What get you started Dancing?

[yoyao]

be honest, it is the chicks that lure me in :D

[peachexploration]

For me and in general, I think I was born dancing. For my interest in Salsa, it was the passion in the music that drew me too it. ("Real Salsa" that is. :wink: ) I spent a few years just listening to the music before actually taking a dance class. :)

[Sagitta]

be honest, it is the chicks that lure me in :D

You are very courageous yoyao!! :) I have completely forgotten what got started me dancing. I believe that I give a different response each time I'm asked. Since I am pretty sure that I said something about this elsewhere I'm not going to contradict myself. You wouldn't want me to seem two faced, would you? Instead I'll talk about my favourite dances - waltz and latin - and what got me started in them.

I was attracted to waltz by the picture that I had in my mind of the smooth rise and fall as couples zipped around the floor. To this day my favourite waltz at social dances is waltz with a ballroom flair! I just paint this picture in my mind, get into the music and I'm off!!

I was attracted to latin dance by the music. It spoke to me in a way that no other music does. Having grown up in Tanzania, East Africa I was used to african rhythmns. In some ways salsa speaks of the same things to me as the music I heard every day in Tanzania.

[HothouseSalsero]

I was attracted to latin dance by the music. It spoke to me in a way that no other music does. Having grown up in Tanzania, East Africa I was used to african rhythmns. In some ways salsa speaks of the same things to me as the music I heard every day in Tanzania.

This is interesting. I think that many people who aren't particularly familiar with salsa and related forms don't realize the extent to which it is rooted in African rhythms. One problem with the term "Latin music" is that it tends to reinforce this ignorance. (On the other hand, "Afro-Latin" is clumsier to say.) I am always bringing up the African roots of salsa's rhythms on a general music forum where there is not much interest in salsa, but a good deal of interest in heavily rhythmic forms of music (like hip-hop), but it doesn't seem to do much to generate interest.

And to get back on topic, I have always enjoyed dancing. Before getting into salsa dancing, I had taken African dance (which I wouldn't mind getting back to eventually, though I'm afraid the athleticisim involved will not come any easier as I age), done some fairly hokey medieval/baroque dancing with the SCA, done international and Israeli dancing, and taken a Brazilian jazz samba class. I decided that partner dancing would make it easier to meet women, which it has. I didn't even like salsa music very much when I started taking classes. Salsa dancing was a means to an end, but it quickly became an end in itself as well.

(But I have to stop procrastinating and go to the gym to fight off entropy.)

[KevinL]

Women attracted me to dancing.

After my divorce some friends suggested that I attend a music festival, and I did, and they offered lessons so I got to hold attractive women in my arms, and I was hooked.

Kevin