One of the pleasures of living in Silicon Valley is seeing the interplay of many different cultures and watching how they mix and combine. A fascinating meld of art and culture has happened between Salsa and Indian Music. Giju John is a Silicon Valley engineer by day and salsa dancer and Indian music performer by night. I am learning salsa dancing myself, and when I saw this guy practice dancing (just practice, mind you), my jaw just dropped. More interestingly, he has put out an album of Indian music where he mixes salsa music with Indian pop. In this video from the album, he dances up a storm.
India has a number of salsa studios now. Another sign of the influence of salsa is that Jai Ho, the ending song from Slumdog Millionaire, has parts in Spanish. Did anyone else notice that?
You’ll notice from the video that lots of other kinds of Asian-Americans are into salsa dancing. I have seen Vietnamese-Americans fusing salsa dancing styles with their own Vietnamese music, and at salsa clubs, I have seen lots of Asian Americans enjoying themselves.
Salsa dancing is really a lot fun, and I recommend it highly. Not only is it enjoyable, but it’s great exercise too!
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry
