October 31, 2005
I guess my answers would be that I live in Cambridge, I dance Salsa in Cambridge, and I have been writing about it. None of these says I am qualified or that I do it well. In any case, I received a request from www.londonsalsa.co.uk to write a short blurb about Salsa in Cambridge. The message below was received through a neutral site, Salsa Mafia.
--
Hey,
I was wondering if you'd be interested in writing a short article about Salsa in Cambridge for www.londonsalsa.co.uk. I know the scene might not be huge, but it being in the vicinity of London, some people might consider venturing out there some time.
A friend at university there tells me there's quite a good Wednesday night happening. Together with some pictures maybe, it would be a good promotion for Cambridge Salsa.
As incentive I can only offer you credit to your article, a link to your blog and of course the knowledge that you've done something positive for other Salsa dancers. I don't make a living out of the site either.
If that sounds like an OK deal to you, let me know!
TT aka. Phil
--
I'll think about it, talk about with some people, and then think about it more before deciding. I did ask about maximum word limit for the article wanted, and the reply was that 500-1000 words would be sufficient.
I'm also going to assume that it was a pure coincidence that I won my DVD prize from this website around the same time I received this request.
Another stumbling block for on-2 class
October 31, 2005
There was a talk of starting on-2 class as an experiment for 5 weeks starting today, but too many last minute dropouts resulted in cancellation this time around. It was always going to be an uphill battle, but I'm sorry to encounter another delay. New York will have to wait.
One of the things I had hoped to post here was a link to a pretty map of Trinity College.
There was a talk of starting on-2 class as an experiment for 5 weeks starting today, but too many last minute dropouts resulted in cancellation this time around. It was always going to be an uphill battle, but I'm sorry to encounter another delay. New York will have to wait.
One of the things I had hoped to post here was a link to a pretty map of Trinity College.
I am a winner!
October 31, 2005
It's nothing special really.
I entered a contest to win one of SuperMario's new DVDs, and my name was pulled out of the hat. I get either SuperMario's Supermoves DVD 4 or 5.
Two more weeks of contests remain. If you want to enter the contest, go to www.londonsalsa.co.uk. Thus far the number of contestants have been rather low, and I would guess that my chances of winning has been about 1 in 10 to 1 in 25.
I have no idea what to expect from these DVDs. I have never taken lessons with SuperMario; in fact I never saw him in person. At the Salsa Mafia forum, SuperMario has a reputation for being an excellent teacher among very large number of people; I think he was voted best Salsa teacher in UK in few different occasions. He also is not universally liked (but then again, who is?) and has a small number of detractors; some say he has an outsized ego while others even dismiss him as a con man. The most often-stated evidence of SuperMario's big ego is about SuperMario pushing past many people and cutting through long line to get his food (presumably at Salsa-related events). The evidence for him being a con man was never explained very well to the best of my knowledge.
It's nothing special really.
I entered a contest to win one of SuperMario's new DVDs, and my name was pulled out of the hat. I get either SuperMario's Supermoves DVD 4 or 5.
Two more weeks of contests remain. If you want to enter the contest, go to www.londonsalsa.co.uk. Thus far the number of contestants have been rather low, and I would guess that my chances of winning has been about 1 in 10 to 1 in 25.
I have no idea what to expect from these DVDs. I have never taken lessons with SuperMario; in fact I never saw him in person. At the Salsa Mafia forum, SuperMario has a reputation for being an excellent teacher among very large number of people; I think he was voted best Salsa teacher in UK in few different occasions. He also is not universally liked (but then again, who is?) and has a small number of detractors; some say he has an outsized ego while others even dismiss him as a con man. The most often-stated evidence of SuperMario's big ego is about SuperMario pushing past many people and cutting through long line to get his food (presumably at Salsa-related events). The evidence for him being a con man was never explained very well to the best of my knowledge.
A short SOS outing - I say it doesn't count
October 30, 2005
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with L-R hold
1,2,3 open break followed by leading follower forward while letting go L-R (tossing follower’s R hand forward along her line should suffice) to make L-L connection by 3/4
5,6,7 lead follower to full counterclockwise traveling turn with L-L high ending close to follower with R hand on follower’s stomach
1,2,3 lead a big preparation for follower with L-L counterclockwise twisting motion on 1 and return on 2,3 for
4,5,6,7,8 lead follower to a stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L initially high and led low at the end to have L-L ending up behind follower’s back R waist and R hand on follower’s L shoulder
1,2,3 forward basic (with follower’s R shoulder twisting back on 1 and twisting forward on 3) and get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower forward on 5 (her L shoulder twisting forward with help of R hand on shoulder lead) and lead her into a traveling counterclockwise 1 1/2 turn – as follower completes her turn (on ~7) leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise on the spot
1,2,3 leader turns 3/4 turn counterclockwise with L-L high initially to get into another cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into traveling full counterclockwise turn with L-L low to end up with a wrap (with L-L at front R waist of follower)
1,2,3 (probably open break like motion on 1 followed by) turn follower 1/2 clockwise and get into another cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-L ending in a hat for the leader and R hand placed on follower’s back/shoulder
1,2,3 (hopefully using the momentum created) as a unit, leader and follower turn 1/2 to full turn counterclockwise centered on leader’s R foot (which ideally should be placed very close to and behind follower’s L foot at the start of the turn)
5,6,7 lead follower into a simple cross body l
Once I got used to leading 2 1/2 turn (which we don’t do in Cambridge), this was fairly easy – at least until the end bit as trying to move as a unit for a full turn felt a little forced much of the time (again, this maneuver is not pushed to a full turn in Cambridge and I personally don’t even use 1/2 turn as a unit very much). Apparently the level of leaders in this class (level III) was not very high because one of the women commented that I had the best lead of the lot. Even though I found her to be one of the better followers in the class up to that point, I think she had only went around 1/2 of the leaders when she made this comment so real value of this statement would have been questionable. In any case, she soon dropped out of the class, which I interpreted to mean that she found too many of the leaders in the class too dreadful to make it worth her while to stay in the class. I got fairly comfortable with this routine (except for the very last bit), so I was able to gather enough nerve to try the entire routine after the class and pull it off fairly well when it was done with some of the other students who attended this class. Considering the fact that I had never felt I mastered the routine I learned at SOS in previous occasions, I guess this could be considered a major progress. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get the routine done when it was tried with someone from outside the class; however, this may have more to do with general level of dancers at SOS tonight (see more below).
Shine of the day
1 L foot forward (large step)
2 R foot together (slightly behind L foot) while keeping weight on L foot
3 R foot back (large step) as the body turn around ~1/2 clockwise
4 L foot together (slightly ahead of R foot) while keeping weight on R foot
5 L foot forward (going backwards, large step again)
6 R foot together while keeping weight on L foot
7 turn around again ~1/2 clockwise and R foot forward (another large step)
8 L foot together while keeping weight on R foot
1,2,3 turn 1/4 clockwise and do Suzy Q
4 turn around 1/2 clockwise
5 L foot in place
6 R foot in place
7 L foot on heel
8 R foot on heel
1 turn 1/4 clockwise and L foot forward
2 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
4 pause
5,6,7 Suzy Q
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2,3 L foot slide forward while R foot slide backward ending with feet placed far apart
5 R foot cross over in front of L foot
6,7 R foot slide forward while L foot slide backward (similar to 1,2,3)
1,2,3 L foot forward to prepare and then do a full stationary clockwise turn
5,6,7 R foot to R to prepare and do a full stationary counterclockwise turn
It would have been nice to be able to say that this was a cakewalk but that would not be accurate. The trickiest bit for me was timing with the fourth part (L foot slide forward while R foot slide backward ending with feet placed far apart, etc). When the music came on, I also became confused by the transition from second part to third part (I probably started thinking too much). Some of the men (presumably first time at level III) were giving up completely after just the second part, and I suspect that they didn’t have much fun with the partner dance part of the lesson either (in any case they looked pretty sullen afterwards).
