Dancing with Shakira AUNTY – Part 1

Singapore has this interesting concept of community clubs. From my experience of living in Mumbai, I knew a real club membership was only for the elite people and the rest were the kind of clubs that would organize Sarvajanik Ganesh Mahotsave or Shirdi yatra. However, as Singapore has been proving its capabilities of giving new definitions to old terms, it has redefined the concept of clubs for me. Each district has a couple of community clubs which has activities for every age groups and the membership doesn’t really cost a bomb. So I headed to the nearby community club one of the weekends to find out sports activities if any available. With the regular man’s ego of not wanting to ask for help, I spent a good half an hour reading through the notice boards to find out what this club was upto. Well at the end I was sure there weren’t any sports activities happening in this club, but most activities were like hobby classes for children. One of them that caught my eye was “Salsa class” for adults. I walk into the reception to first check about the sports, and was told that the sports club is a separate building 2 blocks away. I could had saved the half an hour if I inquired first, but I also came to know of the salsa class. She suggested that the class starts the same day evening, and I can come 15 mins before to talk to the instructor before joining.



I had realized, Singapore usually celebrated “shorts days” on weekends. I am not kidding, the whole country is like wearing shorts, across age groups and genders. Contrary to experience of going to a mall in Mumbai on a weekend in shorts, where I feel alienated among over dressed people who come to the supper market with makeup on to buy grocery, I used to feel in place when I walked into a mall in Singapore in my shorts. Well, the experience was only till I reached the dance class.

First step – “I think I am at the right place”. I could hear Latin American music going on and the instructor calling out 1 – 2 – 3 - 4.. The place looked huge with huge glass walls but they were not dancing salsa. Then I realized, I was before time and this was the bachata-tango batch going on. This short Chinese guy wearing a cap was the instructor.

Second step – “Is there a dress code?”. As I walked into the class I realized this crowd was not celebrating the shorts day. Every man was dressed in trousers and shirt with leather shoes. Every woman was dressed in a skirt and top and high heels. I convinced myself by thinking, this must be a dress rehearsal for the batch before some big performance.

Third step – “Is this a senior citizen batch?”. After I had gazed through the over dressed crowed I started looking for familiar faces, I mean, I was trying to find out if there are any Indians in the batch. Well unfortunately most of them were Chinese.. sorry all of them were Chinese. However, a closer look I realized that most of the men were balding from the back of their heads or had grey hair. An even further closer look I realized most of the women had wrinkles on their faces. They showed signs of aging, but still they were all enthu to learn Bachata. Another thing I realized about Chinese people, is that after 20 they directly turn 60. It’s almost impossible to guess the age of a middle aged Chinese man or woman, they have the exact same hair, skin n body structure all through their life till they suddenly start aging at 60. Most of the people in this batch showed signs of aging..

Effectively most of the people in the batch were in couples. Clearly most of the men were not interested, but were dragged by their wife to join them for a salsa batch. I think each couple must have been married for a minimum of 20 years, and the tenure of their marriage was very visible in their dance. Salsa being the intimate form of dancing shows the intimacy level in couples when they are dancing. The stranger couples who just met at the dance class would only be pretending to hold each other and dance with enough space between them for a tree to be planted. The young couples would be hardly dancing, but more interested in the body brushing each other. They enjoy just holding each other tight with no space for air to pass through them. But here I saw the long married couples the ladies held their husbands like they were dancing with a robot and the men held the ladies like they were dancing with a pillar.

Fourth step – “Come join us?”. The Bachata batch just got over and the assistant instructor came upto me. I was a little fumbled and trying to digest all that I had seen. I just asked is this the salsa beginners batch. She said “Yes. You join?” I asked “Any trial?” she again said “You join?” I said “No fees today” she said “OK. Pay next week”. So that was the enrollment process and I was part of the batch

The following part of this blog entry will be posted early next week...