Rollin Gieker

Before getting married, my dance experience was, well … zero. But by marrying someone who grew up in a culture where most of the people knew how to dance, this didn’t last for long. She started me out by getting me into a few of the local college’s group dance lessons, just the basic ballroom stuff. And it didn’t turn out as bad as I had imagined. Then she got me out onto the dance floor at a couple of the clubs in Chicago. Now it was actually starting to get a little fun. We then moved to the Indy area. After a year or so of not really getting out and dancing, we decided to try lessons again. We got into one of the “Big Chain” studios and started taking ballroom. But after a while it turned into more of a grind, and we really couldn’t use too much of what we were learning out in the clubs. Then came Salsa. One of the “Big Chain” studio instructors had shown us a little salsa, and told us about a couple of the salsa nights at some of the local clubs. For a little while we just went out on our own and tried to pick some things up by watching the other dancers. We were starting to have fun going out and dancing again. After hearing about and taking lessons at the Red Room, we started to meet and get to know more and more people who were into salsa. Things started to click, now this was the way to learn how to dance. Take a lesson, then stay out all night practicing what you learned. And with so many people out in the clubs, we get to see a lot of different styles. I’ve got to say, I’m glad my wife got me into this whole dancing thing. And the Indy salsa scene is a great way to keep me going.