Salsa dance is everything I am and everything I am not. Salsa is passionate, sensuous, rhythmic, social, creative, flirtatious and intimate. Somewhere inside me, I feel all these things, like quiet, ...

OF ALL THE things I thought I might like about salsa — and I liked many things — holding hands with a stranger while learning new dance steps together was not one of them. I thought I might hate that.

Here’s a sampling of the venues that offer lessons. Contact locales for days and prices: Café Sevilla, 555 Fourth Ave., San Diego, 92101; (619) 233.5979; &#65279. Tango del Rey, 3567 Del Rey St., San ...