HORSHAM & CRAWLEY SALSA

Dedicated to Dance

Welcome to Horsham Salsa. We have been teaching Cuban Style Salsa around Horsham & Crawley since 2006. 

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Horsham Salsa is pausing classes.....

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Hola Mi Gente,

I’m pressing pause on Horsham Salsa.

I feel I need to take a break. I need to do this for me as I need to recover my enthusiasm and love for these Latin dance forms.

I’ve run Horsham Salsa since May 2006. For twelve and a half years I’ve gone out at least once a week (at times four) and taught Salsa. I need be honest with myself that I no longer feel the same motivation to do this. I’ve kept going for as long as I have because I love the people who come along, and I don’t want to let them down despite the many challenges that have come up.

There’s no one single event that’s brought things to this point. Running a salsa club has been tough since the economic downturn of 2007. In the last three years, there’s been a several events that have made running the club more difficult. I lost the club’s long standing ‘home’ in the heart of Horsham. Although the Rugby Club has been a venue in a town short on suitable venues that aren’t already taken, being out of town has made it hard for people without their own transport. 
In general terms, venues have their own agendas and it’s not usually providing enough space to people who want to dance and drink water, they want to sell drinks!!!

Some dancers don’t come to learn to dance and put others off. 
A change in the weather can cause people to stay home. 
One slightly too strongly word of tuition can be taken as an insult.

In the last three years I’ve had two teachers who came along to ‘help’ only to find it was just somewhere to find dancers for their own ventures – thanks guys. Though to be fair, they were the 5th and 6th do so not to mention the two or three clubs who tried to set up in the area as they figured it was easier to pinch dancers than generate their own.

A lot of our younger dancers went of to Uni.

I have had a steady stream of enquiries from those wishing to start, yet it seems people don’t want to travel to the venue holding classes because they want it in their town on the day that suits them. When I started, dancers thought nothing of driving 30-50 miles to get to a good venue. Now, people won’t drive from Horsham to Crawley or vice versa. They can’t commit to four weeks to do a Beginners course. They phone and ask dozens of questions and then tell me that they will come next month – those rarely if ever turn up.

I’ve also made my share of mistakes though good luck finding a business owner who hasn’t.

Although financially viable, my life is in a very different place now and I just don’t get the same thrill heading out in the evenings.

I anticipate that this won’t be welcome news for some. I hope that you find somewhere else to dance and that you don’t allow this to stop you dancing. Please, go out and continue to learn to express yourself through dance. It’s also the best form of stress relief and is proven to ward off dementia.

A Salsa Club is made up of many parts and I can’t sign off without thanking Duncan and Tracy whose long-standing service for so long made so much of this possible.

To the more than 24,000 attendances over the last 12 years I am hugely grateful.

Abrazos a todos

Jon

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