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International Nights
Juan Carlos Hector and Diana Ram salsa on the dance floor at Cecilia's Club and Lounge in Arlington.
(Mark Finkenstaedt for The Washington Post)
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Two other friends are gathered along the way, making it a foursome that greets the bouncers with hugs rather than with IDs. A narrow hallway leads to an open room jammed with salsa couples dipping and twisting in perfect synchronization. Cecilia's is an art deco throwback of a place, with a raised stage and a black-and-white checkered dance floor surrounded by candlelit cocktail tables. Ricky Ricardo's orchestra would look right at home here, had things ever gone south at the Tropicana club.
One friend, Diana Ram, 21, is whisked away immediately for a dance but catches up with the others at the bar for a quick kamikaze shot. "Where's Lisa?" Ventura asks a few minutes later. "Can you write down that she's always disappearing?"
At 12:30 a.m., the DJ is replaced by Sin Miedo, a 10-piece band that has a standing Friday night gig at the club. Newcomers who arrived earlier for free salsa lessons are now making way for more seasoned dancers such as Ventura and her friends, who came without partners but won't sit out a single song for the next hour. There is no junior high awkwardness here; young dance with old, handsome with homely, graceful with clumsy.
"You should write that he made me sweat, he gave me so many turns," Ventura says, wiping her neck with a cocktail napkin after a dance with a tall, thick-muscled man named Juan Carlos Hector. "But, he gave me a Corona."
Last call chimes at 1:30, and the girls bust out digital cameras. The foursome is here most every week, but there's never a bad time for a flash of spotlight. They pose for guys enlisted as photographers and giggle as a small crowd of admirers begins to gather.
"You're pretty," a 20-something blond in a collared shirt tells Ram. "I should probably be more original. You probably get that every day."
"Thank you," she replies with a smile, before turning back to her friends.
Last sips are taken, and their dance partners are bid adios . "He wants you to write down that we are going to go on a date," Ventura says, he being Juan Carlos Hector, who nods proudly.
Ventura rolls her eyes, grabs her girls and turns toward the door.
CECILIA'S CLUB AND LOUNGE 2619 Columbia Pike, Arlington. 703-685-0790.http:/
Amit Kapoor, A-Kap to his friends, is a 23-year-old engineer with the eyelashes of a cocker spaniel and the diction of an English professor. He is two years out of college and three semesters away from a master's degree and has spent the first part of his Saturday night at a sangeet in Potomac, toasting with Indian song and dance and food a couple who will be married two weeks hence.
"It was fun," he says. "Traditional."
