Papa, Where Are You Going?

At fifty, Oliver Johnson thought his dancing days were behind him. Then came the Instagram post that changed everything.

When a friend forwards him an audition notice for Tumbao Power, a competitive salsa team rebuilding after the pandemic, Oliver faces a choice: stick to the safe routine of work and weekend custody visits with his twin daughters, or risk everything for a dream that seems impossibly out of reach.

What follows is a journey into the hidden world of competitive salsa—a universe of midnight rehearsals, political rivalries, and physical demands that test every assumption about what the human body can achieve at midlife. As Francis navigates the brutal drive between Brooklyn and Connecticut studios, masters complex choreography that leaves dancers half his age breathless, and learns to partner with teammates who've been dancing since childhood, he discovers that joining a team means more than learning steps.

It means entering a community where every move is recorded and analyzed, where team loyalties run deeper than family bonds, and where the difference between Mambo Kingz and Tumbao Power style can determine friendships and rivalries that last for decades. From basement studios in the Bronx to championship stages in Orlando, Oliver must prove he belongs in a world that wasn't designed for 6'4" marathon runners who started salsa at forty-eight.

But as his skills develop and performance opportunities arise, Oliver faces an even harder challenge: balancing his growing obsession with dance against his responsibilities as a father. When late-night rehearsals conflict with custody schedules, when championship opportunities compete with school plays and bedtime stories, Francis must decide what kind of success actually matters.

Papa, Where Are You Going? is an intimate portrait of midlife reinvention, competitive passion, and the complex choreography of modern fatherhood. With the observational precision of Colson Whitehead and the insider knowledge of someone who lived this journey, Francis Nzeutem has crafted a novel that captures both the specific rituals of New York's salsa scene and the universal questions of what we're willing to sacrifice for our dreams—and what we're not.

A story about movement and stillness, ambition and acceptance, and the dance between who we were and who we might still become.