Salsa Dances
Dancer: Sarah
Dance Location: Instituto Cervantes, Manchester
This is a dance that... me and my sisters did for fun.
We did eight salsa classes over summer 1996. We'd have been about 18, 20 and 22 then. We danced in a bright, open space with big windows. Everyone would hang around the edges at the start, waiting for the class to begin.
We had a female instructor with a strong Spanish accent and we'd spend half our time trying to understand her English as well as trying to learn the dance. She'd say things like 'keep your body loose' and 'light hands, light hands'.
At the start of every class she'd take a pair to demonstrate and you'd always hope you weren't in that pair. My sisters would always pair off together and I would be paired up with this 6ft 3 bloke with a combover. The dance probably looked quite erratic. By the end of the class though, once you had the rhythm, you'd think you had some panache - that you wouldn't look totally out of place in Buenos Aires.
We'd just wear leggings and T-shirts and pumps. My sister was a bit of a hippie then so she might have turned up in flip-flops. We definitely didn't wear heels. There were a few older couples who would come in a suit and a dress. We didn't meet any Latin lovers.