Читать книгу 101 Romantic Weekends in Europe - Sarah Woods - Страница 10

CONTACT Madrid Tourist Office Tel: +34 915 881 636 Email: turismo@munimadrid.es www.esmadrid.com

Madrid’s sultry salsa scene revels in sensual seduction, in which simmering physical chemistry and overtly sexual rhythms collide in a full-on sensory assault. Meaning ‘sauce’ in Spanish, the salsa is anything but sweet in style. Yet a fiery chilli has soft flesh and the salsa is no stranger to tender sentiment, albeit wrapped in raw, heartfelt desire. With bodies pressed tightly together in rhythmic unison, Madrid’s spellbinding musical love potion adds an extra frisson to the dance-floor. ‘I’m drowning and I can’t live without you’ resonates the ultimate salsa love cry of Mi Todo (My All): an intimate cocktail of intoxicating lyrics and irrepressible, sweat-drenched beats.

In recent years salsa musicians from such places as Havana, Panama, Colombia and Argentina have made their home in the Spanish capital, joining forces with Spanish musicians to create various hybrid forms of salsa fused with African and Middle Eastern sounds. In Madrid, this melting pot of vibrant musical influences is easy to discover, from Cuban folk and Puerto Rican peasant dances to the tribal drumming of the Western Sahara. Visitors keen to experience Madrid’s sassiest dance form will need to wait until at least midnight when restaurants begin clearing the last dinner plates and city’s salsatecos begin to fill. Entering a salsa bar can be like joining a theatrical production where the dance floor is the stage and the salseros the actors. To the 1-2-3-touch, 5-6-7-touch of a pulsating, syncopated beat a moving sea of dancers revels in physical, musical and philosophical synch. Through shifting moods and tempos, couples sustain an intense level of inter-body communication as tendrils of salsa passion ignite.

Pick up a Guía del Ocio from any street corner kiosk for a comprehensive list of salsa lessons, venues and festivals, plus upcoming events. Madrid’s premier salsa joints include the trendy Barnon (17 Santa Engracia), tropical Azúcar (Pº Reina Cristina, 7, near Atocha Railway Station) and the fiesta-loving El Son (Victoria 6, Metro Sol, near Puerta del Sol). The city’s oldest salsateca, O’zona (Av. Mediterráneo, 12 Metro Conde de Casal o Menéndez Pelayo), may boast a pocket-sized dance-floor, but for a shock of sensual energy few can compare. A blaze of fast-paced spins and turns ensure a night of tight-fit dances among the salsa throng. Once the triple-twirls fade into a dreamy, slow-tempo salsa romántica, you’ll know daybreak has arrived.

Dance a fiery salsa for a burst of sensual energy.