My experiences in Salsa Dance

Around 6 months ago some of our V14 friends decided to suddenly learn dancing. They sprung upon the idea of learning Salsa.

When my wife insisted on me also joining the dance group, I was shocked. I have never danced nor learned dance in my life. I was always of the opinion that dancing, singing, art was not for me. I was more of the Engineering, Science type of person.
After a lot of forcing by others we finally started the dance classes.

Our teacher was Viddhi, a young girl probably in her late teens or early twenty's. She would be assisted by one of her friends Riddhi. Our classes started in the Blind School at Lallubhai Park. Our sessions would happen every Saturday from 8:00PM till 9:30PM.

We learned some initial steps of Forward Basic, Backward Basic & were soon rocking. Viddhi was the more artistic type who would choreograph a few steps & Riddhi would execute the same in military style.

We all started looking forward to meeting every Saturday. After the dance we would go out for an ice-cream or coffee or just walk in the beach. Slowly the salsa steps started getting in me & I would visualize the steps in my idle time whether in office or at home.

After around 2 months Viddhi fired another bomb..!!! We were to do a public dance performance. Never in my student life did I do a dance performance on stage. I have spoken a few lines in a speech & also sang a poem. But Dancing...??? on stage..?? way too much. All the wives of my friends were all for it & discussions started on the song on which we would perform. I was protesting,... but deep down I knew the performance would happen whether I like it or not.

Anyways the practice sessions started & we started meeting more often. Initially synchronizing the steps with music was very difficult. When we all would dance together, it was like a cacophony of dance steps, with everybody out of sync with each other. We would shudder at thought of what would happen at the stage. Some of us were still protesting as to what we should perform on the stage. It was as if we were doing it for our wives who did not have anything else to look forward to.

Our music was a song called "Mumbai Salsa" from a Hindi Film of the same name. Viddhi had choreographed all the steps & We were desperately trying to remember the steps. It appeared that remembering the steps was more important than synchronizing as each one was trying to avoid looking the fool. Vidhi & Riddhi would make us practice with military precision but somehow on every practice day it appeared as If we are starting from the beginning.

Finally on the D-Day we all assembled at Jain Jagruti Auditorium at 7:00PM. Boys dressed in Black Shirts & trousers, girls in Red top & black skirts. Everybody was excited, but I was nervous. I have never danced on a stage before.

When our turn came, the curtains opened. The Hall was dark & I could not see anybody in the auditorium. My wife Niva was smiling at me, but my mind went blank. The music suddenly started, & I was frantically trying to remember when to start the first step. I missed the beginning & was immediately out of sync. I was just moving forward - backward for the first few steps, no clue of what was happening around me. I cursed myself for getting myself into this. Somehow I looked around & started synchronizing my steps with a friend (cannot remember who he was). The danced ended & there was a good applause. I was surprised.

Apparently we had performed quite well (not sure about my individual performance). Niva was happy, she had done well. I was disappointed to have skipped the beginning. My guess is that we lacked the maturity of performing on stage. What is important is what the audience is perceiving form the performance. Your mistakes are known only to you & the teacher(this dawned on us much later).

Anyway, that was not the end of Salsa. The group decided to take up the advance level in Salsa. I started protesting, but was knowing that this would be in vain. Our friends were more charged after the successful performance & were ready for bigger things. So we started learning level 2. More steps (military style, tap 2, 3, 4..). We also learned Boogie. This time I felt our teacher Vidhi was less involved in teaching us. She was always pre-occupied & was really not coaching us. We would meet every Saturday, do something & go home. One day I & Niva had gone to a Disco. The DJ started a Salsa number. We immediately started doing Slasa but realized we knew very little & couldn't do much. This was very disappointing. I told Niva "What is our use of learning Salsa?". We could not even do a few steps on our own.

Vidhi again announced that this time there would be a bigger stage show at Bhaidas. I gulped, when are we going to be through with this. My parents would think that I am doing more dancing & stage shows than my son Kehan. As always, my protests were of no use & dates & song were finalized. I kept protesting & practicing the new steps. This time our teachers were less involved & we were all in the dark. We met many more times but with little progress. Obviously Vidhi was occupied with many more things & no time for us. We had selected the song Bailamos by Enriquez...

to be continued...