I have been totally taken by surprise of the quality and skill of Israeli people expressing themselves through dance in general. But their Salsa in particular is BLOODY INCREDIBLE, a total EYE-OPENER!

In the last couple of years I have been the one who has been showing off in our tiny Melbourne Salsa scene and been receiving occasional compliments from my peers and on-lookers. But here I found myself in a backseat instead. Most of the time here I spent walking around the dancefloors and watching one couple after the other thoroughly enjoying the view.

When I judge someone's dancing I pay little attention to the acrobatics and over-the-top virtuosity. What makes my heart tick faster is witnessing that right expression of "feeling" of Salsa music through the body movement that eludes many of us. But THESE girls and guys - they have got it! The timing, the style, the flow, the precision of steps, the variety of turns, the effortless execution of combinations, the relaxed and cool sexy attitude, the unison and "togetherness"... ah, they have it ALL! You look to the right, to the left and all around you and all what you see is a beauty of Salsa dancing in its' purest and most natural from. Salsa on the Internet? Bah, its seems these guys don't care about it. WE are the ones who talk and chat about it, but THEY are the ones who actually DANCE it!

In my lifetime I have tried many things to reach the feeling of calm and bliss in me, from mediation to Chinese Soft Martial Arts but my wanderings had to take me to Tel-Aviv's Maxim club at 2 AM last night to finally find my own little piece of heaven. If you remember your trip to New York, you may have a general idea how I felt last night. DJ's superb blend of Salsa music was accompanied by a small band of percussionists enhancing the hypnotic beat. And balance of Latin music was just right: one Merengue for every six-seven Salsa numbers to give dancers a short "breather". And every hour or so DJ would throw in a couple of "Line Dancing" style Latin numbers for those girls and guys who prefer dancing by themselves.

And local girls... ah, this country is blessed by so many beautiful women that it was no wonder I was having hard time maintaining my composure "wallflowering" there. I simply could not get up a nerve last night to ask any of them for a dance. It was not that I was shy. Actually I felt in a way intimidated by their physical beauty and dancing perfection which I did not want to spoil.

Now, after asking around about the Salsa dancing classes, I came with a disappointing conclusion that apart from some group classes, there is no one who would teach Salsa privately, one-on-one. Pity. So what's left is watching carefully the Big Guns and repeating their moves in my mind with hope that I will get a chance to practice them one day.

And there is one more thing that makes things a bit hard for a foreign Salsero in Israel. The people in general, young women especially, are very careful when dealing with strangers. Apparently it is a custom, a tradition to be initially suspicious of strangers, which is understandable considering the circumstances people live their lives here. After all this country is in constant tension with its' neighbours, with uniformed men and women, some of them armed, police and security people being a common sight on the city streets and shopping centers. Every foreigner can be a potentital terrorist. It is therefore of a little surprise that the part of their culture is that people here are a little edgy, nervous, impatient, somewhat worried and grumpy. You won't find many fake smiles in shops for example. Instant friendships with foreigners is out of a question. Healthy dose of suspicion towards newcomers seems to be a good habit. So, it takes time for local people to get to know you and accept you. Unfortunately, the time is exactly what I do not have enough here. You are waiting for me :-) That is maybe why my Australian background so far has not sparked much interest and why my dancing offers have been rejected by the droves. Nothing personal. Only cultural. So, if you are a non-Hebrew speaking man you have to work a bit harder to WIN the trust of local female dancers.

Here's an example of my last effort from the trenches of the Koko Club the other night. After dancing that night first with "Salsa Beginner" girl, then "Watch your step" woman, after that with "Do you dance well?" questioning woman, and finally with "I want to be led like this and not like that" unnatural blonde, and finally being totally rejected by another skinny woman, my ego had deflated into a shape of used condom and was ready to leave when I spotted the most attractive woman I had seen for years. Brunettes are God's Blessing. And from a purely macho male perspective, having an attractive female partner doubles the dancing pleasure to a man - there is no doubt about it.

So I decided half-heartedly to give it a shot and ask her for a dance because she was sitting in the dark corner of this open-air club by herself not talking to anyone. 'Daydreaming introvert,' I qualified her, 'She won't bite, just reject me. Big deal!' I thought.

I boldly approached her and extended my hand. In reply she just shook her head and looked the other way. Expected. I lifted my forefinger and asked apologetically in English: "Only one dance. Please?"

"No", she said "I do not dance with strangers." I promptly introduced myself:"My name is Damir, from Australia." In some other parts of the world I would probably hear something like: "Australia! Wow, you are far away from home!"

Instead, "It is not your nationality," she said calmly, "it is the WAY you dance." She got up end left dancing with another man. Well, I wasn’t going to give up yet, so I watched her dancing impeccably breaking on "3" like everybody else.

When she returned to her corner I approached her again and said "I dance exactly the same like that guy!"

"But that guy was my BROTHER." she goes. "Brother or not it shouldn’t make any difference. When someone asks you for one dance, it is polite to have a dance with that person no matter what. When girls ask me for a dance I always dance with them." Simple English usually produces simple positive results. But she was a tough nut to crack.

