I've got two left feet

Tonight was the first night in ages dancing Salsa. I have a ballroom background and normally I'm a pretty decent follower and a smooth dancer but tonight it felt like I had two left feet. I guess you need to practice to keep up the skills though in Finland we have this saying "Lahjattomat reenaa". It means something like "Only untalented people practice". A joke of course.

I started ballroom dancing with my best friend when I was 7 years old. Very soon the sport became quite serious and we were on the dance floor more than 6 times a week sometimes. It's a lot for a child/teenager when in the end all you have time to do is to go to school and dance. We competed for almost 10 years and then decided that we want something else in our lives too.

After I quit ballroom I had a very long break in dancing but luckily I found it again through salsa. I fell in love with the dance because compared to ballroom it was free and way less serious. I also liked the social part of it. There is a big salsa community in my city and as funny and surprising as it sounds, a lot of the guys in it are Finnish engineer types. You know, those nerdy and shy men who you would never guess as salsa (or any type of) dancers.

I also have salsa to thank for my husband (and now for my daughter too). We met dancing and since then it has been our thing. We have danced in all the countries we have travelled to and we danced when we got married, even though we eloped and there was only the two of us. I really hope we can make some more time for dancing in the future as well as it was great to be back moving again.

And okay... the headline of this story is that I have two left feet but he was even worse. Don't tell him. We really need to practice more. Obviously we are not talented enough not to.

Hugs, Momone

Oh, the photo is from tonight. In the summer, they have outdoor dancing in a park in the centre of the city with a DJ and a small crowd watching. It is lovely when sunny and warm, a little less so when real Finnish summer of rain and cold arrives. The DJ tonight played a mix of Salsa, Bachata and even a few Kizomba pieces. It is good to dance a range of things and watch all of the different styles on the dance floor.