “What’s great about having it here is that it is free for everybody to attend, whereas in a lot of other places, it might cost money and it’s a commitment … Here, what’s kind of great about a lot of the instructional programs, whether it’s a dancing program or crafting program, is that it’s a much more informal learning setting.
“You can get your feet wet, you can try something new.”
Participants split themselves into two groups of leaders and followers; two partners can’t do both. Before practicing the rumba, Castro and Rubinstein encouraged the dancers to listen to the music before moving. They then partnered up with the person across from them to begin practice.
Besides teaching the dance moves themselves, Castro and Rubinstein offered tips on what would make partner dancing easier, such as finding a connection between two people and keeping a relaxed frame to feel the movement of the lead dancer.
“Don’t worry too much about the steps, because the steps follow,” Castro explained. “If your posture and your mechanics are not right, then the steps are going to be either difficult or it’s not going to be correct. And once it’s not correct, your partner will sense that, and both of you will be lost.”
He and Rubinstein demonstrated how leaders should turn their partners for part of the rumba where two people no longer hold each other by both arms, but one. They emphasized the importance of communication and trust between partners, even asking the followers to practice closing their eyes so they could be led by their partners.
“Based on the conversation I had with most of the attendees,” Castro reported, “everybody was happy. And a couple of ladies said, ‘This is the first time I danced with my husband, and we didn’t argue about it.’”
What Castro and Rubinstein emphasized most about social dancing was that it is supposed to be fun. They told students no to worry too much about making the wrong moves, but to focus on enjoying the dance itself.
“I was really excited,” Rubinstein said, “because everyone was excited, and everyone came here just to have fun.”
