On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

~Lord Byron

I love to dance!  I've always loved to dance, but never knew how.  I mean, I can dance in a club ... but to actually dance a dance like salsa, tango, samba, etc. seemed like such a foreign idea that would never be part of my reality.  However, at the end of October I started trekking down to Harrisburg twice a week to dance salsa, bachata, merengue, and cha-cha.  My sister calls it my mid-week weekend:)

I love when Wednesday rolls around and I know I'll be headed to Rueda de Casino lessons, a Cuban-style of salsa dancing . . . such fun!!!  Everyone dances in a circle, and one of the men calls out a move, which everyone then does together.  Some moves are just with your current partner and others require a partner change.  While you don't learn a routine, when the moves begin stringing themselves together, it looks like a well-rehearsed routine.  Some of my favorite times salsa dancing are when there are enough people at the club who know rueda . . . I love that you can dance with people you've never met before and have a spontaneous synchronized dance.  I don't have any videos or pictures of our Rueda practices/dances, but this video will give you a good idea of what it is all about.

Then on Thursday nights I head to a salsa meetup and dance from 8 till midnight.  In addition to the dancing, I love having a reason to get dressed up.  I love having the chance to put on a dressy top or a dress and know that I won't be overdressed.  When I get home from work, putting on a pair of skinny jeans and a fun top, doing my hair and makeup, and slipping on my heels is a complete energy boost.   It's like I get to live two days within one.   

My first time dancing salsa in Harrisburg was not so good.  I didn't really know what I was doing, and all they provide you with is a 30 minute lesson.  Of course, everything fell apart on the dance floor then.  Any turn or cross body lead or slight variation from the basic step threw me off, but I slowly have picked it up through tips from different partners.  The rueda de casino classes have been extremely helpful too.  Merengue and Bachata are much easier to pick up.  The steps are less technical, so they are just easier dances to jump into with no previous lessons.  I think bachata is my favorite of the three.  A friend got a short clip of my dancing bachata, which I was excited about.  The nice thing about this clip is that it is the basic bachata steps only, so it makes it easy to pick out what basic structure of that dance.

Happily, the rueda instructors from Harrisburg are going to be starting a rueda class 30 minutes from where I live.  I'm excited to be able to more easily share my love of dancing with some of my friends:)