Last Salsa in Sarasota

One of the joys of my life while in Florida is going Latin dancing on the weekends. My husband Rich and I found a Latin dance club in the area years ago, and we have been trying to become adequate at salsa dancing ever since. In my opinion, salsa is the hardest dance that I have ever tried. The beat is unusual and hard for many people to follow. Salsa is also the best exercise of any dance I have done. I pride myself on pretty much being able to boogie all night long if given the chance, but I will find myself getting a little tired after the band plays several salsas in a row.

We started going to this club about 7 years ago. When we started, we had taken group salsa lessons in Asheville, and a few lessons here in Florida as well.  We both had the motivation to learn, as we love Latin music. I had an added advantage of going to zumba classes, where we do a lot of salsa moves. We kept at it and would go to the Latin club to practice the few moves that we knew. The best thing about this club was watching all of the "regulars" who would dance at the club every week.We even had names for the people that we watched time after time. There was the "surfer dude", a middle aged man who always wore shorts, tee shirt, and jumped as he danced. The Rasta man had dreadlocks and was a killer dancer.  One couple was an older, married couple that we referred to as the "mean couple". They never smiled, particularly at each other. One night we noticed that the husband was not there, but she was alone, smiling and dancing with other men.  We wondered - was there a hired killing?  And then there were the really amazing dancers. There was a woman who looked liked a Latin dance princess on the dance floor. She combined salsa with ballet moves, and when she was dancing, I couldn't look at anyone else. And the club manager was a young, good looking man who could even make a 70 year old woman look good on the dance floor.

We began to think of these people as our "dance family", even though we never talked with any of them. And that is what made our last night this season at the Latin club special.We finally saw and talked with two people at the Latin club that we knew! One was our dance instructor in Sarasota, Henry. Henry gave us private lessons several years ago, and I learned quite a bit. He kept telling me that I needed to "stand up straight and stick out my booty" in order to have the correct salsa stance. I told him this was impossible for me, but kept trying to make it happen. As a result of his instruction, we both became better and more confident at salsa.Then we saw the man who had recently installed our tile floors. He was an artist at laying tile, and he had told us that he went to the Latin club with his wife. It was great to see two people at the club that we knew personally!

It was a joyous night, with the band, the lively dancing, and a willing partner. Dancing is great entertainment and good exercise. And when Rich and I dance at the Latin club, I lose myself in the moment. For those of you who think you might like to dance, but are afraid, go ahead and give it a try - particularly you guys out there. Women love men who dance! You never know - you may actually enjoy it! As for me, I am going to keep dancing until I end up on my new dancing show - "Dancing with the Nobodies"!