Ever wondered how a simple step on the dance floor can lead to a journey of joy and cultural discovery? Angie Zumaran , the vibrant force behind Casa Salsa, joined me, Jeremy Wolf, to whirl through her story from a dance devotee to the founder of a studio that's become the heartbeat of Davie's Latin dance scene. Our conversation unfurls the energetic world of salsa, embracing the pulsating beats of styles from the smooth New York 'Salsa on two' to the feverish Cali style, while Angie dispels the myth that dance is only for those with perfect rhythm—making a compelling case that even I, renowned for my 'two left feet', could find my groove in the salsa community.
As the aroma of Peruvian spices seemed to waft through our studio chat, we took a nostalgic trip to Lima, reminiscing over family feasts and the shared laughter that transcends all borders. Yet, the tone took a somber step as we recounted the shadow the 2020 pandemic cast on Casa Salsa, forcing us to pivot to the digital dance world and face an uncertain future. But with Angie's relentless spirit and the unwavering support of our community, we're spinning a tale of resilience and hope, determined to see our beloved studio—and all the aspiring dancers within—emerge stronger and more connected than ever. Join us for an episode that promises not just steps, but leaps into the transformative power of dance and community.
Ever wondered how a simple step on the dance floor can lead to a journey of joy and cultural discovery? Angie Zumaran , the vibrant force behind Casa Salsa, joined me, Jeremy Wolf, to whirl through her story from a dance devotee to the founder of a studio that's become the heartbeat of Davie's Latin dance scene. Our conversation unfurls the energetic world of salsa, embracing the pulsating beats of styles from the smooth New York 'Salsa on two' to the feverish Cali style, while Angie dispels the myth that dance is only for those with perfect rhythm—making a compelling case that even I, renowned for my 'two left feet', could find my groove in the salsa community.
As the aroma of Peruvian spices seemed to waft through our studio chat, we took a nostalgic trip to Lima, reminiscing over family feasts and the shared laughter that transcends all borders. Yet, the tone took a somber step as we recounted the shadow the 2020 pandemic cast on Casa Salsa, forcing us to pivot to the digital dance world and face an uncertain future. But with Angie's relentless spirit and the unwavering support of our community, we're spinning a tale of resilience and hope, determined to see our beloved studio—and all the aspiring dancers within—emerge stronger and more connected than ever. Join us for an episode that promises not just steps, but leaps into the transformative power of dance and community.
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, jeremy Wolf, and our guest today is Angie Zumerin. I hope I pronounced that correctly. I got it right. You did yes. Woohoo, that is already 100%, already going well, all right. So Angie is with Casa Salsa, right here, right next to us in lovely Davy, excited to get into this today with you, angie. I've actually heard about of Casa Salsa before. I've never had the pleasure of coming in there. But you know what? I'm 44. I think it might be time for me to learn how to salsa. So let's get into this. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:
You're welcome. It's never too late, so you can join anytime.
Speaker 2:
The party continues, of course, of course. So, angie, tell us a little bit about Casa Salsa.
Speaker 3:
Well, we are a Latin dance studio, so we've been around for, I want to say, 15, maybe 16 years now, and we teach people how to dance. We specialize in salsa and bachata, which is the group classes that we have on a weekly basis. We have a Zuma class as well. So, yeah, we're in Davy, we're in Jairos Road and Stay Road 84 at the Windixie Plaza with Dixie and Walgreens, and yeah, we've been there for a while.
Speaker 2:
We love what we do and yeah, so how did you come to own a salsa studio here in Davy? Tell us a little bit about your background, your journey and how you got into this space.
Speaker 3:
Well, I've always loved dancing, Because I was a kid, it's been something that I just enjoyed so much, and when I was growing up I was always dancing anywhere, any show, high school, through college. I would just try to find ways to keep dancing. And I lived in California for 10 years and I moved here. And when I moved here I was just looking for places to dance as well, and I met the back then owner of Casa Salsa the previous owner and he brought me along to manage the studio. So I was a studio manager at first and later on, a few years later, he decided to do something else.
