Latin Dance Party

Saturday night is Latin Dance Party night at RioRhythmics and I finally plucked up enough courage to go along. The chairs arranged around the outside of the room filled quickly and a nervous chatter grew louder as the start time of 7pm drew closer. The first part of the evening involves lessons in a few basic steps that will be used later on in the night, the Bossa Nova, Merengue, Lambada, Samba and Salsa.

We started with the merengue (shuffle - one, two, three, four). At first we did not use partners but shuffled around the room in an anti-clockwise direction. Then we grabbed three other people close to us and formed a line with arms linked behind our backs. The group had to shuffle forwards, then clockwise, then forwards and then anti-clockwise. A tip for newcomers to the sport is to try to arrange it so that you are as close as possible to the centre of the line in that way you don’t have to travel backwards - which I find much more difficult.

Ian then had us form two circles, leaders on the outside and followers on the inside. We started with a basic merengue on the spot for four steps, then added forwards for four and back for four. After repeating this several times we added a clockwise spin - clockwise as this causes your dance partner to get closer to you. Just as I was starting to feel comfortable Ian added a counter clockwise spin of our partner and then a clockwise spin for the leader. If you are confused and have trouble following this you will understand exactly how I was feeling when the music started.

We repeated this several times and added clockwise spin of our partner to person on the leaders left. From time to time Ian would ask us to introduce ourselves to our partner. It was only after the third partner that I realised this might be important later on. Sure enough after we had danced with everyone in the room the Ian asked us to find partner number one. Gulp ... I am not good at names and faces at the best of times and even worse when distracted by counting and stepping in time to music. I did the only thing that a partner can do in this situation, I arranged myself in the middle of the room and hoped that my partner would find me. Thankfully, the tactic worked. Next time I shall discuss a prearranged meeting point with my partners to lessen the confusion.

At 7.30 after the hour and half lesion the dance party started. The room was lit with coloured lights, a DJ played Latin music and helpfully announced what to dance with each number. I felt game enough to try about four dances - favouring the merengue and salsa. For most of the evening I watched in awe as leaders twirled there partners and did steps that I cannot ever remember learning. All of the partners were very encouraging after I explained this was my first time and they had to be gentle with me. I even felt game enough to try a few spins and I must say that it was great fun, although the presence of the more experienced dancers was a bit intimidating for a novice.

 During a break I ventured outside to get some air and struck up a conversation with one of the better dancers. I was amazed to find that he had only being dancing for two years and struggled at first. He explained that when he was learning he danced like a fridge. Inspired by his words and the wonderful feeling the evening left on me I vowed to return again the following weekend.