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September 19-25, 2002 naked city Society Hill Dance Academy
Throughout the last decade, there's been a happy epidemic of Americano aficionados, young and old, digging the subtle yet dramatic shades of Latin music's grand continuum of Brazilian and Cubano song (sorry Ms. Lopez) and accompanying shuffles: tango, mambo, cha-cha, rumba. Hearing a bossa, salsa or merengue in the mix is music to my ears. Watching the average joe take to the dance floor for this erotic exotica is a sight for sobbing eyes and sore feet. Yet how many amongst y'all feel comfortable learning new languages, let alone new ways to sway, swing, even walk in new rhythms? Society Hill Dance Academy owner and director Shana Vitoff will lend you the comfort and confidence to learn the traditional steps of Latino culture as well as other ethnic strains of movement -- the Jewish hora, the Italian tarantella, the Greek kaslamantiano, the German waltz, as well as fox trots, ballroom sweeps, etc. Vitoff, a striking auburn beauty, is interested in making a comfort zone for men and women perhaps not used to unbending their knees at all. Yet, despite the blaring white light of the SHDA's Second and Pine location, the space lends itself to comfortable drama. SHDA is set at the tail end of the pitifully unused, still gorgeous, green shutter-lined Head House Square, a historic spot built for for Betsy Ross' uncle John in 1781 (yes, Washington slept there). But it retains little of the stodgy decorum of the block. A brass dancing-couple sign blows in the breeze. The theme from The Godfather blows loud and strong in the main room, a wide and deep pentagon-shaped space with -- through its back doors -- a mirror-imaged veranda outside. On the right night in autumn, the veranda doors can spring open, and -- voilà! -- it's a tea party on the Titanic (without the tragedy). A small group of students, growing larger as the evening goes on, seem at peace with the room -- a surprisingly unintimidating mix of floor-to-ceiling mirrors, an antique oak bar that doubles as a check-in booth, polished hardwood floors and brass busts of lions and penguins strewn throughout. My favorite image, though, was the lineup of high-heels littered throughout the room -- a symbol, for me, of letting go, getting barefoot and boogie-ing down to music sweet and strange. Society Hill Dance Academy, 401 S. Second St., 215-574-3574, www.societyhilldance.com. 
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