In time to the upbeat Latin music, the girls of the ASU Show Dance soared over the shoulders of their male partners. The audience gasped, then cheered.
Show Dance and the two other ASU Latin dance teams, Competition Exhibition and the Latin Dance Company, performed at the Tempe Tardeada Sunday evening at the Tempe Community Complex. The teams performed selections from several types of Latin dances to pop artists such as the Pussy Cat Dolls as well as traditional Spanish-language music.
As their half hour show went on, the area in front of the dance floor filled up with people. The audience clapped along, cheering after complicated moves. Between the three teams, the club performed 11 choreographed numbers, then invited the audience to join them in a salsa dance on the floor.
Brenda Smith, director and choreographer of the teams, said the Tardeada is a tradition for ASU Latin Dance, which has performed at the community event almost every year since the club began in 1999.
"All my dancers love performing," Smith said about the 44 students that make up the teams.
For senior Jack Mann, who has been dancing for six years, Sunday night was his first time at the Tardeada. As part of the Latin Dance Company, Mann performed the slower, sensual rumba, the barchata, and his favorite, the cha cha.
"There's a lot of attitude in the cha cha," Mann said.
In between dances, Smith explained some of the basic moves. Since the teams operate through the Herberger College at Large, dance classes are open to the community. Smith said she hoped the performance would interest people and lead them to learn more about Latin dancing.
"My goal is to reach other people through dance and bring the love of dance to everyone," Smith said.
Classes go from advanced to basic. Junior Brenna Olmstead, a member of the Competition Exhibition team, said she had never done much dancing until college when she took one of Smith's classes.
"I fell in love with it," Olmstead, a nursing major, said.
While being on a team is time consuming, Olmstead said she enjoys the workout dancing gives her and spending time with her teammates.
"We have a good time doing it," Olmstead said.
The group dynamic that forms in the teams is "beautiful," said Smith, adding that the dancers come from very different backgrounds. She said team members come from all over the country and the world.
"Our teams are so diversified," Smith said. "We've had so many countries represented in the teams over the years."
Through various community shows and competitions, the teams get many opportunities to show off their skills. In 2005, the dancers won at the National College Championships and placed third last year. The three teams will get a chance to hold onto their wins in November, when they compete at this year's Championship in Ohio.
Closer to home, Smith said her students perform at local salsa clubs almost every weekend and perform for fundraisers. Next weekend, they will be dancing at a local nursing home.
"We're very active in the community doing shows," Smith said.
Reach the reporter at claudia.koerner@asu.edu.
