Erin Salona

I fell in love with Latin dancing in 1994 when I first saw ballroom dancing on PBS. This one hour of high energy, skilled dancing inspired me to begin taking ballroom lessons. In 1995 I began dancing competitively for the Indiana University Ballroom Dance Team and danced both Latin and Smooth/Standard for the duration of my college career. Not only did I learn a variety of dances, I formed fabulous friendships with my team members. When I moved to Indianapolis in 2001 after working in Bloomington for a couple years, I began attending Latin night at the Jazz Kitchen and have been going sporadically ever since. Although I knew some Latin dances, the Salsa dance is quite new to me.

On March 4 of this year, I had an instinctive feeling I should go to the Jazz Kitchen. I did, and on this particular night I met Marques with whom I now take Salsa lessons. It's been three months since I began Salsa and I couldn't be happier. I have a new outlet for creativity, and the social aspect is a wonderful bonus. I look forward to every lesson and every opportunity to dance.

I don't see my involvement with Salsa ending. I'm here and I'm ready to tackle each step and pattern Erin and Yang throw at me. As long as there are places to dance and men with whom to dance, I'll show up and hopefully improve along the way. This Memorial Day weekend trip to Chicago with the salseros and salseras was a fun and inspirational commemoration of three magnificent months of Salsa!