Name: Wieke Sloven
Age: 23
Nationality: Dutch
Currently residing: Breda, the Netherlands
Profession: pedagogue, educational & I study movement expression therapy.
Salsa Style: I dance all Salsa styles, but prefer NY Style Mambo on2 at advanced level.
How long have you been dancing for?
I have been dancing my whole life and I have been dancing Salsa since 2007. Besides of Salsa lessons I have also had lessons in Jazz Dance, Street-dance, Ballroom dancing and Modern dance.
What made you start with salsa?
I went to Suriname in 2007 for an internship and I was glad to hear that I could go somewhere to fulfill my dance needs. I have learned my first real Salsa steps at dance club “Danszon”, like so many other interns from the Netherlands did before me. I was very fanatic and after three months I was the only white girl in class. I have taken extra lessons, also in Ladies Styling, and performed with two other dancers in a show. Last November 2010 I went back to Suriname and included the Salsuri Salsa congress as an extra goal.
Where do you take your lessons?
Until last year, I took Salsa classes at the Grott in Breda . Currently I follow New York Style Mambo on2 and Salsa show lessons at Purasalsa in Eindhoven. I visit Salsa congresses and festivals on a regular basis where I learn a lot too.
What’s your best salsa tip for a night out in Breda?
Personally, I like to alternate smaller and bigger Salsa parties. I am a regular visitor of the Para in Breda on Wednesday evenings, the parties of Latin Soul in Roosendaal, which take place every other month, and Purasalsa in Eindhoven for its Friday social nights and the Palladium parties.
What is your best salsa memory?
My best Salsa memory would be the feeling of dancing a perfect dance with a perfect partner on a delicious song and being sure that it would not be the last of such dance for the night. It is the feeling that there is nothing better in life than that!
What is your worst salsa experience?
Euhm… I am doubting between dancing with a man with the attitude and believe that he is the greatest dancer on earth, or a man that suffers from his hormones…
What are the best salsa tips you have for [men/women] dancing salsa?
Do not focus only on one teacher or one particular Salsa style. Try following dance classes at different places, from different teachers, learn what kind of a dancer you are, throw everything on a pile and develop your own dance style which makes you happy.
Which song will get you up on the dance floor?
In that respect I am not too picky. I may lay my creativity and sense in the song without narration: ‘This is not a Tango’.
Which salsa dancer/teacher/choreographer inspires you?
Not one specifically. Any dancer can and has something that can inspire me. Somebody that just starts dancing can inspire me by sharing his or her joy in dancing with a little thing as a smile on a face. Professional dancers inspire me particularly with their perfect musicality and controlled technique.
Where do you see salsa going in 5 years from now?
I think that Salsa will be even as popular as it is now. Possibly, Salsa will be charged more in combination with other dance styles. I think that more Modern dance will be included. I hope that, for once, the Ballroom and Latin dance world will be closer too the Salsa world. And
hopefully, the lessons and parties are not more expensive due to economic inflation!
What inspires you on the dance floor?
I get inspired by a combination of the music that is playing, the quality of the dance floor, the whole atmosphere, the other dancers around me, and off course: my dance partner!
Lastly, if there was one salsa wish you could make, what would that be?
I wish to transfer to the infectious “Salsa Flue” onto others, in order to make them feel as happy as I do. My dance quote: ’If I could dance around the earth, I would make a world a trip'.
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