I was so fortunate to get an invite to Amber Price’s potluck a few weeks ago. If you don’t know Amber — she’s the owner of The Bookman, the beloved independent bookstore right in the heart of downtown Chilliwack, and in 2021 she received the B.C. Medal of Good Citizenship, the second-highest honour the province bestows on its citizens. She earned it. The woman has been organizing street cleanups, mural fundraisers, rainbow crosswalk campaigns, and water distribution during the heat dome — all without asking for anything in return. Being in a room full of people she’s gathered is a pretty special thing.
That evening I was doing what I always do at those things: telling people about the Secret Salsa pop-ups I’d been running, the Meetup group I’d set up, the website I’d built, the socials I’d been posting on — and the fact that I was actively looking for a proper weekly venue.
That’s when Jade Lehti spoke up. Jade is a Chilliwack-based entrepreneur and professional event coordinator — she co-owns The Grand Hall with her husband Cory, and she also owns Hotel Morado, the boutique hotel that opened in 2024 as part of the same District 1881 revitalization. The vision for the venue and hotel was the Algra Bros’, who oversaw the building process with collaborative designs — and Jade is the person bringing it to life inside. She mentioned she had a space.
I didn’t know what to expect. “What is this venue you speak of?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow. She told me about The Grand Hall. I’d been living in Mexico for a stretch and had only recently returned to Chilliwack — so this gorgeous space had been hiding from me the whole time.
A few days later I went to see it, and gasped when my eyes met the perfect dancefloor.
The Grand Hall — 201–45939 Thunderbird Lane — sits inside District 1881, Chilliwack’s restored heritage district. It’s an art deco space with high ceilings, a built-in bar, real hardwood floors, and the kind of energy that makes you want to move the moment you step through the door. There’s an elevator, accessible washrooms, and a rooftop patio with a straight-on view of the Cheam Mountain range for when you need a breather between songs.
Dancing salsa in a proper ballroom is a completely different experience. People actually dress up. Ladies can wear heels — real dance heels on real hardwood floors, not sandals on a wooden board laid over sand or bare feet on a beach like I got used to in Mexico. The sound system is professional and the room has a projector, so the whole atmosphere lands. You feel like you’re somewhere special, because you are. (And if you’re thinking about booking the space for a wedding or private event, they do that too.)
We’re launching Tuesday, July 28 at 6:00 PM, and I want to tell you exactly what to expect so there are no surprises.
Why We Start with Merengue — Not Salsa
As a dance instructor, I’ve found that salsa for complete beginners can be genuinely difficult — and that’s why I always start with merengue first.
Salsa has a syncopated rhythm — the step falls on beats 1, 2, 3, pause, 5, 6, 7, pause. If you’ve never danced before, that pause will mess with your head for the first 20 minutes. You spend so much energy counting that you have nothing left for anything else.
Merengue is different. It’s a one-two, one-two step — one foot per beat, every beat, no pauses, no syncopation. Your body figures it out almost immediately. And once your feet are on autopilot, you have room in your brain to actually learn something.
That’s the whole point. Because merengue is so simple at the feet level, we can skip straight to the fun stuff — turns, combinations, lead and follow, connection with a partner. In 45 minutes you can go from never having danced to leading (or following) a basic turn sequence. That’s not possible with salsa on night one.
So we start with merengue. We drill the basic step, we get everyone moving, and then we start building patterns. At that point I split the room into two lines facing each other, I take the center, and we work through the moves together.
In partner dance there are two roles: lead and follow. Traditionally men lead and women follow, and honestly that’s how most of the room will naturally pair up. But we’re not rigid about it. Some women prefer to lead — especially when we have more follows than leads in the room, which happens. Some couples are two women or two men and they work out who does what between them. If you and your partner want to flip the traditional roles, go for it. Nobody’s going to blink.
If you’re not sure which role suits you, try both. That’s actually the best way to learn — understanding both sides makes you a better dancer either way.
The Secret Foundation: Tension
Once the basic step is in your body, we move into something most beginners have never thought about: tension.
This is how you actually connect with your partner. I call it gluing your hands together — not gripping, not clamping your thumb down, nothing like that. If you feel your muscles flexing, you’re doing it wrong. Instead, each partner is constantly pushing or pulling against the other’s hand with soft, active resistance. That’s the whole thing.
In merengue we usually start this way: the lead marches in place and pulls their partner toward them. The follow marches forward. Then the lead pushes, and the follow marches back. Back and forth, with nothing but hand pressure communicating the whole thing.
For the follow to receive that clearly, there’s a bit of technique involved. Keep your elbows in front of your body — never let them drift behind your waist. Arms bent at roughly 90 degrees. Now here’s a common mistake: when your lead pushes against your palm with the backs of their fingers, you might find your forearm rising up to try to give them a flat vertical surface to push against. That breaks the 90 degrees and collapses the connection. Instead, keep the arm right where it is and simply rotate your wrist upward — like you’re gripping a handlebar. That rotation alone brings your palm vertical and gives your partner exactly the surface they need, without moving your elbow at all.
Here’s a quick way to know if the overall tension is working: when your lead pushes, does your whole body move back? Good. Does only your arm move back while your body stays put? That means you’ve lost the connection — your arm is absorbing the signal instead of passing it to your body. What you want is to maintain that light resistance against their hand so that when they push, it travels through your arm and moves you. If you’re not sure whether you’ve got it, come find me on the floor and I’ll sort it out in about ten seconds.
