This has been a crazy past couple of days. I've been so stressed trying to get ready for the salsa demo, I've barely been able to sleep!

I sent reminders through my facebook group about my salsa demo and then sent a mass text to everyone in my phone book reminding them about the free lessons.

Monday at 10:30 AM Stephen and I had a lesson with Robert at Capital Ballroom to get ready for the demo. I knew I needed a) a partner b) someone to partner the girl learners if there were no guys and c) someone to help teach the guy part. I also recruited James who contacted me via facebook regarding salsa. He said he has taught in the past and would love to help out, so of course I said sure!

At the lesson Stephen learned frame, basic forward and backward, underarm turn, cross-overs, cross body lead, the three turn combo, and the hammerlock. He caught on so fast, which I was no surprised about considering how well he dances and how well he learned when I choreographed that piece for USC. Stephen is a very visual learner: once he saw the combo done by Robert and I a few times, he had it down pat. The lesson also got him more excited about salsa, and he said he wants to go to my next lesson with me as well. Yay for fun dance partners!

Monday afternoon I got the PA system from my friend Emrys, got salsa music from my friend Sydney, passed out a few more fliers, tested the PA, put together my sign for my information table, got all my shoes, fliers, etc. together for the table, and loaded everything up in my car. I was basically getting prepared for the demo from 1 PM to about 8 PM. It was extremely stressful, especially because I spent about 1 and 1/2 hours looking for my friend Emrys's car to get the PA! Oh well, there will always be obstacles when you're doing a project as big as this one.

Tuesday morning (today) I woke up at 8 to move my car to a metered spot so I could have it available to carry all the stuff for the demo. Then I got extra pretty and dressed up for the demo, loaded the remaining stuff in the car, and went to my first class before the demo. I left my class (Shakespeare) 15 minutes early so I could start setting up for my demo.

When I got to Greene St. in front of Russell House, there was a band playing! I started stressing out that they had double booked us, but when I went to the Russell House events office, they informed me the band was going to be done at 12:30. Whew!

My boyfriend Corey helped me carry the HUGE PA system along with the sign to the table set up on Greene St. James was already there to help with SAGE, the green friendly club on campus. There were a bunch of tables set up because of Earth Day, which was great because all the students working the tables learned to salsa!

Emrys set up the PA system for me while I changed into my hot salsa dress (I needed something to attract students!). My roommates (future and present) Cori and Annie helped work the table to make sure fliers didn't fly away and get people involved. Stephen did a great job making announcements with the microphone and getting people excited. I was nervous and shy at first, but by about 20 minutes into it I was yelling into the mic to get people to dance.

James was by far a better teacher than me - he knew so much and also had a great way of leading. I am so lucky to have had him there! Also, we got to find out people on campus who already know how to salsa. One girl named Rebecca who used to dance for Columbia City Ballet stayed the entire time! We would switch off dancing with James and Stephen and it was so much fun! James taught us a bunch of new patterns and we got a lot of practice time in to perfect them. I think the four of us are going to go to Salsa Cabana regularly once summer starts. I'm so happy to find a group to go with!

A few other people seemed very interested and gave me their numbers/cards. I've contacted all of them so far and hopefully we can extend our clubbing group even further.

One of my favorite students was a young man who went to Salsa Cabana last week with a girl and said he wanted to learn more so he could take her again. I thought that was adorable and used the idea for marketing: on the mic I would announce that salsa was the best way to win over a girl!

I had a steady amount of students throughout the demo - about 3-10 at all times. Most people were able to learn the basic forward and backward as well as a simple turn. Hopefully it got them interested in salsa! A bunch of my friends stopped by too, and although they might not be too keen on learning salsa, it was awesome to see them show support.

Overall the demo was a grrrrreat experience. I got to dance for a good 3 hours, meet other people interested in salsa, spread the word about my project, step out of my comfort zone, and get a pretty good tan!