Sabrina Nieves-Greenstein
The Cover Girl outdances her husband during a cha-cha lesson in Malden
Sabrina Nieves-Greenstein, one-third of '90s girl group the Cover Girls, peeks inside the dance studio as a ballroom dance class winds down. She leans into the open doorway - her back leg slightly elevated off the floor, her foot pointed.
"Do you see them? They're like this," she says, extending her arms and imitating the posture of the dancers, head cocked to the left, back arched. She does a few steps with her imaginary partner and then turns to her husband, Ricky Greenstein. He looks up from his BlackBerry and smiles.
"This is awesome. I'm excited," she says, squealing and clapping her hands twice.
Nieves-Greenstein and her husband, who moved to Middleton from New York in 2007 to be closer to his family in Malden, are at Footloose Dance Studio in Malden to begin cha-cha classes as part of their Valentine's Day gifts to each other.
Though Greenstein appears slightly anxious, his wife is brimming with excitement. Nieves-Greenstein choreographs dance routines for the Cover Girls, after all, and is practically beaming as she fastens the straps on her dancing shoes.
The Cover Girls had much of their success in the late '80s and early '90s (their songs include "Show Me" and "Because of You") performing with groups such as Milli Vanilli and opening for New Kids on the Block. Nieves-Greenstein joined the group in 2003 after years of performing as the solo artist Sabrina Sang; her upbeat dance song "Supersonic Love" was track 15 on 1997's "Jock Jams, Volume 3," buried among tunes such as Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and DJ Kool's "Let Me Clear My Throat."
Now the 30-year-old mother of three joins the group for concerts on the occasional weekend and works part time at the expansive Malden nightclub Rain, running karaoke nights and doing what she calls "light marketing" for the venue.
Once Nieves-Greenstein enters the mirror-lined dance studio, a small group of women crowds around her.
"Sabrina! You dancing?" a woman shouts from across the room. Studio owner Cris Plumley runs a salsa instructional at the Malden club and Nieves-Greenstein has gotten to know some of the regulars. The group chats while the women ask about her kids and the karaoke nights at Rain. The conversation doesn't last long, though, as the class is about to begin.
Nieves-Greenstein, brunette bangs grazing her eyelashes, is a star student. Despite joining the class in its third session, she's on par with the rest of the class after only a few minutes. Her bright eyes, intently focused on the instructor's moving feet, shine above her chiseled cheekbones.
The Bronx native, who has danced since she was 5, has always wanted to be a per former. She took lessons at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, the same one that Jennifer Lopez and Kerry Washington went to, and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts - the "Fame" high school - to cultivate her talents.
"In high school, dance became my thing," she says. "That's all I did."
While the instructor demonstrates the steps, Nieves-Greenstein practices in place. Before long, she is moved to the front of the room as an example. She laughs. "Head of the class," she says. Her husband, though, is taken aside for some additional help. She flashes him a big grin and gives him a double thumbs up.
Greenstein has his own gifts, however. He owns Moodswing 360, the New York City-based talent-booking company that brought Paris Hilton to the Boston nightclub Estate not long ago.
As the instructor demonstrates a new step called the New Yorker, Nieves-Greenstein and her husband, reunited, stand side-by-side, their inside hands joined, their outside arms extended away from them in opposite directions. She coaches, and he gives her puzzled looks as he shuffles his feet.
After a couple of attempts, though, they master it. But then she claps excitedly, and they're sent out of step with the rest of the class. Sabrina laughs while they fumble to rejoin the group: "I got excited." 