The quick shuffle of feet and steady pulse of salsa fill the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The vibrant atmosphere at the stadium is thanks to the Gator Salsa Club, which offers a chance for students and locals to enhance their salsa skills while creating a community through the dance.
Jasmine Martinez, a 20-year-old UF international studies sophomore and the co-president of Gator Salsa Club, said the organization makes dancing accessible for everyone.
“The thing about our club that’s very special is the fact that you can come and you can learn these styles of dance completely free,” Martinez said. “Everyone’s able to … keep coming back, because they want to learn. And they’re excited to do so without the monetary barrier.”
Gator Salsa Club was established in Summer 2009. The organization focuses on various forms of Latin dance, most prominently casino salsa and bachata, while educating members about the history of Latin music and its modernization, according to its constitution.
Martinez said serving as co-president of the club has given her the platform to share the knowledge and love she has for salsa, which she’s cultivated over her years growing up in a family of dancers. Her family’s dancing helped her learn about her own Cuban heritage, she said.
When she enrolled at UF, Martinez worried that coming to Gainesville meant she would lose touch with her Hispanic roots, she said. The city boasts a Hispanic population of 13.6%.
Compared to her hometown of Hialeah, Florida, which is around 95% Hispanic, Martinez said she imagined the town would only contain “Americans that didn’t know anything about Hispanic culture.”
Gator Salsa helped assuage her fears, she said.
“[Salsa] truly helped me connect with my roots and with who I am as a person,” Martinez said. “I’m thankful to have come to UF and been presented to the Gator Salsa Club. … I found a community of dancers that shares with me this love for dance and this love for our culture.”
After salsa classes, the club hosts social dancing, where other dance clubs can teach their styles. Gator Salsa also hosts a social dance every Thursday at The Bull in Downtown Gainesville.
The club is structured to accommodate dancers of all skill levels by offering different classes within each meeting session. The levels range from beginner to advanced.
Liz Jimenez, a 23-year-old Santa Fe College dental hygiene freshman, came to Gator Salsa March 17 for the first time.
“I think it’s really cool that people get to come and get into this culture,” she said. “I came because I’m Cuban, and I’m tired of sitting on the corner at the parties. I need to start dancing.”
She said she initially hesitated to attend class, but she had the feeling it was going to be fun, so she pushed through. She said the atmosphere is welcoming to all sorts of individuals.
Going to this salsa class has given her the urge to master casino and bachata, which is why she said she is going to return to further classes.
Organizations outside UF are doing their part to promote salsa as well.
Koji Hosaka leads this effort through the Salsa Mundial dance studio.
Hosaka, the owner and artistic director of Salsa Mundial and a researcher at UF’s neuroscience department, moved to Gainesville from Japan in 2005 as a postdoctoral student.
Although he is not of Latin descent and had never encountered Latin dance practices before coming to Gainesville, salsa dancing has become central to his life because of the community it has allowed him to form, he said.
Hosaka said he came to Gainesville after meeting a UF professor in Tokyo who invited him to do research. Moving so far from home was isolating for him, which is what pushed him to go to a now-defunct salsa studio called Ritmo y Sabor, he said.
“I was kind of saved by that salsa community in Gainesville because I didn’t have any friends, and I couldn’t speak English well,” he said. “While dancing, technically, you don’t need to speak.”
He started dancing salsa when a fellow co-worker told him about a class UF was offering. He decided to accompany his friend on a whim. Hosaka said he “loved it” immediately.
He said encouragement from the instructor during his first class helped him feel welcome, hence why it’s important to be a good instructor, especially for beginners.
Hosaka’s studio, founded in 2015, is centered around professionally taught classes for students ranging from around 12 to 80 years old.
He said he sees people from a variety of backgrounds and professions attend, including many medical school and graduate students.
Currently, he said, the studio teaches around 3,000 dancers and has taught over 2,300 classes since its founding. He said he has seen a growth in the range of ages and origins of the dancers.
It is his mission to create a “safe place” and make the atmosphere very balanced, as some people come to have fun and socialize, while others come to advance their skills.
Above all, what connects individuals to salsa is the sense of community, Hosaka said.
“If I had never met salsa, I would probably not be here in Gainesville,” he said. “Salsa is part of my life.”
Contact Ariana Badra at abadra@alligator.org. Follow her on X @arianavbm.
Ariana is a first-year journalism major and an El Caimán reporter for the Fall of 2025. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and scouring for new songs to play on repeat to an absurd degree.
