10 out of 10

Ok, in my blogs so far, for some funny reason I never mentioned my salsa classes. I guess it just stems from the fact that even when I was learning to dance in India, I had to keep it a secret from a lot of people for fear of being teased by them. My interest in learning to dance was sparked by my friend Kuldeep, when at an office party he just casually said he could do salsa. Now Kuldeep and I had fallen out of touch for a long time before that, and I didnt know that he was learning to dance, so when I heard that, I was gobsmacked. But that very moment, I was like...if he can dance, I gotta start learning too! So I joined the same class as him, and pretty soon, I could shake a leg too. Well, I guess I could shake a leg since a long time, but I just didnt know that I could...but after I joined that class, I knew I could do it!

At first, it was more to make me feel that there was SOMETHING that I could do, that a lot of others cant. U see, I'm not exactly brilliant at studies, well I'm good, but not the best; I'm not good at any sport; I cant sing, nor play any musical instrument...basically, I had always been 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. So I sought to rectify that situation, and dance seemed like a good outlet back then (this was early 2008, by the way - its not like I've been dancing forever!). Anywayz, in a few weeks I realized that dance had become my single most important source of relaxation in the entire week. I would look forwards to Sundays just so I could rush off and have some fun at class. It was also my only source of exercise during the week!

Well, I danced for most of 2008, and picked up a bit of skill in different forms of dance such as rumba, cha cha cha, waltz, jive and salsa. But alas, the dream had to come to an end at some point, and it did. By end of 2008, my work and other commitments overtook my commitment to fun and learning, and my dance lessons came to end, leaving me kind of sad, because I had started to love it so much.

Of course, I moved to London in September 2009, and my lifestyle in Mumbai, including dance, soon became a thing of the past...life and priorities were different here, and I honestly never realized how much I missed dancing till I saw the e-mail in early January announcing the start of Salsa lessons thru the Cass Latin American Society. I jumped at the opportunity and haven't looked back since! We had 10 lessons during sem 2 and five in sem 3...and for the first time in my life, I did not miss even a single class. Mondays suddenly became my fave day of the week, and there was a pep in my step thanx to finding my one true love again!

So today was the last class, and this class was my most memorable experience at Cass. I think my fave part of this year and the whole Cass experience was reconnecting wid Salsa again. And for that I do owe a huge thanks to Paola, the lady who started the Latin American Society and put the whole thing together. Thanx to her efforts, I've learnt some more dancing, made so many new friends and I enjoyed my time here in London.

Going back to my blog's title, I had my last dance at Cass at the end of today's class with one of our teachers Saulo, and after we finished, he said '10 out of 10 for her, she's a very good dancer'. Now I'm sure I'm still just a 2 out of 10, but hell, atleast I'm making my way up that ladder. In any case, big thanx to Saulo for saying that. U just made me feel so worthy today, u made my day!!!