Not quite 'Wiggle Wiggle' more like 'Wobble Wobble'

In trying to keep my promise of saying ‘yes’ to new experiences and in the spirit of trying new things, I accompanied Jane to a Salsa class last night.

But first, I had to ruin any chance of being on the positive side of healthy by consuming something bad for me, so Jane introduced me to a delectable chain of French patisseries called Paul before the class. I had a flan and a mocha coffee and Oh My Lord it was heavenly! Highly recommend the place to all and sundry and will be going back to / into any of these shops I see. Yum!

Now, at the outset, I was a little dubious of the salsa class. It was located below a nearly empty restaurant (never a good thing in Soho), in a room that had dark wood-panelled walls and red vinyl bench-seating everywhere. The floor looked nothing like a dance floor and had seen many better days, and there was a bar in one corner with garish neon signs that flickered spasmodically. It was dim and dingy and resembled a seedy club rather than a dance studio. We got there early too – our first mistake – and so had to wait around, becoming more and more nervous with every passing minute. And it started late, which didn’t help.

But when it did start – wowwhee! It was really fun!

I learnt a lot. They teach the New York Style of salsa which has a lot of cross-body moves… apparently. It wasn’t too hard to get the steps right and these were relatively quickly mastered by both Jane and me, but the correct location of our knees, hips and arms was a lot more problematical. And the turns had my head spinning – I’ve forgotten how to ‘spot’ myself on a turn and trying to do that and turn at the same time… well, I staggered around quite a bit. I also couldn’t get my hips moving properly – too embarrassed I think. As Jane said, it was more of a wobble wobble than the wiggle wiggle our teacher was trying to get us to do.

We were in the absolute beginner’s class which was composed of five girls and one poor beleaguered guy but there was an intermediate class going on next door and they were having a lot of fun – and there were just as many guys as girls in there.

I was impressed with my own stamina actually, as I didn’t flake at all, and only started to get tired near the end of the hour lesson. But my feet and calves are now killing me and my knees are not quite sure what they think about the whole exercise. I believe we’ll be going back though, so I now have to practice my mambo, rumba, core-step, open step, suzie-q, side step, pop, body roles and right and left turns.

Should be interesting.