Mi Syracuse Querido: Latin music scene sizzles

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By Linda Buchwald
Goldring Arts Journalism Student

On a Friday night at Johnston’s Ballybay, a pub on the west side of Syracuse (550 Richmond Ave., 471-1289), Brian -Bromka yells, "Dame!" in a booming voz loud enough to be heard over the pulsating beat of the Cuban and African ritmos that make up salsa music.

The room is filled with dancers of all ages and backgrounds, wearing everything from skirts and jeans to business suits to shorts and T-shirts. Some beginning dancers look confused, watching each other for support. Other, more Salsa, a colorful fusion of Cuban and African rhythms, results in an exciting and fast-paced dance. Photo by Susie Hume.experienced dancers go right into the move, letting go of their partners’ right hands and coming back into the circle. Before the bailarines get a chance to catch their breath, Bromka yells the next move.

Bromka is the artistic director and co-founder of La Familia de la Salsa, a salsa performance and teaching group. Its specialty is a form of salsa dancing called Rueda de Casino. Rueda is similar to square dancing in that the leader calls the steps and the dancers form a circle around him.

La Familia de la Salsa offers classes in Tully, Syracuse, Ithaca and Rochester, ranging from traditional salsa to Rueda to salsa aerobics. Most Fridays, Bromka organizes "Havana Nights" at Johnston’s Ballybay. He teaches a "survival lesson," a beginning class for dancers with little or no salsa experience, followed by a social dance. This event draws a diverse crowd from about 20 different countries, including Poland, France and Cuba.

"It’s what I’m most proud of," Bromka says.

The Latin music scene is growing at a rapid pace in Central New York. Bromka, just one of Latin music’s proponents in the area, describes Friday night salsa dancing as the "melting pot of Syracuse."

In Syracuse, what Bromka is to salsa, his best friends, Vatan Koc and Georgia Ahrens, are to Argentine tango. Koc and Ahrens have been dancing tango for almost seven years. Koc runs the Syracuse branch of Baila Tango. Every Tuesday, the club sponsors a milonga, a tango dance night, at the Syracuse Suds Factory that begins with a "survival lesson" and is followed by a social dance.

"Tango is a street dance, so there are not a whole bunch of steps we can teach," says Ahrens. But because there are fewer specified steps than in other dances, "the possibilities are limitless," she says.

The music of tango is sentimental and melancolica, characterized by violins and the bandoneon, an instrument similar to the accordion. On Tuesday nights, dancers learn the basic walking steps of tango. Bailarines embrace, finding the weight of each other, until they feel comfortable enough to dance. In tango, communication between partners is re importante. The man leads and the woman (or man—on this particular Tuesday there are more men than women) follows, bending her legs as she walks backwards.

Their legs intertwine while they dance, creating un baile sensual. Ahrens says that tango has really taken off in the past 10 years, which she attributes to recent appearances of tango on Broadway and the popularity of clothes such as skirts—usually sexy, tight and asymmetrical—and high heeled shoes inspired by tango.

Another form of music enjoying a resurgence in the Latin community is bachata. Sam Borges founded Grupo Romantico, a Syracuse group that specializes in bachata, meringue and bolero, in 2003.

"Bachata is a Dominican rhythm," he says, "Bachata is musica de amargue. It means to cry over lost love."

His band plays frequently at Casa Mexicana in Liverpool, but Borges says that it’s hard to get gigs for bands that do not incorporate other genres like pop.

"Right now we’re trying to open that up. We tend to be more traditional," he says.

But Borges has nothing against groups that lean toward Latin pop. He says of another local band, "Grupo Pagan is awesome."

Led by Edgar Pagan, this is a band with "Latin flavor." Grupo Pagan plays Latin-American music and is inspired by artists like Santana and Gloria Estefan. The band performs some salsa and merengue, but also includes familiar tunes, such as The Beatles’ "Let it Be," while incorporating Latin rhythms. Grupo Pagan has been around for almost four years and plays at festivals such as the Harborfest and at restaurants including Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

"Every gig is a festival," Pagan says, "Our goal is to make all people, no matter what race, familiar with Latin music."

Grupo Pagan, La Familia de la Salsa, Syracuse Tango and many other Latin music groups performed at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair this September.

Latin music events include:

• Havana Nights: Fridays at Johnston’s Ballybay, survival lesson 8 p.m. followed by social dance
• Latin Dance Party: First Friday of the month, Johnston’s Ballybay, 8 p.m.
• Tango: Tuesdays, Syracuse Suds Factory, Armory Square, survival lesson 7:30 p.m. followed by social dance