It was 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and my head was full of salsa steps. The problem was my feet weren't quite catching up and I was all to conscious of the relaxed ease of some of my fellow dancers.

"Great," I thought smugly, when being informed I was going to spend a whole day learning salsa from scratch, then perform it with an expert at the end.

"Should be a doddle," (having already been a student of flamenco for four years).

"It's Latin," I reflected, "some of the salsa steps are bound to be the same." WRONG!

The word salsa literally translates from the Spanish word for 'sauce'. Eventually it was adopted by the Hispanic community in Spanish Harlem and today salsa clubs have sprung up all over the UK , and Salsa Chillout run by Terry Lewis and Yolande Chandler is Essex 's answer with salsa classes in Southend, Lawford (nr Colchester ), Chelmsford , Billericay, Brentwood and

Marks Tey.

However, I was enjoying one of Salsa Chillout's Alldayer's at Chelmsford 's Marconi club.

After partaking in workshops according to your ability you sex up your salsa dance technique at the after party, until 1am .

The proceedings began with a simple set of salsa basic steps as a warm up. Still feeling blasé, I visualised sailing through the

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workshops with relative ease, my natural feel for Latin rhythms would see me through.

The tempo was rising and I was conscious of the fact that my face had now taken on the sort of grotesque mask one has when one is in deep concentration.

However, by the time we got to 'Spins and Turns', I was beginning to feel an inward panic.

By now, I was remonstrating myself for getting roped into salsa when I could have been enjoying my Saturday afternoon painting my toenails and watching old films on TCM. Anyhow, determined to do my best to keep up with 'Spins and Turns' and with the aid of a decent partner, I managed to figure out the direction my body should follow even if I had the salsa steps all wrong.

Teachers, Terry and Yolande, assisted by the specialist visitors, Salsa and Mambo Champions, Sai and Deanne of Salsa Connexion and Street Dance Champion, Dave of Karizma, initially encourage beginners to learn individually as male and female salsa steps differ.

The idea is then to form a circle and rotate salsa dance partners every four or so minutes, a great way to meet people and keep your sense of humour, you can have a great time.

However, I was still a little tense knowing I had to perform my salsa piece de resistance later on at the after party which was inevitably going to be pulsating with dancers who had been salsa dancing for a hundred years.

Just as I was becoming comatose with concentration, Dave from Karizma arrived to show us some Salsa R&B.

Galvanised, I took a short break before my big moment at the after party and returned later to join Terry on the dance floor.