Salsa? Si! Palestinians seek release in dance classes

Published: 2005-06-03

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- As the sultry sounds of a Colombian salsa slide through the air, Sylvia Musalam, clad in a white blouse and black pants, taps her sandal-encased toes to the rhythm, waiting for her students to file into the dance studio of the Bethlehem Peace Center. "When I started teaching salsa here there was an explosion -- like a Latin bomb," said Musalam, 33, a Bethlehem native who spent 22 years in Colombia with her family before returning to the city a year and a half ago. "It was such a sensation. People couldn't believe salsa was being taught here. "There is not much of a night life here and a high rate of emigration," said Musalam, a Catholic who said she had been used to a rich and varied social life filled with a great deal of salsa dancing while she was growing up in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. "I was seeking to do something for the young people, something that would get them out and liven up their social lives."

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