My salsa history prior to this blog

May 28, 2005

September 24, 2004 - I take my first salsa lesson from Johnny & Serap after about a month after Ignacio talked me into taking lessons. I think there was some Merengue thrown in for a relief near the end of the lesson. I stay in the Beginner's class for the rest of the year without progressing very much.

October 6, 2004 - I take my first lesson with Mauricio. Almost all of his classes worked on solo footwork (no partner work) for next several weeks. This means I am taking two lessons per week.

October 20, 2004 - I got my first glimpse of salsa beat in Mauricio's class. I consider this my first breakthrough.

October 30, 2004 - I order my first salsa instructional DVD - Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa - Part 1, Beginners. I find the style totally foreign compared to my lessons with Mauricio or with Serap.

November 16, 2004 - I did my first "Beginner-to-Intermediate" workshop with Mauricio at L.A. Fitness. I find myself struggling going between side-to-side, back-to-back and mambo-basic when dancing with a partner. This means I am taking three lessons per week and still going nowhere fast.

Beginning of December 2004 - Now I can do basic, side-to-side, back-to-back and leading the follower to a pivot turn more or less with a partner. One fellow returning student commented that I improved a great deal and that I no longer tremble and shake trying to do these things.

Also around this time, I learned something similar to Enchufe. However, I was doing it wrong (starting with R foot going back for open break instead of L foot) and did not discover this mistake for well over a month.

December 10, 2004 - This was my last salsa class for 2004. There was a salsa party featuring a belly dancer. I danced for the first time on Friday doing nothing but basic, back-to-back, side-to-side and pivot turns, cross body leads (in an experimental way and poorly), and enchufe (incorrectly). Amazingly, a stranger said (perhaps sarcastically?) that she liked the way I danced.

Holiday break 2004/2005 - I vow to try to find a place to dance salsa in New York with Ignacio. We failed. In retrospect, this was probably a very good thing. I purchase my 2nd and 3rd salsa instructional DVD - Josie Neglia's Dance Hot Salsa DVD 1 & 2. Although the style looked familiar enough, they do little to improve my salsa skills.

January 3, 2005 - I take my first lesson at Po Na Na. Mauricio dumps me into the upper level with substitute teachers Enrico and Angelique. They show me how to smoothly transition back and forth between basic and back-to-back.

January 5, 2005 - Club Salsa was closed for Wednesday lesson. I later learn that this was because of an argument between Mauricio and the Club Salsa management.

January 10, 2005 - I take my first lesson with Peter & Cinzia. This is my first experience with the Rueda wheel. I note that this style is closer to the one in the Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa.

January 16, 2005 - I went to Salsa on Sundays (SOS) for the first time in London. My instructor refused to let me leave multiple times after the lesson. In the end, I danced with 3-4 partners thanks to this act.

January 21, 2005 - Johnny & Serap finally returns. I move up to their Intermediate class and leave the Beginners class for good. I am back to taking two lessons a week.

February 2, 2005 - I take my first lesson with Rhona & Helen at CDC - taking both their Improvers and Intermediate classes. I am now taking lessons three days a week.

February 3, 2005 - I take my first lesson with Sergio at CDC - taking both his Improvers and Intermediate classes. This means I am taking lessons four days per week.

February 24, 2005 - Sergio talks about taking notes of classes during one of his class. I start taking notes on my laptop.

March, 17, 2005 - I tried my first real Casino Rueda class with Rhona & Helen with CDC lent term ending.

March 20, 2005 - I tried my first (and thus far my last) lesson with Nelson. So within a seven day span, I took lessons on five days. This is a record that has not been duplicated.

March 24, 2005 - I decided to take my notes and use them to start this blog after getting a comment about how well I seem to remember my lessons from a fellow student. I thought it might be useful to share my notes with interested people.

May 28, 2005 - At this time, I am probably classified an intermediate level leader with fairly large number of routines under my belt - probably using too many difficult routines for less experienced followers and a bit unpracticed for more experienced followers. For the past month, I have been taking salsa lessons avearage of three days per week.