Week two at RioRhythmics and we have a different instructor this week. His name is Ian and he looks more like a personal trainer than a dance instructor. Apparently our previous instructor, whom I call Guedo, is the boss and probably gave himself the night off.

The class formed four lines, remembering the rotation system, I stood second row from the front figuring by the time we got to the tricky bits I should be at the back or at least somewhere in the middle. We started with a warm up that involved a bit of shoulder rolling and twisting of the upper body. Ian had us go over a few steps we had done in the previous class before introducing a new step with some Latin sounding name, which I only remember as the triangle step.

It goes a bit like this, start with feet apart, step forward with the right, cross left foot over and in front of the right, step back with the right, step back with the left and repeat. Not to hard at first but then Ian throws in a complicated bit, on the fourth count we double cross and step back on the opposite side. At this point I realised one side of my brain is better at dancing than the other. The right side was easy but I struggled to keep in step on the left side. Must have been all that binge drinking in my youth.

We went back to the Salsa and here Ian introduced what I considered to be the major obstacle in dancing – a partner. Being a brave soul I rocked up to dance classes without knowing anyone and so no partner. This is not really a problem as I discovered you just grab the nearest available female, mumble your name and start dancing. Every now and then the music stops and you change partners, a bit like musical chairs.

We were introduced to the elbow stance, the man holds the woman by the elbows and the woman does likewise. I found this position very comfortable, as it was almost impossible to stand on my partner’s toes. Later we were introduced to the closed dance position. The idea is to stand close together with the right foot between your partner’s feet. Take your partners hand in your left hand and place the other hand on the your partners back. Ian was very careful to explain not to place the hand too high and never too low, as he gestured towards his partner’s bottom. We all laughed.

I never realised how physical Latin dancing was and I don’t mean the dancing with girl’s bit. By the end of the class I had easily broken a sweat, had sore legs and a sore lower back. I asked Ian about the sore back and he explained that I was using muscles to move my hips. He gave me some exercises to help articulate the hips (apparently my hips are more dyslexic than articulate) for homework.

Steve