Extra Credit

Being a Hispanic and taking pride in this I enjoyed reading the different poems. I am a dance instructor for the City of Hialeah. I work in a park and teach various dance styles. My two favorite classes to teach however are flamenco and salsa. One of the poems is about flamenco and the poem is dead on. Flamenco is such a passionate style of dance that you can clearly see in the eyes of the dancer. It is something that moves them from head to toe. This style of dance is not the easiest. Everything is either one way or the either there is no in between. Whenever I see the outcome of my dances and I see my little girls trying their best to keep up with the technique I have given them, I am filled with pride. The style of flamenco comes from Spain. It is extremely popular for the man to play the Spanish guitar and the woman carries on the beat with her feet as well as the castanets. Like flamenco, salsa is a very passionate dance as well but can be taken in many different ways. Salsa can be a fun happy type of style, or a praising to their god or a sultry heated dance between a man and a woman. A woman dancing salsa always looks very sexy no matter what. Women are meant to move those hips and shake it while the man tries to win her over and then leads her as it is said in the poem. There are many styles of salsa. There is basic, casino, rueda, and much more. Each having their own flavor and their own sense of style to bring out to the dance floor. I absolutely love dancing salsa and I find it very sexy when a man knows how to dance salsa. A person seems more confident when they dance salsa because this is not an easy rhythm to keep up with. Currently at my job I am working on a salsa piece that is combining many of the styles together. I don’t know if anyone would object to that since some styles can be offensive to others but I see it as a form of expressing oneself and just having a fun time dancing. I take much pride in being Hispanic and being able to enjoy the Latin flavor that in instilled in me. I think salsa music has so much life to it that it can get anyone to get up and dance even if they don’t know all the fancy turns just hearing the different beats and the loudness of it all can bring a smile to someone’s face and let themselves go and get carried off into the music.