The Non-Smoking Salsero/a
By Amber Morgan

March 31st dawned as the clock struck twelve ringing in a new day along with New York City's infamous new smoking ban law.  While inhaling the crisp, cold, somewhat clean Manhattan air outside of the Copacabana, myself and the other Salseros were confronted by several large no smoking signs that would forever change our dancing experiences inside the world famous Salsa club.

Last minute smokers took their last puffs as they retired their cigarette butts, some annoyed and others angry, as they entered  the new smoke free environment. 

Thank goodness I don't smoke was my first impression and then thank goodness smokers can't either. I headed straight for the dance floor, nostrils clear and still smelling of my perfume instead of smelling like the essence of someone's cigar.  That smoke that was always part of the background was gone, the air was tabacco free, I could breath and I felt refreshed.

However, for others the new improved atmosphere of the club wasn't so refreshing.  For many the ban has eliminated a major characteristic of the Manhattan nightclub, where people have always gone to unwind, relax, de-stress, and yes socially smoke a cigarette.

Dancer, Elina Brown, stressed that every time she took a break from dancing she had the urge to inhale that now forbidden smoke, the ban has forced her to start sipping her drink solo.  Obviously for Brown, who likes sharing a cocktail with a cigarette, things have changed giving birth to the image of the totally non-smoking Salsero.

Juan Portella, instructor of Mambo con Cache Dance Studio in New York, agrees the ban has definitely changed the Salsa dancing scene, but is only forcing everyone to recognize what Salsa dancers have already understood for years.  "We dancers are happy about the non-smoking ban, but we already had an unwritten rule to not smoke around each other, dancers that smoked would go to a section where it wouldn't affect others" he says, "we are a clean crowd, we respect each other, and we have managed to regulate the smoking issue ourselves without the law."

Realistically, the smoking ban has arrived and we will all be forced to adapt for the good or the bad.  It is now a written law that dancing smokers will have to break their smoking habits, cold turkey, if they want to enjoy the clubs.  Portella just hopes that smokers will continue to go to Salsa clubs because the clubs need serious dancers as well as people who are just looking to have a good time in order to keep them open.  The truth of the matter is that there are winners and losers. 

In the end, what seems fair to some Salseros is always going to seem unfair to others when the smoking ban law, not the courteous Salsa dancing community, regulates  where it is acceptable for people choose whether to puff or not to puff.