Now Stop 3 — Saigon · looking for a teacher & partner
I'm learning one bachata choreography — Elwin y Gaby's “Barcelona” — with a different teacher and partner in every city I travel through. I'm a beginner, back to dancing after decades away. Each city gets a section of the song. When it's done, the whole choreo plays across the world, and it ends where the song began.
Prize Dance your section for the love of it and you're in the running for a sponsored week of training in Mexico City with Stephen Thomas.
I danced salsa and hip hop a long time ago, then spent decades in tech and didn't dance a step. A health scare made me rethink what I wanted my days to look like. Dancing was the thing I kept coming back to.
So I started over — from zero, older and hopefully wiser, in cities where I don't speak the language. In Da Nang it took ten lessons just to trust the basic step. In Jakarta a teacher and an advanced student pieced the choreography together with me. I'm not good yet. That's the point: you get to watch someone become a dancer, one city at a time.
Every clip on this tour is real — real people, real places, real mistakes, no doubles and no edits that hide them.
16.05° N · 108.20° E
Where it started. Ten lessons to learn the basic step. Then a partner from my Zumba class, and the fast-beat section of “Barcelona” filmed in front of the Dragon Bridge. Rough, honest, kept forever.
Teacher & partner credits arrive with the reel.
6.21° S · 106.85° E
A teacher and an advanced student who danced the partner's side and helped me piece the choreography together. It finally made sense here — more than a minute of the song, and counts I can say in my sleep.
Teacher & partner credits arrive with the reel.
10.78° N · 106.70° E
Landing soon, no partner yet. One studio session, one filmed take, your studio credited on every repost and in the finale.
If you teach or dance in a city on my route, here's the whole deal — no fine print. I'm looking for someone who wants to make something with me, and can commit to it for a couple of weeks. You don't need to be a pro.
* To qualify, you need to have taken part without any fees for your participation.
When the finale is cut, one partner from the tour flies to Independent Dance in Mexico City for a week of training with Stephen Thomas. Flights, stay and the visa paperwork covered, sponsored by NSM Technologies Ltd, UK.
Stephen has thirty years in Latin and ballroom at professional level: former Singapore International Champion, Hong Kong International finalist, third at the UK Closed Championships, and a qualified competition adjudicator. He watches the finale and picks the section that earns it. His record.
When the last section is filmed, every stop gets stitched into one cut: the full “Barcelona” choreography, danced start to finish across the world, a different partner on every phrase — finishing in the city the song is named for. Everyone who taught me, danced with me, or lent me their studio is in it.