974

That's the French department code for La Réunion, proudly worn on T-shirts as a badge of identity. It's a fascinating place and very diverse: the population is a mixture of Creole (people of African and French origin), French, Indian, Chinese and Arab, among others. The most popular music included the local sega, maloya (sometimes fused with hiphop), a bit of Zouk from the French Caribbean, and reggae (I saw adverts for separate gigs featuring 80s Birmingham band Steel Pulse and UB40's Ali Campbell). I didn't unfortunately get to see any dancing to sega or maloya - maybe next time.

There was actually a salsa weekender in (and named after) a town in the south while I was there, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to boast about attending the 'Tampon Latino Danse' festival. Instead I went to Tuesday night in the Trois Brasseurs in Saint-Denis. It was quite a small room but there were a few good dancers there. A couple of the younger guys were trying too hard (flashy moves with abrupt/jerky timing, looked uncomfortable to dance with). A large older guy who didn't really look like a dancer until he started dancing showed how it should be done, leading some subtle and complex moves with a brilliant woman dancer (next time if I'm feeling a bit less tired I'm going to ask her for a dance). My best dance was with a very stylish Indian woman who was an excellent, exciting follower with a great attitude. I also had a nice reaction from an improver who was very enthusiastic during the dance, and when I thanked her at the end she said "C'est moi que vous remercie!" - it's me that's thanking you :)