Wepea Student Dancers Bring Latin Flavor to the Square

No need to wait until Friday to find a jam-packed, boisterous dance floor to go clubbing Latin style. Salsa and Meringue have come right to Harvard's door with the newWepea("Yeah" in Spanish) Latin Dance club held Wednesday evenings at, of all places, the one and only Hong Kong.

The club is distinctively tailored to the Harvard student lifestyle--easily accessible, inexpensive and educationally oriented (Salsa and Meringue lessons precede the club's 11 p.m. opening). In addition, tweeds and turtlenecks--rather than tight black apparel--are the fashion norm.

Inspired by both a desire to create a local Latino dancing haven and a sense of cultural community, Ingrid Reynoso '97, now a student at the Law School, and April J. Genovese '98 created the latest cultural club on campus. Although both experienced and novice dancers are encouraged to join the 8:30 to 10 p.m. dance classes or come to the club after 10:00, Reynoso says that part of the club's mission is reaching out to the local Latino community.

"This music and dancing is an important part of our culture," says Reynoso, who is originally from the Dominican Republic.

Genovese, a professionally trained Latino dancer, has been giving Salsa and Meringue classes, throughout her years at Harvard, every Friday at the Cambridge Community Center. Just this year, according to Reynoso, the two, plus a third partner, Carlo "El Pam Chrelo" Sanchez, decided to start the club.

Capitalizing on Genovese's experience as a Salsa and Meringue teacher, she said the three decided "to bring the New York Style Latin Dance to Cambridge, to make Harvard students more aware of this culture."

"The dancing brings community together, it is part of our family culture, [the music] expresses what is going on," says Genovese.

Although club regulars are hoping that more Latino students from Harvard will be drawn to this local affair, for the meantime, the preppy Cantabridgians, many on dates, will be privy to a more romantic side of the Hong Kong.