Have you ever wondered how to set the dance floor on fire in the heart of Medellin, Colombia? Ever wished you could salsa and bachata like a local? Come with me, Tommy Heitz, as we journey together through a night filled with rhythm, dancing, and cultural discovery! Discover the vibrant world of Latin dance as I share my venture into a Medellin dance hall where, for a mere $20, I experienced a party that lasted till dawn. Tune in as I unwrap the distinct features of salsa and bachata, revealing how I picked up basic moves from seasoned instructors and the importance of this dance savoir-faire when trying to win over the local ladies!
But this is more than just a story about dancing! The episode goes into detail about my adventures learning and freestyling these two popular Latin dance forms, the importance of reading and adapting to the crowd and music, and how these experiences shaped my love for Latin dance. I'll also share a sneak peek into some of my amusing and heartwarming dance tales that will have you laughing and reminiscing about your own dance floor exploits. And as a teaser for next week, I'll touch on the hilarities and trials of daily life. So, if you're up for an episode filled with rhythm, laughter, and a glance at the funnier side of adulting, this one’s for you! So, ready to join me on this rhythmic journey?
Have you ever wondered how to set the dance floor on fire in the heart of Medellin, Colombia? Ever wished you could salsa and bachata like a local? Come with me, Tommy Heitz, as we journey together through a night filled with rhythm, dancing, and cultural discovery! Discover the vibrant world of Latin dance as I share my venture into a Medellin dance hall where, for a mere $20, I experienced a party that lasted till dawn. Tune in as I unwrap the distinct features of salsa and bachata, revealing how I picked up basic moves from seasoned instructors and the importance of this dance savoir-faire when trying to win over the local ladies!
But this is more than just a story about dancing! The episode goes into detail about my adventures learning and freestyling these two popular Latin dance forms, the importance of reading and adapting to the crowd and music, and how these experiences shaped my love for Latin dance. I'll also share a sneak peek into some of my amusing and heartwarming dance tales that will have you laughing and reminiscing about your own dance floor exploits. And as a teaser for next week, I'll touch on the hilarities and trials of daily life. So, if you're up for an episode filled with rhythm, laughter, and a glance at the funnier side of adulting, this one’s for you! So, ready to join me on this rhythmic journey?
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look around and think to yourself my god, everything is weird. Well, we do A lot. This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and hilarious podcast. If we observe it, we talk about it. Anything and everything, anything and everything. Let's get weird and let's have some fun. This is the Observation Station and now your host, tommy Heights.
Speaker 2:
Hello, dear listeners, welcome back to another episode of the Observation Station. I'm your host, tommy Heights. Today we're diving into a topic that is close to my heart dancing. So universal language. It lets you express yourself without uttering a single word. But before we get into it, don't forget to hit that follow button there. Make sure to stick around. We're going to be diving into some dancing chronicles of Bachata.
Speaker 2:
When I went to Medellin so that's going to be our first segment here in the podcast I'll go over the lessons I got, the moves that I learned and kind of a dance hall experience where five in the morning is where people in Medellin said that's when our party ends. I'm thinking, well, there's no way, but wanted to start off here. Just telling you, when I went to Medellin, I wanted to learn how to dance over there because, first off, everybody dances there. So if I learned a little bit of moves, you could probably meet a girl over there and she could teach you how to dance. The rest is history. So I go over there to Medellin wanting to learn Bachata. There was salsa too. So getting to look online, figuring out okay, where is it that? Like a dance hall, something like a club where I can meet people that will teach me how to dance. So I get online here. There's a place right by my hotel. I go there and there's a poster for, like you know, dance night, and I can speak Spanish so I can see that the sign says like dance night for starting at like 1030 at night till five in the morning. I'm thinking this is pretty cool and it costs only 20 bucks American dollars there. I'm thinking to myself this is the cheapest, you know, all night. Kind of cool, you know, it's just fun to be in a place where you don't have to be spending like Miami just to get into a club and it all costs you like $500 minimally and you can have a fun night for like $20, $30 American.
Speaker 2:
Over there in Medellin, no-transcript. I get in to this club and they go slowly. People start coming in, coming in, coming in. They need your ID just for security purposes inside there. So they had my license. Some people had their passport because apparently it makes sense If you have it where somebody's drinking and they cause a huge ruckus. I'm guessing in Medellin there's a lot of problems with that. So they have certain protocols. So it's a little bit of a slow process to get people in, because it's almost like security to get in. So people get in and the drinks start getting served into the club. People start becoming a little bit more talkative.