SOS tonight was a bit underwhelming. There were some interesting twists, such as getting together with Johnny & Serap to travel with to and back from SOS and meeting with Liam to talk about this blog and about his experimental on-2 class, which will start tomorrow. Liam seems to have no problems with coverage of his class in this blog, so expect a report on his class starting tomorrow. Johnny & Serap attended level IV class (invitation only), which allowed me to assess that the level of difficulty in level IV indeed looked even more difficult than level III. Since I’m only beginning to get comfortable taking large amount of material from level III for my use, I’m quite content to stay at level III a while longer although it was amusing to note that some of the people in level IV seemed surprisingly weak to my eyes. Another first – I had a dance with a pregnant woman (no triples or dips please – perhaps obvious but a useful thing nevertheless to remember for future references) – it was very good, one of the better and more enjoyable dances tonight. The only minus was that she probably was one of very few people I danced with outside the class, whom I felt I had a chance to practice today’s routine successfully if it weren’t for her condition. There was one Cha Cha Cha track played tonight, and I was able to parlay my Ballroom dance experience (all 3-4 lessons worth of it) to a decent effect. Overall, the general level of dance at SOS tonight was very hit-and-miss with many more misses than usual. It seemed like half of the dances felt either too blasé or were done with follower not being able to keep to her line much of the time. It did not help at all that SOS closed early tonight at 10 PM (actually closer to 10:15 PM) rather than usual 11 PM (I did not learn the reason for the early closure) and that the classes seemingly started later than usual. I’m not sure if this early closure kept some people away – although there were plenty of people and seemingly less room to dance compared to the last time I was here. Even so I still managed stringing together many series of long combinations in many of the dances (this has not been easy to do in Cambridge due to combination of poor floor conditions at Club Salsa, blog controversy and a set of self-imposed bans). I am not calling it a full SOS outing tonight so that I can give myself an excuse to come again next week while ignoring my self-imposed pledge not to come to SOS more than once every 3-5 weeks. Between my Bachata event, work and travel plans, it will have been difficult to come back to SOS in 3-5 weeks time anyway, and I fear that the floor condition at Club Salsa may not improve dramatically this week. Perhaps this is more rationalizing and making excuses than I should permit myself, but I feel so sorely lacking in proper Salsa practice with two SOS trips and Johnny & Serap’s party having been the only good occasions for decent amount of practice at high level this month.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with L-R hold
1,2,3 open break followed by leading follower forward while letting go L-R (tossing follower’s R hand forward along her line should suffice) to make L-L connection by 3/4
5,6,7 lead follower to full counterclockwise traveling turn with L-L high ending close to follower with R hand on follower’s stomach
1,2,3 lead a big preparation for follower with L-L counterclockwise twisting motion on 1 and return on 2,3 for
4,5,6,7,8 lead follower to a stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L initially high and led low at the end to have L-L ending up behind follower’s back R waist and R hand on follower’s L shoulder
1,2,3 forward basic (with follower’s R shoulder twisting back on 1 and twisting forward on 3) and get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower forward on 5 (her L shoulder twisting forward with help of R hand on shoulder lead) and lead her into a traveling counterclockwise 1 1/2 turn – as follower completes her turn (on ~7) leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise on the spot
1,2,3 leader turns 3/4 turn counterclockwise with L-L high initially to get into another cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into traveling full counterclockwise turn with L-L low to end up with a wrap (with L-L at front R waist of follower)
1,2,3 (probably open break like motion on 1 followed by) turn follower 1/2 clockwise and get into another cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-L ending in a hat for the leader and R hand placed on follower’s back/shoulder
1,2,3 (hopefully using the momentum created) as a unit, leader and follower turn 1/2 to full turn counterclockwise centered on leader’s R foot (which ideally should be placed very close to and behind follower’s L foot at the start of the turn)
5,6,7 lead follower into a simple cross body l
Once I got used to leading 2 1/2 turn (which we don’t do in Cambridge), this was fairly easy – at least until the end bit as trying to move as a unit for a full turn felt a little forced much of the time (again, this maneuver is not pushed to a full turn in Cambridge and I personally don’t even use 1/2 turn as a unit very much). Apparently the level of leaders in this class (level III) was not very high because one of the women commented that I had the best lead of the lot. Even though I found her to be one of the better followers in the class up to that point, I think she had only went around 1/2 of the leaders when she made this comment so real value of this statement would have been questionable. In any case, she soon dropped out of the class, which I interpreted to mean that she found too many of the leaders in the class too dreadful to make it worth her while to stay in the class. I got fairly comfortable with this routine (except for the very last bit), so I was able to gather enough nerve to try the entire routine after the class and pull it off fairly well when it was done with some of the other students who attended this class. Considering the fact that I had never felt I mastered the routine I learned at SOS in previous occasions, I guess this could be considered a major progress. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get the routine done when it was tried with someone from outside the class; however, this may have more to do with general level of dancers at SOS tonight (see more below).
Shine of the day
1 L foot forward (large step)
2 R foot together (slightly behind L foot) while keeping weight on L foot
3 R foot back (large step) as the body turn around ~1/2 clockwise
4 L foot together (slightly ahead of R foot) while keeping weight on R foot
5 L foot forward (going backwards, large step again)
6 R foot together while keeping weight on L foot
7 turn around again ~1/2 clockwise and R foot forward (another large step)
8 L foot together while keeping weight on R foot
1,2,3 turn 1/4 clockwise and do Suzy Q
4 turn around 1/2 clockwise
5 L foot in place
6 R foot in place
7 L foot on heel
8 R foot on heel
1 turn 1/4 clockwise and L foot forward
2 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
4 pause
5,6,7 Suzy Q
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2,3 L foot slide forward while R foot slide backward ending with feet placed far apart
5 R foot cross over in front of L foot
6,7 R foot slide forward while L foot slide backward (similar to 1,2,3)
1,2,3 L foot forward to prepare and then do a full stationary clockwise turn
5,6,7 R foot to R to prepare and do a full stationary counterclockwise turn
It would have been nice to be able to say that this was a cakewalk but that would not be accurate. The trickiest bit for me was timing with the fourth part (L foot slide forward while R foot slide backward ending with feet placed far apart, etc). When the music came on, I also became confused by the transition from second part to third part (I probably started thinking too much). Some of the men (presumably first time at level III) were giving up completely after just the second part, and I suspect that they didn’t have much fun with the partner dance part of the lesson either (in any case they looked pretty sullen afterwards).
SOS tonight was a bit underwhelming. There were some interesting twists, such as getting together with Johnny & Serap to travel with to and back from SOS and meeting with Liam to talk about this blog and about his experimental on-2 class, which will start tomorrow. Liam seems to have no problems with coverage of his class in this blog, so expect a report on his class starting tomorrow. Johnny & Serap attended level IV class (invitation only), which allowed me to assess that the level of difficulty in level IV indeed looked even more difficult than level III. Since I’m only beginning to get comfortable taking large amount of material from level III for my use, I’m quite content to stay at level III a while longer although it was amusing to note that some of the people in level IV seemed surprisingly weak to my eyes. Another first – I had a dance with a pregnant woman (no triples or dips please – perhaps obvious but a useful thing nevertheless to remember for future references) – it was very good, one of the better and more enjoyable dances tonight. The only minus was that she probably was one of very few people I danced with outside the class, whom I felt I had a chance to practice today’s routine successfully if it weren’t for her condition. There was one Cha Cha Cha track played tonight, and I was able to parlay my Ballroom dance experience (all 3-4 lessons worth of it) to a decent effect. Overall, the general level of dance at SOS tonight was very hit-and-miss with many more misses than usual. It seemed like half of the dances felt either too blasé or were done with follower not being able to keep to her line much of the time. It did not help at all that SOS closed early tonight at 10 PM (actually closer to 10:15 PM) rather than usual 11 PM (I did not learn the reason for the early closure) and that the classes seemingly started later than usual. I’m not sure if this early closure kept some people away – although there were plenty of people and seemingly less room to dance compared to the last time I was here. Even so I still managed stringing together many series of long combinations in many of the dances (this has not been easy to do in Cambridge due to combination of poor floor conditions at Club Salsa, blog controversy and a set of self-imposed bans). I am not calling it a full SOS outing tonight so that I can give myself an excuse to come again next week while ignoring my self-imposed pledge not to come to SOS more than once every 3-5 weeks. Between my Bachata event, work and travel plans, it will have been difficult to come back to SOS in 3-5 weeks time anyway, and I fear that the floor condition at Club Salsa may not improve dramatically this week. Perhaps this is more rationalizing and making excuses than I should permit myself, but I feel so sorely lacking in proper Salsa practice with two SOS trips and Johnny & Serap’s party having been the only good occasions for decent amount of practice at high level this month.
Ballroom Beginner Fast track week 4 & Beginners Practice
October 29, 2005
Waltz
Right corner turn (same as last week except additional detail in bold)
1 R foot forward (body but not feet starts turning clockwise)
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new L with L foot
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward (body starts turning clockwise)
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new R with R foot
3 L foot together
Often, I break above turn move into two halves with long basics in between (with leader going backwards). I'm guessing that this is allowed although I'm not completely certain. Also carrying out three right corner turn in a row along a long straight space makes for a nice detour if there is space available.
Quickstep
Steps that inevitably gets you into a corner that you cannot get out of
1 R foot diagonal forward L (slow)
2-4 chasse
- L foot diagonal forward L (quick)
- R foot cross behind L foot (quick)
- L foot diagonal forward L (slow)
5 R foot diagonal forward (slow)
6-8 chasse
- L foot diagonal forward L (quick)
- R foot cross behind L foot (quick)
- L foot diagonal forward L (slow)
Once this diagonal move is initiated, apparently it must be carried through to beat 8 of the music. Sans no turning move, this usually ends in a dead end. Even with smaller number of people, traffic management becomes a bit of nightmare with this new step added. I'll need some sort of turning manuever if I were to enjoy Quickstep.
Cha Cha Cha
New Yorker ending with turn [This should be doable with Rumba as well]
2 let go R-L (possibly as early as 1) and point to L with L foot
3 weight on R foot
4,5 chasse reconnect L-R and let go R-L
6 point to R with R foot
7 weight on L foot
8,1 chasse (if continuing with New Yorker – let go L-R and reconnect R-L)
The way to initiate turn is to let go L-R on 2 and turn clockwise and get back into open position on 3,4,5 followed by back basic on 6 OR to let go R-L on 6 and turn counterclockwise and get back into open position on 7,8,1 [Note: Followers turn opposite direction leaders are turning]
Right now, Cha Cha Cha is my personal favorite among the Ballroom dances – enough familiarity with music, being able to anticipate changes in music and match it with simple changes in the dance, knowing some extra simple moves, and nice moderate speed of the dance probably all contribute to this sentiment. Then again, I was called for being off time once again by the timing police; I think I might have been dancing on-1 instead of on-2. Despite this, dancing Cha Cha Cha today has to rank as the dancing highlight of this week for me.
