Salsa classes cap a year of dance at Albany Area Arts Council
Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher
By Carlton Fletcher
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ALBANY — While the Albany Area Arts Council is best known for the art exhibits that hang on the walls of the council’s gallery and for the juried arts competitions that offer area artists opportunities to show their talents, the council has embraced another art form — the art of the dance — that has allowed adventurous couples and singles the opportunity to explore rhythmic movement up close and personal.
Lauded dance instructor Michelle Oaks will kick off the Arts Council’s fifth six-week dance class Monday when she brings the passion of Salsa Dance to the 215 N. Jackson St. facility. The sessions, which kick off at 6:30 p.m. each Monday night through Nov. 25, will cap a season that has included Tango, Rhumba, Waltz and Swing sessions.
“We’d partnered with Michelle to offer dance classes through Albany Technical College before COVID,” AAAC Executive Director Nicole Willis said. “That helped us work through the issue of having space for the classes. Post-COVID, though, when things started to return to normal, everyone had a new set of monsters to deal with. Albany Tech had some space issues, so Michelle and I kind of put our heads together and came up with the idea of having classes here.
“We weren’t sure about the infrastructure at first, but we just let things evolve and it’s worked out really well.”
Willis and Oaks struck up a friendship when Willis first came on board as director of the Arts Council. They decided dance classes would be a welcome addition to arts lovers in the region. Oaks started teaching dancing back in 1989, so she was the perfect choice to lead the classes.
“When I started taking lessons at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio here, I really couldn’t afford them,” Oaks said. “But the owner of the studio needed a sitter for her twins, so I kept them in exchange for the lessons. I can tell you, nobody worked harder than me.
“Later, life just kinda happened, and there was a general need for a dance instructor. I was available.”
Oaks filled that need. She taught lessons at then-Albany Junior College, initially as a continuing education instructor, but soon AJC (which had become Darton College and would later be part of Albany State University) offered her classes as part of its Physical Education curriculum.
Needing a steadier flow of income, Oaks continued to teach lessons privately, but she opened The Cakery, utilizing another of her talents. But her love for dancing never waned.
“I love dancing; it will always be a part of my life,” Oaks said. “At that time, I baked so I could make a living, but I also baked so I could keep dancing.”
She’s taken her skills all over southwest Georgia: to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, to programs in Fitzgerald, Cordele and even Colorado, taking part in her sister’s Humanities classes.
Now, Willis and Oaks have worked yearlong six-week sessions into the Arts Council’s calendar.
“I think it’s a cool thing,” Willis said. “I think the dance classes add an interesting element to the services the Arts Council offers the community.”
As for Oaks? She just wants to dance.
“I love dancing; it keeps you healthy, keeps you young,” she said. “I cannot imagine life without dancing.”
Couples interested in signing up for the Salsa classes that start Monday may contact Willis at the Arts Council.
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