Information Desk
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salsa@shef.ac.uk
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What’s it all about?
I can sum it up
in one word: opportunity. The
opportunity to come and learn to dance, and to have
a good time. |
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The opportunity to learn more about dance and to give
something back by teaching it; the opportunity to learn
more about the cultures that are continually giving
birth to new musics and dances. Many have taken it,
and with no regret.
(Loo Yeo)
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The Salsa & Merengue Society
(a co-founder's story)
In the beginning...
It all began, as it usually does, with a little bit of idle talk. It was a sunny weekday afternoon, and Tall Rob was in the pool relaxing after a bit of atheletics training. I was desperately looking for any excuse not to do more laps, and jaw work seemed infinitely preferable. We were both lamenting the lack of people to salsa with, and would have been reminiscing about the good old days if we had been older men. Rob had acquired his salsa on his trips to Cuba, I had come into it from a background of competitive dance. “I know,” said Rob. “Why don’t we just start up a society and teach some people?” (If this had been a B grade horror movie, a deep gong would have sounded.) I didn’t think he was serious. That was the summer of ‘96.
Two months, two dance demonstrations, and lots of blisters later, we held our first lesson. That was on Saturday the 12th of October and I’m still seeking therapy. It was a heavy S&M session with six teachers and sixty students. We haven’t looked back since.
What it is now
I guess what makes the society so unique are the people: from more different countries than I dare count; from more different backgrounds and walks for any one person to experience. It’s as if individuals were randomly picked from all over the world and put into the Foundry.
The society teachers themselves come from this motley group, and for me they are something special. I know that many of our members don’t fully appreciate that the teachers give so freely of their time and that they really care about the teaching. There are no pennies to gain by being a teacher here, all the money goes into making sure things run smoothly, subsidising events, and to the charities that we support. (And we support a good number of charities.) Despite knowing this, a lunatic few remain bent on becoming teachers, effectively signing away all their weekends and any hope of a social life. They must have been dropped on their heads at birth.
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