[Note: Rumba is danced on-2 as well. I'm going to have to go back to my old notes and make corrections when I have time.]
Jive
leading follower to clockwise turn
just lift L-R high (gradually) as chassis is initiated
Jive also is fun but also is very energy consuming. If I dance one Jive, then sometimes I need to take a break for next 2 songs. I also want a better written-out description of relationship between the beat of the music and steps involved in dancing jive.
I found soles of my dance shoe covered with wax, varnish and all sorts of junk when I arrived. It was a good thing that I arrived early enough to clean the soles, but it still was not a good thing to see.
Cambridge is a small town. I’m just going to say that it’s amazing how often I see same people in different unrelated places and how easy it is to meet new people with overlapping set of acquaintances.
Apparently there will be a CDC committee meeting tomorrow. Maybe I’ll hear from them soon.
Waltz
Right corner turn (same as last week except additional detail in bold)
1 R foot forward (body but not feet starts turning clockwise)
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new L with L foot
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward (body starts turning clockwise)
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new R with R foot
3 L foot together
Often, I break above turn move into two halves with long basics in between (with leader going backwards). I'm guessing that this is allowed although I'm not completely certain. Also carrying out three right corner turn in a row along a long straight space makes for a nice detour if there is space available.
Quickstep
Steps that inevitably gets you into a corner that you cannot get out of
1 R foot diagonal forward L (slow)
2-4 chasse
- L foot diagonal forward L (quick)
- R foot cross behind L foot (quick)
- L foot diagonal forward L (slow)
5 R foot diagonal forward (slow)
6-8 chasse
- L foot diagonal forward L (quick)
- R foot cross behind L foot (quick)
- L foot diagonal forward L (slow)
Once this diagonal move is initiated, apparently it must be carried through to beat 8 of the music. Sans no turning move, this usually ends in a dead end. Even with smaller number of people, traffic management becomes a bit of nightmare with this new step added. I'll need some sort of turning manuever if I were to enjoy Quickstep.
Cha Cha Cha
New Yorker ending with turn [This should be doable with Rumba as well]
2 let go R-L (possibly as early as 1) and point to L with L foot
3 weight on R foot
4,5 chasse reconnect L-R and let go R-L
6 point to R with R foot
7 weight on L foot
8,1 chasse (if continuing with New Yorker – let go L-R and reconnect R-L)
The way to initiate turn is to let go L-R on 2 and turn clockwise and get back into open position on 3,4,5 followed by back basic on 6 OR to let go R-L on 6 and turn counterclockwise and get back into open position on 7,8,1 [Note: Followers turn opposite direction leaders are turning]
Right now, Cha Cha Cha is my personal favorite among the Ballroom dances – enough familiarity with music, being able to anticipate changes in music and match it with simple changes in the dance, knowing some extra simple moves, and nice moderate speed of the dance probably all contribute to this sentiment. Then again, I was called for being off time once again by the timing police; I think I might have been dancing on-1 instead of on-2. Despite this, dancing Cha Cha Cha today has to rank as the dancing highlight of this week for me.
[Note: Rumba is danced on-2 as well. I'm going to have to go back to my old notes and make corrections when I have time.]
Jive
leading follower to clockwise turn
just lift L-R high (gradually) as chassis is initiated
Jive also is fun but also is very energy consuming. If I dance one Jive, then sometimes I need to take a break for next 2 songs. I also want a better written-out description of relationship between the beat of the music and steps involved in dancing jive.
I found soles of my dance shoe covered with wax, varnish and all sorts of junk when I arrived. It was a good thing that I arrived early enough to clean the soles, but it still was not a good thing to see.
Cambridge is a small town. I’m just going to say that it’s amazing how often I see same people in different unrelated places and how easy it is to meet new people with overlapping set of acquaintances.
Apparently there will be a CDC committee meeting tomorrow. Maybe I’ll hear from them soon.
Putting follower into a straight jacket ... like yesterday - Johnny & Serap
October 28, 2005
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized basic followed by preparation for stylized cross body lead start – normal on 1,2 followed by step backwards on 3 with L foot, then R foot cross over in front of L foot on 5 and R foot gets into cross body position on 7
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start – L foot cross behind R foot on 1 and get into normal cross body lead position on 3
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-L released followed by leader’s 1/2 counterclockwise turn to face away from follower on 7/8 with L-R in ending in pizza waiters position
1,2,3 walk in counterclockwise motion to get back into cross body lead start position and switch to R-R (possibly grabbing follower’s R wrist)
5,6,7 complete simple cross body lead ending in L-R hold
1,2,3 open break or prepare follower for… (optional footwork for leader is L foot cross behind R foot on 1)
5,6,7 lead follower to a stationary full clockwise turn with L-R high and leader turning 1/2 clockwise while releasing L-R - connect with R-R on 8/1
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2 with R-R going over follower’s head as it is released (allows follower for a hair comb styling) and connect L-L in front of follower while getting into cross body lead position (thus leader is moving to L of follower’s line)
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic thrown in
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break or prepare follower on 1,2,3 followed by leading follower to a stationary full clockwise turn with L-R high and leader turning 1/2 clockwise while releasing L-R - connect with R-R on 8/1 (just as it was done earlier)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2 with R-R going over follower’s head but keeping connection & connect L-L in front of follower while getting into cross body lead position once again
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling full clockwise turn with all connections kept intact – it seemed to me the best thing is to bring R-R down low first on 5 as L-L is used to lead follower forward also on 5, then follower’s turn is initiated on 6 with L-L going high with R-R being placed behind follower’s back L waist – L-L ends at shoulder level although it might help to have it slightly below shoulder level and straight L relative to follower’s body on 7/8
1,2,3 step to L (cross over forward or behind R foot as is deemed appropriate depending on relative position between leader and follower) on 1 as L-L is placed behind follower’s back R waist and turn follower around to face leader on 2,3
5,6,7 basic moving backwards with follower in straightjacket position = L-L behind her back R waist and R-R behind her back L waist (twist her body to move her L shoulder forward on 5 and L shoulder back on 7)
1,2,3 basic forward while getting into cross body lead position (twisting of follower’s position involves her R side moving backwards on 1 and forward on 3)
5,6,7 lead follower to 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with R-R released (L side of follower moves forward on 5 first before counterclockwise turn is initiated)
Turns are still difficult with the current floor condition. Combining it with usual Friday crowding and getting stepped on badly with heels made things rougher than usual. SOS this weekend hopefully will be the perfect cure. I now expect that Ballroom dancing tomorrow likely will be the highlight of dancing in Cambridge this week.
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized basic followed by preparation for stylized cross body lead start – normal on 1,2 followed by step backwards on 3 with L foot, then R foot cross over in front of L foot on 5 and R foot gets into cross body position on 7
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start – L foot cross behind R foot on 1 and get into normal cross body lead position on 3
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-L released followed by leader’s 1/2 counterclockwise turn to face away from follower on 7/8 with L-R in ending in pizza waiters position
1,2,3 walk in counterclockwise motion to get back into cross body lead start position and switch to R-R (possibly grabbing follower’s R wrist)
5,6,7 complete simple cross body lead ending in L-R hold
1,2,3 open break or prepare follower for… (optional footwork for leader is L foot cross behind R foot on 1)
5,6,7 lead follower to a stationary full clockwise turn with L-R high and leader turning 1/2 clockwise while releasing L-R - connect with R-R on 8/1
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2 with R-R going over follower’s head as it is released (allows follower for a hair comb styling) and connect L-L in front of follower while getting into cross body lead position (thus leader is moving to L of follower’s line)
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic thrown in
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break or prepare follower on 1,2,3 followed by leading follower to a stationary full clockwise turn with L-R high and leader turning 1/2 clockwise while releasing L-R - connect with R-R on 8/1 (just as it was done earlier)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2 with R-R going over follower’s head but keeping connection & connect L-L in front of follower while getting into cross body lead position once again
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling full clockwise turn with all connections kept intact – it seemed to me the best thing is to bring R-R down low first on 5 as L-L is used to lead follower forward also on 5, then follower’s turn is initiated on 6 with L-L going high with R-R being placed behind follower’s back L waist – L-L ends at shoulder level although it might help to have it slightly below shoulder level and straight L relative to follower’s body on 7/8
1,2,3 step to L (cross over forward or behind R foot as is deemed appropriate depending on relative position between leader and follower) on 1 as L-L is placed behind follower’s back R waist and turn follower around to face leader on 2,3
5,6,7 basic moving backwards with follower in straightjacket position = L-L behind her back R waist and R-R behind her back L waist (twist her body to move her L shoulder forward on 5 and L shoulder back on 7)
1,2,3 basic forward while getting into cross body lead position (twisting of follower’s position involves her R side moving backwards on 1 and forward on 3)
5,6,7 lead follower to 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with R-R released (L side of follower moves forward on 5 first before counterclockwise turn is initiated)
Turns are still difficult with the current floor condition. Combining it with usual Friday crowding and getting stepped on badly with heels made things rougher than usual. SOS this weekend hopefully will be the perfect cure. I now expect that Ballroom dancing tomorrow likely will be the highlight of dancing in Cambridge this week.
