Does one Salsa song count as Salsa outing?

September 26, 2005

The enticement this time was not Salsa dancing. After all, I didn't dance even once last time I was at Soul Tree, Also, anyone who went to UK Salsa Congress will have been planning to catch up on sleep. Even if there was no congress, Po Na Na really bites these days (although it might improve slightly once classes start as Jin predicted).

What intrigued me was a Beatles tribute band. I've heard one back in the States, but how would they compare to a UK version? Besides, Vishal handed me a free ticket for two last week. I was even tempted to invite a colleague from work until I thought better of it and went by myself as usual.

I found myself standing in a cue for about 15 minutes once I arrived at Soul Tree and found myself surrounded by Swiss expatriates. One thought that came to my mind immediately was, "I think I rather get a pass to avoid cues but which requires that I pay usual entree fee rather than a free entry pass."

The tribute band was fine, nothing objectionable. I could have brought some friends along and feel alright about it. After the their set was over (or after they decided to take an extended break), I went upstairs to see what the Salsa/Merengue scene was like.

Just like last time, Matrix DJ dude was spinning disks. A merengue, followed by another, followed by a Salsa, followed by four or five Latin pop. Hmm. I might have to retract my comment from last time - "It may work as bring your own dance partner if you want to dance."

The trouble is (well not exactly a trouble) that the place was quite busy with a lot of Latin or Spanish youths. I thought perhaps half of the crowd was singing along (some rather passionately, I might add) to every song being played. It wasn't a "dancer's crowd" although there were some dancing. Not exactly more impressive dancing than the type happening downstairs (where Vishal was playing some Techno, House or whatever) but with more raw emotion and/or energy.

It made me think of a statement I heard couple of weeks ago, which went something like "People from Colombia, etc. come here (UK) and find that they can't dance to their dance music." Perhaps I am reading their mood incorrectly, but my thought while observing this was "Maybe I shouldn't come here and show off by dancing Salsa the way I was taught because I think they may not appreciate having the place that reminds them of home get taken over by bunch of so-called dancers."