Why We Still Dance (Even When Life Gets Messy)
I didn’t start dancing because I thought I’d be good at it. I started dancing because I was tired of sitting still.
One night, years ago—somewhere between heartbreak and a broken coffee table—I ended up at a salsa night downtown. It wasn’t fancy. The floor was kind of sticky, and the speakers were old and fuzzy. But when the music started… something changed. Not outside, but inside me. The sound hit some nerve I didn’t know needed touching, and even though I had no clue what I was doing, I said yes when someone asked me to dance. And I’ve been saying yes ever since.
Hustle and Salsa aren’t just steps, they’re conversations. They’re sometimes arguments, sometimes hugs. They’re about trust—trusting your partner, trusting your body, and maybe most of all, trusting that it’s okay to let go of whatever nonsense you carried in with you. The weight of the day, the awkwardness of not knowing what comes next, the self-doubt—somehow it all melts under the rhythm.
I’ve seen people walk into a dance class alone, barely making eye contact, and walk out beaming, sweat-soaked, lit up in ways no Zoom meeting or gym workout could ever replicate. I’ve watched friendships form mid-spin. I’ve watched heartbreaks heal, slowly, one 8-count at a time. And honestly, I think that’s what makes places like Hustle & Salsa special. They’re not just dance studios. They’re little sanctuaries of rhythm and release.
I know it sounds dramatic, maybe even cliché, but I really do believe dancing can save people. Not in a “fix your life overnight” kind of way, but in the “give your soul room to breathe” kind of way. You don’t have to be good. You don’t even have to know the steps. All you need is the willingness to show up and try. The rest—believe me—will come.
And yes, you will mess up. You’ll trip over someone’s foot. You’ll turn the wrong way. You’ll panic and forget everything you just learned. But no one will care. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about connection. Studies even show that partner dancing improves memory, coordination, and mental health. But you don’t need science to know that something shifts in you when the music takes over. You can feel it.
So if you’ve been thinking about it, but feel nervous or too old or too stiff or too whatever—come anyway. Wear the sneakers, mess up the steps, laugh when you get it all wrong. That’s the real magic. Not the technique. Not the show. Just real people moving through the mess of life with a little more rhythm than before.
See you on the floor.