Kirk Rowe and the Beginner’s Salsa Workshop, just one of the many events and attractions that are making Camana Bay’s Paseo a really fun place to be. Photo by Christopher Tobutt

By Christopher Tobutt

For those who would love to try out the thrill of stylish Latin dancing, but have just been a bit too shy to get started, the ideal answer came on Wednesday 24 June, when the Paseo at Camana Bay came alive with Latin dance for beginners: The Beginners Salsa Workshop.

The workshop was taught by Kirk Rowe, who is one of the Cayman Islands foremost dancers, an expert in many fields of dance and a choreographer, but also a first class dance teacher who runs the Kri School for performing arts.

Explaining why Salsa dancing is so popular, Mr Rowe said:

“This is a Salsa Workshop for beginners. Salsa is the most elegant, sexiest dance in the universe,” he said.

Mr Rowe went on to explain that Salsa was a good Latin dance to start with:

“Once you begin it’s quite fun, and you’ll definitely get it,” he said, just before he invited the dancers to come and join him on the Paseo, starting them off with the basic steps, as they lined up in several rows. Soon, the dancers were ready to take a partner and try dancing the salsa, as Mr Rowe was able to guide them through slightly more complex moves.

Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce, suggesting a dance with a spicy flavor, but also a mixture of ingredients, and was created out of a mixture of African and European dance influences, from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean people, and their immigrant communities in the US. Historically, the roots of Salsa dance can be traced from the music and dance influences such as Rumba, Pachanga, Guarachaa and Bomba, although most people agree that both the music and dance of Salsa mainly originate from Cuban songs.