Within the working-class metropolis of Commerce, the place vehicles velocity previous on highways and the Citadel Retailers tower over neighborhoods, there’s a steakhouse named Stevens. By day, it’s a traditional and charming outdated restaurant the place working individuals go for quiet, hearty meals.
However each Sunday evening, the skin world disappears.
As waiters whisk about in starched button ups, {couples} lead one another by the hand towards the dance flooring within the restaurant’s ballroom, the place Stevens’ custom of Salsa Sundays has been bringing the group collectively for 73 years.
At 7 p.m. each Sunday, newbie classes begin at Stevens Steakhouse.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Occasions)
An eight-piece band performs brass, electrical guitar, bongos and timbales, filling the room with music as dancers twirl in a dizzying array. One attendee, 29-year-old Amy Hernandez, greets just a few acquainted faces earlier than she steps onto the dance flooring, spinning in assured steps with a large smile on her face.
Hernandez is a part of a revival that’s been getting youthful individuals enthusiastic about salsa music — and flocking to Stevens. She grew up watching her father dance salsa, however began diving again into the style on her personal to search out consolation throughout the L.A. wildfires earlier this 12 months. She credit Unhealthy Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” for re-sparking her curiosity.
“It was very therapeutic for me,” she says of the album, which blends old-school Puerto Rican boricua samples with Latin dance and reggaeton influences for an emotional imagining of Puerto Rican identification.
For many years, Stevens has introduced associates, {couples}, and households collectively for dwell music and dance.
(Emil Ravelo/For The Occasions)
When faculty associates beneficial Stevens as an inexpensive place to bounce, Hernandez talked about it in passing to her dad. “He laughed and mentioned, ‘I do not forget that place. I used to bounce there too,’” Hernandez says.
The more and more mainstream artists of Latin fusion style reggaeton are returning to custom. Together with the music of Unhealthy Bunny, who’s headlining the upcoming Tremendous Bowl halftime present, you’ll find traditional salsa references in reggaeton star Rauw Alejandro’s newest album “Cosa Nuestra,” and in Colombian pop star Karol G’s multi-genre summer season album “Tropicoqueta,” which might be on the middle of her headlining Coachella set.
“You’ll be able to really feel the youthful power,” says longtime Stevens salsa teacher Jennifer Aguirre. “It makes me actually joyful to see a youthful technology tackle salsa. As a result of I used to be frightened for a bit. I didn’t know the way salsa goes to proceed.”
Los Angeles has a singular relationship with salsa, the Afro-Caribbean dance born from Cuban mambo. In cities like Miami and New York, salsa arrived with Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants. As an alternative, L.A.’s salsa affect got here from Golden Age Hollywood, the place Latin dance in films produced a singular, flashier Angeleno type, characterised by fast turns and theatrical motion, in response to salsa historian Juliet McMains.
The Nineties had been one other excessive for the style, when West Coast pioneers just like the Vazquez brothers and their first-of-its-kind dance workforce Salsa Brava sparked an area dance craze. The Vazquezes launched the “on-1” step and innovated a flashier, dramatic type of salsa in L.A. that introduced crowds to competitions and congresses by way of the 2000s. Legendary late promoter Albert Torres based the L.A. Salsa Congress in 1999, the first congress on the West Coast, drawing a worldwide viewers for Angeleno salsa.
Opened in 1952 by Steven Filipan (and situated on Stevens Place), Stevens in Commerce turned an area hub for Latin music. “The fascinating half was that the realm wasn’t Latin in any respect,” says Jim Filipan, Steven’s grandson and now the third-generation proprietor of the restaurant. “My grandfather had a foresight that this style can be the long run.”
Jim remembers his childhood rising up within the restaurant. “We might have lots of of individuals on Sundays,” he says. “The ballroom, the restaurant, everybody was dancing salsa, and it was unbelievable. My dad took over within the ‘70s, and I used to be working it with him within the ‘90s.”
