This past week I did a few things from visiting the Roman Baths to Latin night in the club. However, I’m going to focus on one. The Latin Dance Festival in Birmingham. Sounds incredibly random, right? The first week of school there was a day of club and society booths in the student union building for students to join. Being from South Florida, the Salsa Society caught my eye, leading to me join because bachata night was coming up. Fast forward two weeks, I decided to go to the festival because Diana said she would come and I would know at least one person amongst the 60+ people attending from my school alone.

We knew it would be an extremely long day, waking up at 5:30 to leave on the two-hour bus journey to arrive on time to the first set of classes. Starting off slightly embarrassing ourselves, we thought we could handle the intermediate class– fail. We snuck out, attending the beginner level class which was much easier to execute. The next course we decided to take was bachata, my favorite, yet challenging, because I’ve never had a real dance partner to take the lead. Class went by quickly, but I did learn a couple of new steps that I did later that night. Earning a spot on the list of best class for the day, was reggaeton. I knew it would be easiest for me, but I also knew I would have fun. Just about every club in south Florida played reggaeton and my Caribbean background helps a bit too. This class was to get people to loosen their bodies when performing other latin dances.

After three classes back to back, break time!

This is where the day really began… next class, burlesque. The only thing I knew about burlesque was from two movies, Chicago and Burlesque. My “Favorite Movies of All Time” list is very long, but they’re on it and I’ve seen both dozens of times. At this moment, I didn’t know I would have the opportunity to perform later that night, but we both decided to with no hesitation. Diana was a dancer and has learned and has performed many times. I, however, haven’t had to learn a routine since high school (a very long time ago), but it wasn’t hard to remember. The hard part was doing the routine over and over again. The first hour I wore sneakers so that I wouldn’t get too exhausted going from standing on a chair to laying on the floor repeatedly. The second hour of practicing the routine, I wore my heels… My very high heels that I excitedly purchased earlier that week, not expecting to dance in them just a few days later. The first moment I stood in the chair wearing them, I regret volunteering to be one of the few up there. Two hours of dancing in a way I never have gets exhausting and I have no idea how I kept going since we only slept three hours the previous night. In addition to that, I haven’t exercised since my attempt to frequently going to the gym about two years ago. The end of the second hour finally arrived and it was time for the dinner break.

I should have taken a nap, but I didn’t and still managed to have the energy to perform and dance at the ball. The whole time I was excited to perform until it was minutes til we were next. My heart was racing, there were around 150 people out there, and I was about to put on a risqué show. The moment I stood on that chair and posed, my legs were shaking so much that I’m sure someone saw. Once we began dancing, my nerves went away and I just focused on the lyrics and routine. I know I had a few errors, but we learned it in two hours earlier that day, and we did pretty damn good. There are 3 different angles of our performance, but I’m going to share one with you. Unfortunately, It’s only the second half of the video. I’m the girl in the back, standing on the chair, with the big curly hair. Maybe one day I’ll upload the video with the best angle of viewing me.

 

After our performance, I put my sneakers back on and danced salsa for the rest of the night. Every guy I danced with was significantly better than me and I warned them I was a beginner. Had to let them start off with low expectations and while it sounds bad, I (tried to) avoid salsa whenever it came on in the past so today was basically my first day. Plus, if I did poorly they would know why and if I did well it was confidence boosting and I’d stop doubting myself. The whole day I practiced with guys that were also beginners and they didn’t take the lead as much as they should. Salsa is so much more fun when dancing with a guy that leads, I felt like I was floating. My lessons will continue, so by the end of the semester, I’ll be rushing to the dance floor when salsa comes on.

The bus ride home flew by and I was in such a deep sleep, it felt like half the time went by before getting home at 4:30 in the morning. I woke up around noon and was so sore I could feel my body aching without moving. The moment I got up, my entire body hurt, but the previous day was so worth it. I spent most of the day in bed and literally typed this entire blog laying down and with one hand. That takes skill if you ask me.

There are days where I still can’t believe I’m here in England. There are moments that I never imagined I do. Its only been a little over two weeks and there’s still so much to do and see. This blog is the best way for me to hold onto the memories I’m making. Because even though a picture says a million words, it can’t describe the feeling I had the moment I did it.