(Or How To Get Your Man to Give in to His Inner Salsa Soul!)
SALSA Top Tips from Artist Judith Dawson
Here I am at last writing about my salsa experience. I am a salsa virgin; well, that’s not strictly true – I had dabbled a little before; two years before to be precise. After a long period of gentle persuasion (actually it was without doubt nagging and scheming…), I managed to drag my long-suffering husband Ian along to a class. However, would you believe it! After only two weeks by dancing shoes were thrown to the back of the wardrobe (literally!). To Ian’s delight our dance teacher decided most inconveniently to go off to Australia for the summer. How could he! Did he not know the pains I had gone to to get there? Obviously, not. So that was it for the time being. Of course in the meantime I knew my dear friend Chris was gaining experience in her salsa dancing and after enduring, whoops, I mean listening…to her salsa stories and reading her delectable write ups on her new website I just had to get there, somehow….someday……
So, two years after my first dabble, off we went to our first official class in the historic City of Durham. The venue was in a large modern ballroom in the Gala Theatre. It had a “sprung wooden dance floor” – this went straight over my head, but I expect the more experienced salsa dancers amongst you may well be impressed? The most impressive thing of all, though, was the bar. Why it didn’t have a sign above it saying “Dutch Courage”, I do not know, but the gin and tonics worked a treat. We paid our five pounds then took a seat at the edge of the dance floor, gingerly eying up the competition. To my surprise there was quite a lot of men and women of all ages, which was very encouraging. Within no time at all, our teacher Peter (not very exotic, I know, but he’s a fellow northerner and salsa enthusiast) – clapped his hands and asked us all to form two rows in front of him. “Wa hay*, we’re off”, I thought.
*northern English term meaning, ok chaps, lets go…
By the end of the session I was quite exhausted, not only from the dancing, but from all that concentration – wow! It had been quite exhilarating. I made my way towards Ian. “Well, what did you think?” I asked, beaming at him. “Actually, I really enjoyed it,” he replied, to my utter amazement! “Come on, let’s go to the pub,” I said. We made our way to the door and the teacher’s assistant ran after us. “Oh, you’re not going now, are you?” she said, grabbing my arm. “You’ve done so well, you may as well stay for the improver’s class.”
I looked at Ian. Could he endure another class? He shrugged his shoulders and we were off again, dancing for another hour. Magic…
Now, click your heels together and repeat after me, “There’s no dance like salsa…..there’s no dance like salsa……”
Copyright Judith Dawson ©2006. Written specifically for Christine Penhall’s website.
Judith Dawson is a successful painter and her art can be seen on www.judeart.co.uk. Judith and her husband Ian are agents for property-buying in the Algarve. Information can be found on www.letsbuy-algarve.com