BAILAMOS – Dancing across the world

Dancing is one of my greatest passions. Wherever I go in the world, I always find dance classes to join – it is my way of getting comfortable, keeping stability in a new city or a new country. Which brings us to my latest blog post. Here I will talk about the dance styles I have learnt in three cities I have called home, and where I learnt them. First up:

Lima

Peru is the furthest from the UK I have ever lived, and where I turned twenty-one. More than ever, it was necessary to get myself out into the community and find somewhere to dance. By a stroke of luck, the flat in which I was living with a family in Pueblo Libre was a stone’s throw away from the local Asociación de Juventud Cristiana (or YMCA), which offered classes in both ballet and Afro-Peruvian dance. I immediately took up ballet, having attended classes religiously between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. This lasted me all the way until my last week in Peru (and helped me to work off all the food and pisco I was consuming!). It was exactly what I had hoped for – a friendly teacher, familiar moves, and an hour out of the week to focus my sometimes-over-heated brain on learning something disciplined and calm.   

Afro-Peruvian dance was something else entirely. I started that a few weeks later - still very friendly and a lot of fun, it was a style I had never attempted before. Admittedly, it was not my strongest style – I had a great time and the music was infectiously upbeat, but the rhythm and moves were completely out of my comfort zone. Not that this was a bad thing – in fact, it created a perfect balance with the ballet. One was elegant, soothing and familiar; the other was new, energetic and challenging in a totally different way.

The Pontificía Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) also offers evening salsa classes - unfortunately, they clashed with my other activities, but my friend said they were a lot of fun. What I did get to try at the university was the Jueves Saludables class: a dance-based exercise class held on Thursday lunchtimes. That was very popular and very energetic. And it was free! I loved it. After several weeks I had to stop, because even the strongest sunscreen I could find stopped being able to save me from Lima’s early-summer lunchtime sun. But if you happen to be passing by the PUCP on a Thursday, I absolutely recommend it.

Living in Peru was at times great fun and fascinating; other times it could be quite stressful, and I would miss my creature comforts. Dancing at the PUCP and at Avenida Simón Bolivar’s YMCA allowed me to turn off the academic and the adapting-to-a-new-culture parts of my brain and tune into an activity that transcends language and alleviates negativity.

Canterbury

I spent three years of my four-year degree living in Canterbury, and along the way tried several of UKC’s societies and a few of the city’s dance classes. The styles which really stood out for me were salsa, bachata, belly dance and jive. Salsa classes are abundant in Canterbury, taught by UKC Salsa Society, Salsa Así and Latin Club – these clubs also often teach bachata workshops, along with rueda and various other Latin dances. But my favourites are always bachata. All the classes are very friendly, with multiple levels to cater for different stages of ability, and have social dancing sessions afterwards.

Social jive was something I only discovered in 2015, when the local vintage-style bar (dimmed lighting, fringed lamps, decorative typewriters, etc.) started hosting classes on Monday nights. Similar to lindy-hop, social jive is bouncy, sociable - quelle surprise - and challenging without being too intricate. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to wear all the colourful fit-and-flare, sweetheart-neck-lined dresses which otherwise tend to just come out on fancier occasions. The music is lively and, despite the bar’s pretensions, the atmosphere came together to allow a feeling of going back in time to a sepia-toned, idealised version of days gone by. The classes were occasionally interspersed with Charleston and Collegiate Shag workshops; for the latter, I recommend wearing something breathable, it can get pretty exertive. If you have a soft spot for the highlights of the 1940s and 50s, it is definitely a class to try out.

The belly dance society at the University of Kent also deserves a shout out. I only started at the society in September last year, then left Canterbury in the October for other adventures, so had quite a limited time with them, but am really excited to start it up again at the beginning of the new academic year. With twice-weekly classes, one taught by a professional and another for practicing what was learnt, it is a very body-positive and welcoming environment. I love belly dancing, both performing and watching. And I really enjoy being in an environment in which having a bit of a belly is perfectly accepted, even celebrated. Not only do I think this is a great attitude to have in general, a celebration of all shapes and sizes, but also because due to many years of consuming gin, cheese and carbs, I can tend to put the ‘belly’ in belly dance.

(post-practice pic of me and some of the UKC belly dance girls)

The society also does a lot of performances within the university and at events and clubs in the city. With the society, I did manage to do one performance, at the Cuban – which you may remember from my recent post about cocktail bars. Thankfully, for my first (and, to date, only) public belly dance performance, it was a success! I do remember the DJ accidentally cutting off one of our songs too early and swapping to the next one when the music temporarily became quiet, but we styled it out and afterwards danced the night away in our skirts and hip scarves.

Barcelona

Moving to Barcelona in early January this year, I once again found myself in a new flat, in a new situation and no idea what to expect. I had lived in Barcelona before, but as a student in a nearby village called Bellaterra. Now I was in the centre of the buzzing city, with a full-time job, speaking my second language and coming up against cultural and social differences I hadn’t even known existed. As excited as I was, this could have been a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, as soon as I got the call saying I had been hired at the publishing house, I started scouring the web – not for accommodation yet, but for dance classes. This meant that arriving in Catalonia’s capital, before even going to a flat-viewing, I knew which local gym had Zumba and which classes I wanted to try out, and had even signed myself for taster sessions. Priorities, people.

Less than a week after arriving, and four days after starting my new job in my second language, I was trying out ballroom and Latin at Seven Dance. This dance school has two sites, one in Eixample and one in Gràcia, and I had classes in both. Each is very nice: well-lit, clean, and with friendly and patient teachers and receptionists. At first, I signed up for bachata and ballroom and Latin. Later, I also joined salsa. I had quick level assessments for salsa and bachata and was placed in slightly more advanced classes due to my previous experience. In ballroom, I was a novice. Since I could only do this course for one trimester (ten weeks), my knowledge is still fairly limited, but I can now say I can muddle through the cha-cha, Viennese waltz, rock and foxtrot. The teacher was an exuberant gentleman whose refrain ‘paso, peso’ stays with me to this day.

Salsa and bachata were my Saturday evening classes, and I genuinely feel like my abilities in both styles have increased greatly. The majority of my dance partners were open and welcoming (the others will make their way into a later blog post), and again the teachers were skilled, patient and passionate about their dancing. I appreciate that they didn’t stop at just teaching steps, but emphasised the importance of leading well, how to do so, and how to follow the lead’s signals. By the end of the second term (early June), I was confident enough to perform a bachata routine in Seven Dance’s end of year festival. Luckily, my partner was the teacher himself, so I was guaranteed a good lead – although I hadn’t counted on being front and centre! My mother even came over from England to watch the show, and taped it for posterity. Gracias, mamá!

(Video stills from my Seven Dance bachata performance)

If I were to find any moral to these ramblings and memories, it would this: dancing is my passion and the one thing I know I can find and enjoy, anywhere in the world. That is my security. What’s yours?

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