Life & Work with Elisa Santana Rosales of Wichita

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elisa Santana Rosales.

Hi Elisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I began dancing salsa 10 years ago to meet new people and stay physically active during my graduate studies in Massachusetts. What started as a casual hobby quickly turned into a serious passion. Before I knew it, I had performed at dance socials and festivals across the East Coast, including Salsamania in NYC and the Boston Salsa Festival. When the pandemic brought me back to my hometown of Wichita, KS, in 2020, I realized how vital dance was for my health and well-being and knew that I needed to find or create a new dance community here. Once the world reopened after the pandemic, I began teaching beginner salsa classes to a few students at a local recreation center and even taught free weekly classes at a nightclub. I eventually caught the attention of the organizer of LatinFest-ICT (Angela Martinez), who invited me to choreograph routines for the 2021 festival. I recruited a few dancers I had met through my classes, and together, we performed a salsa and bachata routine to represent Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. After performing at this festival, I began teaching more regularly, built a more extensive student base, and offered “Performance Challenges.” My students and I have performed at local festivals, such as LatinFest and Open Streets-ICT, as well as the Raza Dance Festival in Arkansas. I have also done presentations about the history of salsa at cultural events and have given dance workshops at local middle schools and colleges. I teach weekly salsa classes with my husband, Miguel Santana Morales, while Hannah Stephens leads our bachata classes. We offer beginner and intermediate Salsa, Bachata, and Rueda de Casino classes this year. In addition to teaching classes and workshops, we collaborate with our local salsa band, Tumbáo, to create the best Latin dance events possible!

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has been a challenging road. When I transitioned from teaching free classes at a nightclub to teaching at a local ballroom studio, there were several weeks when no soul would attend class. I questioned whether I was good enough to teach and wondered if I should spend my time and effort elsewhere. Despite this, I remained consistent and continued teaching weekly, knowing there would be very low attendance days. Another huge challenge has been having our studio rehearse our routines. Last year, I started an advanced salsa team, which requires a lot of technique and hours of training, and having limited studio availability is something we still need to work on. Finding a local venue willing to work with us to offer a weekly salsa night has also been a struggle. Weekly socials are extremely important for students as they are the best way to practice what they learn in class. Currently, Wichita only has 1 consistent salsa dance event a month, which is needed for students who are earnestly trying to advance their dance skills. Another challenge is balancing my full-time job as a clinical applications analyst with teaching dance, planning events, rehearsing, and doing the Baila Wichita administrative work. There have been many days where I feel so drained from work that I don’t have it in me to teach 20+ students for 2-3 hours weekly. Fortunately, teaching these classes gives me life, and I usually end the night on such a high!

I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Baila Wichita is a dance program teaching adult Salsa and Bachata classes. We also strive to showcase our culture at Hispanic Heritage festivals through our routines, including merengue dances, Bomba (an Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric dance), salsa, and bachata. I am most proud of the supportive dance community (which I often refer to as my dance family) that we have been able to grow here in Wichita. Our knowledge and respect for Latin dance and culture and our diverse student population set us apart from other dance studios. We have several students from Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico, to name a few. Salsa is a massive part of many Latin Americans’ identities, which is why so many Latinos are drawn to our classes.

Do you have any big plans?
Our biggest goal at the moment is to open our dance studio. This will allow us to offer a wider variety of classes and have more time for rehearsals. With a studio, I would also like to start a youth dance program specializing in folkloric dancing from Caribbean Latin American countries and a youth salsa competition team. This is still in the planning stage, but we hope to make some progress in 2024. Other than that, we continue to teach our weekly classes and will offer another Performance Challenge shortly. Another fascinating opportunity this year is that our advanced salsa team will attend dance congresses/festivals in NYC, Dallas, and OKC. We can’t wait to see what else 2024 has in store for us!

Contact Info:

• Website: bailawichita.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baila.wichita/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baila.wichita
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Baila.Wichita

Image Credits
Manny De Los Santos Photography