Thanks to the Gino Jazz Dance class taught by dancer-turned-teacher Gino Torres, 10 women are experiencing the stage as vaudeville performers once did. Only the audience is their reflection in a paneled mirror and the stage is a room at the Jewish Community Center off Oka Road.

Set to the tunes of 1940s jazz and musicals such as Chicago, West Side Story, and A Chorus Line, Torres leads the women through an hour of creative choreography and nonstop dance technique. Fun, fast, and furiously paced, the class often goes over its allotted time, with students asking for more until they are covered in sweat and cannot dance another step.

"What is so amazing to me is that he has so many students that love what he does, and arrange their lives around coming to class," says dance student Kathleen Rinehart. "It is very exciting to be in class. You're not looking at the clock and whenever it's over, it's sad. You get caught up in the music. It makes you feel very fresh and makes you feel that you look good."

The power of the class is in the music, Torres insists, and the movement inherent to vaudevillian-type dance.

"That music just gives you a feeling, and the style is beautiful," he says. "You feel like you're in a Broadway show. It's not me doing it, I'm just a vehicle to bring this to them. It's the class that takes over."

Dancing for 20 years and teaching for nearly as long, Torres' passion for movement is evident in his unconventional yet utterly dedicated style. Without giving a breakdown of dance steps, Torres has his students listen to the music, feeling the emotion that fits with movement. After several times through, he then gives the students a breakdown count for each segment.

"If you put counts in right away, it becomes too rigid, too automatic. It's about what you feel, and the feel of the music. It comes from your heart and gut, not the brain," Torres says. "And these people are tired of working all day, they just want to feel movement. For one hour they are in a whole different world. You need to get away from all the stresses and just do something for you."

Christy Bohnet has been taking dance with Torres for two years, and says it is the only form of exercise that does not bore her. She is an avid student, regularly taking class twice a day when possible.

"For me, dance is the only form of exercise that keeps me coming back. After trying the class two or three times, I was addicted," she says. "It's his particular style of choreography that appeals to me. There is a lot of passion and drama to it. It's challenging for your brain and physical body, and takes you away from everything else that might be bothering you that day."

Finding an uplifting way to relieve stress and burn calories was also attractive to Rinehart, who has been in the class for more than a year. However, she feels it is beneficial for another reason. "When you're dancing in class, you don't feel like someone's mother, or wife, or whatever," Rinehart says. "You feel like an individual."

Torres' repertoire ranges from Brazilian and flamenco dance to vaudevillian jazz and disco, but his favorite style has continually been Broadway jazz—particularly the works of Luigi, Gus Giordano, and Bob Fosse. "I feel I'm stuck between 1940 and 1946," he says. "This style just fits. It is really addictive. You naturally feel like you are dancing in a Broadway show. There is no amount of money on earth to pay for the feeling you get from dancing this style. It's priceless."

Prior to living in Los Gatos, Torres taught in Palo Alto, where he had his own studio, New York West, for five years. After trying out several venues in Los Gatos, Torres landed at the Jewish Community Center several months ago. Although very satisfied with teaching at the community center, Torres says he would eventually like to start his own dance company and perform Broadway numbers for older residents in veterans' hospitals. "I'd like to bring back the old stuff for the people that remember it," he says. "Those days were so innocent and so real—it was just you and the audience. No explosions, no blue screens. You're just watching God-given talent. We capture that world ... there is just us, the music, and the mirror."

Gino Jazz Dance classes are held at the Jewish Community Center on 14855 Oka Road, Los Gatos, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 to 10:15 a.m., noon to 1:15 p.m. and 7 to 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 9 to 10:15 a.m. on Sunday. For more information, call 408.375.9084 or email gitorr4@aol.com.