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Some great shakes these

Photo: Neeraja Murthy

Awesome twosome Dominic and Dee

By day Dominic is constantly on the phone talking to people and listening to their grievances about railways in London. And, during nights he morphs into his alter ego, all cool with some hot salsa moves. This 30-plus hip shaker was in the city to co nduct a week-long salsa workshop at Steps, the dance studio in Banjara Hills. He is joined here by his partner, Dee, a Mauritian, who works as a secretary in the mornings and in the evenings, she too is infused with salsa fever. “With our day jobs and evening salsa classes, we hardly have any time to breathe. It becomes very hectic in London,” says Dominic, who won the amateur salsa championship held in London in 2003 and came second in European Salsa Championship (for cabaret salsa) held in Bonn in 2007.

He gets a high with salsa now and passes it on to his students but as a youngster in 2000, this Anglo-Indian (his parents are from Kolkata, settled in London) considered the Cuban dance to be very ‘feminine.’ “I went to a party with a girl and saw people just shaking their hips. I too joined but couldn’t really get it. I stepped on my neighbour’s foot so many times in five minutes that I lost the count. I got angry, had a drink and decided never to do that dance again,” he laughs. However, his friend helped him change his attitude and now, the hip and hand movement dance is part of his life.

Dominic’s former three girlfriends were all salsa dancers but he decided ‘to never go out with a girl, who is as professional as me.’ “Arguments became common. So I decided to keep things separate. If tomorrow morning, Dee does not want to do salsa, I would take it easy,” he says. The intimacy of the dance, sometimes leave women uncomfortable but Dominic says, it helps in breaking the ice and making good friends.

“One important rule girls should remember while dancing is that the guys should not extend their hand beyond the waist. If anyone does that, the girls should stop him right there as he does not want to dance,” he explains.

He is happy with the participants of the workshop and is quite amazed by salsa’s growth in the city. The group also performed for a show in Ravindra Bharathi on Saturday. “Last year when I had come to Hyderabad, salsa was still at a nascent stage. This year, I could see a lot of improvement. From basic steps, we have moved on to doing intricate movements, which is quite good,” he says.

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