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Jorge I. Cruz adds spice to South Florida salsa
Despite dozens of South Florida salsa instructors, Jorge Cruz spins himself apart from the rest.
BY ANGELA TABLAC
atablac@MiamiHerald.com
As the music blared, Jorge I. Cruz's eyes moved from couple to couple.
''Five, six, seven, one, two, three. . . rotate again,'' he shouted, smiling as dancers switched partners.
A certified public accountant, the Sunrise resident traded the corporate world for the dance floor, and has been teaching lessons in Broward County since August 2004. His business, Salsafix Dance Studios, gives group and private lessons to 50 to 60 clients a week. Cruz plans to offer classes in West Palm Beach soon.
South Florida teems with salsa instructors, but Cruz said his business centers on price and service. He said most instructors charge $10 an hour, but his classes cost $8 hourly. Most of all, he differentiates himself by specializing in L.A.-style salsa, which incorporates tight linear, back-and-forth moves. It has gained local prominence within the past two years.
Casino-style salsa requires more dance space than the L.A. version does, and the Colombian method has more side-to-side steps. But Cruz prefers the L.A. version's ''showiness,'' he said, spinning his wife, Marie.
He laughed when explaining how he started to learn salsa and its versions. About five years ago at Palladium Night Club in Margate, Cruz noticed ''the actual [salsa] dancers having all the fun.'' He started taking classes and spent more than two years learning the casino and L.A. styles in Pembroke Pines and Miami studios.
Meanwhile, Cruz -- who received his bachelor's degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University; a master's from Purdue University; and worked at Arthur Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers, AstraZeneca and Republic Industries, the company that's now AutoNation -- was laid off in 2003. He invested in real estate and continued his dancing hobby.
When he and his wife shopped for dancing shoes at a Coral Springs dance wear store in 2004, the owner encouraged Cruz to call a nearby studio that needed a salsa instructor. Cruz got the gig and started Salsafix.
He taught at The Dance Effect of Florida in Coral Springs for two years, and then moved last June to Sunday and Wednesday classes in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. More than a month ago, he expanded his lessons to Weston on Thursdays.
Cruz, who danced in the Super Bowl pre-game show this winter, said he enjoys seeing students showing their moves in clubs: ``It's a sense of accomplishment for me because I'm doing what I love.''