Life Is A Dance Floor

As soon as I listen to Salsa music I feel the rhythm in my whole body and can’t stop to dance. It’s a great feeling. And it’s great to see how it affects other people. When I lived in Groningen, we had some Salsa sessions in our living room after dinner. Even my friends that didn’t know how to dance, learned the basics very quickly and enjoyed it. Just legendary evenings in Groningen!

Luckily my current housemate Mentxu also loves to dance and found the dance school Madridance (madrid-dance.com) that was founded by Jorge and Susana, who are from Czech Republic and have a unique teaching style.   

When you enter Madridance you don’t feel like a stranger. You feel more like a member of a family. Everyone is very welcoming. That’s what I love about this school. You meet Spanish people from the age of 18 and higher. The lessons start each weekday at 8 p.m. and last three hours varying from two to three dance styles. I used to go to the Salsa and Bachata hours and the first hour changes from month to month. So I started with ChaCha. Then it changed to Kizomba (a very sensual dance) to Rock’N’Roll. They also offer Merengue, Tango and intensive courses.

All the lessons start with a warm up by dancing in a row in front of the mirror. Thereafter you look around and try to get a nice partner. If not, don’t worry, you’ll have another chance when Jorge says “Cambiooo” which means “change”. As lady you move from one gentleman to the other counterclockwise. The gentlemen stay at their place. Having a dance partner, you repeat the steps all together in slow-motion and then you’ll try it with music. Sometimes Jorge and Susana choose some couples to demonstrate what has been learned. In the end you receive a cheerful applause from the class.

By the way do you know the expression “to have two left feet”? In my case it was something similar. I danced with a man, same height, and I needed to put both of my arms up, like the A in YMCA, turn and back to the original arm position. Usually, it is not that dangerous but as this move was relatively new to me, I hit him in his face ... with my elbow. I could see the birds and stars circling around his head.

He told me that he was feeling fine but in the next moment ... another elbow in his face. The phrase “Lo siento!” (I am sorry!) was quite useful during this lesson because he wasn’t the only one. Although I felt very sorry, we all laughed about it and improved ourselves from time to time.

The following post will be about Halloween, which was a month ago, but I am pretty sure that you want to know about the scary night I spent with the Spanish monsters.

Besitos muchachos!

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