Speaker 2:
I'm thinking let me scope out to see which is some cute girls that are going to teach me how to dance here, and they have one room for salsa and the other room is for bachata, so you can have two different styles at the same venue. Salsa is a whole lot quicker, was definitely what I learned. The music is fast, is no messing around. If you don't know what you're doing, you got to get out of the dance floor. It's almost like that. That's not one that you can learn to just kind of just go ahead and do. Bachata is really slow, but you have to be very rhythmic with your steps. It's got to be one and two and three and four and one. It's cool to have it where you listen to the music and try to dance along with it, though the beats are very in sync with how the steps obviously are moving. Though if you're doing an entire song going with the beat, it's not as easy as you think, because the people really make it look easy, just like ice skating or golf. It's appearing to be easy, though the amount of work it makes to get to an effortless stage of your professional career is something that you don't see all the trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2:
So I'm asking the instructors, which are? These are actually legitimate instructors there that you know? They're still, you know, at the party. They're kind of just monitoring things. I wanted to see you about getting classes, and this was asked him in Spanish. So how many years have you been dancing? And they'll tell me, you know, sometimes eight, 10 years. The whole thing is baffling to me how it's like they tell me I still have a lot of moves to learn and I'm thinking how many moves in bachata can there be if you've done this for 10 years straight and you're still thinking that there's more? But it's just fascinating.
Speaker 2:
You have to have an open mind, because everybody comes into Columbia thinking that, hey, look, you know the girls are going to just fall over me head over heels. But if you don't know how to dance, these girls in Columbia are not going to want to be with you. I mean, unless it's like just a fling or just for your money or something like that. All those girls wanted to dance with me there, though I only was knowing the basics, so it wasn't like all the other guys there that grew up in Columbia and they've been dancing bachata since they were all kids. It's not like they're the instructor grade of how smooth they are, but everybody's got all these steps and they can just go through entire songs with like 20 different moves. So I'm there just doing the basics and the girls, you know, they're kind of like laughing a little bit, but kind of in a playful way, like an A-Telt. Tell them in Spanish. They said I'm sorry, I'm learning the basics here, but I'm imagining that really soon here I'm going to be a whole lot better, but I'm enjoying my time with you and they kind of like that, being more vulnerable, though you want to be honest with them and not be like, yeah, I'm the best dancer and try to just fumble your way around, because they can just sniff it out pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:
It's not like in the United States, where you could just hit a couple of beers and snap onto the dance floor and people are like, dude, that guy's a good dancer. You know what I'm saying. Everybody's just drunk as hell, thinking yeah, you know, bobby, you know, after a couple of Yeagers, that guy out there. You know he knows how to drop it Like, well, actually go to someplace where it's coordinated. That guy doesn't know anything and you know, here in the United States they'll think coordinated they think only like ballet.
Speaker 2:
There's a lot of different dances and men that dance by Chata. I'm going to tell you the ones that did it really well. The girls were falling head over heels for those guys because they'd just be dancing as if it's like they're just. It's a vibe. You can see when people are trying just like myself, you know you're trying to bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. You have to kind of think about it.
Speaker 2:
One and two and three, where these dudes were kind of like a music video, you could pick them out in the crowd. You'd be like, oh, that one, you know the guy over there in the red shirt, this guy over here, and then they have a competition. And then you see these guys that I was looking at being like professional, looking. There's competitions there. You can win like free lessons at the venue. It's really kind of cool because people are cheering on, say, but it's all in Spanish. That's the kind of. The nice thing is, I know how to speak Spanish, but they'll be like okay, we're gonna have a couple songs and we're gonna have this couple over here and this couple over here. Now we're gonna have a round of applause when they're done, and the loudest round of applause is who the winners are gonna be. So this is gonna be round one, and then they play some music and it's like, and they're like one, two, three, and then the DJ hits the play on the speaker.
Speaker 2:
Da da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da da and people are already cheering them on, because a lot of them are, they're all friends, they're from the city, they know each other and people are screaming like, oh my God, da, da, da, da, da. It's super cool. And then the lights kind of go down like okay, okay, that's a minute and a half, oh, we got so and so and so and so Introduce yourself. You know, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okay, we're gonna play this song from so and so.
Speaker 3:
It's a different melody altogether and it's like da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.
Speaker 2:
And then they are going crazy then even in the crowd because these people are hitting it just almost as equally. But it's like, oh my God it's, until somebody has to do like one or two moves. That's crazy like pulling like a trick out of the bag because it's gotta be something where the guy just kind of like it has to be so out of pocket because they're so both equally very talented with the music. It's something that the guy kind of like throws the girl under his legs and does like a pure what I don't know where. People are going nuts. It's like, yeah, the game's over, man, this dude just killed the shit. I mean, what are we talking about here? And then the girls when it's regular dancing time, when they win the prize of like you know five free lessons or like who knows whatever, some cash prize, the whole party starts.
Speaker 2:
Nice thing beers are like $2 at the club and these are, you know, there's a couple good beers. It's not like the United States, where I mean, I'm in Miami. There, if you're going to the club, don't expect to be getting good drinks, period. I mean you can say that, oh yeah, I know the bartender here, they take care of me and all this. If you want really good drinks, you have to go onto a Google review website to see hey, this is a craft cocktail place that actually has people that are certified bartenders. Not Billy, the guy that graduated from dishwasher bar back to bartender. No, this is somebody that actually knows what they're doing garnishing and X, y and Z.