Putting finishing touches on a dance floor
October 27, 2005
Vishal has been making quite a bit of effort to improve dance floor at Club Salsa. He guesses he must have spent about 10 hours sanding the floor, putting on varnish, etc. thus far. For now though, the floor is still a work-in-progress. It also led to me to do a brief research on how to make (or more precisely putting finishing touches to) a dance floor. At one point last night, I wondered whether any kind of finish improves dance floor at all. But further treatment (varnish, etc) probably is a very good idea that would help keep floor reliable, consistent and durable if applied and maintained well. For example, gym floors are great for dancing, and gym floors most definitely have some sort of finish (probably some sort of varnish). Below is what I found.
--
Following is an excerpt from Understanding the Basics of Wood Floor Finishes.
Wood floor finishes fall into two categories: surface finishes and penetrating finishes. Surface finishes are layers of finish film sitting on the surface of the wood flooring. Penetrating finishes are finishes that are absorbed into the surface of the wood flooring, and are also referred to as penetrating sealers. [Note: The impression I got from my readings was that penetrating finishes are commonly used for dance floors.]
The finish material is always applied to a prepared surface which has been sanded and/or scraped. Sanding is the technique used with nearly all floors. Scraping is performed only by a few specialists. The sanding processes can have a significant influence on how the finish performs.
All the surface finishes require at least a three-coat application. The first coat is a sealing coat. This coat can be either a penetrating sealer or in some cases the top coat finish itself. When penetrating finish is as a sealer, it must be absolutely dry before application of the top coats. This applies particularly where water-based finishes are applied. Most of these finishes also require some type of abrasion between coats for a proper mechanical bond between coats. After the sealer is applied, two additional coats are required for the three-coat system. When an additional coat is desired or requested, the preferred addition is an extra seal coat. Each layer/application of finish must be dry before the next is applied. Another very important issue is ventilation. The volatile materials must be allowed to evaporate for finishes to properly dry and cure. As drying occurs, it is a must that the air laden with the evaporatives be exhausted from the space between each coating application or performance will be an issue. Some of the issues caused by poor ventilation are soft finish, rough finish, peeling finish, etc.
To recap, always read and follow the manufacturer's instructions; finish systems on properly sanded flooring require a minimum of three coats; become familiar and practiced with the finish you use; be sure to ventilate after application; use only materials recommended for the system used; and don't mix different manufacturers' products.
--
Other potentially useful websites I found include the following -
Sadolin Advice on Floor Care for Applying Varnishes
Webseal Varnish
Waterlox for Wood Floors
[Note: This website were found using Google.com using keywords such as, "dance floor varnish" and "wood floor varnish"]
Finally my condolences and best wishes go to Vishal for stupendous amount of work still left for him.
Vishal has been making quite a bit of effort to improve dance floor at Club Salsa. He guesses he must have spent about 10 hours sanding the floor, putting on varnish, etc. thus far. For now though, the floor is still a work-in-progress. It also led to me to do a brief research on how to make (or more precisely putting finishing touches to) a dance floor. At one point last night, I wondered whether any kind of finish improves dance floor at all. But further treatment (varnish, etc) probably is a very good idea that would help keep floor reliable, consistent and durable if applied and maintained well. For example, gym floors are great for dancing, and gym floors most definitely have some sort of finish (probably some sort of varnish). Below is what I found.
--
Following is an excerpt from Understanding the Basics of Wood Floor Finishes.
Wood floor finishes fall into two categories: surface finishes and penetrating finishes. Surface finishes are layers of finish film sitting on the surface of the wood flooring. Penetrating finishes are finishes that are absorbed into the surface of the wood flooring, and are also referred to as penetrating sealers. [Note: The impression I got from my readings was that penetrating finishes are commonly used for dance floors.]
The finish material is always applied to a prepared surface which has been sanded and/or scraped. Sanding is the technique used with nearly all floors. Scraping is performed only by a few specialists. The sanding processes can have a significant influence on how the finish performs.
All the surface finishes require at least a three-coat application. The first coat is a sealing coat. This coat can be either a penetrating sealer or in some cases the top coat finish itself. When penetrating finish is as a sealer, it must be absolutely dry before application of the top coats. This applies particularly where water-based finishes are applied. Most of these finishes also require some type of abrasion between coats for a proper mechanical bond between coats. After the sealer is applied, two additional coats are required for the three-coat system. When an additional coat is desired or requested, the preferred addition is an extra seal coat. Each layer/application of finish must be dry before the next is applied. Another very important issue is ventilation. The volatile materials must be allowed to evaporate for finishes to properly dry and cure. As drying occurs, it is a must that the air laden with the evaporatives be exhausted from the space between each coating application or performance will be an issue. Some of the issues caused by poor ventilation are soft finish, rough finish, peeling finish, etc.
To recap, always read and follow the manufacturer's instructions; finish systems on properly sanded flooring require a minimum of three coats; become familiar and practiced with the finish you use; be sure to ventilate after application; use only materials recommended for the system used; and don't mix different manufacturers' products.
--
Other potentially useful websites I found include the following -
Sadolin Advice on Floor Care for Applying Varnishes
Webseal Varnish
Waterlox for Wood Floors
[Note: This website were found using Google.com using keywords such as, "dance floor varnish" and "wood floor varnish"]
Finally my condolences and best wishes go to Vishal for stupendous amount of work still left for him.
Week 4 of Sally
October 27, 2005
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with R-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead partner to a stationary clockwise double turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot full clockwise turn followed by hook half turn with hand-toss occurring around 5 (counterclockwise motion for the toss) – on 8 facing away from partner with R hand offered at waist level for reconnection of R-R
1,2,3 open break – move to open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into traveling counterclockwise full turn into a position somewhat like Titanic (with only R-R outstretched and with L hand on follower’s L shoulder in part to stop further turn by follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (lower arms and back up on 1,2,3) and lead follower to a 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn
1,2,3 open break and exchange places to get into sweetheart’s position (or like Once) and connect L-L with leader's palm up
5,6,7 using L-L only for leading, lead follower backwards – leader’s ideal footwork is R foot to R on 5, L foot cross behind R foot on 6, R foot to R on 7 – relative position for leader and follower throughout here should be just like cross body lead at beat 4
1,2,3 stylized start of cross body lead (R-R lead slightly towards the leader and L-L into the follower – L foot could extend to L on 1 … then get back to cross body lead position)
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling full clockwise turn with all connections intact – L-L starts forward on 5 then goes high and around ending behind follower’s back R waist and R-R follows L-L around ending high and slightly behind follower’s L ear – ideally leader should be positioned behind and slightly to R of follower
1,2,3 tricky bit – needs careful lead and follower with relaxed arms – go around follower in front to get into cross body lead position – on 1, R-R is to be placed behind follower’s L waist – on 3/4 R-R is behind follower’s L waist and L-L is behind follower’s R waist
5,6,7 using L-L (and letting go R-R) lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn … also try to have R foot stepping forward on 7
1,2,3 I think in some ways, this is trickiest of it all – ideal footwork is L foot cross behind R foot while L-L is used to give a hat for the leader and disconnected on 1 – on 2, R hand is on follower’s back shoulder while L hand is offered to get into cross body lead position early – on 3, turn as a unit about 90 degrees counterclockwise to create a new line
5,6,7 finish simple cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with R-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead partner to a stationary clockwise double turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot full clockwise turn followed by hook half turn with hand-toss occurring around 5 (counterclockwise motion for the toss) – on 8 facing away from partner with R hand offered at waist level for reconnection of R-R
1,2,3 open break – move to open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower into traveling counterclockwise full turn into a position somewhat like Titanic (with only R-R outstretched and with L hand on follower’s L shoulder in part to stop further turn by follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (lower arms and back up on 1,2,3) and lead follower to a 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn
1,2,3 open break and exchange places to get into sweetheart’s position (or like Once) and connect L-L with leader's palm up
5,6,7 using L-L only for leading, lead follower backwards – leader’s ideal footwork is R foot to R on 5, L foot cross behind R foot on 6, R foot to R on 7 – relative position for leader and follower throughout here should be just like cross body lead at beat 4
1,2,3 stylized start of cross body lead (R-R lead slightly towards the leader and L-L into the follower – L foot could extend to L on 1 … then get back to cross body lead position)
