If you think you have two left feet, Nicholas (Nico) Kaburia has a message for you: “We are masters at finding your right foot.”
Nico is the founder of the Flying Dance Community, also known as FDComm, a dance school located on Wyndham Street in Guelph. For twenty years, this local business has been teaching Latin dancing, and today, focuses on the dance styles of salsa, bachata, and west coast swing, offering group classes and private dance lessons.
Nico was inspired to start FDComm while enrolled at University of Guelph in 1996. He was on a date when he visited a club in Toronto and heard salsa music he had never heard before. Nico felt an immediate connection to salsa and knew that he could dance to it.
Nico began teaching salsa outdoors in Guelph in the early 2000’s, and by 2004 he quit his job to start the Flying Dance Community. The business started out with just salsa lessons, a dance style that Nicholas had trained in for a year at that point. Besides salsa, his formal training consisted of one month of ballroom dance training. The rest he says he learned from “The University of YouTube.”
FDComm offers two skill levels in west coast swing, and four levels in salsa and bachata. They also offer specific workshops like technique classes and advanced classes. Although different FDComm instructors specialize in different dances, all of them can teach both the lead and the follower. The most obvious benefit of dance is the exercise, but Nicholas says there’s more to dance than that.
“I believe dance encompasses everything all in one shot. It’s not just health benefits. You get to connect, fall in love, fall out of love, get inspired, grow, find yourself, gain confidence, shake your head sometimes and wonder, ‘did that just happen?’ As long as you and everyone around you is passionate about dance, then through dancing, we can face our challenges and talk to one another. It is very difficult to dance angrily.”
While some might think they’re too old to begin lessons, Nicholas has one student who started in his 50s and went on to become an international ballroom dancer, winning provincial and national competitions in his age category. Another friend of Nicholas’ started dancing and teaching Argentine tango in his 50s. He continued until he was 75 and retired from dance.
“People have discovered new interests in life, while discovering a part of themselves that they never knew lived within,” says Nico.
Summer is a busy time of year for the Flying Dance Community. After 20 years of running their outdoor drop-in dance classes and social activities at the Royal City Park, they have moved the program to St. George’s Square in downtown Guelph, where they will remain until the end of August. The outdoor discounted classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Their indoor dance season runs from September to June, starting on September 3rd this year, and running from Sunday - Wednesday every week.
Nico believes that Moonlight Dancing will bring an uplifting atmosphere to downtown.
“Most people downtown are just curious, observing. An older person who had fallen on unfortunate times shared a story with me. He told me that around 1981, ’82, ’83, he used to compete internationally in ballroom dancing with his Mexican girlfriend. I could see it brought a smile to his face telling me about his past experience. Music and dancing are a few of the small things that bring positivity into anyone’s day.”
Moonlight Dancing classes are discounted from regular class prices, at just $15 per lesson. There is also social dancing for two hours after class, which costs just $10 to participate in. Regular indoor classes are affordable as well, at about $24 per class on average.
On Saturday, June 22nd, FDComm is hosting their annual Flying Dance Festival. As Nico puts it, the festival was started “to give communities a sample of what is out there, dance-wise.” After hosting the events in different cities like Hamilton, Godrich and Elora for years, the event has found a new home at the Goldie Mill Ruins. This will be the festival’s third year in the downtown Guelph location. The festival offers afternoon dance workshops, performances, two dance floors, and a live salsa band.
On Fridays, FDComm also hosts a weekly dance social called Friday Night Salsa Fix (FNSF). This drop-in lesson and social night has been happening for 10 years, becoming so popular that they’re adding a Sunday afternoon social this summer, for dancers who prefer an earlier bedtime.
Additional Summer Activities:
- FDComm will be supporting the Guelph Dance Festival, happening May 31st - June 2nd
- FDComm will also be part of the Guelph Multicultural Festival, offering free dance classes and the opportunity for attendees to learn all there is to know about FDComm
For more information and class schedules, visit www.fdcommunity.com