Vincent Liaw

Hola salseros y salseras! I come from Malaysia. Salsa was definitely not popular in Malaysia when I was a kid. I grew up listening to Malay, Chinese and Tamil song, and of course, my mum's favorite, the Beatles. Since I was a kid, I tried to dance but I was always being laughed at due to my stiff, robot-like motion. My mom told me it would be better for me to lion dance instead. I tried to join a dance group in my elementary school (they performed various traditional dances for different festivals), but I was rejected due to my stiffness and poor body coordination. I was brought up to believe that I could not dance at all.

With my obvious hampered confidence, I shunned away from dancing for years (grinding is not considered as dancing!), until a couple of visits to Jazz Kitchen two years ago, and a quick little lesson by Ken and CJ during an alumni event this past summer. Little did I know, that first lesson with Sonja and Kyle would cause serious salsa addiction. After the class, I started to count the beats to any song played on the radio station, while doing the basic steps. The following day, I tuned in to the salsa music channel online and started getting accustomed to different percussions and instruments of salsa music. At work, I secretly practiced my hook turns when no one's watching. At home, youtubing salsa took away so much of my tv time that I cancelled my cable tv a month later. I found myself tapping to the clave beat every now and then... The list goes on.

I love dancing at the Red Room. Even though every Wednesday night is a late one, it never fails to put a big smile in my face at work on Thursdays. My weekend basically starts on Wednesdays.

I want to thank the ladies who graciously accepted my invitation to dance during my "beginner" period. You helped me a lot in improving my leading techniques. It was really intimidating to ask a few of you to dance because you ladies were so amazing on the dance floor (and you still are). You know who you are. I want to thank the dancers with unique style for the inspiration in searching/creating my own style. You know who you are too.

Salsa totally changed my social life. These four months have been wonderful, and I'm excited that more are coming my way... If I can dance, so can you! Information for the ladies: I lost 10lbs in 4 weeks after dancing salsa.