"When I moved home (to Hawai'i), I thought it was the end of my salsa dancing," said Malia Boersma, 24, of Kane'ohe. She fell in love with salsa while living in Los Angeles, where salsa is sizzling on the club circuit.

Then Boersma discovered the Honolulu salsa scene, and she joined right in. Now, just one year later, she is teaching salsa and has even found romance through the dance.

"I've never had so much fun," Boersma said with a broad grin. "I'm normally a really shy person, but on the dance floor, I just smile all the time." She finds salsa a compelling dance that makes her forget she's getting a great workout. "It's hard not to move when you hear the music — it takes over. Even people who have never danced before hear the music in a club and they can't sit still."

Boersma, who had no formal dance training before taking up salsa three years ago, believes salsa is an ideal dance form for people with no previous music or dance background.

"It's not about being strict and technical. ... It's very freeing, and you can have fun with just a few moves," she said. "Learn a basic step and single turn and you're getting exercise right away. And no one can really tell you you're doing it wrong" when you dance salsa.

"My parents hate cardio machines, but they really have fun dancing," said Boersma. "They just learned one step and a turn and found they were getting great exercise. They have an awesome time moving to the music."

At her dance studio (see box at right) salsa is taught in a line, so a partner is not needed. In couples classes, Boersma said, you don't need to bring a partner. The teacher will pair you with someone. Partners often rotate, and sometimes women dance with women to learn how to lead as well as follow.

A FIT LIFESTYLE

Boersma keeps fitness a priority throughout her day. She begins by parking about 15 minutes from the Early Education Center where she works as a teacher, so she gets in at least 30 minutes of walking each day. She also takes her students, who are ages 18 to 24 months, for walks in a buggy, which she pushes. This adds a weight workout to her cardio.

Her breaks consist of walks around the block rather than coffee and doughnuts.

The salsa scene has become Boersma's favorite form of stress relief. "It's way better than going to a club and drinking too much and trying to get someone's phone number," she said, with a shake of her head.

Having come to salsa with no previous dance experience, Boersma would like to take more dance and movement classes. As part of her resolve to improve her fitness level in 2006, she is looking into jazz, ballet and belly-dancing. "I need to work on flexibility and core strength, too," she added.

While she feels she is too shy to become a public salsa performer, her partner, Charlie Castro, said he would like to take it to the next step.

ROMANCE OF THE DANCE

Her boyfriend, Judah Oschner, who owns Aloha Rumberos Dance Company, often performs at salsa congresses across the nation. Boersma recently accompanied him to the first annual World Salsa Championships in Las Vegas. During the open dance segment "I ended up dancing with the guy who later won first place. Wow! He just came up and asked me to dance. I had no idea who he was," she said.

Boersma met Oschner at a salsa event at Rumours nightclub. Professionally, he is a DJ and entertainment manager for Zanzabar nightclub in Waikiki. Salsa is his passion; he is the organizer for Latin Night at Zanzabar, which after five years, he said, is the longest-running salsa night in Honolulu. (Check it out at hotlatintuesdays.com.)

"I saw this cute girl across the room, and I asked her to dance. We danced four straight dances. We didn't see each other for another month, but I kept my eye out for her," said Ochsner. "She's a great dancer, and she has fun. She dresses well and makes it a project to get ready for salsa dancing. She takes about two hours getting ready to go out," he said affectionately.

Ochsner has been a professional dancer for eight years. He began in hip-hop but now prefers salsa. "It's a really positive scene. It's happy music, about fun and partying and love. The stories in the music are about love." He also appreciates the longevity of salsa music: "The songs never grow old. You can hear the oldest song, from 40 years ago, and it will still sound upbeat and up to date, and people will still be dancing to it."

Boersma's take on the local salsa scene: "Salsa here is tame compared to the Mainland," she said. However, as the scene heats up in clubs and classes statewide, it may just reach jalapeno, or even habanero, level.

As with swing dancing, which differs from the East Coast to the West Coast, salsa styles and scenes have distinct characteristics in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. "Hawai'i's style is closer to the L.A. style," Boersma said. But the scene is different: "It's really huge in L.A. because of the huge Hispanic population. In Hawai'i, it's an older crowd who dance well."

Reach Paula Rath at prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.