KOCHI: On a quiet Wednesday evening amidst the dark clouds and a slight drizzle, the top floor of the premium Hotel Crowne Plaza came live with music and dance at the first ever Salsa Social Nights held in the city,
Close to 60 Latin dance enthusiasts from both sexes performed Merengue, Salsa and Bachata led by Paul Chiriankandath, a leading Salsa trainer and performer.
“We were impressed with the turnout in our first ever program in Kochi and plan to have this event once a month,” Paul, who was trained in Mumbai for ten years and also studied drumming at Berkeley School of Music, USA said. Such Salsa Social Nights are very popular in metro cities - Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi apart from Bengaluru and Pune, sources added.
The program consisted of one-hour and forty-five minutes of training in Latin dances followed by one or two performances and the floor is left open for more social dancing as music is played out in the sound system.
The program ended up with participants joining together to dance to some popular Bollywood numbers.
Tushar, a participant and co-organiser said that he had been trying to conduct this program for the past one year and with Paul arriving in the city made things easier. “We were able to get such an impressive turnout in a short time,” he added.
Paul lauded the support provided by dance-fitness schools focussed on contemporary dance for making the first Salsa Social Nights a success. So far, certain dance schools in different parts of the city were doing their bit to promote Latin dances but now with hosting of social nights, more people will be attracted to it, organisers said.
“Latin dances bring out the innate talent and also takes away the stress of professional and daily life helping us interact with both sexes in a healthy atmosphere of trust and understanding,” Sandeep a participant said.
After the recent Salsa workshops by internationally renowned artistes Arun Srinivasan and Rahul Stephen of Salsa Twins fame, the city is now fast embracing the salsa culture, said Aswathy Visweswaran, a zumba fitness expert and salsa trainer at Beats’n’Steps, a dance fitness studio in South Kalamassery. With more IT and business professionals coming to Kochi, the city which embraces all traditions and cultures set to welcome the Salsa culture too.