RWANDA SALSA, KIZOMBA & BACHATA TOUR


RWANDA SALSA, KIZOMBA & BACHATA TOUR
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It was a warm welcome back to the dance scene in Rwanda when I visited in late June. And the weather was also warm, escaping from a cool Nairobi. Kigali, the capital of Rwanda is the same distance by air as Nairobi to Mombasa but a completely different landscape. Kigali is a beautiful city with amazing people who love to dance. Known for so many things; gorillas, mountains, awesome scenic places, a nation rebuilding from genocide in our lifetime. A very special, moving place to visit in Rwanda is the Genocide Memorial Museum which is accessible to many with information presented in different languages.

During this trip I danced with a lot of people and arranged a number private lessons to help share some dance knowledge. I co-ordinated some additional salsa nights where we danced until very late and visited beautiful places.

I started my adventure in Pasadena which is owned by Virgile as it has been an important place for salsa in Rwanda, having been on board since it started. Thursday nights Pasadena were and is always the hosts for salsa On Thursdays, thanks to everyone at Pasadena for the support and it is excellent to see everyone connecting with their dancing.

This time, I travelled with others from Nairobi to share in the community. One of the newer places to dance is Club Next and we arranged a class there with Tandyss and Wangari. It’s a great venue, all painted white with ample room for dancing as well as fantastic lighting and a good platform for deejaying.

It was a slow warm up. I had forgotten that Rwanda has its own time schedule. When we did start, however, everyone was enthused to increase their kizomba, salsa and bachata skills. It was great to meet up with old friends, Cycy, Jimmy, Kassim, Rachel who are the pioneers of salsa in Rwanda and Ralf in particular who runs and organises some classes.
Club Next which is owned by Ever is coming up to be a great venue for dancing in Kigali. So we returned there the next night for another session.

I also took some time out to enjoy Rwanda. While many things are familiar from Kenya, some things are just typically Rwandan. My Kinyarwandan came back to me and cruising around on a motorbike at night it’s just a beautiful place to be. I love the places where you can eat late at night, after a long evening dancing, to be able to rest and eat great food is a perfect ending to the night.

I saw old friends and I made new ones. There was great participation in the classes and social dancing afterwards. Rwanda keep it up, keep on dancing and be part of this dance movement in Africa. So great to see things coming along, I will be back and teaching again soon. Hopefully a bigger event, so stay tuned.
The salsa scene is growing and we wish it to continue onwards and upwards with more more more great dancing. See you soon.