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling full clockwise turn with all connections intact – L-L starts forward on 5 then goes high and around ending behind follower’s back R waist and R-R follows L-L around ending high and slightly behind follower’s L ear – ideally leader should be positioned behind and slightly to R of follower
1,2,3 tricky bit – needs careful lead and follower with relaxed arms – go around follower in front to get into cross body lead position – on 1, R-R is to be placed behind follower’s L waist – on 3/4 R-R is behind follower’s L waist and L-L is behind follower’s R waist
5,6,7 using L-L (and letting go R-R) lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn … also try to have R foot stepping forward on 7
1,2,3 I think in some ways, this is trickiest of it all – ideal footwork is L foot cross behind R foot while L-L is used to give a hat for the leader and disconnected on 1 – on 2, R hand is on follower’s back shoulder while L hand is offered to get into cross body lead position early – on 3, turn as a unit about 90 degrees counterclockwise to create a new line
5,6,7 finish simple cross body lead
Johnny & Serap’s Big Salsa Party
October 22, 2005
Dips and Tricks
Dip 1
closed hold
This was seen couple of times before, once in Johnny's class and once in Ivan's workshop
Dip 2
open hold
1,2,3 open break followed by leading follower to a full counterclockwise turn with L-R high and R-L thus resulting in a wrap
5,6,7 unwrap follower with R-L (letting go L-R) clockwise [Note: This is very similar to Casino Rueda move, Babosa] – show L hand for follower on 8
1,2,3 lead follower to wrap herself back into the same wrap with counterclockwise turn (lead is a slight pull followed by a small counterclockwise motion with R-L) – make L-R connection at shoulder level in front
5,6,7 allow follower to lean oh-so-slightly onto you 4/5 then unwrap
Dip 3
probably shifting from open hold
1,2,3 both hands on followers hips (the button move – I’m not sure if I described this in a previous Sergio class) and get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 (to 1 3/4) counterclockwise turn with R hand ending on follower’s back – footwork goes in place on 5, step to L on 6, R foot cross over to L on 7 and L foot to side L for a support position on 8 – I think dip occurs on 7/8 with similar twisting motion used in dip 1
Trick (whoa! – try this only with partner you’ve practice this with)
R-R hold
1,2,3 prepare follower
5,6,7 lead follower to a full clockwise turn with R-R high
1,2,3 lead follower to sweetheart’s position (push with R-R on 1 and pull on 2 and switch places in a manner similar to Casino Rueda move, Once, with R-R ending behind follower’s R waist)
5,6,7 go back to original position
1,2,3 same as above except R-R ends up on follower’s R shoulder and there is no real exchange of places in lower half of the body for the leader (upper body could lean to L)
5,6,7 lead follower back to original position and lean to L
1,2,3 lead follower to L like Once again with a simply lean to R
4 lead follower to duck(!) as she gets ready to move back in a backwards walk of sort
5,6,7 as follower ducks and walks backwards, lift R leg/foot and have it go over follower’s body and try very hard to avoid decapitating your dance partner
As far as I was concerned, this party was an unqualified success. It was almost like being at SOS, except with a lot more familiar faces. The floor was like an ice rink and was fun to glide on. The biggest improvement I could think of was a strong powerful fan to help cool down. It would have been fun to have my Bachata event held here (University Sports & Social Center) because of larger space, but it would have caused a logistical nightmare (unknown level of interest, increased cost, scheduling conflict, etc). I’m pretty certain that I wasn’t the only one among Salsa dancers in Cambridge, who was very happy with how this party turned out. There were many very good dancing all around, and some of the dances I observed made my jaw drop almost to the floor. Between this party and ballroom today, I got 7 hours of dancing, which left me quite exhausted in the end.
Dips and Tricks
Dip 1
closed hold
This was seen couple of times before, once in Johnny's class and once in Ivan's workshop
Dip 2
open hold
1,2,3 open break followed by leading follower to a full counterclockwise turn with L-R high and R-L thus resulting in a wrap
5,6,7 unwrap follower with R-L (letting go L-R) clockwise [Note: This is very similar to Casino Rueda move, Babosa] – show L hand for follower on 8
1,2,3 lead follower to wrap herself back into the same wrap with counterclockwise turn (lead is a slight pull followed by a small counterclockwise motion with R-L) – make L-R connection at shoulder level in front
5,6,7 allow follower to lean oh-so-slightly onto you 4/5 then unwrap
Dip 3
probably shifting from open hold
1,2,3 both hands on followers hips (the button move – I’m not sure if I described this in a previous Sergio class) and get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 (to 1 3/4) counterclockwise turn with R hand ending on follower’s back – footwork goes in place on 5, step to L on 6, R foot cross over to L on 7 and L foot to side L for a support position on 8 – I think dip occurs on 7/8 with similar twisting motion used in dip 1
Trick (whoa! – try this only with partner you’ve practice this with)
R-R hold
1,2,3 prepare follower
5,6,7 lead follower to a full clockwise turn with R-R high
1,2,3 lead follower to sweetheart’s position (push with R-R on 1 and pull on 2 and switch places in a manner similar to Casino Rueda move, Once, with R-R ending behind follower’s R waist)
5,6,7 go back to original position
1,2,3 same as above except R-R ends up on follower’s R shoulder and there is no real exchange of places in lower half of the body for the leader (upper body could lean to L)
5,6,7 lead follower back to original position and lean to L
1,2,3 lead follower to L like Once again with a simply lean to R
4 lead follower to duck(!) as she gets ready to move back in a backwards walk of sort
5,6,7 as follower ducks and walks backwards, lift R leg/foot and have it go over follower’s body and try very hard to avoid decapitating your dance partner
As far as I was concerned, this party was an unqualified success. It was almost like being at SOS, except with a lot more familiar faces. The floor was like an ice rink and was fun to glide on. The biggest improvement I could think of was a strong powerful fan to help cool down. It would have been fun to have my Bachata event held here (University Sports & Social Center) because of larger space, but it would have caused a logistical nightmare (unknown level of interest, increased cost, scheduling conflict, etc). I’m pretty certain that I wasn’t the only one among Salsa dancers in Cambridge, who was very happy with how this party turned out. There were many very good dancing all around, and some of the dances I observed made my jaw drop almost to the floor. Between this party and ballroom today, I got 7 hours of dancing, which left me quite exhausted in the end.
Ballroom Beginner Fast track week 3 & Beginners Practice
October 22, 2005
Waltz
Right corner turn
1 R foot forward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new L with L foot
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new R with R foot
3 L foot together
Box step
1 R foot forward
2 L foot to side L
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 R foot to side R
3 L foot together
Quickstep
same basic step as last class
Cha Cha Cha
New Yorker (very similar to New Yorker in Rumba)
2 let go R-L (possibly as early as 1) and point to L with L foot
3 weight on R foot
4,5 chasse reconnect L-R and let go R-L
6 point to R with R foot
7 weight on L foot
8,1 chasse (if continuing with New Yorker – let go L-R and reconnect R-L)
Rumba
same basic step and New Yorker as was done in previous class
Beginners practice
Most participants in the beginners practice were with the Beginner Dancesport team. Apparently, interest level for Ballroom dancing this year is much higher than last year. As for taking part of the practice, I would say that it makes more sense to go to Saturday class followed by beginners practice. This is because of the way classes are scheduled; Thursday to Saturday classes have one extra day’s worth of lessons compared to Sunday to Wednesday classes. I figured out how to start going backwards using the first half of Right corner turn in Waltz; second half of the Right corner turn can be used to go back to walking forwards for the leader. I was feeling quite pleased about figuring all this out myself, at least until some of the hot air was released from my head when it was pointed out that I lost track of the music and was dancing on-2. One of my first dance partners for the Cha Cha Cha taught me a simple turn maneuver; I figured out that the same thing could be used for Rumba as well. I think I’ll wait until they get into the official syllabus before putting them on my notes though.
Waltz
Right corner turn
1 R foot forward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new L with L foot
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new R with R foot
3 L foot together
Box step
1 R foot forward
2 L foot to side L
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 R foot to side R
3 L foot together
Quickstep
same basic step as last class
Cha Cha Cha
New Yorker (very similar to New Yorker in Rumba)
2 let go R-L (possibly as early as 1) and point to L with L foot
3 weight on R foot
4,5 chasse reconnect L-R and let go R-L
6 point to R with R foot
7 weight on L foot
8,1 chasse (if continuing with New Yorker – let go L-R and reconnect R-L)
Rumba
same basic step and New Yorker as was done in previous class
Beginners practice
Most participants in the beginners practice were with the Beginner Dancesport team. Apparently, interest level for Ballroom dancing this year is much higher than last year. As for taking part of the practice, I would say that it makes more sense to go to Saturday class followed by beginners practice. This is because of the way classes are scheduled; Thursday to Saturday classes have one extra day’s worth of lessons compared to Sunday to Wednesday classes. I figured out how to start going backwards using the first half of Right corner turn in Waltz; second half of the Right corner turn can be used to go back to walking forwards for the leader. I was feeling quite pleased about figuring all this out myself, at least until some of the hot air was released from my head when it was pointed out that I lost track of the music and was dancing on-2. One of my first dance partners for the Cha Cha Cha taught me a simple turn maneuver; I figured out that the same thing could be used for Rumba as well. I think I’ll wait until they get into the official syllabus before putting them on my notes though.
