Dancers Take to the Street with Salsaholics Anonymous
Wishing you could spice up your Thursday nights while enjoying the balmy weather and without emptying your wallet? Well, put on your dancing shoes, Toronto. Sidewalk Salsa has arrived, and it is muy, muy caliente!
Salsaholics Anonymous (SA), a University of Toronto dance organization, has launched their free, weekly Sidewalk Salsa event for the public. Every Thursday at 9:00 p.m., following their dance lessons, SA instructors and their fired-up students spill on to the spacious sidewalk at the southeast corner of Bloor and Spadina and transform it into a pulsating dance floor.
Being a social salsa dancer myself, I don't miss a beat and decide to check it out with some friends.
We arrive to a boombox exhaling the best of sweet-sounding, percussion-layered salsa tunes. Possessed by the music, the dancers are swaying and swinging their partners across the concrete floor. The vibe is casual, playful and contagious. Refreshing. Here, in the heart of the city, you can trade the oppressively sweltering, sticky heat of the city's indoor dance clubs with an outdoor square under the night sky.
What's not to love about Sidewalk Salsa? It's open for everyone and people like the open air, says Nixon Nguyen, second in command and an instructor with SA. This is a diverse and true egalitarian community of salseras and salseros, indeed. No partner is required. I mingle and share steps, turn patterns and undulating movements with dancers of all styles, ages and ethnic backgrounds, from beginner to more advanced levels. Think you have two left feet? Not to worry. On some nights, SA instructors even offer brief sidewalk lessons in basic salsa footwork. I dance with old friends and make new ones to a rhythmic flow of salsa songs occasionally punctuated with bachata, merengue, and cha-cha numbers.
So arresting is the energy here that even onlookers become magnetized. We even get people from the public joining us. They're curious, says Nguyen. In fact, he tells me, it's not unusual for drivers to be lured by the scene, spontaneously step on the brakes, park their cars, and blend in to the crowd. Sure enough, while swirling and spinning to my favourite Oscar D'Leon tune, a steady stream of passersby, stirred by the rhapsodic music and excitement, stop to enjoy the sizzling outdoor entertainment.
And don't be surprised if you see SA bring Sidewalk Salsa to another Toronto street corner. We're looking at expanding it on a different night and probably at a different location, Nguyen says.
Eight dances, and many shared smiles and laughs later, with tired but satisfied feet, I'm invigorated. This is just what the city needs a reason to be outdoors, active, social, and celebrate a love for dance and the sultry summer nights that will vanish all too quickly.
Sidewalk Salsa will run between 9:00pm to 11:00pm every Thursday (weather permitting) at the southeast corner of Bloor and Spadina until the onset of colder temperatures. Although the event is free, small donations (to cover the cost for audio system batteries) are appreciated.
To learn more, contact Sanam (Sunny) Devine, founder and instructor of SA and Sidewalk Salsa, at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or (416) 655-2224. You can also visit SA's public Facebook page here.
By Helen Suk, Social Salsera
 Helen Suk | |
| About the author: | |
Helen Suk is a loyal resident of Toronto, where she was born and raised. She's an urbanite, culture-vulture, reader and photography enthusiast. After graduating with a BA from the University of Toronto, she spent two years in London, UK, became afflicted with the travel bug and, at this very moment, is likely scouring the internet and contemplating her next destination. Anyone who befriends Helen knows she'll find any excuse to indulge in her most cherished foods and is always on the prowl for her next favourite ethnic restaurant. | |
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