Almost unknown in China a decade ago, the lively dance has found a following in the Middle Kingdom. Chen Nan steps out with a lively crowd.

Tom Steinhauer, 11, and Chen Sirang, 10, giggle shyly and fiddle around before their Friday night youth salsa class at Beijing Phoenix Dance Studio. But when the music starts, they are transformed - a salsa prince and princess, twirling and twitching to the beat of horns and bongo drums.

"She likes it very much," says Chen Guoning, Chen's mother, a lawyer based in Beijing. "Salsa is different from her other after-school classes. It is fun."