"Hips don't lie," croons Shakira, her hips twitching suggestively... and we, denizens of the urban jungle, nod our assent as we synchronise our movements to her hypnotic chants. Mumbaiites of all ages, sizes, shapes, not to mention religious and linguistic persuasions, are losing their inhibitions and swaying their hips to the beat of Latin American music. Visit any of the many buzzing-with-activity dance studios in the city... be it the Salsa India Dance Company (SIDC), the Sandip Soparrkar Ballroom Studio or the Terence Lewis Dance Academy, and you could witness the unlikeliest of 'couples' scorching the floor. "I have a young student who comes along with her 70-year-old grandfather," discloses Soparrkar, delighted that salsa is bridging the generation gap.

When Terence Lewis held a summer camp this year, his classes were flooded with starry-eyed enthusiasts...like my teenaged daughter and me... yearning to bone up on some hip dance moves. In fact, parents and children coming together to learn salsa is becoming more the norm than the exception, while husband-wife/boyfriend-girlfriend duos and singles ready to mingle make up the rest. We looked forward with anticipation to our thrice-a-week tryst and got progressively more addicted to what started out as a pleasant pastime. Besides warming up with enthusiasm, we practised exhilarating moves with verve, perfected steps we already knew with passion, improved our vocabulary of bodily expression with style...and swaggered out of class with a newfound confidence.

That some of us also lost weight was an added bonus! While Soparrkar agrees that the dance form works different muscles in the body, he maintains, "Salsa is a wonderful way to alleviate stress and build on your relationship at the same time. People learn salsa because they like being with each other...and fitness comes as a welcome by-product. In the case of a couple that learns dance jointly, it's a great way to burn off the tension and do something you both enjoy. I know people who have fallen in love all over again after taking salsa classes together."

Salsa, I learnt, encourages a man to be a gentleman and a woman to be a lady. The teachers show the men how to handle a woman on the dance floor, lessons that could be adapted to their dealings with the females they encounter in their daily lives...the way she likes to be held: not too close for comfort so she loses her freedom of movement, but firmly enough to indicate the direction you are steering her towards. "Of course, the man leads the woman - the only time he can", laughs Soparrkar, insisting that otherwise it is the woman who leads the man a merry dance! But finally, the cynosure of all eyes...both male and female...is the woman. "Watching salsa is like gazing at a flower blossoming before your eyes. The man is the stem that supports her," he describes rather evocatively.

Bollywood actresses like Kajol and Sonali Bendre, even choreographer, Farah Khan, are captivated by the enticing charms of salsa...and are having the time of their life under Soparrkar's tutelage. With celebrity chefs and socialites magically transformed into dance sensations overnight on TV reality shows, Nach Baliye and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, people with two left feet are now finding it easier to take that first tentative step, but Kaytee Namgyal (director of SIDC) is diffident about these reality shows as "they are making a mockery of salsa."

Yet the fever rages on, sweeping our city off its feet. Restaurants like Starters & More at Churchgate hold salsa nights once a month, while the lounge bar, Zenzi at Bandra devotes Sunday evenings to salsa. "From 6 pm to 7 pm, we hold a free introductory class to create awareness and try to spread the charm," divulges Namgyal. Believe it or not, the Mumbai Salsa Meetup Group formed three years ago is the fourth largest in the world with 632 members and 91 meetings, while the largest one...in London...comes a close second with 88 meetings, although it is over a year older! What makes the saucy dance form so universally loved is the ease with which one can master the steps - since the indisputably laid-back Americans simplified the complicated Cuban moves in the '70s, like they do with everything they adopt as their own...the English language included!

The word 'salsa' (Spanish for sauce) itself is so cool, points out Namgyal. "It's all about improvising once you learn the basic steps. Other Latin American dance forms are performance-oriented, while salsa is purely for fun. There is a technique to it and the hip movements are important, but it depends how you interpret it. It allows you to express yourself," he adds. Unlike the formal Latin and ballroom dances that go by the book, salsa is spontaneous and social. Besides encouraging you to show your attitude, it helps you to find common ground with people from different social strata and teaches you not to discriminate on the basis of looks. "You would much rather dance with an ordinary-looking woman who is good at it, than with a pretty model who doesn't have a clue," he explains. "Whether you are fat or thin, salsa makes you look and feel incredibly sexy."

Come the season of celebration...and the movers and shakers of Mumbai gear up for the year-end festivities. With a string of parties already being unleashed, could dance training be far behind?