May 9, 2015, The New Haven Independent, Allan Appel - Salsa’s coming to Westville—not the sauce, but the equally spicy Afro-Caribbean rhythms of Alisa’s House of Salsa. Alisa Bowens, the founder of the award-winning dance studio, announced this week that she is moving her long-established business from its Chapel Street home for the last 15 years to new digs at 912 Whalley Ave., at the corner of Blake Street. Bowens shows off her new keys with Project Storefront’s Slomba. “She’s not moving out. She’s moving on,” said Elinor Slomba, the project manager for Project Storefronts, who on Tuesday night emceed a reception in honor of Bowens at the Happiness Lab, Vishal Patel’s new coffee shop at 756 Chapel St., kitty corner from the dance studio. Bowen’s new studio, which she will be previewing with free dance lessons this weekend for the whole community during Westville’s ArtWalk, is the site of a former Project Storefronts pop-up business. “This is a success story for Project Storefronts. To have a person with such a track record establish herself there is very heartening,” Slomba added. Bowens said she has signed a five-year lease with the owner of the property, Thea Buxbaum, who has wanted an artist to occupy the space. “I love her. I know she’ll take care,” Bowens said. “The new space is open and artsy and, at 856 square feet, spacious,” said Bowens. Her plan is to customize it a bit with new paint, in yellows and oranges, so that students at the current dance studio, painted in those hues, will feel at home in the new... 

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