It sounds more complicated than it is. Once you feel it, it clicks fast.
Once you’ve got it, you can lead your partner with your fingertips. That’s not an exaggeration. That subtle, wordless communication is part of the magic of partner dancing — and it’s something most people never get taught. As you rotate through different partners during the night, you’ll start to discover each other’s tension and find the balance that works between you. Before long you’ll be having full conversations without saying a word.
That connection is the foundation everything else is built on. We cover it on night one.
Then halfway through the lesson, we switch to salsa.
The Second Half: Salsa
By the time we get to salsa, your body is already warm and you have some concept of how partner dancing works. We cover the footwork — that on-1 rhythm, the weight transfer, the feel of the pause — and we start connecting it to what you already learned in merengue.
A lot of the turn patterns transfer directly. The frame transfers. The lead-follow dynamic transfers. So you’re not starting from zero, you’re building on something.
The full lesson runs two hours, 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
How Partner Pairing Works
This is partner dance, which means at some point you need a partner. Here’s how I handle that.
Partner work is a core part of the lesson, so everyone needs a partner for those sections. If we have an odd number, one person will sit out a round — but don’t worry, I keep a close eye on this and rotate the switch every 2 to 3 minutes so nobody waits long. By the end of the night, you’ll have danced with just about everyone in the room. That’s intentional — rotating partners is the single fastest way to improve, because every person has a slightly different style and timing, and your body learns to adapt.
It’s also a genuinely good way to meet people. By the end of two hours, you’ve had a real physical conversation with every person in that room.
If you came with someone and you’d prefer to only dance with them, that’s completely fine. Just let me know when I start pairing people up and I’ll keep you together. No explanation needed.
You can come solo or with someone. Both are totally normal.
What to Wear
Dress however makes you feel good. People do tend to dress up a bit for The Grand Hall — it’s a beautiful space and it brings that out in people — but there’s no dress code and no judgment.
For footwear, the one thing that actually matters is that your shoes stay on your feet. When you’re dancing, your weight is shifting constantly and your foot needs something to push against. Heels are great if you wear them — real hardwood floors are the best surface you’ll ever dance on in heels. But flats work perfectly well. Sneakers work. Low boots work. What doesn’t work is anything that can slide off mid-turn: flip flops, backless sandals, slides — anything where your foot isn’t actually held in the shoe. It’s not a style thing, it’s a physics thing. You need something that moves with you.
So: dress up or dress down, wear heels or don’t — just make sure your shoes are actually on your feet.
If you want to invest in a proper pair of dance shoes, I carry Fuego Dance Shoes as an official brand partner — they’re designed specifically for Latin dance, with dual pivot points built for spinning and an outsole rated for hardwood, concrete, and outdoor surfaces. Use code SALSAPAUL10 at checkout for 10% off.
Make It a Taco Tuesday
Hugo’s Mexican Kitchen is joining in. Show your Tuesday Salsa Nights registration confirmation at Hugo’s on any Tuesday during the series and you’ll receive complimentary churro bites with the purchase of an entrée. Hugo’s is right there in the District 1881 neighbourhood — the perfect spot to fuel up before the 6 PM class. Good food, good company, then a short walk to the dancefloor.
Hugo’s will also be sharing the event across their Instagram and Facebook channels, so if you’re not already following them, worth a look: @hugosmexicanchilliwack.
RSVP for a Chance to Win a Free Private Lesson
You don’t have to register to show up — the door is open to anyone. But I do ask that you register on this website here if you can, and here’s why: I need to get a rough count of leads and follows before the night.
If I have 20 followers and 3 leads, I need to know that ahead of time so I can restructure the pairing format. It’s not a dealbreaker either way, but it helps me run a better class.
You can register at bclatindance.com/grand-hall — and everyone who registers gets entered into a draw for a free private dance lesson with me. Winner announced at the event.
About The Grand Hall, District 1881 — Chilliwack’s Best-Kept Secret
The Grand Hall is part of the District 1881 development in Chilliwack — a historic art deco building that’s been restored into an event space like nothing else in the Fraser Valley. The space has hosted weddings, corporate events, and community gatherings. The bar is built in. The sound system is professional. The floors were made for dancing. And if you’re looking to host your own event — a wedding, a corporate night, a private gathering — they do that too.
Jade put it well herself: “Everyone enjoys quality, and being in a special place — and everyone deserves it. The Grand Hall and Hotel Morado are gifts that we get to give others.”
That’s the person running the room we’re dancing in. It matters.
I want to specifically thank Jade for what started as a conversation at Amber’s potluck and turned into something real. When she mentioned the venue that night, she had no idea I’d be showing up a few days later with a vision for weekly Latin dance nights in Chilliwack — and when I did, she was immediately on board. We’re going to make sure it’s worth it.
What This Means for Chilliwack
Chilliwack hasn’t had a regular Latin dance night. There are dance studios, sure. But a weekly social — somewhere you can show up, learn something new, and actually dance with other people in a proper venue — that hasn’t existed here until now.
July 28 is the first night of what I hope becomes a long-running Tuesday tradition. We’re starting with a $10 cover for the launch night, then $15 from August onwards.
If you’ve ever wanted to try salsa or merengue and just didn’t know where to start, this is the night. You don’t need experience. You don’t need a partner. You just need to show up.
Tuesday, July 28 · 6:00–8:00 PM · The Grand Hall, 201–45939 Thunderbird Lane, Chilliwack — in District 1881
See you on the floor.
— Salsa Paul
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