My First Salsa Lesson

I finally made it to my first salsa class. Learning the s-a-a-l-sa had been on my mind for a while now; just couldn’t find the time and space. 

With the aura of enchantment, romance, liberation, enjoyment, exercise, laughter and I sense, a measure of recklessness about it, many looking for an alternative medium for social networking and entertainment in Ghana seem drawn to it in recent years – me included.  I also wanted to make up for my waning desire to keep up with pop dances that I would have mastered in my youth. Having missed classes at my mother’s ballroom dance club when I was younger and there being no Highlife dance class I know of, salsa it had to be. And so it was, last night. 

First unexpected lecture was offered by the security man at the car park even before I got out of my car! He guessed I was there for salsa; he could just sense it. That troubled me a bit. I certainly didn’t want to appear to be out hunting anything. Anyway he proceeded to tell me that he did not like the salsa dance at all. Normally I should have pointed out that that was his friggin business, but he was a nice old man so I let him. “The dance seems to have no boundaries” he said; “dancing couples are all over each other, you know, touching, pressing, holding each other and they don’t stick to one partner!’. Then he asked me to imagine a married woman, say his wife, dancing salsa with another man - his hands all over her. All these questions and statements came with hand gestures and facial expressions of distrust.

Off course I couldn’t imagine his wife and I didn’t know what to say so I said, “really?” He looked at me incredulously and said, “what do you think, when people hold each other around the waist from behind, facing each other, will their chests not meet?” he said this holding his own chest and looking imploringly at me.

I couldn’t tell if he was trying to encourage me to change my mind about salsa but at that point I was both amused and excited about the prospects of salsa dancing, thanks to his eye opener! I shook my head at him and smiled as if to say I understood entirely where he was coming from and told him, it was my first time.  I would like to find out a few things for myself.

But before letting me go, my new-found teacher informed me that salsa nights went on till midnight so if it was my intention to give him something small (that is a tip) I had better do that right away because he wasn’t going to be around after 11pm.  I assured him I wasn’t going to stay that long and left him to watch my car.

I learnt 5 salsa dance moves, twirled around some, danced with more than 5 men in an hour, missed some steps, lost my way a couple of times on the dance floor, marveled at the girl with the big bum and tiny waist float around like in a trance. When the one hour lesson was done, I danced a bit more with the instructor who thought I had a good sense of rhythm and I thought it was relatively easier to follow his lead.  There was some touching, naturally. No pressing and no squeezing, just yet. No one tried to get fresh. The otherwise handsome mixed race guy dumped his daughter for me, complaining that the poor little girl was not taking his lead. Big mistake!

So what can I say? It was new, it was interesting, I didn't stay late but I shall return, I guess.