Speaker 3:
He started a family, so he kind of wanted to focus a little bit more on that and I was he's right him. So the first person that he offered to kind of like pass the studio down to was me. So I was like heck, yes. And I went to school for business, for entrepreneurship, so I always wanted to combine that education with something that I was passionate about. So this was a perfect opportunity and I always dreamed of having a dance studio down the line at some point in my life, and I never thought it was going to happen so quickly, but it did and I didn't miss the opportunity, so I jumped right into that and that's it. It's been the dream ever since.
Speaker 2:
So where does Salsa come from? Where does it originate from? What's the history behind Salsa?
Speaker 3:
Oh, okay, well, it's actually. It's Salsa, it's very much a it's how can I say? It's a mix of different dances. It just evolved from different dances.
Speaker 2:
So it's different cultures, different dances from different areas. I'm a guesting in South America. Or is it Mexico? Is it South America?
Speaker 3:
No, I think it originates as Cuba, Cuba okay. It just developed from other other dances that were more typical from there. Salsa on two is what we teach at the studio. There's actually very different styles.
Speaker 2:
What is that Salsa on?
Speaker 3:
two.
Speaker 2:
On two. Salsa on two On two.
Speaker 3:
So it's different styles of salsa. Now, like they, they evolved into many different styles depending where you go. They they can dance differently. So it's also on two originated in New York. There's salsa on one which is also called LA style. There is Cuban salsa, which is a little more like casino and Reda. There's Cali style, which is, if you go to Colombia, that's where you'll find Cali style. Yeah, so there's very different ways to dance it. The music is the same, but styles very per person.
Speaker 2:
So what is one to expect? So, speaking to everybody out there, like me, right, I'm a white boy with two left feet. I got no rhythm, have a hard time dancing. My wife is actually Peruvian, so she doesn't have that problem. What's that? You're Peruvian too. So I, if I come in there, so like, dancing has always been one of those things for me where, when I do it, like, yeah, if I get a couple drinks to me, maybe I'll let loose, but I feel awkward dancing because I just feel like I have no rhythm. What do you say? Like? What does somebody like me to expect if I were to come in there and try to Learn how to do salsa? What?
Speaker 3:
is that you will come to the right place, because actually, that's that's the one thing that we Focus more on is beginners, because beginners are the ones who we like continue to and they're the more excited to learn to. And you don't have to have any background in dancing, you don't have to have any experience. Two left feet are perfectly fine. So so, yeah, so we, we. Personally, I love teaching beginners because I love seeing how excited they get and the growth that they experience while learning something new. And, yeah, you don't have to have a background. You know you can always learn something new. So, and I love teaching beginners.
Speaker 2:
I gotta say I went to the Cooper City annual father daughter dance.
Speaker 2:
A month ago and I was actually shocked. My daughter, she's a, she's 11, she'll be 12 soon, and I asked her if she wanted to go to the dance and I thought she was gonna say no, I don't want to do that. She said, yeah, I'll go and I let loose. And it was one of those things where she gave me full authority to embarrass her that night. It was just the setting was right and I went. I went a little crazy, so I don't know what it looked like, I don't really care. I had a great time doing that. So that's why I said like I'm glad we're doing this day, because my wife I think she would she would love. I'm always looking for cool things to do. I hope she's not always looking for cool ideas and cool things to do with her. I think it would be kind of cool to take her to get salsa dancing lessons.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 2:
We know we're at now, and you're both from Peru, so you got it you gotta meet each other. So tell, tell me a little bit about your background in Peru. Are you from Lima?
Speaker 3:
I'm from Lima. Yes, born and raised, um, lived there, went to high school there and when I turned 18 I moved to california where my dad was To go to college. So I went to college there, finished there, worked there for a little bit, then look for something, you know, something new and adventure, and I moved here to Florida after.
