Salsa Dancing Pushed Back to the Underground

The Salsa Dance Hype, which started in the early 2000’s, seems to be receding. The number of International Salsa Dance Congresses is growing every year. However, there is a parallel movement of Salsa city dwellers moving from bars and clubs to quieter venues such as terraces, coffee shops, gyms, and auditoriums. 

 

In 2009, Salsa and Mambo Dancers were at the centre of everyone’s attention with their spinning and dipping. They marveled audiences, and many cameras were flashing by as the dancers did their best to capture the photographers attention. However, social Salsa Dancing is now being forced out of clubs and city bars in many countries after the owners realized Hip Hop and House generate larger profit margins. One would think this development will cause the dances to have a slow death. Ironically, the opposite is true: social dancing seems to grow in popularity by the minute as Salsa and Jive addicts constantly search and find new venues such as gyms, coffee shops, terraces and auditoriums to get their ‘Dance Fix’.

 

The hard-driven and passionate Dance Society living in the city of Chennai (India) utilized all of their skills and imagination to organize dancing through the week. Dancing in Chennai is experiencing a brand new episode. The founder of the LVDS Dance School and Ambassador for the Hong Kong Salsa Festival, Lourd Vijay, witnessed the number of Salsa Clubs getting smaller all around the world. Vijay says, “New York is the centre of Salsa, and even there only 10 clubs are left of the 110 there used to be 10 years ago.” He continues by adding, “It’s the same in many parts of the world – Hong Kong, Singapore. In fact, Singapore’s only major Salsa Club now is Union Square, and it’s run by the government.” 

 

Winds Of Change: Salsa Socials

 

Alcohol is a main source of income for the clubs. The reason they give for not promoting the non-profitable Salsa – the dancers do not drink alcohol – is understandable from their own positions. Lourd explains why Salsa Dancers do not consume alcoholic beverages while dancing, “When people dance through the night they need endurance.’ He also comments on their mentality by saying, “Also, a lot of dancers – and I know many women in Chennai who tell me this – look at Salsa as a cardiovascular activity, so they won’t want to drink for sure.” 

 

There are some trends in Dance Clubs abroad such as charging for water (dancers drink lots of water), providing child juices and healthy food which have proven to be very popular among the dancers. These are some of the strategies which are successfully used during the so called ‘Salsa Socials’: dancers hire a DJ and dance together in venues such as auditoriums, church halls, and barns. This new trend is growing exponentially and doing very well all around the globe. The growing success of Salsa Socials is making them bigger than the ‘regular’ Salsa Clubs in major cities. For instance: Jimmy Anton’s Social Dance in New York, which is held every first and third Sunday of the month between the ‘odd’ hours of 5 and 9 p.m., has become one of the city’s most popular dance venues.   

 

Chennai’s Development of ‘Dance Socials’ 

 

This increase in Underground Dancing is developing at a much slower pace, and it is a bit quieter in Chennai. The Salsa Dance Instructor Kokila, director of the Academy of Modern Dance, has been organizing Salsa Socials for years now at the Russian Cultural Centre. Sriram Gopal, a fanatic Cuban Style Salsero, describes himself as being the “original underground.” His dance classes are of an independent nature, not aligned with any venue or school. This independency is driven by his obstinate and unrelenting desire to avoid getting “political”. Gopal laughs while he says, “We don’t even have a name.” “I still feel Salsa’s not about making money. The profits here are making more friends, and getting to dance.”

 

Sriram Gopal started to instruct Salsa Dance in the college auditorium of a friend. “I keep getting calls from people saying, ‘We don’t want to go to a class. Find a place, so we can just dance.” Now they organize Salsa Socials on Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m. at High On Caffeine (HOC), which is located in Advar. “People come by word of mouth,” he explains, adding the dancers need to be vouched for before they are let into the groups dancing Salsa because of the intimacy of the dance (India has some different moral values compared to the Western Societies –S-). “Not a word of advertising. No brochure. No stark outsiders. We’ve got about 80 people, and expect it to grow.” The atmosphere of Gopal’s Salsa Social is relaxed, laid back, and comfortable. People come in, have an iced tea or sandwich, dance for a while…” When the party finishes everybody heads for Havana. The club has opened its doors for the Chennai Dance Community to enjoy Bachata, Salsa, Zouk and Jive dancing between 4.30 and 6.30 p.m. Havana has become the hottest Dance Spot where the best dancers show off their most tantalizing Dance Moves.  

 

The trend-watcher and head of the LVDS chapter in Chennai, Arun Srinivasan, encourage his students and friends to make an appearance. He comments on his expectations of the movement growing bigger caused by more dancers joining the community, “The scene’s picking up. People who come to my class – even the beginners – want to start dancing in a social setting.” Srinivasan also speaks about the unexpected advantage of Dance Sessions being held in the afternoon, “Students in hostels, people with early deadlines … They can all come here.”

Arun explains why they go through so much trouble for just a few hours of dancing to their favorite music, “On Monday morning, we all need to go back to our regular lives.” The short Dance Breaks are compared to oases in the desert. They are short, but very refreshing.