Hammerlock, almost Lasso, Apache with many stylizations - Johnny & Serap
October 21, 2005
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start (L foot slide long to L on 1 as follower is pushed backwards with L-R and retract and get into normal cross body lead position on 2,3 – idea here is to make a nice long line going from L foot to R foot of leader and L foot and R foot of follower)
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with R-L high and L-R kept low at waist level to get into hammerlock (Setenta) position on 8
1,2,3 take small steps and turn 1/2 clockwise to get into open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a free 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 reconnect L-R and basic – two stylizations included a Cuban hot sign (fan self with R hand and place it on heart) on 1,2,3 and R foot cross behind L foot on 5
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into Apache position (follower’s R hand placed behind her L waist to make R-R connection)
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (this would let her get back into open position) and turn 1/2 clockwise on 7/8 to face away from follower
1,2,3 open break on 1 as L hand is offered above R-R and move to L to give follower room to get into open cross body lead position on 2,3
5,6,7 lead follower to a full counterclockwise traveling turn to get into Titanic
1,2,3 both hands lowered on 1 and L-L is raised on 3 (footwork styling L foot behind R foot and slide on 1)
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn with L-L ending behind leader’s head (~hat)
1,2,3 get into cross body lead position (maybe stylize with L foot cross behind R foot on 1 again) – R hand on follower’s back and L-R reconnected on 1
5,6,7 lead follower to 1 3/4 traveling counterclockwise turn to end side-by-side
1,2,3 stylized preparation for follower
5,6,7 lead follower to a full stationary turn (or 1 1/4 turn) with L-R high and leaders turn on 7/8 for a full counterclockwise turn
The club scene… Ugh! Last Friday was unusually good. Tonight, it was unusually bad. I got so annoyed that I told a group of men standing around taking up space without dancing to get off the floor if they’re not dancing. Amusingly, one of the men retorted, “I’m always dancing,” and he proceeded to dance by himself as if he were dancing to some techno/house type of music. Later, I got the bouncer to tell the same group to get their drinks off the dance floor. Vishal is pretty vigilant about keeping troublemakers away from the club, and these people looked and seemed relatively harmless so there was no real reason to have denied their admission. Still, I was thinking later in the evening that I might want to be careful with the advertising campaign for my Bachata event and to avoid attracting people who are not genuinely interested in learning to dance properly. I was also envisioning a fantasy and presumably financially unworkable scenario where I would have an exclusive dance club with policy of admitting only good dancers or people who are striving to become good dancers. Maybe I would test people to see if they could lead and follow cross body lead. I was also getting annoyed with people tossing still-burning cigarettes onto the floor – I must say that it’s a little ridiculous that I’m getting so worked up about keeping the new floor in its pristine condition. Maybe there was something in the water I drank tonight to have gotten me into such an insane mood.
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start (L foot slide long to L on 1 as follower is pushed backwards with L-R and retract and get into normal cross body lead position on 2,3 – idea here is to make a nice long line going from L foot to R foot of leader and L foot and R foot of follower)
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with R-L high and L-R kept low at waist level to get into hammerlock (Setenta) position on 8
1,2,3 take small steps and turn 1/2 clockwise to get into open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a free 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 reconnect L-R and basic – two stylizations included a Cuban hot sign (fan self with R hand and place it on heart) on 1,2,3 and R foot cross behind L foot on 5
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into Apache position (follower’s R hand placed behind her L waist to make R-R connection)
5,6,7 lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (this would let her get back into open position) and turn 1/2 clockwise on 7/8 to face away from follower
1,2,3 open break on 1 as L hand is offered above R-R and move to L to give follower room to get into open cross body lead position on 2,3
5,6,7 lead follower to a full counterclockwise traveling turn to get into Titanic
1,2,3 both hands lowered on 1 and L-L is raised on 3 (footwork styling L foot behind R foot and slide on 1)
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn with L-L ending behind leader’s head (~hat)
1,2,3 get into cross body lead position (maybe stylize with L foot cross behind R foot on 1 again) – R hand on follower’s back and L-R reconnected on 1
5,6,7 lead follower to 1 3/4 traveling counterclockwise turn to end side-by-side
1,2,3 stylized preparation for follower
5,6,7 lead follower to a full stationary turn (or 1 1/4 turn) with L-R high and leaders turn on 7/8 for a full counterclockwise turn
The club scene… Ugh! Last Friday was unusually good. Tonight, it was unusually bad. I got so annoyed that I told a group of men standing around taking up space without dancing to get off the floor if they’re not dancing. Amusingly, one of the men retorted, “I’m always dancing,” and he proceeded to dance by himself as if he were dancing to some techno/house type of music. Later, I got the bouncer to tell the same group to get their drinks off the dance floor. Vishal is pretty vigilant about keeping troublemakers away from the club, and these people looked and seemed relatively harmless so there was no real reason to have denied their admission. Still, I was thinking later in the evening that I might want to be careful with the advertising campaign for my Bachata event and to avoid attracting people who are not genuinely interested in learning to dance properly. I was also envisioning a fantasy and presumably financially unworkable scenario where I would have an exclusive dance club with policy of admitting only good dancers or people who are striving to become good dancers. Maybe I would test people to see if they could lead and follow cross body lead. I was also getting annoyed with people tossing still-burning cigarettes onto the floor – I must say that it’s a little ridiculous that I’m getting so worked up about keeping the new floor in its pristine condition. Maybe there was something in the water I drank tonight to have gotten me into such an insane mood.
Project Bachata officially underway
October 20, 2005
It’s confirmed. It’s happening. I hope it won’t be a disaster. I don’t think it will be a disaster. Cambridge is now listed in Tony’s UK Tour schedule (although I should ask him to put a link to Club Salsa on his webpage).
Version 3 of the flier was made and was shown to Vishal and small number of people at Club Salsa. People who learned of the event seemed pretty enthused. I probably will get the flier made using Face media Group. I still need to get in touch with CDC to decide upon final pricing arrangement – my plan is to give discounts to CDC members if CDC allows me to distribute fliers for this Bachata event. When the final version is made, I’ll upload it to this blog.
It’s confirmed. It’s happening. I hope it won’t be a disaster. I don’t think it will be a disaster. Cambridge is now listed in Tony’s UK Tour schedule (although I should ask him to put a link to Club Salsa on his webpage).
Version 3 of the flier was made and was shown to Vishal and small number of people at Club Salsa. People who learned of the event seemed pretty enthused. I probably will get the flier made using Face media Group. I still need to get in touch with CDC to decide upon final pricing arrangement – my plan is to give discounts to CDC members if CDC allows me to distribute fliers for this Bachata event. When the final version is made, I’ll upload it to this blog.
Sally’s third class
October 20, 2005
closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3 prepare follower for double turn
4,5,6,7 lead follower to a double clockwise turn with L-R high and R-L low – R-L is positioned behind follower’s R waist, let go after one turn and reconnected after the second turn
1,2,3 open break on 1, lead follower to the right side (reverse cross body lead) with L-R in front of follower’s forehead
5,6,7 continue leading follower into a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn (keeping a smooth momentum)
1,2,3 full clockwise turn for leader with both hands up
5,6,7 half clockwise turn for leader (L-R disconnected above R-L and immediately reconnected below R-L on 4/5) and follower’s hands are split above leader’s head and moved down to waist (follower’s R hand staying on leader’s R side and L hand staying on leader’s L side) disconnect holds and reconnect R-R and L-L
1,2,3 open break and move follower to leader’s R side (as leader moves to R to make room)
5,6,7 lead follower forward (forward-left to be exact) on 5 and lead follower to a 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L coming up high after the initial 1/2 turn
1,2,3 L-L is lowered and leader turns full clockwise turn with R hand showing at follower’s face level for next move
5,6,7 connect with follower’s R hand by her R side (level with her face), lead follower to a double clockwise turn with R-R
1,2,3 get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with R-R ending behind leader’s back R shoulder on 7 (needs to be on time to make next move easy) – follower should be side-to-side with leader rather than in reverse cross body lead or open position)
1,2,3 keep L hand on follower’s back and step over to her L side with R hand ending on her back on 3 and L hand showing in front – on 4, position should be cross body lead or Cuban dile que no on 4 – L hand is used to connect L-R
5,6,7 using L-R, lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn (like cross body lead with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn or Cuban equivalent)
closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3 prepare follower for double turn
4,5,6,7 lead follower to a double clockwise turn with L-R high and R-L low – R-L is positioned behind follower’s R waist, let go after one turn and reconnected after the second turn
1,2,3 open break on 1, lead follower to the right side (reverse cross body lead) with L-R in front of follower’s forehead
5,6,7 continue leading follower into a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn (keeping a smooth momentum)
1,2,3 full clockwise turn for leader with both hands up
5,6,7 half clockwise turn for leader (L-R disconnected above R-L and immediately reconnected below R-L on 4/5) and follower’s hands are split above leader’s head and moved down to waist (follower’s R hand staying on leader’s R side and L hand staying on leader’s L side) disconnect holds and reconnect R-R and L-L
1,2,3 open break and move follower to leader’s R side (as leader moves to R to make room)
5,6,7 lead follower forward (forward-left to be exact) on 5 and lead follower to a 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L coming up high after the initial 1/2 turn
1,2,3 L-L is lowered and leader turns full clockwise turn with R hand showing at follower’s face level for next move
5,6,7 connect with follower’s R hand by her R side (level with her face), lead follower to a double clockwise turn with R-R
1,2,3 get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with R-R ending behind leader’s back R shoulder on 7 (needs to be on time to make next move easy) – follower should be side-to-side with leader rather than in reverse cross body lead or open position)
1,2,3 keep L hand on follower’s back and step over to her L side with R hand ending on her back on 3 and L hand showing in front – on 4, position should be cross body lead or Cuban dile que no on 4 – L hand is used to connect L-R
5,6,7 using L-R, lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn (like cross body lead with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn or Cuban equivalent)
An apology
October 20, 2005
I wrote this post to make an apology to those I offended with sensitive material used previously in this blog.
