Chips and salsa weren’t the only spicy thing happening at the Salsa Dance last Thursday. From 7 to 8 p.m. students and faculty were taught how to salsa and from 8 to 10 p.m. the spicy romantic dancing started.

“It’s kind of fun to just give students an opportunity to cut loose and try to dance and/or make fun of themselves if they can’t,” said Sarah Gunion, SAB adviser. “It’s fun, we don’t do enough activities where you just move.”

This is the second year SAB and Latinos Uniting have collaborated to put on the dance. The dance has been hosted around Valentine’s Day for the last two years because salsa dancing is considered a romantic dance.

“We had some members of our executive board and our general SAB members that were also members of Latinos Uniting and they thought it would be fun kind of cool idea (to host the Salsa Dance),” said Gunion. “We timed it around Valentine’s Day because salsa dancing is supposed to be kind of romantic, so that’s kind of how it was born.”

Sarah Straley was the main coordinator for this event plus a couple of members from Latinos Uniting. There were also around 15 volunteers who helped set up decorations, which included balloons, heart cutouts, the food table and the flower making station.

“SAB partnered with Latinos Uniting, just to get their purpose out there and allow students to learn more about that,” said junior Straley.

Straley said it was her first time salsa dancing last year when the dance was hosted for the first time by SAB and Latinos Uniting.

It was freshman Katie Stukenholtz’s first time salsa dancing when she said her friends talked her into going.

“I’m not much one for dancing, like I’ll give it a try but it’s not my most favorite thing in the world,” said Stukenholtz.

Another first-time freshman was Sarah Smyth. She had never tried salsa dancing before Thursday and said the hardest part was trying to find the rhythm.

“My favorite part was getting out and having fun,” said Smyth.

In addition to dancing and eating salsa there was a flower making table. Gunion believed flamenco dancers inspired the flower decorations and it is a part of their culture.

“This is a lower turnout than we had last year, we didn’t realize that there were so many people with tests tomorrow,” said Gunion.

About 35 people and staff came, socialized, learned to dance, ate food and made tissue paper flowers.

In addition to the salsa dance SAB planned activities for the whole week of Valentine’s Day. Monday and Tuesday included a throwback movie of Grease, today there is Valentine’s Day arts and crafts in the Kanter Student Center, tomorrow there is an a-capella group performing in Ramsey and Friday SAB is working Chartwells to host a Valentine’s dinner for the most famous couples.

Make reservation in the chartwells office by tomorrow. $13.50 for one or $25.00 (and flex) for two. Come dressed as a famous couple and win a prize.