Jive Talkin' Pakistani Style

I had heard from my mother that they were holding Salsa classes as a local institute and roped my buddy to join with me. So off we went and duly enrolled. There were just two other students in the class and our instructor, a rather sweet young man, who had learnt dancing in his student years somewhere in the civilized world.

The first surprise was that we were not going to learn the Salsa (which i always thought was a dip, rather than a dance....ignorant me!) but rather the Jive. Now Jive, as i understand it, is more rock n roll with a partner, so i didnt mind. My friend didnt know the difference and didnt care. He, bless his heart, is a lovely guy and about his dancing skills, lets just say that the mind is very willing and hopefully the rest of him will follow soon :)

Anyhow, back to dancing - the one hour class was the most fun i had had in a long time. The other two students had been there for nearly a month. There was a pretty woman and the other, a rather shy young man with a trendy goatee, who kept smiling when he had to partner me.

So we started to dance. Now i dont know if i can accurately decribe the little room we dance in - its a longish room with tiles from the 1950's. The air conditioner is also from the 50's and for it's age it is doing a great job - by which i mean that it occassionally spits out gushes of somewhat cool-ish air, then it makes a noise as if it is going to get air-borne but then suddenly it goes completely and rather surprizingly silent. This cycle goes on and on. The effect is intermittant cool air and a lot of noise.

Even though we are used to the national dress, one can not dance with a dupatta (scarf), because the dupatta, as any pakistani woman knows, is a wily thing with a mind of its own. Sometimes it stays behind when you go ahead, sometimes it stands when you sit, sometimes it just doesnt want to be there and slips away. Couldnt deal with all that when dancing so off with the dupatta. When i was learning Khattak, the classical Mughal dance, one was supposed to tie the dupatta in a very specific way, around one shoulder and then encircle the waist. But no room for dupatta's in this class..... I wonder if Ginger Rogers would have been as fabulous if she had a dupatta to contend with with.

By the end of the class we had learnt two basic steps and danced a couple of numbers doing the steps again and again. In that one hour I had stepped on toes, got bumped into, hurt my ankle, used foul language and sweat like a horse. But i had a royal blast. Cant wait till the next time.