As some of you know, I started taking notes of routines I learned in Salsa classes in February to help me learn Salsa more quickly. After getting some compliments about being able to remember past lessons well from another student, I decided to place my notes on the web in a new medium commonly referred to as web-log or blog and only let two other students and a teacher know of its existence for first few months. By the way, a part of the reason why I didn't publicize it more was because I thought the notes themselves were not especially useful, especially for those who did not attend the same classes and that it might have best use merely as a format for note-taking.
As far as I know, none of the Salsa teachers I talked to have any serious problems with my notes being on the web. The main problem is that my blog also became a "Salsa diary" (as opposed to my "work diary"), in which I was using people's real names, especially those who by any criteria do not qualify as a public persona, in my blog without their knowledge. While this is fairly common practice in blog-o-sphere, this is sensitive and problematic privacy issue especially for a small insulated community like Cambridge Salsa scene as I only realized after hearing complaints couple of weeks ago. To correct this problem, I removed all real names aside from teachers, DJs in their public capacity and some others who gave me their okay.
I always have tried to make sure I never said anything nasty about anyone in the blog. However, it's easy to get misunderstood by poor writing, and a lot of writing could mean more opportunity to get misunderstood when things are read out of context. For example, I wrote in passing two sentences about what seemed to me a harmless episode of a difficult lesson in the class at CDC back in May, and the teacher who knew about my blog (and who I imagined was the only one who checked the website now and then) got a mistaken impression that I did not like this CDC teacher (whom I actually liked and had good relations with). This led me to go back and re-write my post to clarify what happened. There was one other instance in August where I received a feedback about another problematic aspect of my blog, which also caused me to go back to change what I wrote. If there's a problem with my writing, please let me know and I'll do my best to correct it. I cannot erase completely my past mistakes but I will try to make sure they are not repeated in the future. I will also try to be more careful because I also realize that it's no longer easy to discreetly correct things without many people reading it before I notice any potential problems.
Thanks in part to some helpful prodding, I have started talking to people who have been affected (people whose real names were revealed by me) to make apologies in person. So far, I have spoken to maybe 80% of the people. If you feel kindly towards me, please refrain from spreading information about this blog at least until I had chance to speak to everyone and apologize personally. I still worry that there remain some questionable contents, which I have not thought as being malicious. If anything, my tendencies have been to be more freewheeling with my writing when I talk about people, whom I like and care about and have good relations. I ask the people who read my blog with interest to contact me about problematic posts rather than let me get mired in ignorance and suspicion.
Meanwhile, I want to let everyone know that I am very sorry for problems I caused and that I apologize profusely. Please pardon me for outcomes of my action and try to understand that my intentions were not bad. I am sorry.
I wrote this post to make an apology to those I offended with sensitive material used previously in this blog.
As some of you know, I started taking notes of routines I learned in Salsa classes in February to help me learn Salsa more quickly. After getting some compliments about being able to remember past lessons well from another student, I decided to place my notes on the web in a new medium commonly referred to as web-log or blog and only let two other students and a teacher know of its existence for first few months. By the way, a part of the reason why I didn't publicize it more was because I thought the notes themselves were not especially useful, especially for those who did not attend the same classes and that it might have best use merely as a format for note-taking.
As far as I know, none of the Salsa teachers I talked to have any serious problems with my notes being on the web. The main problem is that my blog also became a "Salsa diary" (as opposed to my "work diary"), in which I was using people's real names, especially those who by any criteria do not qualify as a public persona, in my blog without their knowledge. While this is fairly common practice in blog-o-sphere, this is sensitive and problematic privacy issue especially for a small insulated community like Cambridge Salsa scene as I only realized after hearing complaints couple of weeks ago. To correct this problem, I removed all real names aside from teachers, DJs in their public capacity and some others who gave me their okay.
I always have tried to make sure I never said anything nasty about anyone in the blog. However, it's easy to get misunderstood by poor writing, and a lot of writing could mean more opportunity to get misunderstood when things are read out of context. For example, I wrote in passing two sentences about what seemed to me a harmless episode of a difficult lesson in the class at CDC back in May, and the teacher who knew about my blog (and who I imagined was the only one who checked the website now and then) got a mistaken impression that I did not like this CDC teacher (whom I actually liked and had good relations with). This led me to go back and re-write my post to clarify what happened. There was one other instance in August where I received a feedback about another problematic aspect of my blog, which also caused me to go back to change what I wrote. If there's a problem with my writing, please let me know and I'll do my best to correct it. I cannot erase completely my past mistakes but I will try to make sure they are not repeated in the future. I will also try to be more careful because I also realize that it's no longer easy to discreetly correct things without many people reading it before I notice any potential problems.
Thanks in part to some helpful prodding, I have started talking to people who have been affected (people whose real names were revealed by me) to make apologies in person. So far, I have spoken to maybe 80% of the people. If you feel kindly towards me, please refrain from spreading information about this blog at least until I had chance to speak to everyone and apologize personally. I still worry that there remain some questionable contents, which I have not thought as being malicious. If anything, my tendencies have been to be more freewheeling with my writing when I talk about people, whom I like and care about and have good relations. I ask the people who read my blog with interest to contact me about problematic posts rather than let me get mired in ignorance and suspicion.
Meanwhile, I want to let everyone know that I am very sorry for problems I caused and that I apologize profusely. Please pardon me for outcomes of my action and try to understand that my intentions were not bad. I am sorry.
Ballroom Beginner Fast track week 2
October 19, 2005
Quickstep (fast)
1 R foot forward (slow)
2 L foot side to L (quick)
3 R foot together (quick)
4 L foot side to L (slow)
5 R foot backward (slow)
6 L foot side to L (quick)
7 R foot together (quick)
8 L foot side to L (slow)
Jive (faster)
1 L foot cross behind R foot
2 switch weight to R foot
3-5 Chasse (note irregular beat) L foot to side L (slow), R foot together (quick), L foot side L (quick)
6-8 Chasse (note irregular beat) R foot to side R (slow), L foot together (quick), R foot side R (quick)
Rumba (slooow)
New Yorker?
1 pause (release R-L?)
2 L foot to L pointing to L (release R-L and point L-R to L)
3 weight on R foot
4 L foot back to open position & reconnect R-L
5 pause (release L-R?)
6 R foot to R pointing to R (point R-L to R)
7 weight on L foot
8 R foot back to open position & reconnect L-R
Waltz and Foxtrot was repeat of last week's class.
Quickstep (fast)
1 R foot forward (slow)
2 L foot side to L (quick)
3 R foot together (quick)
4 L foot side to L (slow)
5 R foot backward (slow)
6 L foot side to L (quick)
7 R foot together (quick)
8 L foot side to L (slow)
Jive (faster)
1 L foot cross behind R foot
2 switch weight to R foot
3-5 Chasse (note irregular beat) L foot to side L (slow), R foot together (quick), L foot side L (quick)
6-8 Chasse (note irregular beat) R foot to side R (slow), L foot together (quick), R foot side R (quick)
Rumba (slooow)
New Yorker?
1 pause (release R-L?)
2 L foot to L pointing to L (release R-L and point L-R to L)
3 weight on R foot
4 L foot back to open position & reconnect R-L
5 pause (release L-R?)
6 R foot to R pointing to R (point R-L to R)
7 weight on L foot
8 R foot back to open position & reconnect L-R
Waltz and Foxtrot was repeat of last week's class.
Three tricky parts to it - Johnny & Serap
October 14, 2005
L-R hold for ladies styling (men are doing basic)
ladies styling footwork – Serap uses this all the time
1,2,3 basic
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot keeping weight on R foot during 5 and 6
6,7 L foot cross over behind of R foot with flourish (elevating L foot as much as knee-high in the process of crossing over) and switch weight to L foot on 7
1 R foot cross over behind L foot with weight shift to R foot
2 L foot in place and shift weight to L foot
3 R foot forward (back together with L foot) and be ready for cross body lead, etc.
getting back to men’s lead
during the second 1,2,3 above get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic (optional) open hold
1,2,3 pivot turn 3/4 clockwise with R-L high to get into cross body lead position (L-R is behind leader’s R waist while R-L is in front and ready to point towards follower’s line)
5,6,7 lead follower to cross body lead and turn 1/4 counterclockwise with both arms outstretched while being positioned back-to-back with follower
1,2,3 L-R is used to lead follower to turn 1/2 counterclockwise using a rather wide sweeping counterclockwise motion starting on 1 and going over leader’s head near the end while leader turns 1/4 clockwise as follower completes the turn to get into cross body lead position [NOTE: I always found this move problematic, and to me it feels more dangerous compared to other advanced routines when used with new dance partners. If this is led without care and with too much force on an unsuspecting follower, I think that this move could cause a severe injury for the follower – although similar thing can be said about any complicated move led very roughly. Thus, if I sense that this part of the move is not going to work, I immediately disconnect L-R and chock it up to experience. In fact, I don’t even try this move unless my dance partner seems comfortable with pretty much everything I throw at her. Even then, this move fails about half the time. Now and then, my dance partner would realize what the lead was supposed to be immediately afterwards and would ask me to try it again; in these cases, the move usually works second time around. I think it would help to try to use follower’s counterclockwise momentum from previous 5,6,7 to help with this part.]
