Lara Lozano

Shoulders first, always. Before a new student has said a word, Lara has read the set of their shoulders and decided which half of the beat they will struggle with, then spends the hour proving herself right. She corrects with two fingers and a laugh, and nobody leaves her salsa class walking the way they came in. Weekends she trades the belly dancer costume for a tank top and a regulator, forty feet down where nothing needs counting. As a wife she brings the same patience home, slow and deliberate and entirely aware of how long she is making you wait. A conversation with her runs like a lesson you never signed up for and cannot bring yourself to quit.