I come from a very generic American background. There really isn’t any single country that I can claim as my heritage as my distant relatives mixed with other nationalities as often as they could. Well, every European, caucasian nation, that is. Likely because of this, I don’t have a dancing or even generic rhythm gene in my body. So in a desperate attempt to improve my dance skills, we headed to the Salsa capital of the world: Cali, Colombia.
While in Cali, we discovered 6 different types of dances.
Basic Salsa Dancing:
Generally done by infants and foreigners.
Private Salsa Instruction:
If you want to impress your friends and family, or just look like you have some idea of what you’re doing on the dance floor, this is the best route.
Salsa Club Dancing:
The dance floor heats up in more than ways than one.
Entertainment Dancing:
Rockin’ costumed bodies covered in glitter, paired with crowd participation. Learn to shake like never before.
Professional Salsa Dancing:
If you aren’t sucked in by the hawtness of the dance, you will be engrossed by how unbelievably fast they can rhythmically move.
Exotic Dancing:
When someone finally decides to leave Cali after 4 months, sometimes hostel owners feel it appropriate to give that person a farewell they’ll never forget.
That looks like so much fun! I’m like you, a mix of other European countries with no rhythm at all!
I’ve always wanted to go to a South American salsa club. That sounds like SO much fun.
There’s a bar near my hometown in Ohio that does swing dancing once a week, and I love going to that and just dancing with random people.
Haha the last photo is amazing!
I wish I had rhythm! Would love to learn how to salsa!
I love the Colombian dance scene. I lived in Medellin for 6 months trying to trade in my gringo shuffle for a little latin rhythm. Once I get the moves down I’m heading to Cali to compete with the pros. Great post!
@Amanda: I LOVE dancing with random people. As much as I do like dancing with Shaun, I feel like I can improve when dancing with people who are much better than I am. That, and it is always interesting to meet new people (not all of them are just there to sleep with you and that is kinda cool).
@Gareth: We’re hoping to live in Medellin for a bit in the future – maybe we’ll get better when we have actual classes lol! Good luck on mastering those moves!
@Heather – Yeah, our strengths lie elsewhere. 😛
@D – Don’t feel bad. I’m pretty sure that Latin rhythm was an evolutionary trait designed to seduce the Spanish.
@TheWorldOrBust – And that was just the beginning, haha.
HAHAHA I LOVE THE LAST PHOTO! Jesus Christ unless I was seriously inebriated I’d probably react in exactly the same way as the poor traveller in the photo. I suspect the infant salsa would be best for me, due to my British crossed with…erm…Irish…and more British (how exotic) genes.