Meet Guia Salsa Noke, a dance company teaching Latin rhythms

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Every day of the week you can find Guia Salsa Noke founder Edgar Ornelas teaching the young and the young-at-heart.

“I feel like sometimes a seed is planted and then eventually it grows,” said Ornelas.

When he was 11 years old his single mom moved them from Mexico to Roanoke in 1989.

“Early on there was no Latinos, explained Ornelas. It was a little depressing, actually.”

But then he saw an opportunity to plant a seed and share his culture with the Star City. In 2010, he founded Guia Salsa Noke, a dance company focused on teaching Latin rhythms.

“Expose to people to the Hispanic culture,” added Ornelas. “Let them know that this is another rich part that we can enjoy and share with other people and be proud of it.”

At first, they met for social dancing every other Tuesday.

“And we’ve expanded to weekly. We’ve expanded to classes. We’ve expanded to performance teams,” said Ornelas.

Now he’s creating opportunities for more people to learn.

“It adds to the area,” said Tori Thomas.

Thomas tried a class once and fell in love.

“Everyone in the community, they’re so different and unique as individuals,” explained Thomas. “But we all have this really strong love of dance and just being able to learn new things that anyone from any walk of life can jump in and instantly make friends.”

Every week she has something to look forward to.

“I think Roanoke as a community; there’s becoming more and more things that we can do and this definitely adds a different cultural flare to it,” said Thomas.

It’s a cultural flare Ornelas hopes will bring people together.

“Just finding something in common that we can all enjoy,” said Ornelas.

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