Youssef promised that if I tried salsa dancing for one month twice a week by the end of the month I would be able to dance more or less. And he was right. Who would have thought? I’m so maladroit I don’t think I really believed him, but its so much fun that I didn’t care.
My favorite place to dance is L’Atelier in Noissy le Grand. The atmosphere is great, the people are nice, and the dancers are really really good. It also doesn’t hurt that generally there are more men than women, so they are more tolerant of so-so female dancers. Of course, I will continue to go to other venues when its convenient and I’d still really like to go to the Quai and dance outside by the Seine. Fingers crossed for decent weather one Saturday night in Paris.
I went back to l’Atelier this Sunday, and I completed the advanced course that I was so ashamed of screwing up the first time I went dancing. It is still incredibly hard, and I have a long way to go before I stop looking like I’m stumbling through, but I could start to see some of the details, and that must be progress. In the ladies room a woman asked if the teacher thought he was doing millitary training, its that tough.
If it weren’t for goofy guys hitting on me by telling me “I inspire them”, the place would be perfect. But that kind of ridiculousness can happen anywhere. At least here I can play dumb and pretend my french isn’t good enough to understand.