by Rod Hughes

The Ministry of Education is investigating the winner of the popular local TV show, “Bailando por un Sueno” (Dancing for a Dream), for absences from her teaching job in Limon. The suspicion of the educators is that Hazel Linares practiced her moves for the dance competition while taking frequent sick leaves from her job at the Professional Technical High School in the Carbbean port city.

(At least she isn’t accused of using cocaine like tennis star Martina Hingis… Or steroids.) But Silvia Viquez, administrative deputy minister of Education, is taking her nine absences seriously. So did the morning paper La Nacion, which obtained copies of the doctors’ excuses written by staff at Tony Facio Hospital in Limon, as well as two public clinics. According to the paper, the nature of the illness Linares suffered was not specified in the documents.

Linares danced her way to a win in Channel 7’s popular Sunday show, facing down stiff competition in a country where even boys learn to salsa almost before they can walk. The series began Aug. 4 and continued to Oct. 20 when she won the final dance-off. It is widely reported that she lived in a San Jose hotel during her three-month “illness,”