Speaker 2:
Do you make it back down to lima often, or I do the last time I was there was in 2020.
Speaker 3:
I actually got stuck there for covid. I was there on vacation with my family. I was, I was visiting my family and, uh, my flight was scheduled to come back two days after everything shut down. So I got stuck there for three months, but, uh, but it was fun because, you know, I was with my family, it was my mom and dad and, uh, I got to spend time with them for that long. So I was a little worried because, you know, back here things were also kind of a little bit scary but uh, but I was able to come back after three months.
Speaker 2:
So it's a little, a little blessing in disguise, right, getting stuck down there. You got to spend three months with your family where you otherwise wouldn't have.
Speaker 3:
Yes and luckily it was a place where, where you know I'm from, I had people that I know, I had Love ones there, so it wasn't like a random place that I got stuck. So it was, it was, it was okay, it was not bad, so I had it was okay, I haven't.
Speaker 2:
I haven't been to Lima in many, many years, but I think either two or three, definitely two times. I was there, maybe three times. Every time I've been down there it was just a wonderful place, a wonderful experience. I've had a blast down there, so Lots of fun. You gotta gotta make it back soon, very soon. I'm going back and the food. Hello, oh, I thought Caribbean food is a amazing. Amazing. Do you cook at all or no?
Speaker 3:
I do some, some things. I'm not Favorite dish my favorite oh, you're not gonna know what it is, but um, I love, try me, Almost I will. But I, what are my favorite ones, is called pepian, but it's not very common, it's not, you know what is it called?
Speaker 2:
Pepian pepian, I can't believe I you're right. I've not heard of pepia. I don't know why yes. My wife.
Speaker 3:
They don't have it at restaurants, they don't offer it. It's just like something that it's more like a family dish and my mom makes it for my birthday because you know it's, I love it when she's here. So, but then anything, I mean anything. I eat anything like lomo saltado, ceviche, arroz con pollo, papa van caína. Oh my god, anything is good.
Speaker 2:
My wife made for me. It's got probably a year a year ago by now. She made a locro. Locro yeah and I had never tried it before and she made that and that's one of my favorites. Now that's stew she puts. I think I don't know if you're traditionally it has chicken in it, but I think she puts a little chicken in it. But and they got the fried egg on top. I love that.
Speaker 3:
See that, that you will try and love, but they don't really like. If you go to a restaurant, not many restaurants offer it, so that that's the same as pepia. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2:
I wonder why that is that there's just certain dishes, because they they're, I'm sure, the pepion dishes delicious too everything.
Speaker 3:
Yes, but I think they they just focus on something that is maybe it's a little more known. You know people. People are familiar with what it looks like or what it is.
Speaker 2:
I don't know One of life's great mysteries Angie.
Speaker 3:
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:
So Looking back okay, looking back through your journey, you've been. You're from Peru. You moved over here when you were 18 as an immigrant. Did you speak english when you came here or did you learn when you got here? Okay, so you already spoke English, you had that under, so you came out to california, ultimately moved down to florida. Looking back through your journey, is there one thing in specific that comes to mind? A life, hardship, a challenge, something that you struggled with, that Sitting here today you could say that you're better off for having gone through that experience. Or maybe like a defining moment, something all on those lungs, along those lines go.
Speaker 3:
Oh well, I have a couple actually. First, first things first. Like I think that one of the Challenging things I've went through twice was moving altogether, you know, from Peru to california, then california to florida. It was challenging, it was new, Um, I didn't know many people here. I didn't know anybody except for my family when I moved to california, so that in itself was a challenging experience, but again, I got to To meet new people, grow, Um.
Speaker 3:
So those were two challenging things, but I think one of the most challenging business wise for us was Co-ed like the shutdown, the 2020 shutdown. It was really really, really hard. I actually didn't think we were gonna make it. To be honest with you, I didn't see the light at the other tunnel for a while there and it didn't help that I was in a different country when I had to shut down the studio, you know, and luckily we were able to get through that.
