vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #616 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

Sweeping across the world with its stepping and whirling, Salsa has spun to Vladivostok bringing a sizzling sensuous air into the city’s dancing style.

Salsa is a partner dance, danced in a handhold. Originating from Cuba, the name itself is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting a spicy flavor, also suggesting a "mixture" of ingredients. Salsa is danced on a core rhythm that lasts for two measures of four beats each.

The Latin dance made its way to Vladivostok due to the efforts of two dancing enthusiasts - Viktoria Tikhonova and Roman Poltarak – who by chance and fate took steps toward each other to have Salsa roll into the city.

Viktoria fell in love with Salsa in Beijing, China, while Roman Poltarak found his admiration for the dance in San Francisco, USA. The two met in Vladivostok and gave life to the first Salsa project in Vladivostok last September, starting to teach Cuban-style Salsa, or Salsa Casino.

“It is not a commercial project. We like to dance Salsa and we wanted to set up a place in Vladivostok where we and our friends can do it,” Viktoria reveals in an interview in the hall of ‘Africa’ café on April 18. The party ‘Caribe Salsa’ is to take the floor in 20 minutes.

“My goal is to introduce and spread the dancing spirit in our city. Salsa changes people – they become kinder, warmer and open to each other. Vladivostok is in big need of cultural life,” Viktoria shares. A graduate of Far Eastern National University, department of economics with a specialization in languages, she currently works in the Center of Multicultural Exchanges for the Maritime State University in Vladivostok. According to her, Salsa Casino is a club style of dancing most suitable for entertainment and socializing. It is not professional ballroom dancing, and people of all age groups from schoolchildren to retired men can receive much pleasure from salsa dancing.

A 10th grade schoolgirl Vika Dobrokhotova, who sits next to me at the party, eagerly reveals that Salsa dancing lessons and parties bring her much joy and many new friends. “It gives us a great deal of socializing and teaches us to move gracefully,” she assures me, her eyes beaming.

The party indeed is vivid and flashy – fascinating Latin music, dancing pairs mirroring the steps of each other in a rhythm which takes your breath away and an atmosphere of total joy and harmony.

“It is a combination of a man’s strength and a woman’s grace,” Vika tells me admiringly gazing at couples on the dance floor. In a few minutes she is gone to give a nice Salsa performance herself.

“Salsa is energetic and flirtatious, having sizzling character like all Latin dances. It is the dance which sweeps you away and no stimulating drinks are required to feel joyous and relaxed,” Viktoria Tikhonova shares her vision of the dance.

“It is a man’s dance in which the male partner dominates and makes his woman look like a queen and the whole dance is a true show,” concludes Roman Poltarak, an organizer, instructor and desired partner of all dancing women at the party. A graduate of Maritime State University, he threw his sea career to the dance floor at the age of 20.

A regular prize winner of Russian dancing contests, Roman, 26, dreams of creating a Salsa school in Vladivostok. “It actually can not be exactly a Salsa school but a school of partner dances,” he reveals in an interview.

According to him, with about 150 to 200 students enrolled in the school, it will be possible to organize Salsa master classes, festivals and open a Latin dance night club.

“Latin American culture is getting more and more popular all over the world. Nearby Japan and China are experiencing a Salsa boom with Latin clubs opening and attracting masses of people,” he elaborates. Salsa keeps rolling across Russia too, capturing Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk, Roman adds.

The idea of a Latin club culture in Vladivostok is very appealing but investment is needed. Why is the Salsa dancing culture moving slowly into the Far East of Russia? “It is because of the mentality – the seaport of Vladivostok is a city of grave seamen who are not in the habit of dancing,” Roman shrugs his shoulders and smiles.

It is indeed difficult to attract men to dances. When attending my first Salsa class I noticed that in a group of 12 people we had only two men for partners.

Compared to the party, the atmosphere at a lesson is different – short skirts, high heels and seductive looks give way to jeans, sneakers and sweating faces - step, step, step, pause, step step, step, whirl. Hard to keep breath and balance but the excitement is worth the pain. I feel welcome to the world of Salsa stepping where an intimate dialog between the partners is a must.



More information about Salsa classes and activities in Vladivostok and photo gallery is available at www.vladsalsa.ru