History of salsa in Hanoi

In 2002, Press Club Hanoi usually had a Latin Night on every Friday. Whenever the Salsa music was played, few Latino couples danced while everyone stand in circle and supported them. On one of these nights, Raoul Imbach, Vice-Ambassador of Swiss Embassy in Vietnam, joined in to Salsa and a lot of people followed him.

Thought that everyone like it, in 2003, Raoul opened the first Salsa class in Hanoi, and with his friends Roberto (from Cuba) and Arif (from Malaysia), all had tried the best with enthusiasm to run the class. They had moved to many places like Roma Cafe, Quyen Van Minh's Jazz Club,...The most important thing that Raoul has done was to create a place for the young for entertainment, relaxing by dancing.

When Sheraton was built in 2004, it became an official place for weekly dance at Nutz Pub. The Vietnamese instructors who joined Raoul to teach salsa there were An and Thanh Phuong. Some people who joined Raoul from the beginning had published information to the forum of dancer community in Hanoi and asked them to join. This was the second milestone that marked the "attack" of Salsa to Hanoi. These people with their enthusiasm has helped Salsa in Hanoi to grow quickly.

Nutz was not the only place for Salsa, but a very important one.

Initially Nutz Pub didn't charge entrance fee, then they started charging VND25,000/ticket, then to VND60,000/ticket with 2 free soft drinks. Although knowing that commercial is was necessary, it seems too expensive compared to living standards in Hanoi, especially because a lot of Salsa dancers are still students. But when later Anton-Ara taught Salsa there and worked as DJs, Salsa dancers started coming back to the Nutz Bar.

At the end of the year 2007 another problem was, that since the New Century discothek had been closed, disco dancers in Hanoi had no place to go and therefore flocked into Nutz Bar at Sheraton. That affected the business at Nutz Bar to their commercial favour. Salsa dancers' mood and their schedules to dance Salsa shortened. After a short time it was clear that disco dance improved the business at Nutz Bar more then Salsa dancers, and in consequence in December 2007 Nutz Bar canceled the Salsa nights completely.

After that, a lot of places open for/with Salsa to attract customers like Melia, ODC, HYEC, Bull Cafe, Smokie, Roma Cafe... For the first time, Salsa is recognized as a dance taught in some Dance Sport centers, and taught by Vietnamese (Hoang Phuong). This is a big effort as Salsa is still being considered "street dance" as oppose to Dance Sport, which is considered "high class".

The first Salsa competition in Vietnam has been organized by Nutz Pub in March 2006. Dinh Sy and Sao Mai have won Salsa King and Queen of Hanoi award. This competition has hiked Salsa in Hanoi. More classes have been opened, and more people joined due to reasonable or low fee. Even people can dance salsa with as low as VND5000 at ODC at the weekend.

Salsa Vietnam together with Salsa World

A bit about Salsa in HCMC. Salsa started at about the same time as in Hanoi, about 4 years ago. There was salsa class by a French instructor named Fabien at La Casa Latina, but only a few then followed. After that, another Spanish Urko opened class at La Habana, and Frederik also opened classes.

Although HCMC is bigger city and more dynamic, but Salsa activities here was only among the foreigners. One of the reason is not many Vietnamese take part in the Salsa community. But after Salsa has been taught in RMIT in HCMC, it has been developed very well there.

Salsa Bangkok Fiesta 2006 marked the first appearance of Salsa Vietnam in Thailand. Salsa Vietnam has been listed in the website www.salsapower.com where Phan Y Ly is the contact. This is the place for Salsa dancers to find information about salsa classes, clubs in Vietnam. Hence more dancers has come to Vietnam and shared experience as well as gave lesson.

Latest developments

In Sep 2006, Salsa Hanoi said good bye to Raoul (the founder of Salsa Vietnam) as his term in Vietnam has terminated. The dance couple Anton Berchenko - Ara Hwang, following an invitation from a Vietnamese Salsa dancer, has decided to move to Vietnam to develop Salsa here.

It can be said that this is a new era of Salsa Vietnam, as it has been recognized in dance community in Hanoi. From here, lot of students with good technique and music sense (Benkai Hoang, Quang Anh, Duy, Ly, Sao Mai, Thanh,...) which has improved quality of Salsa in Hanoi.

Looking back at the development of Salsa in Hanoi, it has been founded by foreigners and developed by both foreigners and Vietnamese। It now becomes more and more popular in Hanoi.

by Sao Mai.