Since I was about 12 years old I’ve watched people Salsa their way around dance floors and wished I could manage to do more than shake my hips to the sound of the Latin beat.
I always promised myself that one day I would take lessons but as the years went by there was always some reason or other for never getting round to it so when the opportunity came along I jumped at it.
Carrying a beat and busting a move on the dance floor has never really been too much of a problem for me as long as I get to do my own thing but for some reason when it comes to learning a routine or following someone else’s lead, my normally obedient feet suddenly take on a mind of their own.
I decided it would be very thoughtful of me to warn my partner (we’ll call him Bob for anonymity’s sake) that he might want to invest in a pair of steel toe-cap shoes before embarking on the dance floor with me but he just laughed it off as if I was joking – well at least I tried!
As far as I was concerned, a stiff drink was a must before making a complete fool of myself on the dance floor and after a shot or two of Dutch courage it was time to get my Salsa groove on.
Although it looks like a really difficult dance to learn, Fernando and his partner Eva broke it down for us to it’s simplest form and after much repetition of the same few steps I was pleasantly surprised to find out it’s actually a lot simpler than it looks and by the end of the first hour Bob and I had a routine down pat.
In all honesty it was just a very basic routine but in my mind it was enough to make me feel like Ginger Rogers to Bob’s Fred Astaire – well OK, we were probably more like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz but a girl’s allowed to dream, right?