But by the 2010s it was obvious that one other style was taking maintain of the Latin dance scene: bachata, ushered in by smooth-singing New York stars like Prince Royce and Romeo Santos. Salsa shortly went from being thought-about hip to reasonably old school.
Throughout a Stevens dance lesson, friends learn to spin on the dance flooring.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Occasions)
Aguirre witnessed the style lose curiosity firsthand. “It was like a direct change,” Aguirre says. “Salsa simply wasn’t as fashionable anymore, and folks would stroll over to the opposite facet of the restaurant to take the bachata classes.”
The pandemic additionally dealt a big blow to native salsa golf equipment, as friends within the long-standing dance membership trade fell to decrease attendance charges and rising hire. And within the final 12 months, two historic venues, the Conga Room and the Mayan, closed completely.
Stevens virtually had the identical destiny. The monetary burdens throughout the pandemic made Jim contemplate closing for good. However he couldn’t assist however contemplate the accountability of his household’s legacy and the particular place Stevens holds for native dancers.
“It’s very emotional for me as a result of I’ve 4 generations on this restaurant, and now my daughter works right here,” he says.
When Stevens reopened, the group got here again in droves, ushering in a brand new period of pleasure for salsa.
Lately, firstly of each class, dance teacher Miguel “Miguelito” Aguirre pronounces the identical rule.
“Overlook about what occurred at present, overlook about your week, overlook about all of the unhealthy stuff. Go away it on the door,” Aguirre says. “It’s going to be higher as a result of we’re going to bounce salsa.”
Dance teacher, Miguel Aguirre, proper, mans the DJ sales space alongside DJ Pechanga, one other longtime worker of Stevens. Each weekend, the duo brings Latin music to the forefront of the house.
(Emil Ravelo/For The Occasions)
Aguirre has taught salsa at Stevens for 30 years. In some ways, the steakhouse has formed his life. It’s the place he found his love for instructing dance and far more.
“I began coming right here within the ‘90s, sneaking in by way of the again door. I used to be a teen, so not sufficiently old to indicate my ID, however someday, Jim simply mentioned, ‘You guys can’t are available in by way of the again anymore. You’ll be able to come into the entrance,’” Aguirre says. “After which someday he mentioned, ‘Hey, we’re lacking the instructors. They’re not coming in. Are you able to guys educate the category?’ And, I’m nonetheless right here.”
Jennifer Aguirre, a fellow dance trainer at Stevens, is his spouse. She met him someday at Stevens’ annual Halloween occasion.
“He requested me to affix his class as a result of they ‘wanted extra ladies,’” Jennifer says, laughing.
Now Jennifer teaches the newbie’s class, whereas Miguel is on intermediate. However as soon as 10 p.m. hits, it’s social dancing time. The entire flooring comes collectively and a well-known group converges. If attendees are fortunate, they could catch Jennifer and Miguel, a smooth-dancing duo, letting free, stepping and dipping effortlessly.
On a current Sunday evening, the low-lighted atmosphere of the restaurant met the purple lights of the dance room, with individuals sitting throughout for a peek on the strikes on show. Buttery steaks and potatoes cooking within the kitchen tinged the air because the dance flooring got here alive with girls spinning in clothes and males in shining footwear gliding to the rhythm of the music. Miguel Aguirre manned the DJ stand, asking two singles in the event that they knew one another and inspiring them to bounce.
Gregorio Sines was one of many solo dancers on the ground, swaying companions simply beneath Miguel’s encouragement. Years in the past, his good friend, who frequented Stevens, dragged Sines out to bounce socials, telling him it will be one of the simplest ways to fulfill individuals and open up.
As somebody who started with nervousness to bounce in entrance of others, Sines now performs in Stevens’ dance showcases. He says constantly returning to the steakhouse’s historic flooring and immersing himself within the supportive group not solely modified his dance sport, however introduced him out of his shell.
“I inform anybody, for those who’re scared to bounce, you simply need to get on the market,” Sines says. “There’s a group ready for you.”
