Kastyn Matheney | Student Life

Comprised of 14 dancers, ranging from freshmen to seniors, performing a high-energy combination of Latin movements, from sharp turns to hip swings, WUSauce is Washington University’s preeminent salsa dancing club. The group was formed eight years ago, and since then, it has grown in popularity and developed into a diverse collection of students across ages, majors and cultural backgrounds.

Salsa dancing is a multicultural conglomeration, drawing from elements of Son cubano, which blends Spanish troubadour music with African drumbeats, as well as African rumbas like Guaguanco and Pachango and American dance styles like swing and hustle. The name “salsa” actually originated in New York in the 1970s, possibly in reference to the Latin American sauce comprised of many different and varying ingredients. The type of salsa most often performed by WUSauce is called “rueda de casino” and consists of pairs of dancers in a circle performing moves as they are called by a “lider,” or leader. This allows WUSauce dancers to perform in various venues throughout the year at little notice, because the dancers know the set movements and can follow the caller as he improvises a combination.

Tryouts for WUSauce occur each fall and are open to the entire student body. While many of the girls selected for the team have dance experience, most of the guys do not and only a couple students currently on the team have prior salsa experience.

Choreographer and senior Jake Strang explained, “you really don’t have to have any idea of what you’re doing. Just show up and have fun because tryouts are really a big lesson. If you don’t make it on the team, then you got a free dance lesson!”

WUSauce also holds lessons open to all students each Sunday from 2–3 p.m. in Danforth University Center 276 as well as socials once each semester. Dancers on WUSauce often go together to Atomic Cowboy, a local club that has open salsa dancing each Sunday.

Choreographer and senior Imani Naya McKenzie said, “I actually decided to try out after my WUSA got on the team my freshman year and seemed really excited about it. She used to take me to the socials, where there is a lesson for the first half-hour and then open social dancing for the next hour. It is a ton of fun and you get to meet people from all over campus.”

WUSauce has three major events each year, for which the choreographers prepare advanced routines, in addition to performances during orientation, Multicultural Weekend and scholarship finalists’ weekend. The dancers’ usual rehearsal schedule of two hours twice a week is increased in preparation for these performances, which include Dance Marathon in November, a college salsa dance competition in Chicago in February and Dance-Off in April, for which WUSauce is currently preparing.

“Dance-Off is our biggest event of the year, coming up on April 4. It’s a dance competition open to all dance groups on campus. We have eight slots open and fill them on a first-come, first-serve basis, trying to keep a good mix of different styles. We also usually bring a group from outside of Wash. U. This year it is a hip-hop group from St. Louis University called XQuizit. We host the show and close it with a number that we have been rehearsing,” McKenzie said.

Dancer and sophomore Marina Mai said of her first year on WUSauce, “Coming from a ballet background, it is definitely something different. I do feel though, as newbies, that we have had a lot of separate rehearsals to get us up to par with the rest of the team.”

In addition to WUSauce’s rehearsals, two members are choreographers for salsa in this weekend’s Carnaval performances, while several other dancers are participating in other sections of Carnaval, including West African and Flamenco.

Summing up her experience in WUSauce over the past three years, McKenzie said, “It is definitely my favorite thing I’ve done at Wash. U. It started out just as a stress reliever. I used to dance in high school, but I wanted something different. I’ve become very close with a lot of people on WUSauce and we really are a little family.”