Speaker 3:
We had a lot of people, a lot of students that helped us out, that supported us, that wanted to see us at the end of that, and but it was really rough because we went from full contact type of thing, you know, when we were dancing. You're dancing, you're holding hands with people. You're touching people and going from there to online. People just didn't couldn't do the jump to online because it was so completely different, completely different.
Speaker 3:
And then coming back from that coming out when we were able to reopen, it was still very slowly processed to just get back on our feet basically. So it was basically like starting over. And there's still people. We follow every protocol, we make sure that people are safe, you know doing all the things, but still the nature of the business was very social and that kind of took a little bit away from that. But slowly but surely, people just started coming out and we know, once things got a little better, more people got vaccinated and so forth. Then all of a sudden, like everybody just needed something to do, they were, you know, in home, it was goofed up for that long everybody wants to let it out of the cage.
Speaker 2:
They wanna get out there and express themselves. Let the party begin. Yes.
Speaker 3:
Everybody just came out running out of nowhere looking for things to do, and that helped us out. But that really made me realize how much I have to take care of my people, how much I have to take care of my students and just do the best that I can, you know, to provide the service that they love and enjoy so much. And that's what we've been doing ever since. You know Not that we were not, but we put a little more emphasis in making sure that we're doing the best that we can to just make sure everybody is having a great time, enjoying themselves coming back, because if it wasn't for our students, honestly we would not make it to the other side.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, so you mentioned earlier at the beginning of the conversation that you also do Zumba classes.
Speaker 3:
There is not me personally, because I don't know how I would teach anything else. I don't even know how Zumba instructors do it full time because it's very physically demanding. But there is a Zumba class and the instructor we have is amazing. She has energy for days. So we do it once a week. We used to have it twice but the schedule didn't quite work very well. But she's really good. She's on Tuesdays, on Tuesdays on 645. She's teaching there.
Speaker 2:
Out of your studio.
Speaker 3:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Tuesday. I asked because my wife used to be into Zumba many, many years ago and I'm always again looking for new things, so for her to get back into, so that's cool, all right. So, angie, for anyone out there that's listening, that would like to learn more, that wants to express themselves, wants to get out, wants to learn a little salsa and wants to get into this, how can we reach you? I know you mentioned earlier your location Maybe you mentioned that again your contact information, maybe your website? Let us know how we could learn more.
Speaker 3:
Yes, we are. It's called the Davy Plaza or the Plaza, something like that. It's in the corner of Jairus Road and State Road 84. And there's a Windyxie there. There's Walgreens as well, the Lowe's. There's a Lowe's as well, and our website is CasaSalsaDavycom. You can go in there. You have all the information. You can register online.
Speaker 3:
You have questions? Our number is there. You can WhatsApp us with texts or call us and yeah, I'm always answering questions throughout the day. Whenever anybody sends any text messages, normally when they call, it goes to voicemail because we want to make sure that we're there to actually answer. But if it's a quick text, I can answer real quick and people are always asking questions and we do group classes, we do private lessons, we do workshops, we do social events. In fact, this Sunday we have an event going on. I don't know when this is gonna air, but this Sunday 17th, we have a St Patrick's Barbecue in Markham Park and we do this every year. So we try to keep some social events going on. We also have a monthly social. So when you go dance, it's the last Saturday of the month. So if students come in and they practice, we have a DJ and it's a lot of fun. So, yeah, come join us anytime we're here. We love teaching. We are very passionate about it. Everybody's super nice and, yeah, come meet us.
Speaker 2:
Love it, love what you're doing, Angie. We will, of course, link in the description to all of your contact information. Thanks so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 3:
You're welcome. Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:
This is what we do, and to our listeners, thanks for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time. Have a wonderful day and take care.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPcooperCitycom. That's GNPcooperCitycom. Or call 954-231-3170. Celebrate 100,000 subscribers in 100,000 subscribers all through thegiveweigh, surely?