Salsa & Latin Dance Classes Near Bethlehem, NY

Salsa classes near Bethlehem, NY start in Albany County, where a town of 35,139 people spreads across 49.6 square miles directly south of the city of Albany. Seven official hamlets share the map: Delmar, Elsmere, Glenmont, North Bethlehem, Selkirk, Slingerlands and South Bethlehem. Felix Ortiz teaches Latin dance for the whole Capital Region at 952 Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham, about 22 minutes from Bethlehem by I-87 N and NY-7 W.

Bethlehem became a town on March 12, 1793, set off from Watervliet, and part of it left in 1832 to form New Scotland. Henry Hudson is thought to have landed here, and Henry Hudson Park off Route 144 in Cedar Hill marks the spot. It is the town’s only public access to the Hudson River, with boat and kayak launches, picnic areas, a gazebo, a pavilion and accessible fishing. The earliest growth came at Normansville on the Normans Kill, the creek that still forms the border with Albany, and Normans Kill Preserve West sits on Normanskill Boulevard.

Trains shaped the next chapter. The Delaware and Hudson railroad renamed the hamlet of Adamsville as Delmar in the mid-19th century, and Delmar grew into the most populous hamlet. Passenger service ended in 1963 and the last track came out in 2005. The old right-of-way is now the Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail, 9.8 paved miles from Albany’s South End through Delmar and Slingerlands to Voorheesville.

Delmar’s center is Four Corners, where Delaware Avenue meets Kenwood Avenue, with stores, banks, restaurants and a post office built in the late 1930s as one of 13 Colonial Revival post offices in New York designed by Louis Simon. Delaware Avenue also holds Bethlehem Town Hall at number 445, the police station, the justice court and the Bethlehem Public Library at number 451. The Adams House, a hotel Nathaniel Adams built in 1838, later served as the town hall.

Recreation and shopping fill in the rest. Elm Avenue Park, the largest town park, has three outdoor pools, a splash zone, a playground, tennis and basketball courts, and winter skating, hockey and sledding. East of Delmar, Delaware Plaza in Elsmere dates from the 1950s and holds Hannaford and about 30 other shops and restaurants. In Delmar, Five Rivers Environmental Education Center is a 446-acre NYSDEC nature center at 56 Game Farm Road, with more than 10 miles of trails and 16 ponds and wetlands, open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Most residents belong to the Bethlehem Central School District, with five elementary schools, a middle school and Bethlehem Central High School at 700 Delaware Avenue. North Bethlehem belongs to Guilderland Central, and Selkirk and South Bethlehem to Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk. Selkirk is home to the CSX rail yard, Glenmont holds the northeastern corner along the Hudson and the US 9W corridor, and South Bethlehem lies on NY-396 just north of the Coeymans line. The unofficial hamlets of Cedar Hill, east of the Thruway, and Bethlehem Center round out the map, and the Thruway, I-87, crosses the whole town.

The 2024 American Community Survey counts 2,110 Hispanic or Latino residents in Bethlehem, 6.0 percent of the town. Latin dance is a weeknight drive from all of them and from every hamlet: about 20 minutes from Slingerlands, 22 from Delmar and Glenmont, and 33 from South Bethlehem, with your first class free.