Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be able to sashay across a dance floor in perfect synchronisation with your partner? To be able to rotate your hips and step out in time with the music? To feel that Latin beat ignite a fire in your soul? I know I have!
If you are a keen reader of this blog you will know that I love to dance. But try as I might, I have never quite acquired that level of elegance that makes watching me gyrate even remotely bearable. Until a few days ago that is, when I attended a Ladies Only event in Birmingham and had a thoroughly good time learning to salsa dance.
One of the things that struck me about this sort of dancing was that it is a social leveller. It no longer mattered that the women ranged in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, or whether they were lawyers or cleaners...the music erased all of that and returned us to the state of simply being...just women enjoying themselves.
In the sway of a hip, it no longer mattered how many letters each woman had after her name; in the elongating of a thigh on a forward move, it didn't matter how big or small their incomes; and on the dizzying thrill of a spin, it didn't matter who drove the fastest car or sported the biggest diamond. Instead it was about the fire in our souls, the desire in our hearts and the passion of our spirits.
As an author [and therefore a sneaky observer of human nature] I took a moment out to look at my fellow women. Every one of them was smiling and laughing! The hard, glossy, professional exteriors were gone - and in their place were softer, kinder, truer expressions, as if the dancing had ripped off a protective veneer to expose the real women beneath.
The routine we were taught consisted of a basic Mambo which was then paired with a variety of spins to achieve something that was so much more than the sum of its parts. This I think was a reflection of the Dance Instructor himself.
John-James http://www.newsalsa-salsa.co.uk/classes.htm is a master of the dance and its instruction, making it all look so effortlessly easy.
A former cruise-ship entertainer, he is a showman through and through and recently won fourth place in a prestigious international dance competition at the world renowned Salsa Cafe in Havana. Moreover he has run salsa classes all over Cuba! What better recommendation could a dancer have?
But perhaps it wasn't just the hypnotic tempo of the music and the rhythmic forward and back movement which had performed a miracle after all.
For in addition to the above, John-James is also a practising mind magician, blending auto-suggestion and psychology to great effect. So maybe there was more going on to the enjoyment of the day than met the eye! ;)
But there is a serious side to the man and his talents too, I found. John-James is a qualified hypnotherapist, psychotherapist and a certified practitioner of neuro linguistic programming. He runs therapy sessions to help people to quit smoking or lose weight amongst other things and has a wealth of success stories behind him http://thenewlifepractice.co.uk/default.html.
And no, he didn't hypnotise me into writing this blog post...I though of it all my myself, honest! ;)
John-James is available for private and corporate event bookings and I would personally recommend him. What more can you ask for?
Happy reading!
Carmen. x
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