I love salsa dancing and last Sunday went to my local salsa joint accompanied by my friends Kamau and Francis. During the week we met up at our local drinking spot Zars Zars, and somehow the conversation turned to salsa which gave me the opportunity to propound one of my strange theories on how salsa demonstrates the challenges of male – female relationships.

Kamau remarked, ‘Nana you are such a good dancer’ and my response was ‘Thanks but I’m really not that great a dancer’. You are probably thinking that when someone pays you a compliment you should just say ‘Thank you’ and leave it there…you’re right but I had to elaborate and explain that the way I dance salsa and how well I dance depends on my male partner.

Salsa is generally a male dominated dance with the male leading and determining the style in which the woman and the man will dance. The man has to guide the woman with his hands, body and movements whilst the female has to be very intuitive and follow the lead of the man. When you are dancing with a ‘good’ male dancer, salsa can be so much fun. He takes his time for you to both get into the rhythm and almost ‘assesses’ (silently of course) your level of dancing so he will definitely not try and do a triple spin, dip and some other complicated move when you are only a beginner. Alas I wish I could say all men were like that! There are some men that the minute you begin dancing with you want to yell ‘Stop! This is not an acrobatic show, just take it easy’. There are also other men who simply do not know how to lead, you cannot tell whether they want you to turn left, spin or even do a basic step.

So how does this relate to male – female relationships? In my humble experience, the majority of men on the salsa scene are not brilliant dancers and when you are salsa’ing with someone who is not that good then your dance will not be the beautiful work of art that it could potentially be. Good male dancers know to fall into their partner’s rhythm and allow the women to shine rather than make the dance all about the man showing off his skills. Good male salsa dancers listen to the beat of the music and dance accordingly…they do not move to their own rhythm. Actually the best salsa dances I have had ended up as a partnership rather than the male leading and me following.

So what do the other salsa fans think? See you on the dance floor

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications