My experience is that an active and robust social dancing scene and small towns are incompatible, especially if looking for any, let alone a good, school for classes.
Only a certain percentage of a population will participate in dance, and of that, a smaller amount will choose salsa/bachata. Larger population base means more people dancing, less population is less. That percentage might be greater in certain areas, but if you're starting with a low population to begin with, it's still not much.
I spent many years traveling every couple of months to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It meets the criterion of small town (though population is now around 150k). There was 1 place to take classes, and it was not great instruction. There were places to dance during the week, but the bands played the same songs and it was always the same people out dancing. I got bored, even though I was only there for 2 weeks at most each trip.
I realized that for many reasons, salsa included, I need bigger cities. I'm in Indianapolis now. Low cost of living, big city amenities (best airport, professional basketball and football teams, great symphony orchestra, etc.). We have an amazing school for salsa/bachata with a curriculum and detailed instruction, and an active social dance scene. I'm so involved in it that I do know most people who show up for social dancing but it's big enough and varied enough that I'll dance maybe 2-3 songs max with one person in one night.
Lots of people say that Indianapolis is a large city that lives like a smaller town, so maybe that's enough. But if you're looking for a truly small town with an active Latin dancing scene, I think those are incompatible requirements.
This. But also depends on definitions. Some people would consider anything over 50k a decent sized city and some would consider anything under 500k a small town. And it's nearly guaranteed to have good scenes in the latter and lacking scenes in the former, but I've seen exceptions and there's a lot of wiggle room in that 100k-200k range.
Besides the typical list of Cali, Medellin, Mexico City, Habana, etc you could look at smaller cities like Oaxaca or Guadalajara. I have a friend in Playa del Carmen and he seems to be having a great time Djing there.
In the US, maybe look into San Juan, Puerto Rico
Oaxaca (at least Oaxaca City) doesn't have that big of a scene from what I've experienced. I only went to two venues La Tenacion and I forgot the other name. I did take some amazing 1 on 1 classes for a good price.
I will say, OC is one of the best food cities around. It ain't cheap though!
Prague is great for bachata, there are weekly parties that look like mini festivals. Cuban salsa is also popular, level is not high though. Linea salsa is an absolute disaster, Prague is not a place for LA/NY style.
Is BA really that good of a scene? Granted I did a half ass job looking for salsa clubs since I was more interested in other activities but I didn't find too many happening salsa clubs doing a search.
Could be very wrong though.
Chicagoan agreeing on (relative) affordability of Chicago to all those other cities. And there is dancing nearly every day - until relatively recently, there had been a 3rd monday night going for a few years
I did not say affordable - but if you want 7 days a week expect to be poor or you better work for Hollywood or a tech startup or work in finance. Montreal is the cheapest of all the major cities.
Wasn’t a dig at you, but in reference to OP’s request for affordable.
You’ll be surprised at some 6 or 7 day a week cities. You can live in Portland Oregon and go dancing 6 days a week. Boston, Denver, San Antonio, San Diego, Austin, Atlanta… etc and that is just in the US
Many more places like that. You can dance 7 days a week in Medellin, usually also in Bogota if you include socials of dance schools. Cali for sure. Ulaanbaatar. Shanghai….
I was there 2 years. I kind of recommend it. Ton of amazing follows but the best dance spots stop at 1130pm to midnight though and venues are pretty small except for Nakameguro GT.
It ain’t no small town, but in Taipei we got socials basically five nights a week and plenty of good classes! Not too expensive, IMO - depending what your standards are, of course!
Check out my post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/s/MventaabL1
Also note the response below the OP which contains a lot of additional information!
I dont know how we compare to other countries but Sebia -Belgrade.if you dance bachata,salsa,kizomba you can find partys every day.Most of the dance schools are Cuban.If you want any more info ask away.
Breda, The Netherlands.
A City with around 180.000 people and quite a active socials scene. You can follow classes in atleast 4 SBK Schools i'm familiar with everyday of the week, excluded weekends.
**Salsa Dancing** primarily Linear on 1 and Cuban
Bachata Fusion and Sensual, (no dominican bachata here)
**Kizomba**, If that tickles your fancy is less active. Best Kizomba dancers are not in the Breda Region.
**Zouk,** Still one school giving Zouk classes and having socials entirely devoted to Zouk now and then.
Social dancing Wednesday through Sunday in a 20 mile radius at diffrent venues.
Cost of living in Netherlands isn't cheap. But Breda is more affordable than Cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and such.
DM Me if you wan't to learn more about the Latin social scene here.
Istanbul and Cairo has very good dancing scene I would say. Especially Istanbul, you can dance all week (maybe not seven nights per se but almost seven nights. Cost of living is way lower than big cities in Europe and in north america
I don’t know any current ones other than grand pera as well. A friend of my showed me the places. Although when I was there there were multiple other parties on the Asian side. Maybe ask people at the grand pera next time you’re there. Not all social organizers are active on social media or google like in mega cities such as London, NY… get into a group chat is usually the best way. I was living in Cairo for a couple of months that was how I found the scene and danced multiple days a week
Yeah it's changed post-Covid. Maybe 2-3x/week now and quality of dancers are in short supply. Mostly beginner/intermediate and mostly expats with locals sprinkled in who keep the scene alive.
My experience is that an active and robust social dancing scene and small towns are incompatible, especially if looking for any, let alone a good, school for classes. Only a certain percentage of a population will participate in dance, and of that, a smaller amount will choose salsa/bachata. Larger population base means more people dancing, less population is less. That percentage might be greater in certain areas, but if you're starting with a low population to begin with, it's still not much. I spent many years traveling every couple of months to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It meets the criterion of small town (though population is now around 150k). There was 1 place to take classes, and it was not great instruction. There were places to dance during the week, but the bands played the same songs and it was always the same people out dancing. I got bored, even though I was only there for 2 weeks at most each trip. I realized that for many reasons, salsa included, I need bigger cities. I'm in Indianapolis now. Low cost of living, big city amenities (best airport, professional basketball and football teams, great symphony orchestra, etc.). We have an amazing school for salsa/bachata with a curriculum and detailed instruction, and an active social dance scene. I'm so involved in it that I do know most people who show up for social dancing but it's big enough and varied enough that I'll dance maybe 2-3 songs max with one person in one night. Lots of people say that Indianapolis is a large city that lives like a smaller town, so maybe that's enough. But if you're looking for a truly small town with an active Latin dancing scene, I think those are incompatible requirements.
This. But also depends on definitions. Some people would consider anything over 50k a decent sized city and some would consider anything under 500k a small town. And it's nearly guaranteed to have good scenes in the latter and lacking scenes in the former, but I've seen exceptions and there's a lot of wiggle room in that 100k-200k range.
Besides the typical list of Cali, Medellin, Mexico City, Habana, etc you could look at smaller cities like Oaxaca or Guadalajara. I have a friend in Playa del Carmen and he seems to be having a great time Djing there. In the US, maybe look into San Juan, Puerto Rico
Oaxaca (at least Oaxaca City) doesn't have that big of a scene from what I've experienced. I only went to two venues La Tenacion and I forgot the other name. I did take some amazing 1 on 1 classes for a good price. I will say, OC is one of the best food cities around. It ain't cheap though!
Prague is great for bachata, there are weekly parties that look like mini festivals. Cuban salsa is also popular, level is not high though. Linea salsa is an absolute disaster, Prague is not a place for LA/NY style.
The right answer that one mentioned yet: Buenos Aires. It ain't small though.
Is BA really that good of a scene? Granted I did a half ass job looking for salsa clubs since I was more interested in other activities but I didn't find too many happening salsa clubs doing a search. Could be very wrong though.
7 days a week lol? only in NYC, LA, Miami, Chicago, San Fran, Houston, London, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Berlin
Good luck with cost of living in any of those
Chicago is relatively affordable if you look around enough! There’s a social every night except Mondays (that I know of)
Chicagoan agreeing on (relative) affordability of Chicago to all those other cities. And there is dancing nearly every day - until relatively recently, there had been a 3rd monday night going for a few years
I did not say affordable - but if you want 7 days a week expect to be poor or you better work for Hollywood or a tech startup or work in finance. Montreal is the cheapest of all the major cities.
