Buffs Salsa Swing (BSS) is an organization committed to fostering an inclusive environment where students can learn how to salsa dance. The founder and president of the organization, Madelynn Ketels, shared her experience of bringing the organization to West Texas A&M University.

What is it that Buffs Salsa Swing does for students at WT?
For students, we provide a safe, relaxed space where students can channel any stress, frustrations they may have into something positive, like salsa dancing. Which salsa dancing, unlike other types of dance, does require a lot more movement and precision. But it also does have such a wide range of incorporations with other types of dance.

When and where do y’all meet?
We meet Fridays at seven, and we meet in the mirror room in the AC.

How many people are in your organization? Does it kind of fluctuate?
It does kind of fluctuate; we have 15 or 16 solid members, but we are open without the commitment of being an actual member. It’s more of a “come as you will when there’s time” type of club.

Why is it important to have an organization like this on campus, especially one like WT?
It’s important because WT is a very country-focused group. So, having something that’s not necessarily country but does fit the needs of so many people. It’s culturally-diverse, major-diverse, we have people from education to agriculture, political science, all of the things joining. So it really is important just to be able to have that diversity in a group and provide that kind of space on campus.

On BuffLink, the description for your organization says, “The BSS is for all students regardless of their knowledge of salsa dancing. BSS is dedicated to creating an all-inclusive environment for all participants and helping its participants learn how to salsa dance.” What is the importance of teaching students salsa dancing?
In an age where we live now, everything is so dependent on everybody else’s opinions. So, salsa dance specifically is a very body positive dance, and open to everyone. You can look up salsa dancing tutorials, and see people of all genders, shapes, sizes who salsa dance. So being able to create that diversity on campus is very important to us.

How can people stay in touch or contact or even get involved with Buffs Salsa Swing?
So as always, we do have our BuffLink, but we do also have flyers that are posted throughout all residential halls.

You’re the founder of the organization. So can you speak a little bit about what inspired you to start the organization and bring it to WT?
I have always had a love for salsa dancing. I also work three jobs, and then three different clubs, and I’m a student. So, for me, I felt like I was getting really bogged down with everything and I wanted to create that safe space. So, typically, I would go to salsa dancing class, Amarillo College, all the fun stuff. But then I kind of started thinking that, “Hey, there’s a whole bunch of students at WT that are probably exactly like me, who can’t afford to take salsa dancing classes at another college. What if I brought that here and created an environment where there was no money involved?” All external factors were kind of dispersed away. And we were able to do that here.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your organization?
People should definitely join us. We’re cool.

Have you all done any socials or like any, any events where people are invited to just come and talk about the organization?
Not yet. We just started at the very end of the fall semester. So this semester, we focused more on tabling, kind of getting our name out there. And then we’ll look into more of working with other orgs, trying to get partnerships and stuff like that done for next year.

You founded the organization, but what made you want to get involved with Buffs Salsa Swing?
Honestly, I created it. I didn’t expect that many people to come, but the people that keep reaching out to me through BuffLink, randomly showing up, asking questions about it, that’s what keeps me interested, is other people’s interest.

What is Buffs Salsa Swing doing now to try and get their name out there and make sure that everyone knows that it’s an organization on campus?
Flyers, social media, all the other fun stuff.