Salsa nights get a social touch via city dance crew

On Saturday, a culmination of choreographies since the group’s inception will be performed in a summer showcase.

Giving us a brief background about Salsa Madras, Arun says, “My primary aim was to take this brand global and I wanted Chennai to become a destination for dancing.” As a step towards this, he has been inviting international artistes to conduct workshops here and help train teams to participate in international competitions. “It’s givenforeigners a lot more reason to visit the city,” he shares.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, he has been conducting regular Salsa Nights, known as socials, with a social purpose. “Learning moves and steps is just one part of dancing and through these socials, we aim to initiate a conversation with the participants that will groom them in various aspects:

Education about dance: Webrought internationally acclaimed dancers from Amsterdam and Russia to conduct workshops on Salsa,Kizomba and Bachata. This was part of a non-stop 12-hour social that happened two weeks ago. The eventalso saw four out of six DJs coming from other cities.

Socialising: Such events create opportunities for people with varied interests to meet under one roof. Usually, foreigners rarely get a chance to interact with locals in our country, or once a person steps out of college it becomes difficult to friends. So, socials give travellers, students, IT professionals, lawyers and so on, a chance to socialise.

Etiquette and personal hygiene: Interacting with another person in close quarters comes with its own disadvantages. We educate people at these get togethers about personal hygiene, being conscious of bad breath or body odour and the remedies for it. Normally, these discussions don’t happen in schools, colleges or workplaces — I take this as an opportunity to talk about it.

Respect for the other genders: The most importance aspect of dance is to respect your partner or co-performers. We teach dancers about being open-minded and accepting persons from any background, at the same time respecting another’s body and personal space. We strictly do not tolerate ill behaviour from anyone,” he explains. This has helped develop a healthy and respectful community of dancers in Chennai.