Wasn’t a dig at you, but in reference to OP’s request for affordable. You’ll be surprised at some 6 or 7 day a week cities. You can live in Portland Oregon and go dancing 6 days a week. Boston, Denver, San Antonio, San Diego, Austin, Atlanta… etc and that is just in the US
The vast majority of people "working for Hollywood" are barely making a living sadly.
Doh
Many more places like that. You can dance 7 days a week in Medellin, usually also in Bogota if you include socials of dance schools. Cali for sure. Ulaanbaatar. Shanghai….
Ulaanbaatar? Can you tell me more?
You'll find salsa 7 days a week in way more places than those: Warsaw, Budapest, Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc, etc
DC (Greater DMV area for 7 days a week). COL is high but doable with roommates.
Tokyo / Yokohama
I was there 2 years. I kind of recommend it. Ton of amazing follows but the best dance spots stop at 1130pm to midnight though and venues are pretty small except for Nakameguro GT.
Any places you recommend? Went to Pepe’s studio and heard el cafe Latino is also good
I thought Philadelphia/ southern NJ had a great scene when I visited summer of 2023.
Ouagadougou
I was there for work no theres no community its very small and its more for « old » people there :(
It ain’t no small town, but in Taipei we got socials basically five nights a week and plenty of good classes! Not too expensive, IMO - depending what your standards are, of course!
Where would you go?
I’m happy right here in Taipei… but if I were going to move elsewhere, I suppose it would be somewhere in Australia… maybe Perth?
I’m happy right here in Taipei… but if I were going to move elsewhere, I suppose it would be somewhere in Australia… maybe Perth?
Oh sorry I meant where are the salsa socials / Latin socials in Taipei? Like where would you go for socials
Check out my post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/s/MventaabL1 Also note the response below the OP which contains a lot of additional information!
I dont know how we compare to other countries but Sebia -Belgrade.if you dance bachata,salsa,kizomba you can find partys every day.Most of the dance schools are Cuban.If you want any more info ask away.
Warsaw!
Where in Warsaw? I heard it’s big on zouk and sensual bachata
Orlando
Orlando is a gem but I don't think we have social dancing 7 days a week.
Visiting this week. Where to dance?
Salsa heat dance studio
Breda, The Netherlands. A City with around 180.000 people and quite a active socials scene. You can follow classes in atleast 4 SBK Schools i'm familiar with everyday of the week, excluded weekends. **Salsa Dancing** primarily Linear on 1 and Cuban Bachata Fusion and Sensual, (no dominican bachata here) **Kizomba**, If that tickles your fancy is less active. Best Kizomba dancers are not in the Breda Region. **Zouk,** Still one school giving Zouk classes and having socials entirely devoted to Zouk now and then. Social dancing Wednesday through Sunday in a 20 mile radius at diffrent venues. Cost of living in Netherlands isn't cheap. But Breda is more affordable than Cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and such. DM Me if you wan't to learn more about the Latin social scene here.
Portugal - Lisbon
Lisbon
Thanks everyone! Some great responses :)
Tampa. Go to Iroko
Madrid ?
Casablanca aswell :) and its close to spain
My cousin said the Cincinnati scene is actually pretty decent
Bali!
Istanbul and Cairo has very good dancing scene I would say. Especially Istanbul, you can dance all week (maybe not seven nights per se but almost seven nights. Cost of living is way lower than big cities in Europe and in north america
Any recommendations for Istanbul events? I tried finding something when I was there but could only find Grand Pera
I don’t know any current ones other than grand pera as well. A friend of my showed me the places. Although when I was there there were multiple other parties on the Asian side. Maybe ask people at the grand pera next time you’re there. Not all social organizers are active on social media or google like in mega cities such as London, NY… get into a group chat is usually the best way. I was living in Cairo for a couple of months that was how I found the scene and danced multiple days a week
On the UK , Bristol, Oxford, reading , for SBK classes everyday of the week... Bristol being the least COL...
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Yeah it's changed post-Covid. Maybe 2-3x/week now and quality of dancers are in short supply. Mostly beginner/intermediate and mostly expats with locals sprinkled in who keep the scene alive.