Allow me to tell you a story about my journey to teaching salsa online.
The world shut down on March 20. Rewind to two days prior. Nicole Lamb is scheming up her business plan to do what no other previous salsa dance instructor had done in the past…
“I will go into people’s home to teach one-on-one salsa lessons!“
So you could imagine my dismay, DANCE AT YOUR DOORSTEP had to wait.
“What defines us is how well we rise after we fall”
Zig Ziglar
Before Salsa…
My world wasn’t new to falling. Growing up very fast as a child, moving from city to city and not in the best of environments, my young mother could only do the best she could with limited support raising 3 very challenging kids!
I moved out when I was 17. At 19, I got pregnant. Married with 2 kids at 23. Divorced by 25. Looked for love without realizing what compatibility was all about. By 40, I finally sat myself down. I asked myself, “Who am I loving here?”
I was thirsty for knowledge and was longing for inner peace.
The quote from the Kung Fu TV series comes to mind “Patience, young grasshopper” during this process..
Books that are memorable and recommended
- Pulling Your Own Strings – Wayne Dyer
- Find Your Happy – Shannon Kaiser
- The 8 Arms of Jealousy – Reid Mihalko
- The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
- The 4 Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
- How to Win friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
- Speak and Inspire – Lisa Nichols
- Daring Greatly – Brene Brown
- Judgement Detox – Gabrielle Berstein
- Marriage of Spirit – Enlightened Living in Today’s World – Leslie Temple Thurston
But why did I get hooked to Salsa classes?!
All they showed to me were concepts and theories that I could not completely understand unless I used them in day to day life, and quite honestly, I was being a hermit.
When I started to dance with OTHERS, I started to apply these concepts and recognized how I was reacting to others and being more cognizant of how they reacted to me during our salsa dancing.
HECK, it even woke up some demons I had to face. Dance nudged me to look further for education on how to heal stories I was telling myself. I had to start paying attention to my thoughts and feelings.
Salsa dance classes opened the door to my self discovery
Reasons that may draw you to Salsa:
- Loneliness.
- Need for connection.
- The yearning for fun!
- A functional exercise is better than a “to-do” list
- Mood elevation, stat!
- Memory training OR
- All of the above?
Of course, this sounds very presumptuous, but hear me out. This last anecdote may sound familiar, or at least the feelings may be triggering *pre-emptive warning*
The end of my unhappiness,
On April 12, 2020, I found myself sitting down on my bed, on a nice sunny day, wondering why I felt so sad. A good cry literally crept up on me!
Realizing the world of salsa would no…longer…be there…void. The death of the salsa community as I knew it.
We are talking about 50-500 people that I had met in the last 5 years. Not so long of a distant memory.
The enjoyment of bringing 5 different outfits to a social, gone.
The physical touch of people I grew to know well, gone.
The routine of attending classes and socials, gone.
Going to yearly congresses and dancing the day and night away, gone.
Even the dance instructors in Hamilton, had to shut down their businesses indefinitely. This pandemic was a dark horse. My Instagram thoughts below…
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-4fkPRhwQs/?igshid=1edc0zh04y07d
The Salsa Conclusion..
I slowly but surely identified myself in other ways, besides being a salsa dancer. It was a very slow start…if you can identify watching Netflix as a modality of self exploration (apparently I really like watching Strangers Things, The Witcher and Ozark).
Fast-forward to now. My creativity couldn’t help but come out and I quite enjoy creating cuisine masterpieces and funny tiktoks..
https://www.facebook.com/danceatyourdoorstepHamilton/videos/2406378426331487
So the moral of the story is, we can find a way to make the best of a situation, right? You are expressing yourself, yes? If you are not, this is why I am here. I can SHOW you!
My motto: If you can’t speak, SHINE!
For “shine lessons” click Here
So my question to you is:
Do you want a teacher who makes the best of the situation, who is well equipped with the trials of life, and focuses more on your happiness during the learning process?
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”
Maya Angelou