Pauses, Not Stops

It is a new year.

The inevitability of the world spinning, completing a lap around the sun, and peeling another year off the calendar is an encouragement: the world does not stand still and even unfortunate situations eventually pass.

While 2020 was one of the most challenging years on record, 2021 is still young enough to hold a sense of cautious optimism: there are multiple COVID-19 vaccinations in the world now. The promise of a return to a different normal looms on a not-so-distant horizon. Local, national, and international travel, sport and concert attendance, film premieres and awards ceremonies—these are just some of the large mass-attendance events that could become possible within the next couple of months. Weddings with family or braais with friends—even these smaller and intimate events might be hosted without the fear of contracting a virus that has managed to strip the world of all of its most intimate connection opportunities.

For dancers the possibility of a resumption of human connection means one thing: a return to the dance floor.

In March 2020, The Salsa Windhoek Social Club closed its doors due to the national lockdown procedures implemented to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It was an unpleasant experience to endure despite its necessity.

Now, almost a year later, with a new studio and brand identity, The Salsa Club and its members are following global health news with interest and hope: perhaps a long-term solution to the current pandemic will be found.

But one has to be ready to receive what one prays for—you plough the field before it rains. That is why The Salsa Club’s dance floor is polished and waiting for the earliest opportunity to get back to the salsa, bachata, cha-cha, and merengue rhythms and melodies.

If there is one lesson that has endured since March 2015, when The Salsa Club was little more than a ragtag group of dancers looking for a home across Windhoek’s scattered dance floors, it is this: every setback suffered along this journey towards being an independent and dedicated dancing space has been a pause, not a permanent stop.

With 2021 slowly unwinding, this lull between one track and another is an opportunity to stretch dormant muscles, shuffle into shape, and prepare for dancing once more with music from Hatiando, Sever Combo, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, and Gian Marco.

Pa Koute Konsey — Hatiando