When dance teacher Brenda Smith first started teaching at ASU in 1996, she had a single summer session with 15 students.
Now, Smith is one of the most popular teachers on campus, with students fighting for one of the 80 spots available in each of her seven sessions of Salsa 1, Salsa 2 and Salsa 3.
Smith, a native of Zanesville, Ohio, said she first started taking dance lessons at 3 years old and by her 20s, she was already a United States ballroom dance champion, and owned two successful dance studios in Columbus, Ohio.
However, regardless of all of Smith's credentials, when she finally came to teach at ASU, she had to fight to stay.
"I advertised salsa all through the campus," Smith said. "I posted signs in Lot 59, in the dorms.
"I really had to go around using my own body, my own car, so that people would know about the classes," she added.
In the beginning, Smith not only advertised her class all over campus, she also reached out to the Dance Department proposing regular class times during the spring and fall semesters.
"I went to the department chair at that time, and told her I wanted to teach on Saturdays," Smith said, "but she insisted on saying that no student would want to take the class on a Saturday."
Smith was persistent and in the spring semester of 1999, her Latin Salsa and Big Band Swing Saturday classes were both full with 75 students in each.
This semester, Smith is teaching eight sessions of classes to ASU students through the Herberger College of Fine Arts and another three classes to members of the community through the Herberger College at Large, a community school of the arts in the Herberger College.
Smith attributes the growth of the number of students wanting to take salsa to the fact that her classes are challenging, yet fun.
"A lot of practicing is involved," she said.
Catherine Fletcher, director of the Herberger College at Large, said she has seen a growth in the interest in salsa dance classes in the past two years.
"The ASU students and community adults in Brenda's classes always look like they are having fun while they're learning," Fletcher said.
At the highest level of salsa dancing expertise at ASU, are the students in Smith's Competition Exhibition class.
The CompEx team, as Smith calls it, competes in nationwide championships against students from colleges all over the country.
Bioengineering Senior Chad Tenturier, CompEx student this semester, said he met some of his best friends in Smith's salsa classes. Tenturier is dating his current CompEx partner and said his salsa moves helped him get the girl.
"She thought I was a good dancer," he said. "Then, we started talking."
Conrad Wadowski, Finance and English junior and CompEx student, said he also met great people in salsa class, including his current roommate.
Wadowski said he is able to meet people with a great variety of backgrounds.
"I also keep meeting more cool people with a lot of varied interests and perspectives that otherwise I wouldn't have the opportunity to get to know," he said.
Wadowski also said he appreciates Smith's directness in teaching, a polemic topic among her students.
"I really like Brenda's no BS method of teaching," Wadowski said. "She makes you comfortable while pressuring you to get better."
Whie Tenturier admits he's enjoyed salsa classes, he also said that students in CompEx take their dancing seriously.
"During competition time, we really practice a lot," he said.
Tenturier said the team members, when at their busiest, have to practice around six hours a day, four days a week. But he wasn't complaining.
"It [CompEx] is a great confidence boost," he said.
Reach the reporter at: amanda.soares@asu.edu.
