Years ago, I did a little Latin dancing. I learned salsa and merengue, but my favorite by far was bachata. It’s essentially love songs set to a simple dance rhythm. Historically, it came out of the Dominican Republic as a variant of the bolero…which I didn’t know, but it cracks me up a little. Like most good dance music, it started in the lower classes and worked its way up.

AU Public Safety officer Juan Sanchez taught me and my friends to bachata, and taught us well enough to step in with some of the regulars at Bravo Bravo on Thursday nights…100 years ago. Good times, especially at only $5 a head in the city.

Before learning bachata, I never cared much about learning Spanish. But when you hear the emotion in the voices and pick up the few words that are clear even to white chicks like me, you can’t help but wonder what the rest of the lyrics are.

So here’s the first entry for the Jen v3.0 list of things to do: Learn enough Spanish to know what I’m dancing to.

Also? Make time to dance, even if it’s just in the living room.