Jerusalem Salsa

I've never been much of a dancer. As a young lad I was intimidated by the dancefloor and would generally steer clear. Nowadays enthusiasm, rather than any great skill guides my dance style - I just go all out and don't worry about how stupid I look as I strut my stuff, trampling roughshod over my poor fiancee's feet. She dances though - so in order to keep in her good books and to hopefully give us a chance of looking like we knew what we were doing, I took her to Salsa classes the other night.

There are no shortage of places to go Salsaing in Jerusalem and I only opted for The Yellow Submarine because we happened to be free on the appropriate night. It happens to be a really good venue to hear live music and one that I really don't take nearly enough advantage of - definitely worth checking out. Having checked that they really meant "from the first step" and that we didn't have to book in advance, we turned up at the club and registered - you can choose between paying NIS 41 for one lesson or pick up a 4 lesson card for NIS 104 - we opted for the latter as it seemed a sensible idea.

The crowd who arrived to dance were a veritable cross section of Jerusalem society - including a chap who arrived in full hareidi attire before changing into a T-shirt. Women outnumbered the men and the majority were young, some men had kippot and girls long skirts, others were tatooed and pierced. Everyone was there to have fun and dance.

The instructors were young, fun and very patient. I reverted to form - the grace of a pachyderm with 4 left feet. I also learned that when put under pressure I find it really difficult to count to eight! I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated as my feet occupied every space other than where they were supposed to be. My other (in this as in every other case better) half, displayed admirable patience as I proved that the fact that I am extremely conordinated on the football field means absolutely nothing when I have to follow a beat.

We'll probably give it another shot but I admit to being absolutely hopeless - I think I'll just stick to flailing my arms and trying vaguely to keep time with my feet movement.

Gilly