A few years ago, I was in a theatre competition and I found out, to my surprise (oh, how humble was I in those days!), that I hadn’t qualified for the finals. I felt dissapointed because I had put a lot of effort into the work. Seriously, A LOT. Some of my friends who didn’t qualify felt really bad, some of them cried. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with crying. But I felt like I had two choices: I could either cry or dance. And when my teacher asked me how I felt, I said: I choose to dance.

So, I am going to dance tonight not to celebrate how great this week was (because I was preety upset and felt like shit on some days) but to transform all the bad things that happened into movement and to celebrate that I am alive even if life isn’t pretty all the time.

You see, if you listen close to the lyrics of salsa music, you’ll find out that about half of the songs are about some form of pain. How does the painful content of salsa music relate to its upbeat rhythms? Well, it is simple. Crying comes from the tension that exists between fortune’s will and your own. On the other hand, when you dance salsa, and the song happens to be about pain, you embrace it  in your body, in you mind and  in your voice. And there is no tension, no frustration. It just is what it is. Yes, you acknowledge pain and complain through the lyrics but in the end… you enjoy the experience. Because pain is part of life and there is nothing wrong with it except for the feeling that fighting pain creates. So, baila, baby!!! all night long!