Last Friday, nearly 150 people flooded the Student Center Ballroom for the second annual Salsamor event. The Salsa Club, Society of Women Engineers, Women’s Multicultural Society and Lambda Upsilon Lambda hosted Salsamor II, which combined Latin dance and the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Attendees received a complimentary salsa lesson, enjoyed desserts and refreshments and watched performances by the Salsa Club and the UGA Ballroom Performance Group.
The Valentine’s Day-themed salsa party lasted roughly four hours. “The event was a great way to bring in couples who wanted to learn or practice salsa as well as a good way to showcase the talents of both performance teams,” said Andres Rodriguez, a third-year Mechanical Engineering major and Vice President of Lambda Upsilon Lambda.
Salsamor II offered students a much needed interruption from the sometimes monotonous academic life at Tech. “We wanted to spice up students’ Friday night with this party…[allowing students] to meet people from other organizations, majors, interests as well as other schools,” said Fei Hoai “Jessey” Lee, a third-year Industrial Engineering major and co-chair of the Social committee for the Society of Women Engineers.
Advertisements for Salsamor II noted that no partner or prior dancing experience was needed. Amateur and experienced dancers alike shared the ballroom floor.
“As a Hispanic student who refused to learn how to salsa dance growing up, I finally learned the basics and am now even interested in joining the GT Salsa Club,” said Ginah Colon, a second-year Electrical Engineering major and treasurer of the Women’s Multicultural Society.
Salsamor drew a crowd from other schools as well.
“I was surprised by the participation of students from other schools. Holding campus events like this is a way of promoting the other side of our school as well as to widen up the social circle of GT students,” Lee said.
Members of each host organization devoted numerous hours to the preparation and execution of the event, ensuring its success. Catering, decorations and advertising were just some of the tasks divvied up among the organizations. “Due to the hard work and dedication from the involved organizations, everything went as planned and we all received numerous compliments,” said Shannon Statham, Salsa Club president and PhD candidate in Aerospace Engineering.
The admission price was $10 for students and $5 for club members. General admission was $15. The student admission price was set by the organizers solely to cover expenses such as catering and decorations.
According to Statham, The largest expense that ultimately affected admission cost was catering, which accounted for more than two-thirds of the total cost.
“The one thing we would have changed is the price for catering, which affected the admission prices. The organizers adhered to the Student Center policies by using GT Catering for the desserts and refreshments,” Statham said.
“For the amount of money that was spent, the layout was unimpressive and the offerings were modest, to put it mildly. It would be nice to be able to hire a company outside of Georgia Tech to cater events, but unfortunately, the Student Center does not allow that,” said Rodriguez.
Regardless of catering issues, Salsamor was a successful event overall, Statham said. To learn more about the Salsa Club, visit www.gtsalsa.org.