Marco Sarinana

His day job may be in real estate, but his real calling is salsa dancing. Besides selling houses, this salesman teaches three nights a week at the Rumba Room at Universal CityWalk.

Dance routine: We begin with basic steps. Of course, it depends on your coordination, but after the first class you can do the basic moves and turns. Naturally, the longer you dance, the more graceful your body becomes. All you need to begin are clothes that you can move in and shoes that you can turn in. Anybody can take lessons -- I have an 81-year-old man who takes lessons and plenty of 21-year-olds.

One-step philosophy: There’s a lot of salsa instructors out there that I respect, but a lot focus on the mechanics of the dance. I like to focus on how you do it, your expression. Timing, technique and expression, they all go hand in hand, but the main thing to dance is expression. People will come to class with some experience but haven’t really understood that they have to have expression.

Rumba yes, tango no: I try to keep it as professional as possible. I like to be very open with people, very honest. But sometimes a person will show a little more interest in me than they should. I never go out with anyone in my class.

All the right moves: You get people who have more difficulty getting the moves than others. With the turns, some people just have a harder time with it. There are challenges -- it’s a dance for two people, and if there’s a short person, we try to match them up with the right partner.

Perks: I’ve taught Jennifer Love Hewitt and Nia Peebles, but I like to work with all kinds of people -- it gives me a chance to contribute to someone else’s life. I’ve got the best of two worlds: this nighttime job that I really love, and real estate. There’s satisfaction in both.

-- Carolyn Patricia Scott