The beginner-friendly club encourages students to embrace culture through dance community
By HANNAH OSBORN — arts@theaggie.org
Dance is an activity that can enchant and bring people together; however, it can also be intimidating. Maybe you’ve never danced before, or maybe you’ve danced but want to find a new community or style to learn. UC Davis has no shortage of opportunities, one of which is Baile de Fuego.
Baile de Fuego, a Latin dance club at UC Davis, hosts a dance lesson and social hour every Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. in Hoagland Hall 113. Lessons taught this quarter have included dances like bachata, salsa, zouk, banda and kizomba. Vice President Shelby Hulse, a fourth-year animal science major, shared the motivation behind the club’s dedication to regular lessons and socials.
“We do our very best to offer the community a space to come and dance,” Hulse said. “We like to guarantee that it’s free.”
The effort to make a social space on campus for people to participate in Latin dance has made an impact upon attendees, as shared by Dance Team Lead Jimena Arango, a third-year animal biology major.
“My first year on campus, I was away from home,” Arango said. “Coming up here, I didn’t really have any friends or family [nearby]. When I heard that there was a club on campus that does bachata, salsa and all this stuff every Sunday, I wanted to learn more about it.”
Arango discussed the friendship and community that members can find in the club.
“I came and connected with a lot of friends, and now I dance every Sunday,” Arango said. “It really fulfills my heart and is able to allow me to connect to my culture again, even though I’m away from home. ‘A home away from home’ — cliche, but it’s true. A lot of the friends I met went to Baile de Fuego. It’s a passion I’m able to pursue while in college.”
This sentiment was shared by Events Coordinator Marilu Zunuz, a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology major.
“I’ve been dancing for less than two years, and I started dancing because of this,” Zunuz said. “It’s an environment that when I first came in, I really felt at home. It’s a community that’s open to all: beginners and people that have been dancing for years on end. It’s just a really great place to not only make friends and be social, but to network: to feel at home, to feel safe.”
The club works to create a feeling of safety with partner dancing by making participants aware of a sign-in sheet and safety form at the beginning of every lesson.
“I always do our safety announcements,” Hulse said. “That’s really important for us: that everyone who comes to dance with us knows they can tell the board about anything, and we will handle it on the spot. They have access to a link where they can say anything they want anonymously.”
The club’s efforts to cultivate a safe and respectful atmosphere has drawn in Davis community members, not just students, to take part in dancing, learning and socializing.
“Our club is not just for students,” Zunuz said. “It’s for the whole community, and it’s free to all. That’s what I really like.”
The mission of the club as a fixture of the community includes an effort to provide lessons from experienced dancers.
“We really prioritize getting trained professionals,” Hulse said. “We’re so grateful that they give us their time. I’ve had people travel up to three hours to give us a free dance lesson, and it truly means everything. Some of them are alumni from UC Davis.”
The lessons offer a focused and relaxed learning environment. The instructors demonstrate the steps while allowing time for chatting between partners in order to create a familiar space where attendees can laugh at their own mistakes.
“It’s always fun,” Hulse said. “This is a very comfortable, low-stakes environment. We’re all learning, we’re all growing and we just really like to give that opportunity to people.”
Baile de Fuego has collaborated with other campus organizations, opening their club to invite in new people and furthering connections across the Davis community. These have included hosting Sigma Pi Alpha, Lambda Theta Phi and La Familia at their Sunday socials.
“People have loved collabing with us, and we love collabing with a lot of different clubs,” Zunuz said. “We want to create a safe environment where people feel welcome — especially [first-years] — and they can come and just relax [and] not have to think about school or work or what’s going on in their personal life. They can just come and dance. That’s our main goal.”
The hour-long lesson is followed by a social hour, in which the connections in the club and friendly atmosphere are palpable. Hulse shared that often, attendees don’t want the night to end.
“People are here, people are happy,” Hulse said. “We genuinely have to kick people out [when the room reservation is up]. I love the people, and I also want to keep learning. I learn every time.”
If you feel an inclination to learn to dance, but fear embarrassment, Baile de Fuego is a space to learn and socialize with others, free of judgment. Baile de Fuego meets Sundays, 6 to 8 p.m. at Hoagland Hall 113, and their March 15 meeting will be a social event with opportunities to help fundraise for the club.
More information about their meetings can be found on their Instagram @ucdbailedefuego.
Written by: Hannah Osborn — arts@theaggie.org
