They might not do Mexican food but they do Salsa!

Not knowing many people out here in the Ukraine and there being a lack of the typical ways to meet people that I have been use to from growing up in England can make weekends occasionally repetitive and boring, leading to the anticipation of returning to work and having lessons to teach being greater than it might otherwise be. However this weekend was different as for the first time in my life, I donned a nice shirt (that has occurred plenty of times before), headed to the riverside, and (after beating my British reserve into submission) did some salsa dancing for the first time. 

When I was first invited I knew that it would take me a while to actually dance but that once I started I would really enjoy it. The fact that the whole affair began with an outdoor session really did not help things. However within an hour the sun had set, the street lights dimly lit the area and most of the passers by no longer stopped and stared but hurried by to get to whatever destination they were scurrying along to.

By the time I had been taught the basics (moving forward and backwards in time to the music) the actually dance classes were ready to begin and we had moved inside to a local bowling alley that also happened to have a sizeable dancing area next to it. At this point I was ready to start learning the part that I was most looking forward to, being able to spin my partner round and even attempting a spin myself. 

There was an element of year 6 disco during the periods when it was up to the guys to go up to one of the, many, women in the room and ask them to dance. If I had been fluent in  Russian and an experienced salsa dancer then I wouldn't have felt too comfortable with this, but after bucking up some pride (and being warned of the consequences of not dancing with someone by the time by fellow teacher John returned from...well the john) I had asked a fairly proficient English speaker to dance and she had helpfully guided my steps.

The absolute highlight of the evening was the instructor teaching people to do the samba. I decided not to take part as trying to understand Russian instructions and not being able to see what was going on was hard enough and I greatly appreciated this decision after witnessing the truly amazing nature of the dance (from a distance)! This obviously would not have been so had I taken part (maybe I will one day when I can understand a bit more russian...and actually dance a bit too)

The whole affair cost 40 UAH which is somewhere between £3-4 and lasted 3 hours. The outside dancing was completely free and went on for a couple of hours before hand and takes place every Sunday evening. In fact me and John are going along to it tonight and plan to then watch the fireworks that are occurring afterwards as part of the Dnipro day celebrations. I will try and get some picture and post them up.