Don’t think it, feel it!
Story of my life! Lija and I went down to one of the local bars last night where they do salsa lessons on Wednesday nights. Yes, read on, you know you want to…
The place is down by Lija’s gym, which is a ten minute walk – and it was kinda raining but we actually had hoodies on so we part ran the last 100 metres!
It went from 8pm but the lady told me when I went to check it out last week it went for an hour – well, we were there till 11pm!
There were a whole heap of dancers training to become dance teachers, so the main instructor put everyone on the spot – to begin with Jan did the warm up, which was one song worth of stretching, and then we got into smaller groups where each trainer was given two beginners – so naturally Lija and I were split up – and I got Stuart, who was really nice, great dancer – loved using ‘spirit fingers’, and naturally was so Will & Grace!
Basically we went through the first couple of dance steps – the mambo, the cucaracha, the basic turn and basic back-step and finishing with a nice easy side-step. We went through each one, adding them together as we went along. We had to constantly hold our hands at chest height, as if we had a dance partner with us.
At one stage, the main dance instructor Fire (yes, that’s his name) came over and told Stuart to watch how I was dancing. When I did the whole routine with not much trouble, I said “Am I standing on my heels rather than my toes?” And he said, no, the steps are all being done properly. He said to Stuart, watch her eyes, you see, she either looks down at her feet or up in the sky – she’s thinking about it, she needs to be feeling it!
Then all the trainers (girls and guys) became leads – apart from Aussie guy Brian who was the only male in our beginners group, so he had to lead too! And we all stood in a line and each trainer taught us how to do the basic steps with a partner, then all the ladies had to move down the line with a new trainer and do the next step with the next lead.
Once we got that downpat, continuing counting the whole time and holding arms in the proper place, we did it with music several times over. Then the class turns into a club, they section off a small area to dance in and turn the coloured lights on and played music – and we just danced! Every few minutes they’d yell “switch” and we’d just find the next available guy on the floor, and we weren’t allowed to sit more than one dance out, so if you got a round without a guy, you had to find one the next time!
It was so much fun, and it really is about the guys leading – if you make a mistake, it’s cos they’re not leading you properly! One guy, Darrin, I go to him oh, I don’t know how I’m going to go! And he just looks at me and says ‘Don’t worry, I’ll lead you!” haha it was so funny!
The way they are supposed to lead is according to where their hand moves on your back and waist, so the mambo, the guy has his finger on the small of your back, he moves it to your waist for the cucaracha, give you a slight nudge in the hips to back step or back turn, etc. But there was this one guy who just pressed so hard it was bloody annoying!
And THEN they put on a song that you couldn’t mambo to – it was the merengue and I’m just like what the?! And managed it quite alright thanks.
Anyway, to sign off, we had a great night, learnt some good moves, and even got to dance with a whole bunch of (mostly) nice guys! I think I’ve found a new passion…
Tags: Travel
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