Salsa Cubana

For me, one of the greatest benefits of living in Managua as opposed to a village is that there are lots of opportunities to dance. Although salsa is not a big part of Central American culture - in the town where I spent my first two years the traditional dance was actually the polka -  there is a small but growing salsa scene in Managua. For some reason, most people who learn salsa here start with Cuban style - as opposed to in the US where we tend to start with a style called salsa en linea (salsa in a line).

Cuban style salsa is cool. It evolved as a schoolyard game. To play, you learn series of steps, all of which have funny names - things like Give it Some Flavor, The Finger, Festival, Roller Coaster, Tell Her No, etc. Some of the steps are flirtatious - Touch Her T (in which the man puts his arm awkwardly across the woman's chest), Punish Her (which involves slapping the girl's hand), and The Kiss (in which the man leans in a plants one on his partner's cheek).

Once you know the steps, you can dance in a circle with other people. A caller yells out names of moves, and you try to do each one correctly without making a mistake. Every time the caller says ''Dile que No'' (tell her no) you change partners.

I couldn't find a video that really does justice to how cool the circle part of the dance is, but here is a video of me dancing salsa at a recent event in Managua.