So I recently had a Salsa buddy call me up while I was at my place gaming at partybingo.com and say “Hey man have heard that yu can dance salsa?” My reply…”OH YEAAAAHH!” and he replied how did you start? how was your first experience?.

Anxiousness, nervousness, excitement, intimidation, forgetfulness, and sweatiness…

That pretty much sums up the range of emotions that I felt at my first NYC salsa social. Coming up on my 3rd year anniversary of my first social I find myself reflecting on what I went through on that milestone moment in my salsa journey.

It took me nearly 8 months of salsa lessons before I ever attended a Salsa Club. Why? Because I had this vision in my mind that every single person there would be an amazing dancer. I didn’t want to attend till I felt “ready and confident.” Looking back that was silly. Every single Salsa Teacher I ever had told me to get out there and dance. That the sooner I dance socially the quicker I would improve. That piece of advice is so true and I pass it on to any new salseros or salseras.

Over the years We’ve spoken with tons of people who went through the exact same thing. They didn’t feel like they were good enough. They thought people would be looking at them or laughing at them. What drove me insane was the fact that before taking lessons I didn’t care one bit how I looked on the dance floor. I would dance salsa at family weddings, parties and clubs without a care in the world, and yes I was completely off-timing. For some reason, once you take lessons and start to really learn the dance you become judgmental of yourself. You start to over think every single aspect of your dancing. You forget that dancing is about having fun. It took some time to get back to having fun on the dance floor but I eventually did get there.

When I first walked into the iconic EL Grande in London the atmosphere had this weird kind of eery feeling. Probably because the place was pretty much empty. I had arrived right when it was scheduled to start so there were only just a few couples dancing. I come to find out no one arrives right when it starts. Regardless of the near emptiness of the place, I was able to get in some dances with girls that were from my salsa classes. I recommend to all new dancers to attend a social with people you know. It’s a great way to help ease the nerves of attending your first social. Having friends to dance with helped me get rid of the jitters. Though, those jitters quickly returned after about an hour, as I notice the place was not empty any more.

The crowd had grown so much that you couldn’t even find a place to sit. Everywhere I looked it seem like every dancer was 100 times better than me. I was in awe with seeing all these great dancers around me but at the same time I felt extremely intimidated. That feeling of intimidation caused me to forget pretty much every single thing I learned in salsa class.

Even though I was suffering from sudden amnesia I still ventured out to ask ladies to dance. I figured at the time if I’m going to get any better at dancing, I need to get over the intimidation factor. For the most part all the girls were patient and friendly with me considering I was new to the whole salsa social experience.