i was backpacking in a foreign country alone on the last night of my trip, and i asked myself why not join a party? you won’t have the chance to be in this city again, and you’ve never been to this type of event before. yesterday i went to a social dancing party that was Spanish themed. in university i attended the partnered dancing club and took salsa classes for a year, so i thought it would be a nice chance to have fun. everything was fine; i was vibing with the music and trying to remember the figures i had learned.
then a guy started talking to me and we had a conversation. i asked him if the people dancing with partners usually meet there or arrive together, and he said it looked like they meet there. i asked if he wanted me to show him some figures, and he agreed. i took the lead, and both of us were clumsy, which made it funny. after that i continued practicing the figures by myself.
around ten minutes later, a girl suddenly pulled my arm and placed me in the middle of her friend group. i stopped immediately because i didn’t understand what i was supposed to do.
for context, when i took salsa classes and attended dancing nights in the club, we always asked each other if someone knew a certain dance and invited them directly to dance. dancing was mandatory in those nights, and changing partners was encouraged. most of the time you ended up dancing with someone whose name you didn’t even know.
so when she pulled me, i froze and had no idea what was happening. it felt like some kind of invitation to dance, so i asked if they knew salsa. i couldn’t hear her answer clearly, but i understood she rejected my offer. i turned to someone else in the group and asked the same question, but it was another rejection. i thought maybe she was just shy, and i wanted to make things less awkward, so i said, “why don’t you give it a chance? it will flow.” after they rejected me again, i walked away. i felt like i had made them uncomfortable, and i kept wondering why she even pulled my arm and put me there in front of her group.
i tried to enjoy the rest of the party, but the thought that i might have made people uncomfortable kept bothering me. i kept replaying the moment in my head, thinking about how differently social dancing works in different environments. in the university club, everyone expected to dance with strangers, switch partners, and interact openly. but here, people seemed to have a different dynamic, and maybe i misunderstood the situation.
i didn’t intend to make anyone uncomfortable, and i wanted to share something i enjoy. still, the moment stayed with me, and i left the party feeling unsure about what went wrong or what i should have done differently.