I remember the first time I was dragged into a salsa class in France by one of my friends who described it as a “life changing experience”. Little did I know at the time that this one class would indeed change my life.
I had never considered myself a dancer before and the only motion I had mastered to some degree was the “…left, right, left, right…” pattern I would use in clubs irrespective of the type of music. I could vary the speed of this pattern and fling my arms around in an uncontrolled manner, something I would call “musicality” and “styling” after a few drinks and “embarrassing” without. When my friend asked me to come along to a class that would highlight the embarrassing state of my dancing not only to myself but everyone else in the course I was rather reluctant to join but I was on an ERASMUS exchange in a foreign country with people from all over Europe and after he mobilised most others to go along I was not going to be the one to chicken out.
“Un autre garçon! Entrez, entrez!” The lady looked at me like I was some kind of rare treasure just because I was male. I could not help but feel jealous at the guys I could see playing football through the window behind her. “Why am I here?” I thought. One hour later I knew the answer. I was there because with a little help I had the guts to try out something new and it turned out to be one of the most fun things I had ever done. There were people from all kinds of backgrounds talking, laughing, dancing, enjoying themselves, the music was simply amazing and after one lesson I had learned enough of a new skill to know that I would never stop coming back for more until I would become a true master of this wonderful activity.
After a few more lessons in France ERASMUS ended and I had to go back to reality which did not seem to allow for such luxurious pleasures. Salsa became one of the many things I would do after my dissertation was done some time in the future when I would have the time for it. I tried it out briefly again after university when I moved back to my parents’ home in Germany to apply for a job and was delighted to find that despite the language being different the dance and the atmosphere was the same. However, my priority was to get a job and the application process kept me from going regularly so I vouched to myself that I would find a salsa school the moment my life would become more organised. Eventually I found a job in finance in Glasgow starting a regular life that allowed for spare time activities after work and Google told me that there was a class only 10 minutes walking distance away from my new flat…
At this point I was no longer a complete newbie. I could do the basics well, knew a few turns and had even been to a salsa club once so I felt I was within my rights to try out one of the intermediate classes.
What a disaster! People were forming a circle and some guy was constantly shouting commands in Spanish after which everything went into what I can only describe as organised chaos. People were going left, right, in the centre of the circle, down on the floor, up in the air, directions I had no idea existed in dancing until I was shoved there. Every time some dude said “Dame” we all changed partners and the clearly structured dance I had come to love turned into something that looked like complete anarchy to my untrained eye at least as long as I was in the middle of it all. I had to step aside after the first few minutes for health and safety reasons and let these people do whatever it was they were doing. Their basic step was wrong, their cross-body lead was wrong, everything was wrong yet the music still sounded like salsa music to me and looking at the circle I realised that the whole thing was one complex structure with amazing patterns, rhythm and style. In fact, the state of anarchy was resolved from the moment I was no longer part of the circle and even though these people were charging at each other at some speed bending their arms and legs in ways I had never encountered before, there was no collision and everything always fell back into place. Watching them felt like watching a flock of birds or a school of fish with one particular focal fish being some guy shouting “dame”.
It was beautiful. I was instantly hooked. I was so confused by the end of it I actually thought I had missed my salsa class and stumbled into some modern Cèilidh dance class, given that I was in Glasgow, so I decided to find the “real” salsa class the next time as well as to go to the beginner “Cèilidh” class. However, reading the details carefully again at home I had in fact gone to the class I wanted to go to but the title of the class read “Cuban salsa” instead of just “salsa”. Shocked by my own ignorance in the matter I started researching the subject and found to my delight that I had barely scratched the surface of Latin dances and what I had treated as a small hobby to meet friends and move to music came attached with a portfolio of aspects so rich in culture and history that it was worthy of universities issuing degrees to people treating these dances from an entirely academic perspective with no interest in dancing themselves.
As it transpired I had been taught L.A. style aka Cross-body salsa whereas the class I had witnessed in Glasgow was a dance called Casino from which salsa had developed and which had been marketed as Cuban salsa around the world. Intrigued by this serendipity and thrilled by the amazing choice Glasgow had to offer I went through a phase of trying out every Latin based dance course I could find. There was Merengue, Bachata, Casino, L.A., Kizomba, Afro-Cuban, Reggaeton, it was amazing. Soon, however, I discovered that by learning too many things at once I was in fact learning nothing properly and on the contrary I started mixing things from one dance into another preventing me from progressing in any particular dance. Therefore, I made the choice to drop everything and just focus on one dance until I would get good at it before trying out other things. Casino being by far my greatest passion was chosen to merit my full attention and so I went to every class I could find.
What follows is the story of every salsa addict… The better I got the more I loved it. I went to more and more salsa classes. I started going to workshops, special events, weekend festivals and congresses. I would listen to salsa music on the way to and from work, watch salsa videos while eating dinner, dance in salsa clubs several times a week and generally talk about few other things than salsa. I loved the social scene, I made some amazing friends dancing salsa and most importantly benefited from incredible teachers who had settled in Glasgow.
In the end, 3 factors come together that allowed me to become much better particularly in recent years.
Glasgow has an amazing Cuban salsa scene with various dance schools teaching completely different moves and styles and organising fantastic events. I have been very lucky to receive training from some of the best dancers around, some of whom have won Rueda world championships.
After some initial nagging on my side my wife came along to one of the classes to find out what all the fuss was about and soon enough became as addicted as me not to mention the fact that she has turned into one of the best dancers I ever had the pleasure of dancing with. This allowed both of us to practise moves at home and discuss and view our material together as well as get used to each other’s leading and following such that we find ourselves in perfect harmony when dancing with each other now.
The founder of the dance school I started with in Glasgow asked me whether I would like to become a teacher in his team, an honour I was more than happy to take up as soon as I had completed all the relevant teacher training. As a result, I got to practise how to call Ruedas, learn more about the structure of the moves, go on performances and improvise with my own material.
Recently, my wife and I moved to Selby in Yorkshire and since there is no Casino dancing in the area we decided to set up our own dance school: Tiempo España Dance Academy. This blog will provide weekly articles on Latin dances, culture and music with a heavy bias on Casino. It is our way of giving back to the salsa scene after having benefited from it for so long. We will use this to share our insights, stories and material with anyone who is interested so as to increase the awareness of this beautiful culture and make it accessible to a larger population. While this blog is not about our dance school per se, we will occasionally use it to comment on interesting facts and milestones affecting our company. We will not use it to advertise our events and classes but we will write about our dance school from time to time, particularly in the early stages, as our knowledge and experience will be directly linked to what we teach in classes and what we continue to learn while running our school. It is also a way for our students to learn some more detailed insights than we can teach in class due to the limit on time, as well as letting people who cannot join our classes take part in this journey we are about to embark upon.
