Inna's salsa adventures
(last update June 2005)
Salsa is an amazing dance and it has a very special place in my life.
Not only it is about grace, the skill of a dancer, but also it is very social. I have made numerous friends and acquantainces from the dance floor.
Sometime in March of 2003 after getting enough dance "vocabulary" under my belt, I had some friends bring me to a new salsa place. The place was not new, but my awe of the actual dance was something I haven't felt before neither for ballroom, nor swing. Granted the place itself was very welcoming, and the people who danced in that studio indeed had a great skill. Needless to say, I made that place my regular spot and took lessons and progressed fairly quickly. Funny thing is that actually beginner lessons were harder for me, than the intermediates, because I could follow and do the spins based on my other dance experience, yet listening to the music beat and doing the basics had a learning curve.
Time has passed since then, and though I would only make the pilgrimage to that dance floor about twice a month, my hunger for this dance has made me crave it more and more. I actually went to audition for the dance troupe and have joined PB&G Students group, then PG&G Rising Stars, then RicaSalsa Amateurs, and now I am going for the forth season in the dance troupe. The groups are great for me because we are learning a routine for the performances. I've travelled all over Bay Area performing in most salsa places, and even made it to the biggest Salsa Congress in the world, which was held in LA in May of 2005.
I am dancing about 3-4 times a week, and always meet new people, and dance, and socialize, and dance again. Never in my life have I thought I would enjoy performing in front of a crowd, but apparently I find it very rewarding.