Doing the Cha-Cha

Only a few weeks after school, some of my Tourism students in the English Department invited me to go to Latin dance class on Saturday morning. I've found that it is the students that fill me in on activities at school and options for things to do, but I could barely contain my surprise or excitedness once I was invited. Learning the Cha-cha and Samba in China - cool!

I dressed in flowing attire and heels, the closest thing I had to what I thought should be worn for such a dance class, and made my way to the gate of the school to meet the girls. Once there, we all walked to the workout center where the class was held and made our way inside. Everyone stared, as per usual, at the even taller than normal foreigner thanks to the heels. At that point I started getting giddy, excited about being in a class with everyone and learning dances that I'd always wanted to learn.

At the start of the three hour class, the students broke-up into two groups, separating and then facing each other. This division was supposed to be the women and men, but due to a lack of male students, many of the girls went to the side of the guys so as to be linked up with a partner. I had started up in the back, but thanks to the teacher, was soon moved front and center. First, a dance was shown. The dance teacher partnered with one of the best male students, and moved with an ease and grace of someone dancing for years and in love with the movements that are so freeing from the stereotype of conservative culture. Then the steps were broken down into sections, which were learned separately, then linked together. At first it seemed like so much to learn, my only dancing in the past few years having been my own free-style of sorts while having a dance party all by myself or clubs in Europe, ballet almost so out of sight, having happened so many years ago. I tried to follow along and laughed at myself when I couldn't. Before long, I was getting the movements down, with the help of the instructor giving me extra attention to adjust my form, hands, or width of steps, sometimes getting carried away with my longer legs.

Starting to get hot with the continuous practice of steps, we were all paired up. As the official guest of the morning, I was paired up with the male students who could lead me in the dances and remind me as we went along. The first few goes were uncomfortable and space-conscious, but soon that gave way to getting into the music and wanting to get it right, my stubborn and competitive streak happy at the thought of showing itself.



I soon took a break in able to observe my students. It was fun watching them and the others, to see them pick up the steps with such ease, but then laugh with each other when they messed up.



Three hours of dancing later, with our tired feet and growling stomachs, we sat down and enjoyed various dishes and rice while talking about the next dance class.