The classes, which are geared towards beginnners, are all taught by the teammembers.

“We all want to contribute to dance,” she said. “And there’s definitely a strong group of people who are going to do it.”

The students themselves are also a draw, Yuan said.

“The best thing is to watch them, how they are surprised at themselves. You can see it on the faces when they realize, ‘Wow, I’m doing something I’ve never done before,’” she said.

Twenty minutes after the Salsa/ Merengue class should have ended this week, students showed no signs of wanting to leave.

“It’s really cool,” said summer school student Rony A. León. “I know I learned some new steps.”

León came to the class when, after seeing it on the activities calendar, he decided it was necessary for his own social survival back home.

“I’m from Bolivia—that means I’m Latin, so I shouldn’t be here,” he says. “At home, I’ll go to the clubs and I just do it, but I don’t really know why or how I do.”

For other students, the dancing—though not the desire to dance—is all new.

“It’s always been on the back of my mind to learn Salsa,” said Jerrine Milke, who works for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “I’ve always thought it was beautiful.”

For awkward beginners, having a sense of humor is essential to getting underway. Yuan said her own apprehensions about teaching her first class dissolved after she made her students laugh.

“I was explaining how to get into frame. I said, ‘Put your hand where the guy’s bicep is, or where it should be.’ And everyone thought it was hillarious,” she said.

But after four years teaching dance, she still has not learned all the tricks.

“It’s a big challenge every time you teach the class. Every time, I still get butterflies beforehand,” she said.

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.