BY HILLARY VIDERS
SPECIAL TO NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
TEANECK––Residents are learning to do the rhumba, cha cha, salsa and merengue under sultry summer skies. Throughout July and August, on Thursday evenings from 7-8:15, Lauren Faustini has been teaching free ballroom and Latin dancing outdoors at Pedestrian Way, and the participants range from pre-teens to seniors.
“We had an 88-year-old man that we partnered with a woman, and they danced together beautifully for years,” Faustini said.
The six-week summer dance program, now in its sixth year, is sponsored by Cedar Lane Management, and it has a large following. Most of the classes are attended by up to 15 couples each week and they are all great fans of Faustini.
Faustini has been dancing since age 7. She explained that while growing up in Brooklyn, a dance teacher would visit and teach everyone on the block how to dance. Faustini would sit on the stoop and watch, enthralled by the lessons.
When Faustini was 19, she moved with her family to Plantation, Fla. “I cut out a coupon from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio for free hustle lessons. I did so well that they offered me a job,” she said.
Faustini turned down that offer and headed for the Arthur Murray Dance School in Miami that offered free training. “I was inspired by the movie, ‘Dirty Dancing,’” Faustini said, “and I went on to teach at Arthur Murray’s Dance Studio in Plantation, then at their studio in Miami, and eventually, in the New York City studio on Fifth Avenue. In those days, ballroom dancing was as its peak and people would pay up to $120 for a lesson.”
After Faustini moved to Bergen County and married, she taught in the Teaneck Community Education Department for 26 years, beginning in 1989, when her daughter was 1.
Faustini lives in Franklin Lakes. After raising her three children, she continues to teach in the Glen Rock and Ramsey Schools’ adult education departments as well as with the Cedar Lane Management program in Teaneck.
Faustini has a great rapport with her students and she knows how to motivate reluctant husbands. She said, “Sometimes, it’s the wife who really wants to take dance lessons and she drags her husband to class, so I always tell the men, ‘You’re the boss!’”
Faustini’s husband, Gus, is a school gym teacher who also loves dancing, and he sometimes assists Lauren in her classes. That was the case on July 28 in Teaneck.
The dance that evening was the merengue, and in no time, Faustini had six couples swinging their hips and swaying to lively Latin music. Songs by Elvis Crespo, Danza Kuduro, Gloria Estefan, Linda Eh and other popular singers electrified the atmosphere on Pedestrian Way on Cedar Lane, a cozy alcove with a beautiful mural painted on the wall.
Romona Sills, the administrator of Cedar Lane Management, was on hand. She watched with a huge smile as over a dozen people participated in the class, including a blind husband and wife who have been taking lessons with Faustini for 20 years, and an 8 year old and her mom whose energy lit up the dance floor.
Dancing with history
The dance that Faustini taught on July 28, the merengue, is the national dance of the Dominican Republic, and also to some extent, the national dance of its neighbor, Haiti. Stories about the origins of the merengue have floated around throughout history, thus one exact origin is not known.
Regardless of the exact origin of the merengue, the students at Pedestrian Way in Teaneck loved every minute of their lesson. In fact, they love all the weekly Teaneck dance classes. In between sets, Adele DeSimone explained why: “Dancing with Lauren is easy and fun! Everyone can do it, and it lifts your spirits!”
Photos by Hillary Viders