Chad Wright

Passion is something I have known my entire life. Until I started salsa in March 2004, my passion had been most evident in sports, and my work and relationships. I have always been a competitive athlete from football, to wrestling, to judo, to karate, to nine years of boxing, and more recently seven years of racquetball.

Dancing, on the other hand, is not something I have been known for in my life. In high school I was too shy and insecure to go to dances or to do public speaking. Invariably, nearly every woman I dated was disappointed that they couldn't get me to dance.

While I had long since overcome any fear I once had of public speaking, my Anglo-American roots were not planted in rhythmic soil. The most I had done in the way of dancing was shadow boxing to hip hop or occasionally bouncing around to club music, though that was very rare, as I had a judgment about the shallowness of the club scene.

But I had begun to realize that there was something very human missing from my culture and socialization: music and dance. So I set out to re-socialize myself in those respects - to add some much needed culture to my vibration deficient existence.

I started by going to Native American Pow Wows on occasion, and attending African Drumming Circles. I could totally feel the drumming and the dancing that they did. It resonated with a sleeping part of me that surely needed to be awakened.

My first introduction to Latin dancing came from a Colombian girlfriend I had a few years ago. She had no qualms about pointing out just how stiff I was (with dancing). Her and her friends would make fun of me at the parties we went to. I wasn't sure exactly what they were saying when they spoke about me in Spanish, but I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with what a smooth dancer I was.

So last winter something shifted in me, and I knew it was time for me to dance. I wasn't sure exactly what it was about it at the time, but salsa seemed to catch my eye. I began talking to people about salsa, and like life does when a person puts their intention to something, salsa came to me. One of my clients showed up with an Into Salsa flyer, and I was at Beginner I class that week.

The first month I took one class per week. Like I feared, it wasn't coming very naturally. So, being the middle-of-the-road person I am, I began taking two, or three, or five classes per week; and I started to learn.

At first I didn't feel the confidence to go out dancing, but I soon realized that if I just went to class, I'd look like a robot on the dance floor, never learning to feel the music. So I went out - mostly to the Jazz Kitchen at first where I could get lost in the crowd.

Increasingly, I made friends and began to have more and more fun. But it wasn't until one Saturday at the Blue Cactus when what I'd been looking for in salsa finally came to me in complete lucidity. It wasn't about being competitive, knowing a lot of moves, looking cool, or scoring points with women. It was about connecting with a community of friends, interacting with women in a sensual way that had boundaries and was respectful, being fully in the present in the most spiritual sense - and - most of all - having so much fun that I didn't give a damn what anyone thought. That's what it's all about to me. What an incredible passion I - we - have found!

Thank you very much to Yang and Erin for the gift you have given to me and to so many others with your passion and love for salsa and people. You are awesome!