Salsa dancing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ms. Erin Feldman is a woman of many talents, and she shares her favorite happy talents right here with five dances. I’m so envious of her abilities, and I wish I lived where she does to join her in lessons. Thanks to Erin for continuing The Happy Friday Series! Now put on your fave Gypsy Kings and read on! Thanks for playin’, Erin!
A few years ago, I decided to take swing dance classes because I wanted an activity that got me outside the house and helped me to make friends. I soon switched to salsa; while I enjoyed swing, the classes didn’t attract people my age nor were there many opportunities to go swing dancing in the city where I was living. Salsa was another matter. Salsa was the dance of the city. Classes were offered at multiple studios and multiple times per week. Gads of people attended. Salsa happened at some venue almost every night of the week.
Because of my longstanding relationship with salsa – I took lessons for almost two years and went dancing most Friday nights – salsa is one of my favorite dances. I can’t help but smile when I hear a salsa beat. It recalls memories, and it makes me happy. Other dances make me happy, too; to learn and dance salsa necessarily means learning and dancing other dances.
My five favorite and happy dances are:
Salsa. As I’ve said, it’s my dance. I may be a guera (fair or light skinned), but I can dance salsa. In fact, the few times I’ve attempted country dancing I’ve been told I dance like a salsa dancer. A compliment? I don’t know.
Cha cha. Cha cha competes with salsa for my love. Cha cha isn’t quite as frenetic as salsa occasionally can be. It has a beautiful rhythm. Besides, a cha cha line dance exists. It’s complicated, but it’s entirely too much fun. Another plus is that one doesn’t need a dance partner for the cha cha line dance.
Merengue. I don’t actually like the merengue all that much except for the fact that I often danced it with some of my friends. We would join hands and spin each other and go around and around until we were tangled like pretzels and laughing so hard that we couldn’t breathe.
Tango. I love and admire the tango. I’m not very good at it because it’s entirely different from the other dances. Control comes exclusively from the frame. While observers note the ochos and ganchos, the strength behind those moves comes from the center. Even if one doesn’t intend to pursue the tango seriously, it’s a good dance to learn. It leads to improvement with the other dances and teaches one to be more attuned to following the lead.
Swing. I still love swing, probably because it’s the dance my mom taught me. She’d grab my hands and make me dance around the house with her. Swing actually can be divided into two camps, East Coast and West Coast. They’re both quite different from each other, but they’re both equally fun.
What about you? Do you have some favorite dances? Does dancing make you happy?
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Just so you know, I have yet to master the dance move featured in that photo. 😉 Maybe LisaPetrilli has?
If you ever have a chance to visit Austin, I’ll take you salsa dancing.
Salsa is tops for me; infectious, mood altering, goodness on the dance floor. Thanks for linking my blog to this subject, great read.
@Skrap I went salsa dancing last Thursday. I was happy all day Friday and into Saturday.
@Skrap you are welcome ! Zemanta is a really great tool for bloggers. So glad you stopped in.
I’m not much of a dancer but there is nothing like a big musical theater dance number to make me happy!
@Michelle_Mazur My mom and I sometimes watch or go to musicals, so I’m right there with you. 🙂
@Michelle_Mazur You didn’t know, Michelle, that anyone who comments on these Happy Friday posts gets invited to write a “Happy” post!! You just said the magic word! Care to get in queue? 🙂
Erin, thanks for sharing this part of your life with us!
My aunt signed herself and my uncle up for salsa lessons, and she said it has brought such great things to their marriage. She specifically mentioned communication.
I just looked up “salsa” on YouTube and found this video of Jennifer Lopez dancing the salsa! It does look like FUN! https://youtu.be/3c3m7y_UjWE?t=2m54s Locally, there’s a Barn Dance held every Saturday night a couple of miles away. I have no idea what a Barn Dance is, but that parking lot fills up! Maybe I can drag Scott out to at least go peek in.
@New England Multimedia I think a barn dance usually is square dancing, but it could be line dancing. Either one would be fun.
Dancing has taught me about leadership. I’m planning a post about it, but it’s one I want to pitch to a few places. I don’t know when it would be published because of that.
Salsa has helped me to be a better communicator (I think). It’s certainly broken me out of my quiet shell. I even was introducing myself to strangers last Saturday, which is a huge, huge thing for me.
@New England Multimedia I can just see you and Scott skipping on the dance floor, Michelle!
@Erin F. you dance, too? I agree with Jayme. You are a woman of many talents.
I tried to get my husband to take dance lessons with me years ago. Unfortunately, my perfectionist tendencies made the whole experience not so fun for him. Maybe we should try again now that I’ve learned to balance perfectionism with being present in the moment. 🙂
@Lauren M Hug Yep, I had to learn to turn off my perfectionist self in dance class or social dances, too. It can be hard, especially when a better dancer asks to dance with you.
I do dance. I’ve recently decided to make a more concerted effort to go dancing. It’s had a good turn; I’ve met several new people and have been adopted into their salsa/bachata community. 🙂
@Lauren M Hug @Erin F. Thanks for coming by, Lauren! Thanks, too, Erin, for holding down the fort on your post as I was traveling! Catching up is horrid now; takes hours!