Salsa in Portland, Oregon (USA) - night 1

June 24, 2005

I first went to Fernando's Hideaway based upon recommendation from SalsaPower website. Unfortunately, scene was not at all promising (plenty of absolute beginners only). I asked several members of the staff about this, and they said all the good dancers are probably at a Salsa competiton event at a place called PPAA. After some misadventures looking for this place, I got there just before the competition started. The event was organized by a Salsa couple who refer themselves as Gemini, who turns out to have the most up to date information about Salsa venues in Portland right now; unfortunately, I didn't realize this before I got to PDX. The venue PPAA was comparable in size to SOS, but the quality of the dancers was not as good as SOS. I would guess that Salsa in Portland may be equivalent or perhaps slightly better than in Cambridge although I was rather worried in the begininng; my first two partners couldn't keep to the beat and my third partner got me in the eye with her elbow, which resulted in my contact lens popping out. I ended up dancing with four of the seven finalists in the competition. [added Oct 2, 2005 - In retrospect, I wonder if I was too brazen in asking them although my impression at the time was that most of them parted with good humor intact.] The finalists were not necessarily the most fun to dance with; there was another out-of-towner follower who gave me as good a dance as the finalists and yet another follower who was not as experienced but but still very pleasant to dance with.