Salsa expert Aditya Upadhya; (below) a session in progress at Solace. Pictures by Pabitra Das

Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan burnt the dance floor while taking salsa lessons in Kal Ho Naa Ho and now with Vive la Salsa knocking on Calcutta doors, it’s your turn to sign up for the same.

Hailed as the hottest dance form in the world, this Latino art is considered the most fluid and sensual form of expression. And what is it about salsa that makes it so super-sexy?

“Salsa is how you make your body move and unlike other dance forms where you need to keep your head at an angle and your hand at a certain level, salsa is an attitude, your own language,” says expert Aditya Upadhya, founder of Vive la Salsa.

But Salsa is not all flow and no form. For, this dance form involves quite a bit of painstaking footwork.

The beginners level could take you through the mambo, rhumba and salsa steps. Then follows the left and right spins-cum-turns. Finally, the shine.

“Only when the basic steps are sorted out and your footwork is perfect, then shine or the styling aspect gains importance,” explains Aditya.

He is in town to conduct salsa classes at Solace, the day spa in Sunny Park.

Though salsa has originated from a street style of Cuban dance, it has found many off-shoots and Aditya will be taking Calcuttans through the Los Angeles style of salsa.

Constant change marks this form too, but Vive la Salsa promises moves on a par with the latest. “Anyone who is learning here can join classes anywhere in the world,” is Aditya’s claim.

Salsa works on the principle of contra-body movement where the hips sway in the opposite direction of the flow of the leg. Learning the partner work is essential because a lot of the essence “depends on the chemistry”.

The main mantra is to build a personal salsa system because it is not all about choreography where one step has to follow the next.

“It’s too spontaneous a dance form to be put into a series. The guy decides the next move on the spot and the lady follows his lead, keeping her body’s resistance intact,” explains Aditya.

But that’s not where the salsa saga ends. Vive la Salsa is geared to drive its students from the studio to the nightclubs.

Salsa will then be promoted through exotic theme nights.

“Salsa is always huge but at the moment its newest avatar Reggaeton is what is making a splash. A sound that boasts of salsa, hip hop and raggae, Reggaeton is a brand new genre in itself,” says DJ Girish.

So, be in salsa step or be out of party step.