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Congress in session

Signs you know you’ve joined some type of cult:

• the focus of the group activity consumes your weeks, days, nights, and reproductive future.
• everything you do revolves around how it fits into the cult meet up times.
• you don’t mind checking into a hotel with a man who is not your husband on a Friday night because you know you’re going there to participate in a cult activity.
• you start attending conventions

Yes, I attended the 9th annual NYC salsa congress (convention), escorted by veteran JPLogan (who knows everyone, by the way). Despite what you may think, I’ve never attended a star trek convention (yet…) and I’ve only attended one comic book convention as a teenager, but that was more to pimp my cousin as a comic book artist. That said here are some survival tidbits and anthropological observations:

• salsa dancing (and dancing on 2) is a cult. Period. But I now realize that pretty much any group activity is a cult. If you get into something and share the experience with others, you create social norms, habits, etiquette and rely on each other to carry out the core of whatever it is you “believe” in.
• JPLogan touched upon this on our way out (with the party still going even though it was 3am). Like the t-shirts being sold there, many, many, many salseros and salseras are very much “mambobots”. The ballroom of the Hilton hotel was filled with pretty much the same executed moves and it was hard to find individual dancing from the heart. After awhile, to my eyes, all those swaying hips, shaking asses and arms running through blowed out hair looked the same to me. 
• that said, the placed was filled with amazing dancers. The organizers of the congress are lying to you when they tell you that it’s for all levels. Was not one beginner gal I saw there. And of course the one beginner guy that happened to be there sought me out.
• you need to have money if you want to (a) get in (b) don’t want to die of dehydration (unless drinking out of the bathroom sink is fine with you). They inspect your bags to make sure you aren’t smuggling (goodness me!) water in. Water was like what, JPLogan? $6 a bottle? Perhaps licking the sweat off your dance partners is a cheaper way of staying hydrated. And if anyone gets offended you can play it off as the latest dance move and say, “What? You’re not familiar with the Tequila Shot? I learned it (by necessity) from Choco! Get with it…”
• like ice-skating and I guess all ballroom dancing, the outfits are tacky, flashy and look like stripper doll clothes. 
• some girls want you to see their ass because they wear dresses that they know are going to twist around their hips when they dance and they still wear thongs or no underwear.
• there exists a great abundance of bitchy girls. a good remedy for guys to deal with bitchy girls is to bring their kryptonite, a beautiful woman by your side. they can’t take it, their wiring overloads and all of a sudden they’ll want you like crack.
• tell yourself you’re going there to observe better dancers. It’ll help prevent you from loosing all the courage and pride you’ve amassed as you’ve progressed in your classes.

More reflections to come, but that’s what I’m saying right now. And by the way, the current king of spinning me is JPLogan because I believe he ended a song we danced to with a quadruple spin. The spin was that good I lost count. I just remembered enjoying it. And that’s what it comes down to- having fun. Let’s not forget.

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