Salsa...hot hot hot!

Gina, the birthday girl, dancing with the very talented Carlos.
Revonna and me after a few cocktails and a spin or two on the dance floor.
Jen Davies and another salsa dancer.

Birthdays are such a great excuse to get a little crazy. Gina, the southern belle among us, celebrated her 29th (again?) a couple weeks ago and we went salsa dancing at Fogo Vivo's. I don't know how I have made it this far in life and never been salsa dancing. I imagine a big part of it might have to do with the fact that I grew up in "little Poland" instead of "little Havana." And I'm sorry, I never really got into doing the polka. Of course that's probably because I was dancing with seventy year old Vic Karzmoski and not a twenty something Antonio Garcia.

Five of us arrived early for lessons before the serious salsa dancers took over the dance floor. Even though the place was empty when we arrived, Gina and Sunny were reluctant to dance-- even in slow-mo. They both claimed to have two left feet. Fortunately Carlos, the instructor, was quite convinicing and he had all five of us out there doing the salsa in no time. It is unbelievable what a difference a strong lead can make. I have taken dance lessons before but my partner was not a very strong lead. Carlos was amazing.

After a few more drinks and the passing of a little time, the dance floor was packed. Five more of the teachers I work with showed up so we had quite a party going. I was a bit worried that we would just be wallflowers but we were all asked to dance at different points though the night. And we danced with each other. Jen Davies and Courtney have both had lessons before and you could tell by the easy, confident way they moved. And Brisa, a Columbia co-worker, could have made the pope convert with the way she was moving. Dios Mio!

This is going to sound horrible, but I didn't know Asians could dance. I was proved wrong. I met up with Ignatius, a Catholic Singaporean in town on IT business, who is a fabulous dancer. He even had special salsa shoes. We danced to a few songs and not just salsa either. I have never had a merengue lesson, but he was leading so well, I found myself doing the merengue. I was twirling and praying to god that he would not try to do one of those dip numbers because I didn't know if my back would be able to take it.

I will definitely be at the salsa club again but I might have to watch Dirty Dancing first.