I've been dancing salsa since 2006. For as long as I've been dancing, salsa and its cultural siblings bachata and merengue have been the steps in the clubs. Swing is cool, but you can't go out to a club and just find people doing it; I missed that particular revival.

For the first time in my personal experience– and keep in mind I'm only eight years old as a dancer– a new step is pushing onto the floor. And it's not a latin step. It's from Angola.

I first saw kizomba here in the states a couple years back. And I thought, "this is not gonna catch on until we 'fix' it for us Americans. Because it's too close and too sensual, and that kind of thing weirds us out unless we know exactly what the rules are. And it's also really creative and places a super-high premium on the guy's ability to lead effectively with his body. Maybe once they water it down and make it safe it'll catch on."

Now kizomba is catching on. Last night I took a couple hours of beginner kizomba class and tried out easy steps with a roomful of friends from the salsa community. Good times, and everybody was a lot cooler with the intimacy of the dance than I had unfairly expected. The popularity of bachata, a similarly close latin style, probably helps.

But the real surprise is what I found when I started searching youtube for "kizomba angola." And even more so when I searched for "kizomba luanda." (Luanda is the capital of Angola.)

It turns out a lot of the kizomba songs people dance to in Angola are... peppy and cheerful. And not everybody dances "all up ins" with their partner, either. I'm watching leads who can steer very effectively and sensually with just a forearm. And punctuate the dance with closer contact, not maintain it all the time.

All that "you have to be chest to chest or you're doing it wrong" stuff? That's coming from us!

Serves me right. I gotta remember to check my assumptions at the door of the club.