The salsa scene in Oman

My love for salsa and Latin dancing started in Peru. I had always been in awe of people who could dance, and even attempted ballet and Irish dancing in my second year of uni, but my dancing skills were pretty limited. I have gone to Zumba classes before, so I am familiar with hip-shaking and trying to look like Shakira, but I don't think I really managed it... During my time in Peru I danced a lot. From my experience, Peruvians don't really get that excited to dance to 'normal' music that you'd hear in clubs in the UK, and the dance floor tends to be pretty vacant until a song comes on that they can properly dance to. I learnt basic salsa, bachata, and other styles whilst I was out there and my interest in this kind of dance didn't leave me when I left Peru, and travelled to a much more conservative country. So, this brings me to my blog post today: salsa in Oman.

Yes, there is a big salsa scene in Oman. And, yes, it surprised me a lot. I arrived in the country, knowing it's reputation for being on the conservative side, a place where I would really have to think about the clothing I put on each day and my public behaviour as to not cause offence or be disrespectful to the culture. So finding out about the popularity of salsa, not just among ex-pats, but also among Omanis, was a (happy) surprise for me. Despite picking up some moves from clubs in Peru, I had never taken any actually classes, and I thought this would be a great time to seize the opportunity. Although, it is kind of ironic that I finally ended up learning salsa properly in Oman, and not in South America...

I heard about the classes through a fellow Arabic student who invited me along to have a go one day. We went in a taxi that took us a good way away from our accommodation, and left us on the side of a busy main road, only a five minute walk away from Oman's Spanish Cultural Center (Omani Spanish Friendship Association). The fact that there is a centre for Spanish culture was another shock. It turns out Spanish guitar is big in Oman too. At the centre, they offer Spanish language classes as well as dance. The employees come from various countries, including Oman, India, and various Spanish-speaking countries. The front desk is manned by non-native speakers of Spanish, yet I was able to converse with them in Spanish, proving that you will find opportunities to speak certain foreign languages in unexpected places, with unexpected people!

The first class proved that casually dancing in Peruvian clubs does not provide you with much technique. I had to relearn everything from scratch in order to move on and get to the point that I was comfortable enough to dance salsa socially again. I went to a few classes at beginners' level and enjoyed the slow, relaxed pace. Then, one day, the Sultan of Oman arrived back to the country after an absence of eight months, and people started celebrating on the streets (and parading on the motorway...). So the evening after his arrival, when I was trying to get to my beginners' salsa class said parade meant that taxis were refusing to head into the consequent traffic. It took my friend and I ages to get to the centre and by the time we reached it, it was almost time for the intermediate-advanced class. Although difficult, that class was great, and I haven't returned to a beginners' class since.

I'm actually writing this blog having just come back from another salsa class, this time in a different location. This time I went with another friend, who works at the Arabic language centre where I study. The classes begin at 7pm (although, I arrived suitably late, as a true Omani would!) and ends at 9.30pm, with a half an hour slot after for free dance. The room was filled with lots of people from many different nationalities, including a lot of Omanis. The class was much, much bigger than the more intimate class at the Spanish cultural centre and I, therefore, danced with many different men, some of whom knew who how to lead a girl better than others... After a couple of hours of being spun around (sometimes with more force than I would have liked) in the same sequence, we finally got to the free dance section, where anyone, from any level, can dance with each other to different styles, including salsa, bachata, and zouk. This was my favourite part of the evening as it was a chance to just dance without a rehearsed routine, letting the guy decide the moves and going along with it.

Social dancing outside of classes is widely available in Muscat. I have been to a Trader Vic's restaurant where social salsa is held on the weekends. There is a live band, and it's nice to sit and watch the really skilful dancers twirling around the dance floor effortlessly. When I eventually got up to try, it definitely wasn't effortless and people probably weren't sitting and marvelling at my patchy footwork, but I am improving with practice! There are also one-off salsa nights at different bars and restaurants, as well as various festivals throughout the year.

So, as it turns out salsa is relatively popular here, and I'm becoming less and less surprised about the multi-layered, stereotype-contradicting aspects of Oman that I wouldn't have even considered before I arrived here.

Here are a couple of articles if you're interested in learning more:

• http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/Oman-only-GCC-country-to-have-Spanish-Cultural-Centre-21nf
• http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Stories-Files/The-salsa-sensation