"I never dance with strangers because I have had bad experiences. All strangers I have danced with dance differently. And it looks very bad. And also they try to pull me very close. I don’t like that."

I thought ‘I don’t blame poor guys. It takes enourmous amount of self-restraint just to simply STAND next to you, my angel.’ So I half-lied, "I never pull anyone to close to me." (False), "Especially if I do not know the person I dance with." (True). She didn’t say anything to that, probably thinking I was going to retreat with my tail between my legs.

‘Most of the time you have only one shot at anything’, I thought to myself, so I extended the conversation: "I saw you dancing in ‘The Focus’ club the other night. you danced beautifully there as well but didn’t get a chance to ask you. So I am asking you now."

She: "Really?," turning towards her nodding girlfriend who remembered me from there. "Sorry, I don’t remember seeing you there." she negated. I knew I was an average-looking guy. But not unnoticable!

After a short silence I drew out another trumpcard out of my sleeve:

"Listen, if YOU ever come to Australia and if WE ever meet again in a Salsa club and you ask me for a dance, I WILL dance with you." Now a bit annoyed she finally turned her head to meet my eyes and started waving her arms: "There are so many girls here you can dance with and you are asking ME. Why?"

Now I was cornered with no chance to escape this. So I did what I do best - I said the truth: "Because you I want to dance with who I want to dance with. And you are very pretty, charming and beautiful dancer. I want to dance with YOU."

THAT WORKED!

She got up and danced that one dance. And guess what, I did not disappoint her. After the dance she did not compliment me. Meaning, when the girl DOES NOT COMPLAIN, THAT should be taken as a COMPLIMENT. Anyway, I walked her back to her post, thanked her for a dance and offered her to buy her a drink. "No". OK, I did not insist, but walked straight to the bar and bought myself a bottle of mineral water. It was bloody hot there.

I remained standing next to the bar, a bit aloof, feeling her fixed quizzical gaze piercing my skull. I wanted her introverted mind contemplate the experience. I was thinking: in the "polite-mannered" western societies I witnessed with the frustrating fact that many women are mysteriously attracted to the bastards; ie. arrogant and selfish men. Nice and polite men seem to be percieved by "emancipated" financially independent women as weak, sexually repressed, inadequate or what-have-you. Now, if we follow my humble line of thought that opposites attract is a scientific fact, in a "Man is your master to obey" society like Israel, the women should find SNAGS of Western society very refreshing and appealing. They are rarely treated with a proper dose of respect and politeness by local men. To the "Westernized" girl this previous encounter may look like some guy bothering a girl, but to that particular girl in this society I HAD to, and was maybe EXPECTED to be persistent in order to prove to her that I was who I was and that my intentions were benign. If I had accepted her rejection at the first "NO", that would have been a proof to her that I had insincere desires to take an advantage of her in sexual or even political way. After all, I could have been a covert enemy spy. So I congratulated myself on this small but important victory, thanked here again for a dance to reinforce my message and left. We’ll see what happens when I see her in a club tomorrow night.

Dear Edie, it is Saturday evening, a holy day in the holy land of Israel. I am taking a night off from Salsa. Tomorrow is Sunday, first working day here for everyone including me. Another week, another opportunity, another mystery to be uncovered or discovered. My poor lost suitcase has finally arrived. Life is good again.

Love.
Damir

From Ronen in Tel Aviv:

Dear Damir
When I travel abroad (and I do it very often) and like your self look up the salsa clubs in the country I visit, I have learned a few pointers I would like to share with you.

First of all the second you enter the club go to the d.j and introduce your self. most of the salsa d.j's I know (and became my friends all over the world) loves to know that people from all over the world comes to there club, they would probably ask you about salsa in your country and would advise you on all the salsa clubs in there country. The salsa d.j is one of the most popular guy at the club so knowing him would probably help you knowing other people at the club. he can introduce you to his friends and help you with the first steep of inviting a girl to dance.

If I am not mistaken a week ago some one (which I now think was you) came to me at the club and asked me if there are places where one can learn salsa in Israel I told him/you to go to the university club "Focus" where they teach salsa from the first steep he/you asked me about learning in privet and I said sorry can't help you in that, the reason is that there is no official salsa instructors that I know of in Israel but if he/you would have told me the whole story where you are from and that one of our friends (Yohay) have referred you to our club probably I would have found some one to give you privet lessons.

Thank you for the amazing compliments on our club "Maxim" we do try to keep it in a high standard.

now for the problematic subject of inviting a girl to dance. let me assure you that the description you gave to the issue is the same all over the world.

I can only give you my way on how to handle the subject. I proved it in many of the clubs I visited all over the world

…as I said before introduce your self to the d.j of the club - he can help you by introducing you to his girl friends that can help to start dancing.

…when you do get a partner to dance with make sure to dance in front of the best lady dancer in the club or the one you really want to dance with, try to catch her attention and if you can dance!!! probably when you will ask her to the next dance she wont say no.

…if all the above dos not work all there is left for you to do is to keep trying like you did at the end you will dance

I hope I helped in a small way once again thanks for your compliments on our club and next time you visit Israel look me up I would love to talk to you.

Salsero for ever
Ronen (Paco) Biran