July 27, 2005
Whoa! Wednesdays are still very popular and packed at Club Salsa; on par with Fridays. This isn’t to say that the level of dancers on Wednesdays was exceptional. I have seen more top Cambridge salsa dancers both on Fridays at Club Salsa and on Mondays at Po Na Na over last year. Then again, I haven’t seen very many top LA stylists in large numbers anywhere in Cambridge very often this summer.
I saw Helen (of Rhona & Helen) for the first time at Club Salsa on any day aside from Thursdays and had a LA style dance with her shortly before she left. My dance with Rhona was made simplified because I was distracted (and was feeling trapped) by practically stationary couple “dancing” next to us. My last set of dances seemed to both entertain and amuse my dance partner, especially the first one, presumably because she was surprised by my progress in last month or so. In between all those dances, I made a conscious effort to dance with beginners whom I really didn’t know very well and largely avoiding or missing improvers and intermediates. I was doing this to “test” whether I was an intermediate – described as ones who love to dance with everyone by one Salsa Mafia treatise. Considering that I wasn’t finding my dances with beginners a total waste of time (yet), I guess I must still be considered an intermediate (say advanced intermediate as opposed to beginning advanced at least by Cambridge standard) by this definition.
Is there a Cambridge version of Salsa Mafia? If so, who would belong to it? This would be some of the teachers. I would also guess that there might be more female Mafs than males in Cambridge while the opposite is probably true in London. [Added October 1, 2005 - I'm not sure if I agree with previous statement at all now. I think that it is just as likely if not more for good leaders to line up to dance with best followers in Cambridge. Even more complete portrayal is that there are people of both gender who are thrilled to dance with someone who is at highest level or beyond of their usual circle of dance partners.] Who would be considered A-level or B-level dancers? How would they be graded if they danced in London (my guess would be that a solid A level in Cambridge might be considered B+ in London).
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Hi Pete!
What is this "system" you're referring to? Was this about showing that I'm having fun dancing and see if this is infective (i.e. get my dance partner to enjoy the dance as well)? If so, it's working splendidly.
I'll see you at Rueda tonight. It should be fun to hear about the congress and to see how the class changes because of it.
As for your opinion about NY/LA and Cuban attitudes, my opinion is that it is person (not the dance style) who has the attitude/disposition. It's also a lot easier to be relaxed and to have fun when you're comfortable with your own dancing whether you're dancing LA or Cuban. I know that for me it's gotten a lot easier to smile and enjoy dancing now that I feel I am competent. Among other mainly LA stylists, I think Ivan (as well as his dance partners) always looks like he's having a good time dancing. Maybe it's helped by my "system" (I'm still not sure if that was what I was talking about), but I like to think that people I dance with are having a great time dancing with me nowadays. :)
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