Students put on their dancing shoes at the salsa dancing event held in the Commons on Sept. 24. The event started with Michael Rojas, Director of Residential Dining at the Commons, calling students up to volunteer to learn different salsa dancing styles.
Rojas said, “A lot of the kids were a little shy, apprehensive. As they saw us dancing it made them more prone to joining in.”
At first, the atmosphere was full of hesitation from students at going up in front of a crowd of their peers to dance. One brave pair had the courage to take the floor, causing more students to slowly but surely trickle onto the dance floor with them. It was not long until multiple pairs of people were dancing asSpanish and salsa music blared.
Collaboration amongst students was highly encouraged during the event. Rojas later said, “We had another student come up who wanted to do a breakdance. We incorporated that into our evening and we just try to make it a bit more open where people can say they are not into salsa, but [they] can appreciate it.”
This breakdancing finale came after a lot of salsa dancing amongst different student pairs on the floor. The performance was energetic and very intricate, and was done in the name of promoting a hip-hop/break dancing club on campus.
Rojas stated, “We always want to do an event that kind of connects the students and brings them together. So dancing is one of those things that really creates social interaction.”
When asked why these types of events are important to Hispanic culture and diversity in general on Drew’s campus, Rojas said, “It’s good for them to see that their culture is, like many other cultures, mainstream as well.”
He also commented, “It’s just a melting pot. It’s a great idea to highlight as many cultures as we possibly can.”
Events like these not only connect Hispanic students to their culture for Hispanic Heritage Month, but it also encourages other students to interact with all sorts of different cultures.
As explained by Rojas, “It’s Hispanic Heritage Month. We even had a number of students who were not Hispanic that were ready to dive right into it.”
The salsa event encouraged learning and interaction with different cultures for all Drew students.
As Rojas put it, “Not only is America a melting pot for diversity, but so is Drew University.”
Kayla Kiernan is a first year who has not yet decided on a major.
