The festival begins Friday, Sept. 1, runs through Monday, Sept. 4, and will spill out to the Rendezvous and the Alaskan Hotel & Bar on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

"Right now, there's all these great dance teachers in town," said salsa teacher and co-organizer Heather Haugland. "It seems like instead of spreading out the demand, it's increasing the demand for our salsa classes. We keep thinking we're going to run out of people, but they keep on coming."

Haugland, a past board member of the Alaska Folk Festival, has been considering organizing a dance festival for years. She was finally encouraged by co-organizer Tim Adair, who has been organizing monthly ballroom lessons since April at Centennial Hall for the Juneau International Folkdancers.

"The idea came from being at folk fest dances, helping organize the dances and seeing how many people in Juneau love to dance, especially in an all-ages, no-smoking environment," Haugland said. "It seemed to me like I didn't see them the rest of the year. I wanted to give people another chance to dance in that type of environment.

"I always thought of Labor Day," she said. "It's always rainy, and people are kind of wrapping up the summer and getting ready for the fall. It's a nice kickoff for dance lessons."

Pablo and Alicia Repun (www.pablorepuntango.com), a Miami couple internationally respected in the ballroom community, will teach five Argentine tango workshops and perform during Salsa Borealis' Friday night concert at Centennial Hall. The Repuns also will teach an Argentine tango workshop Aug. 31 in Sitka.

They've visited Juneau and taught twice, most recently in November 2005.

"We were very surprised (at the crowd)," Alicia Repun said. "They were very into it, and they came back every day. We felt very good that they would be interested in our traditional dance."

Blue 4 Trio, a swing trio from Seattle, just returned from a European tour and will make its first trip to Alaska. The band plays selections from the 1920s through the 1960s, all with a swing flair. The band plays 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at the Alaskan and 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at Centennial Hall.

Sally Freund, an Alaska Folk Festival regular who spends most of her time in Hector, N.Y., will teach zydeco.

Haugland and Diaz, instructors at the VFW Hall and weekly at the Rendezvous, will teach salsa. Pat Belec and Frank Bergstrom, who teach out of the Dance Loft on Glacier Highway, will lead nightclub two-step and merengue. John Leo and Alysia McLain will teach East Coast Swing. UAS teacher Shane Wirtz and his wife, Bonnie, will instruct waltz and West Coast swing.

"I've taught a lot of students for the last 5, 6 years for the university, and the problem is, there's no real place to dancing once you've learned the skills," Wirtz said. "It wouldn't surprise me if they put on two of these a year. I'm almost positive it's going to be a really great event."

TANGO

The 'tango milonguero' is a close-embrace style of dance ...	The dance evolved out of necessity from the crowded dance halls of the 1940s ...
The leader and follower are connected chest-to-chest ...	The american tango uses a more open, rigid embrace with chests farther apart.
Basic Tango Steps

There are two common styles of Argentine tango. In the "open style," the lead dancer and follower are connected by the arms. In the "close embrace," the two are connected at the chest. The man will lead with his chest, and that will inform the follower to make a specific move with their feet.

"I can't think of another dance where you're that close, except for some slow dances," Belec said.

Dancers often perform in their own confined space, perfect for fitting a large amount of couples on a limited floor. The dance is also heavily improvisational, with a strong give and take.

"The whole concept of Argentine tango is that the focus is on your partner," Belec said.

American tango is far more open and rigid. The chest is usually held back, and the connection between partners is closer to the hips.

SALSA

Salsa is a very improvisational dance style ...	The dance is done to eight-counts and is upbeat and energetic ...
Unlike many ballroom dances, the feet come down flat on the floor ...	This helps to increase movement in the ribs and hips, a hallmark of Salsa.
Basic Salsa Steps

The word "salsa" is credited to Cuban composer Ignacio Pineiro, who wrote "Echale salsita" in 1928. The word spread in the 1950s and '60s to describe the dance, a direct spin-off of Afro-Caribbean music but influenced by dozens of cultures throughout Africa, Cuba and Latin America. Salsa gained popularity in the late '50s in New York, as Puerto Rican composers influenced American jazz.

SWING

East coast swing is a versatile, six-count american-made dance ...	Swing can be adapted to almost any type of music, from slow-to fast-paced ...
The dance is most well- known for its more difficult, acrobatic moves ...	The more advanced swing steps require a more open dance floor.
Basic Swing Steps

Early cousins of the swing cropped up in the South as early as 1890, but the "swing era" really came together with the popularity of the lindy in the late 1920s and the subsequent Big Band era. When rock 'n' roll came along, swing evolved, too - becoming freer, with more flourishes and sweeping stunts.