Story from a virgin salsero

My First Time……

(as told by rueben)

……on a salsa dancefloor! What were you thinking, you sicko?? Well after much coaxing from the tigress, Jeamie, and some added pressure from a few other notable sources, I finally hit the dance floor in Red Bar, for salsa. I did spend the first 45 minutes or so in the club sitting and watching Fai and Terence dance, thinking how I was totally never gonna be able to pull that off. Not really the best confidence booster I must say. As it is a couple of days earlier, Jeamie put up a post about Tim taking 6 months before his first dance. And here I was thinking, and I made it known to Jeamie, if Tim took 6 months I’m definitely gonna need a year. But a couple of drinks and some wise words from Arina later (She pointed that the club was so empty and no one was gonna be paying attention, so let’s just go make fools of ourselves. She can be a great pillar of strength I tell ya, heheh ) , I decided to let Jeamie pull me to the floor.

Now I think as most guys who faced Jeamie on the floor for the first time can attest, holding her hand seems to hit you with a feeblemind spell, my mind totally went blank. All the moves I thought I new well enough were wiped clean from my brain. I couldn’t even remember how to sequence and underarm turn into a CBL. It was a bundle of nerves, sweaty hands and jelly legs. But I tried to do whatever I could, with a whole lot of lulls doing front-back basic while I gathered my thoughts and wits, and came out alive, traumatized but alive!!!! Now despite whatever Jeamie might say (she is a PR person after all, so I don’t fully trust her), here is my self-review. It was bad!! Just bad!! Some of my most glaring errors:

1) My hands kept slipping off during twirls.
2) The afore-mentioned mind blank of moves.
3) My recovery speed was severely hampered by
a. Lack of sleep (blame the champs league final that finished at 5 am)
b. A bit of alcohol
c. My plain imcompetence
d. All of the above (RIGHT ANSWER)
4) I think I might have actually bumped heads with my wild flailing hands and stepped on toes. My humblest apologies to my unlucky partners

Oh I’m sure there were more bumbles that what I mentioned here but I shall leave it for now. But it did feel very relieving to get it over and done with. Yes I still need a LOT of practice, but surviving the floor did give me some renewed determination to continue with classes and (MAYBE) more salsa clubbing. Oh don’t get me wrong; surviving an empty Red Bar is worlds apart from surviving let’s say, Salsa Havana or some other club that will be more packed with better dances. We practically had to whole place to ourselves in Red Bar, which made it easier to totally make a fool of myself. But yea….

Oh, I think I have to say, a good dose of alcohol (Dutch courage as Tim puts it) is a great help. The trick is to hit that sweet spot where you have had a few drinks to limber yourself up, but not too much that you lose control of your body. Just an observation. HAHA

Well ok, so I survived my baptism of fire. Now I need to cook up a fresh batch of excuses to avoid Salsa clubs for the next few weeks. Oh hell, then again, it’s time to train. Bring on MSF!!!!

Oh ok, quick shout out to the Tuesday ladies who showed up after only 2 (?) classes. I didn’t dance with them, but with what little energy I had that night (not to mention self confidence), I felt that I owed my classmates the first few dances, and injuries. But it did highlight our problem: we have not enough men!!! Without the intermediates, we are in dire straits. Jeamie is already complaining about the lack of eye candy for herself, and we need more man (literally) power. Or maybe good doses of power root???

Til my next foray onto the floor then.