Meet our Residents : Uriel, dance teacher
"Meet our Residents" is a series of articles designed to showcase the super projects of the super residents of the Grand Hospice temporary occupation. All the projects are divided into four themes: Sustainable Development, Community, Art & Culture, and Education & Health.
L'atelier Gansbeek is first and foremost a story of passion: beer. As the microbrewery of the Grand Hospice, it wants to share its know-how in this field with all fans of good beers. Every Friday evening, the Gansbeek workshop offers "Craft Beers Tasting Sessions", a convivial activity to be enjoyed with friends or family.
In addition to their catering activities, Atelier Gansbeek also offers salsa classes. Uriel, a dance teacher, met one of the brewery's two owners in the salsa scene a few years ago. Connoisseurs of ballroom dancing, they decided to join forces with Uriel to help you discover this type of dance, every Monday at 7.30pm!
Uriel started his business with us in November 2022. We met him directly at the workshop, nestled in the heart of the magnificent Grand Hospice building alongside a hundred other projects, to ask him a few questions about his business, muy muy caliente.
Is dancing your passion?
I've been dancing since I was a kid! I'm 35 and I've been doing salsa for just over 15 years.
I used to do mostly solo dance, like hip-hop, ragga dancehall, afro and lock-in pop. Salsa was the first couple dance I did. I find that salsa is a very energetic and free dance that allows you to dance well, but above all to make your partner dance.
How did you end up teaching at the Grand Hospice?
I used to teach salsa only at weekends. I had a lot of requests from my former students for a weekday class. As soon as I had the opportunity, I went for it. This project is part of a personal desire to re-popularize salsa and recreate a new community of dancers.
I met one of the brewery's two owners in the salsa scene a few years ago. We've kept in touch ever since, and while chatting one evening, we thought it would be a wonderful idea to offer a dancing activity in the heart of the brasserie, to combine our two passions!
What values do you promote through your business?
Our motto is "Dancing is happiness", the main value is to have fun and enjoy the course, even if learning the dance steps isn't always easy. You have to remain positive, humble and open to your partners.
There must be a lot going on at the Grand Hospice, tell us an anecdote.
One of the anecdotes that particularly struck me was when we were almost locked inside the Grand Hospice. Classes finish quite late, so the door was locked with a padlock by the concierge. We freaked out a bit, but luckily the back door was open!
If you like to try out new things and dancing doesn't scare you, we highly recommend Uriel's classes! By the way, he also teaches beginner and intermediate bachata at Studio 51 in Etterbeek 😉
Classes at the Gansbeek workshop take place every Monday evening at 7:30 pm and are subject to prior registration via here !
Want to follow Uriel? Click here !
And to find out more about the Grand Hospice's resident projects, go to here !