What days do people go out dancing?

The idea that Latin dancing is a Saturday-night thing is one of the first to go. In any city with a scene there is something on every day, Monday included: classes, practice sessions and small socials. What changes from one day to the next is not whether there is somewhere to go, but what you will find when you get there.

That is why the useful question is not when people dance, but what you are looking for. A Monday and a Friday are two different plans, and both exist.

Schools put almost their whole timetable on weeknights. Level courses, drop-in classes and guided practices fall between Monday and Thursday, and the number of classes drops sharply at the weekend: by then people are on the floor rather than in a studio.

So if what you want is to start, that is your week. Looking for a class on a Saturday afternoon means looking for the exception; looking for one on a Tuesday means looking for the norm.

Midweek, Wednesday is the day with the most going on: it is when there are most classes, and there is already real dancing in plenty of cities. It is the point where the week stops being only about the studio.

For a first night it has an advantage the weekend does not: there are fewer people and the room is not packed, so you end up dancing more with whoever is already there. Stepping onto a floor where everybody fits is easier than stepping onto one where you have to squeeze through.

Friday is the big one. It is when there are most socials, when the venues that only open once a week open their doors, and when everyone who cannot make it midweek turns up.

Saturday comes next, with a difference you notice: more of the room has not come to dance, because Saturday competes with every other plan in the city. The weekend is also when the big events fall, so a festival in your city rewrites the whole agenda.

Hardly anyone counts on Sunday, and it is one of the busiest dancing days of the week. It usually starts much earlier, in the afternoon rather than in the small hours, and that is its appeal: you go out, you dance for three or four hours, and you are home at a reasonable time.

It is by far the easiest day to recommend to somebody who has never been and does not want to get to bed at dawn.

If you want to learn, go midweek. If you want to dance a lot and with a lot of people, Friday or Saturday. If you want to start without the crowd, a Wednesday or a Sunday.

And this does not change much from one country to another: the shape of the week repeats in Spain, in Mexico, in Argentina and in the United States. If you have no preference, there is a simpler way to decide: look at the listings for your city, pick the day that suits you, and go. None of the seven is empty.