Free Taste of Salsa Leaves You Wanting More

Free Taste of Salsa Leaves You Wanting More

01 August, 2008
by: SpoonfedMeg

While in uni, my girlfriends and I couldn’t be bothered to go to the gym and so purchased a workout video called Cardio Salsa. The goal, it seemed, was to dance the pounds away while an overly enthusiastic seniorita shouted instructions over a thumping Latin beat. All well and good, but by five minutes in, the insanely repetitive instructions began to lose their thrill. At the Latin Collective’s free Wednesday night beginner salsa class at Salsa! I felt strangely as if I were back in my dorm with my mates, mamboing and rumbaing my way to a better waistline. I almost expected Joe, the evening’s instructor, to interject a few ‘alright and feel those buns tighten!’ comments amongst the ‘one, two, three and five, six, seven’s. Of course repetition and practice makes perfect but there are only so many times you can step left, right, and left again before you begin to wonder if perhaps there might be more to this whole salsa thing.

That being said, for a free salsa lesson, you certainly get your money’s worth. The thirty-minute intro to the passionate Latin dance style gives every dancer the absolute basics in a friendly and social setting. Although with over fifty people in the lesson it was difficult to make out the footwork of the one instructor, Joe used a microphone to make himself heard over the noise of the bar behind the dance floor (clearly an improvement from when Sarah visited Salsa! last February) and often asked the front line of dancers to move to the back of the room so everyone could see. The fact that he repeated the same three steps for the full half hour meant that there was really no way we couldn’t catch on.

Once we had learnt the moves individually, we were asked to pair up in order to practice salsa with some of that sensual body to body action for which the dance style is famous. Having arrived without a plus one, I wondered if I would be left on the sidelines but needn’t have worried. The men and women rotated around the room in a conversation-less and musical version of speed date-style dancing. By the time we had returned to our starting partners, the music was at full tempo and everyone in the class was feeling confident and excited for more. At that point, however, we were asked to pull out our wallets and cough up for the intermediate or advanced lessons (£5 for one of the lessons, £8 for both).

Throughout the evening, the Latin Collective was promoting their upcoming event, The London LatinFest which runs from August 15 – 25.  The festival culminates in two all-nighters where for £15 you can salsa your way from dusk until dawn, although hopefully by that point you’ll have picked up a few more moves beyond the simple ‘left, right, left’ or it’ll be a long night. In addition to social dancing, there will be more lessons and demonstrations from professional dancers so even a novice can enjoy LatinFest.

If you’re looking to get a free taste of salsa dancing, you can’t do much better than the snazzy Salsa! club, especially if you are an absolute beginner and don’t mind a bit of repetition. If you have some experience or just want to skip ahead, there is a wide range of lessons for all level dancers. It might be just what you need to get in shape for that upcoming LatinFest all-nighter without even needing to resort to a Cardio Salsa workout video.

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SpoonfedMeg