IT’S hot, it’s sexy, it’s salsa, and it’s here.

The Latin American dance craze has swept into Phuket in a flurry of swirling skirts and swivel-hipped Lotharios.

There is something about salsa music which awakens the dormant dancer inside us all.

The evocative beat of the congo drums and the sensual rhythms of Spanish guitar, caught in the passionate embrace of the rich dance culture of Latin America, is just too seductive a combination to resist.

We’ve all felt the music beckoning us to abandon our bar stools and lose ourselves in unrestrained revelry on the dance floor.

But for those of us who hail from cultures less likely to dance, and more inclined towards tea-and-biscuits, or beer-and-football, taking those first tentative steps onto the dance floor can sometimes be intimidating.

But help is now at hand, and experts are available to guide us through all the twirling and twisting that is salsa dancing.

Dance teachers, Didier and Anna, hold salsa classes at the Green Man in Chalong every Tuesday night, and everyone, even beginners, are welcome.

They make it sound easy.

“If you know how to walk, you can dance,” said Didier.

“Just listen to the music, and walk.

“After an hour, you will be dancing. You won’t be a world champion, but you will be able to move and enjoy the music.”

But what is salsa, and what’s it doing in Phuket?

To the stoic traditionalists, salsa is a sauce, with no place in the halls of dance, but in today’s world of dissolving boundaries where languages and traditions are mixed together in a vivacious hot pot of cultures, definitions are out the window.

Salsa is now universally accepted as a hot, spicy flavour and rich diversity of ingredients, be it music, dance or sauce.

The origins of salsa music and dance are not easily defined, and it stems from a variety of cultures.

The salsa music we hear today is a vibrant distillation of the flamenco guitars of the Spanish troubadours and African drum rhythms which were brought to the Caribbean from West Africa during the slave trade.

The African people created these rhythms to summon their gods and spirits, and although the names of these gods are now hidden, the power and spirit of the drum beat has remained, combining with the innate sensuality of the Spanish guitar to produce an irresistible urge to dance.

The foundations of a thriving Latin dance culture were born and paved the way for modern salsa through dances like the cha cha, the mambo, the rhumba, and many more.

When Latin music and dances came together in the US, the ‘new’ style was labeled salsa, and the vivacious mix of peoples reveled in the provocative rhythms.

Salsa had well and truly arrived.

Aaron first encountered salsa in the trendy Cuban clubs of west London in the mid-90’s, and immediately fell in love with its sensual rhythms.

“I was transfixed with the energy and rhythm,” he said.

“I had never been a technical dancer and the salsa seemed to be more inventive and ‘spur of the moment’.

“The music and the dance just evolved as the song progressed, kind of like jazz, but in
dance form.”

The sexy steps of salsa compared to the strict choreography of classical Thai dance, Thailand may seem an unlikely home for salseros.

The ridged torsos and immaculate beauty frozen on the faces of the Thai dancer bare scant resemblance to the flirtatious spontaneity of salsa.

“For me, it’s about the feeling”, said Anna.

“I like Thai dance, but it’s different.

“I just love dancing, to every kind of music, but especially the salsa.”

Perhaps then when you consider the spirit of salsa and the colourful mix of cultures which have blended to create it, it maybe isn’t so strange that we find it here in Phuket with its diverse jumble of nationalities mixed with the steamy climate and spicy cuisine.

So, what’s the difference between an average salsa dancer and a great salsero?

“An average salsa dancer just goes through the moves regardless of the music and a great salsa dancer makes you, as a watcher, smile and want to get up and dance to,” said Didier,“A great dancer is someone who can dance with the feeling of the music.”

Resist no more. Whether your salsa background comes from the heart of Cuba or from a night on the couch with a bag of Tacos, head down to the Green Man on a Tuesday and join the Salsa and Latin Dance Classes with Didier and Anna.

A free trial starts at 7pm, followed by a beginner’s class at 7.30pm and an advanced class at 8.30pm.

Classes are 400baht and there is always plenty of dancing in the pub afterwards.

For further information, visit www.phuket-dance.com