As a math major at Cornell University, Alfred Peña certainly knew numbers, but he wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be counting steps for a living.
During his college years, however, he found his calling as a dancer, and he has since built up a popular dance instruction business that offers classes across Long Island.
After college, he moved home to the Five Towns and brought his newfound love of dance with him. Being Dominican – he moved to the US at age 9 – Peña was naturally drawn to Latin dance styles, especially bachata, the national dance of the Dominican Republic.
Peña teaches bachata steps in his Westbury studio.
In 2009, he set up shop in a Westbury dance studio and started a social dance community called Rhythmology, which has now grown to 150 students with three dance teams. It didn’t take long for the group to outgrow the original space, so Peña recently rented a spot on Union Avenue right off of the Long Island Rail Road (it officially opens this month).
In the new space, there will be additional classes for kids, and Peña plans to create a mathematics program or an SAT prep course to incorporate his other passion into the dance business and “create a place of learning.”
Classes attract a diverse range of students from across Long Island.
Check out the audio slideshow below, in which the dance company prepares for (and performs at) the 12th Annual New York International Salsa Congress in Manhattan:
