OF ALL THE things I thought I might like about salsa — and I liked many things — holding hands with a stranger while learning new dance steps together was not one of them. I thought I might hate that.

Julissa Alvarado, a dance lover who recently moved from New York to West Haven, found a new spot to groove at Salsa in Ninth Square, a bimonthly open-to-all dance party at the Orange Street Promenade.

Quint Rahaman moves his feet a few steps forward, then a few steps backward to the beat of the salsa music coming from the dance studio speakers. He grabs the hand of a long-legged woman in his ...

Customers were dining on ceviche, spinach-and-chicken quesadillas and steak fajitas in the surroundings of a spacious, traditional Mexican home. On the other side of the Albany club, people were ...