Travels on the Dance Floor : One Man's Journey into the Heart of Salsa

When poet and biographer Grevel Lindop takes up salsa dancing in rainy Manchester, all he has are size 12 feet and excruciating adolescent memories of ballroom dancing lessons. But salsa has a way of getting into your blood. Intense and intimate, sexy and addictive, the adrenalin-pumping Afro-Latin-American dance style soon becomes an obsession. Inspired to learn more, Lindop decides on a solo adventure to find the geographical and cultural roots of salsa. From the streets, bars and dancehalls of Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia to those of Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Miami - land of Cuban exiles - he stumbles across a colourful cast of characters and a raft of new tricks. His quest also gives rise to basic confrontations with himself: can a 6'4" white, English poet really dance? And what happens when he does? Travels on the Dance Floor is Lindop's vibrant and evocative account of his odyssey, written with wry humour and a poet's eye for colour, detail and atmosphere. Funny, passionate and inspiring by turns, it is a book that will be loved by dance addicts and armchair travellers alike.

Grevel Lindop was educated at Oxford and taught English Literature at Manchester University, becoming Professor of Romantic Studies before leaving in 2001 to become a writer. His books include six collections of poems—most recently Playing With Fire and Selected Poems—as well as The Opium-Eater: A Life of Thomas De Quincey and A Literary Guide to the Lake District.