Speaker 2:
So I mean, look, it's more than just a dance, it's a conversation between two people. It's like a telenovela unfolding on the dance floor, full of drama, passion, intricate footwork, and in Medellin they take their bachata seriously. I mean, you could be at a grocery store and suddenly everyone breaks into like a coordinated dancer team. But you know, you get the point there. I mean, just, it's all about a vibe.
Speaker 2:
So the learning curve, it's not easy. You know uno, dos, tres, cuatro. You know it's not easy, but the first lesson is all about the basics side to side steps, hip movements, the ever so important turns. The third lesson is like when things got real is when you know they're gonna be doing dip spins and you know all this other stuff, where I was trying to be careful and I was tripping over my own self. It's like when you do a crossover and basketball, when you start tripping over your own ankles it's like, oh my God, what's going on here? They make it look so easy when you're sitting down and someone does it in front of you because the dancing actually it looks like it's in slow motion. When you're watching it from a third party, you know a third person, but when you're in it, where that music starts going on where it's, and then you're waiting for the beat, to say One two, three, four.
Speaker 2:
So you're going One, two three, four.
Speaker 3:
One, two, three, four.
Speaker 2:
So, but you're going a three-minute song. It's a place where you have to keep the pace going and once you have it, where maybe you kind of slip up a little bit, you just catch yourself. But you got to be graceful about it and I mean, look, that's my coordinated dancing chronicle sector. I'm going to switch over to the next segment, which is the freestyle dancing at parties. Now we're talking about a different Tommy. What we're talking about you know we're going to the party because you know, have a couple of modellos having a good time not messing around. You know your freestyle dancing. You hear a little bit of A-Con, drake, somebody the weekend. The list goes on and on.
Speaker 2:
I can be doing the robot and, like I said over here, in the United States I'm considered a good dancer. What is a good dancer? Well, the United States thinks I'm a great dancer and I live in this country. I'll take the compliment. I'll take it all day. There's always going to be some haters out there. That's okay. There's never been a hater that's been doing better than the person they're hating on. So I'm doing just fine. So it's like being like a stand-up comedian.
Speaker 2:
But for dancing, you read the room, you adapt, you throw in a few unexpected moves to keep the people on their toes. Literally, whether it's a moonwalk across the kitchen or a spontaneous salsa with a broom, freestyle dancing is all about letting loose and having fun. We're not here to be judging unless you're a lane from Seinfeld, that shit's awful. I mean, let's get real here, that was terrible. So I mean, I come from a Hispanic background which is kind of my party fun, lively but the European background is where I want to get technical with the Bachata. So it's kind of like a cultural bridge for me. So you know, it's something that when you step out of the comfort zone it's more fun than you think.
Speaker 2:
I was on a cruise, met a lot of cool people just by going to the nightclub dancing there and look the nightclub on it. That's kind of fun, I have to tell you, there, when you dance on a cruise, it's so fun because it's like traveling with people you've never met before but you start becoming friends with them because they're with you all day long. You could be on floor number seven at one bar and then later on in the day you're going to the pool at that bar, down to the bar and you know the first floor. There's all kinds of different things that you can do with people and you're like, hey, man, the nightclub's opening at 9.30. Why don't we just dance and go to the bar that's at the nightclub? Oh, my God, the life man.
Speaker 2:
And that's when you know this is going to be where you start becoming a degenerate, like, I love dancing on cruises. This is the best. Nobody ever has it. Where they get into like a fight on a cruise because those people are on vacation. You're not having it. Where you have to park somewhere and some girl just stood you up. Da, da, da, da. You're on a cruise. This is very cool. You're on a cruise, this is vacation. How bad can it be? You're like, oh, I'm going to be in Puerto Rico this day, panama tomorrow, I'd see the next day. You know, let's get real here. Life is pretty good. Cruises are the best, unless you're maybe on carnival, then that looks terrible.
Speaker 2:
But every time you get to have a time to dance, I've given the kind of the expression to say, hey, what the heck. I feel like tapping my foot If it's appropriate, or dancing, having a good time. Let me express myself. People are going to be like, oh, look at that idiot over there. He's trying to have a good time. Who are you? You're just hating on people, haters, man Haters. So look, this is what it is right now. Be you, dance what you want.
Speaker 2:
If you're a guy that wants to dance ballet, do that, no problem, just have it where the enjoyment is expressed on the floor. That's all that we ask for is that everybody's having fun. So if that's the smile that's on your face because you like to do the whatever, that's you that own it. So, but well, folks, look, that's all the time we have for today.
Speaker 2:
I hope you enjoyed this rhythmic journey as much as I did, and if you got any hilarious or heartwarming dance stories, don't hesitate to share them with us on social media using the hashtag observation station dance. So teaser for the next episode is going to be the comedy and tragedy of daily life. It's going to be just talking about, like chores, dmv, basic stuff that you have to do in life, where it's adulting that you know it just happens when you grow up goes by so quick. One minute you are eating Cheerios, next minute you're in the DMV getting yelled at because you don't have a passport from like Canada, who knows? So, all right, guys, keep that smile going. See you Friday. Take it easy, bye bye.
