Hot Salsa Friday at D’Venue

A hot room full of people taking beginner+intermediate salsa dancing lessons, then open dancing. Food included in the $ 12 ($ 10 with student ID) cover, with ice cold bottled water $ 1 each.
I’ve been twice; once at the old venue and once at the new. I find the intermediate lesson a bit «meh» — half is spent on a footwork routine, and half is spent on a move. Both the lead and follower get tips, but I find that learning a move doesn’t feel like dancing.
As a young-​ish woman, I have fun during the open dance. There are more men than women, so I get asked to dance frequently. Most of the guys aren’t particularly sketchy, and the average is significantly less sketchy than the club scene. The average age is a bit higher than you might expect at a club. The room isn’t huge, but I didn’t find it as crowded as some places I have been.
I came with a Rueda group and we had people joining our Rueda circle, which was lots of fun. There wasn’t much Cuban salsa music played, though there was some Bachata, Chacha, and something else I didn’t recognize at all.

Great place to dance salsa! Venue is nice with plenty of parking. No alcohol means a more relaxed and nicer atmosphere.
Would be 5 stars if Ricardo taught the lessons at a more consistent and slower pace. The salsa shine lesson in the middle could be eliminated and more time could be spent breaking down the beginner and intermediate patterns. Sometimes Ricardo shows off and jumps ahead to demostrate his great talent but it doesn’t help us learn the pattern.
More consistent partner rotations would be good as well; sometimes the instructors call for a rotation very quickly and other times they make you wait forever to switch, making it easy to get lost if you were stuck without a partner during that rotation.

I went to this place with a group of friends for my 21^st birthday (despite the fact that it allows all ages). I was so impressed! What a fancy ballroom — The DJ was great, the room was big, there were sheets hanging from the ceilings, and disco lights to set the mood.
Being a beginner salsera I was somewhat intimidated by the professional looking crowd. However, it was a great experience to try what I’ve learned and at the same time observe the more advanced dancers. I had a lot of fun that night and may come back in the future. Conveniently located right off of 280.
Only reason I may not come back is that I felt everyone there was extremely advanced. I only danced with my friends that I came with because we were all of the same level. Everyone on the dancefloor looked like professionals and were doing moves you would see in competitions I didn’t really get the vibe that there were groups of friends that just wanted to go out to dance for fun like I did. Nonetheless, enjoyable experience and very pretty venue.

Edit November 2012: It CLOSED… I guess it’s the end of an era… :(
Edit August 2012: Due to noise complaints they close at 12am sharp now. A bunch of the intermediate+ dancers have fled the scene… probably some to Tekila Rock, some to Alberto’s. –2 stars.
===== original 4-​stars
TL;DR — It’s Hot Salsa Friday — the best salsa dance option in the South Bay if you just wanna enjoy dancing without dealing with drunk/​sketchy people.
When: 1^st/​3^rd/​5^th Friday of the month, 7pm-​9pm lesson, 9pm-​1am-​ish social.
People: Great mix of beginners to advanced social dancers and troupey folk. Gender-​balanced venue. Overall friendly community, though it definitely feels different from old HSF at Dance Spectrum.
Music: Mix of on1/​on2 salsa stuff (Romantica to Latin Jazz), a touch of bachata (~25% songs?), some cha-​cha (~10%), and every so often a merengue (5%).
More info here:
Oh, –1 star mainly for taking the «hot» in HSF too seriously again. Seriously it’s a frikkin’ furnace. D:
Edit ⁷⁄₁₄: I forgot to mention — there’s a lot of variance in crowds over the summer so the skill levels are all over the place at times. Just be aware of it.