Suffolk University’s UNIDAD and Pasión Latina held a salsa dance workshop instructed by Clauder Aspilaire, the founder of Pasión Latina, on March 28.
Aspilaire instructed approximately 30 students who had the opportunity to connect to Latinx culture through dance. Pasión Latina held the event to promote Latin dance and bring cultural diversity to Suffolk’s campus, according to Raymond Riel, a member of Pasión Latina.
Aspilaire, a Suffolk alumnus, has been teaching dance since her time as a student at the university.
“My favorite part of teaching dance is just being able to transmit my love of dance to others and just really see them enjoy themselves and have a good time, that’s my goal,” Aspilaire said. “I started teaching dancing from being at Suffolk where I started my first Latin dance team which is Pasión Latina, so that has started the journey for me and I’ve been trying to do it as much as I can.”
Adoni Cruzsimms, a Suffolk student, participated in the event and found it to be culturally immersive.
“I’m Afro-Latino, so I think that being more immersed in my own culture is very nice,” Cruzsimms said. “I think that this is a part of my life that I want to connect with because it’s usually not what I get to connect with outside of school.”
Benjimin Nguyen has found that participating in Latinx dance has pushed him to educate himself further on cultural music.
“Personally, when I started dancing to it, I also started to listen to more Spanish music and started to learn more about why they make the music and how the music helps connect people in South America together,” Nguyen said.
Marcos Cisneros, another Suffolk student, said that the event was an expression of creativity and “felt like home.”
“For me, I was born in Florida but I was raised in Venezuela, and if you’re in Florida there’s a lot of Latin American people, so everybody is dancing like that so you feel that magic, that spark when you’re dancing,” Cisneros said.
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