Katmandu, Nepal
Latin dance is heating up life beneath the
icecaps of the Himalayas. In Nepal, young and old alike are
coupling up to salsa, tango, cha-cha, and merengue the night
away.
“In our country, we’ve never had a couples dance,” says Binayek
Shrestha, founder and chief executive officer of the Katmandu-based
Salsa Dance Academy. A new and attractive social concept to
Nepalis, Latin dance has opened up an avenue for people to attend
parties and show off their moves for the first time.
This year, Mr. Shrestha and the staff of his academy celebrated
the growth of Latin dance in Nepal by hosting the country’s First
International Salsa Festival, held Nov. 19- 22.
Professional dancers from around the world flew in to teach four
days of workshops, including a two-hour salsa “boot camp” and
sessions that focused on everything from basic footwork to advanced
“shine patterns.” Other dance forms were on the roster, too: Break
dancing (a form of hip-hop), swing, and belly dancing also drew big
crowds.
Shrestha hopes that annual dance festivals like this will put
Nepal on the map as a country that offers more than mountain treks
and quaint village towns.
“As a destination, we are not just the Himalayas, but for dance
we are here as well,” he says. It’s a timely aspiration, since
Nepal’s government has declared 2011 the year of tourism.
But in the long run, Shrestha hopes the cultural exchange and
this new way to socialize will also change the way Nepalis see
home.
“Yeah, we are one of the poorest countries in the world,”
Shrestha said. “We don’t have McDonald’s. But it’s OK. We have
salsa.”