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1/2 traveling clockwise traveling turn with both connection kept intact throughout to get back into open position (with a variation of crossed hold)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into essentially a reverse cross body lead position with R-L pointing forward (or direction from which the follower came from) and L-R at level with follower and kept high
5,6,7 another tricky section (at least it was tricky for me) – lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn as done in standard Copa (leading follower back to where she started from on 1) while keeping all connections – I think the trick might have been to lead R-L straight forward on 5 (towards where she came from) and when she takes one step, L-R goes down to her waist level and stay there while R-L stays high to lead follower to turn – get back into open position on 7/8 with L-R behind follower’s back R waist and R-L lowered on 7/8 as well
1,2,3 L-R can be released at any time – walk underneath R-L (raised briefly to allow this) and turn 1/2 clockwise to get into open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lasso (for better or worse, this really depends on the follower being willing and able to stay close to the leader – otherwise, keeping to the line will be very difficult – of course, the line could be ignored assuming there is a lot of space (good luck with that!)) – by the way, lasso = give a whipping motion of a lead with R-L kept low to lead follower to a full counterclockwise turn with R-L ending up wrapping follower with connection located at follower’s front R waist
1,2,3 lead follower back on 1 and to right on 3 while walking underneath briefly raised R-L on 1 and stepping to L on 3 to get back into open cross body lead position again (as was done in previous 3/4) – if follower was kept close, best footwork would be L foot cross behind R foot on 1, but be prepared for a different makeshift step
1,2,3,5,6,7 lasso again (exactly the same as before)
1,2,3 get back into open position as was done last two times
5,6,7 like lasso, but lead follower to a free turn (release R-L) and catch her on her back to get back to closed hold (and probably cross body lead next)
This was a very good night of dancing for me – the best evening this month in Cambridge. In some ways, I liked it even more than the SOS trip earlier this month.
On a completely different topic, Project Bachata – Tony Lara & Claudia is looking much more promising all of sudden. Vishal decided that this was for a good cause and offered to let me, as a friend, have Club Salsa on November 21st (Monday) for free. I asked how much I should pay someone to look after the bar, and 30 pounds is apparently what Vishal gives to his bartender(s) each night. As I stated previously, this is going to be a non-profit one-time-only event for me personally.
L-R hold for ladies styling (men are doing basic)
ladies styling footwork – Serap uses this all the time
1,2,3 basic
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot keeping weight on R foot during 5 and 6
6,7 L foot cross over behind of R foot with flourish (elevating L foot as much as knee-high in the process of crossing over) and switch weight to L foot on 7
1 R foot cross over behind L foot with weight shift to R foot
2 L foot in place and shift weight to L foot
3 R foot forward (back together with L foot) and be ready for cross body lead, etc.
getting back to men’s lead
during the second 1,2,3 above get into cross body lead position
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic (optional) open hold
1,2,3 pivot turn 3/4 clockwise with R-L high to get into cross body lead position (L-R is behind leader’s R waist while R-L is in front and ready to point towards follower’s line)
5,6,7 lead follower to cross body lead and turn 1/4 counterclockwise with both arms outstretched while being positioned back-to-back with follower
1,2,3 L-R is used to lead follower to turn 1/2 counterclockwise using a rather wide sweeping counterclockwise motion starting on 1 and going over leader’s head near the end while leader turns 1/4 clockwise as follower completes the turn to get into cross body lead position [NOTE: I always found this move problematic, and to me it feels more dangerous compared to other advanced routines when used with new dance partners. If this is led without care and with too much force on an unsuspecting follower, I think that this move could cause a severe injury for the follower – although similar thing can be said about any complicated move led very roughly. Thus, if I sense that this part of the move is not going to work, I immediately disconnect L-R and chock it up to experience. In fact, I don’t even try this move unless my dance partner seems comfortable with pretty much everything I throw at her. Even then, this move fails about half the time. Now and then, my dance partner would realize what the lead was supposed to be immediately afterwards and would ask me to try it again; in these cases, the move usually works second time around. I think it would help to try to use follower’s counterclockwise momentum from previous 5,6,7 to help with this part.]
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1/2 traveling clockwise traveling turn with both connection kept intact throughout to get back into open position (with a variation of crossed hold)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into essentially a reverse cross body lead position with R-L pointing forward (or direction from which the follower came from) and L-R at level with follower and kept high
5,6,7 another tricky section (at least it was tricky for me) – lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn as done in standard Copa (leading follower back to where she started from on 1) while keeping all connections – I think the trick might have been to lead R-L straight forward on 5 (towards where she came from) and when she takes one step, L-R goes down to her waist level and stay there while R-L stays high to lead follower to turn – get back into open position on 7/8 with L-R behind follower’s back R waist and R-L lowered on 7/8 as well
1,2,3 L-R can be released at any time – walk underneath R-L (raised briefly to allow this) and turn 1/2 clockwise to get into open cross body lead position
5,6,7 lasso (for better or worse, this really depends on the follower being willing and able to stay close to the leader – otherwise, keeping to the line will be very difficult – of course, the line could be ignored assuming there is a lot of space (good luck with that!)) – by the way, lasso = give a whipping motion of a lead with R-L kept low to lead follower to a full counterclockwise turn with R-L ending up wrapping follower with connection located at follower’s front R waist
1,2,3 lead follower back on 1 and to right on 3 while walking underneath briefly raised R-L on 1 and stepping to L on 3 to get back into open cross body lead position again (as was done in previous 3/4) – if follower was kept close, best footwork would be L foot cross behind R foot on 1, but be prepared for a different makeshift step
1,2,3,5,6,7 lasso again (exactly the same as before)
1,2,3 get back into open position as was done last two times
5,6,7 like lasso, but lead follower to a free turn (release R-L) and catch her on her back to get back to closed hold (and probably cross body lead next)
This was a very good night of dancing for me – the best evening this month in Cambridge. In some ways, I liked it even more than the SOS trip earlier this month.
On a completely different topic, Project Bachata – Tony Lara & Claudia is looking much more promising all of sudden. Vishal decided that this was for a good cause and offered to let me, as a friend, have Club Salsa on November 21st (Monday) for free. I asked how much I should pay someone to look after the bar, and 30 pounds is apparently what Vishal gives to his bartender(s) each night. As I stated previously, this is going to be a non-profit one-time-only event for me personally.
Second class - Sally
October 13, 2005
closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with leadering turning 1/4 counterclockwise on 7/8 with L-R in front of leader’s forehead (do not move in front of follower’s line that appears on the next bar – I think the better position possibly might be either on the line itself or perhaps next cross body lead position)
1,2,3 step slightly to L on 1 and full counterclockwise turn on 2,3 and return to cross body lead position
5,6,7 immediately lead follower to completely normal cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3 basic (preparing movement – optional?)
5,6,7 lead follower to a pivot clockwise full turn two-handed (follower steps forward on 5 in this particular lesson) while completing basic
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into reverse cross body lead position with L-R going over follower’s head and pointing towards follower’s original position and R-L on follower’s R shoulder (in part to help prevent further turn by the follower as is done in Enchufe)
5,6,7 see two options below –
option 1 (Standard Copa-like)
lead follower back towards where she came from (i.e. to leader’s L) with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn – straight to L on 5 and then start leading the turn with L-R hand lead and R hand on the shoulder lead
option 2 (going the other way)
lead follower to leader’s R (towards the direction where the follower was heading on 1,2,3) with L-R lead for 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (I don’t think there’s much R hand can do here to help the lead) (my guesswork on this option is that with a LA stylist follower, R hand check on follower’s R shoulder could be skipped or de-emphasized so that her momentum towards R is not sharply curtailed on 3/4 – I should test this idea when I get an opportunity)
after option 1
1,2,3 pivot 1/2 counterclockwise turn for leader with L-R high
5,6,7 while facing away from follower, lead follower to a full clockwise turn – leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise on 7/8 to face follower again
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
I had another pleasure of a short tutorial when Sally made rounds near the end of the class. This time, she commented upon my tendency to keep my arms raised and apart. I think this may possibly have to do with me trying to overcompensate her suggestion from last week. I’m not completely sure but the comment here about keeping arms closer together may have been restricted to two-handed open break part only (as opposed to her comment last week, which may have been about cross body lead from closed position).
A humorous although slightly unnerving moment - There was a small surplus of men at the class tonight. So at one point, Sally suggested to a guy (I’ll call him Batman) who was just standing around not taking part of the class to play the part of follower with me – it should be a good way to test my ability to lead. Some amused look here and there. No problem though; this isn’t the first time as similar thing had happened a few times in Peter’s class and once in Johnny’s class. At the conclusion of the class just before I left Club Salsa, I decided to approach Batman and say, “Hey! I thought you were easier to lead than Superman (a bystander who acted as follower in one of Johnny’s class some time ago)! It’s probably because you’re smaller.” Batman laughed with delight and said, “Thanks! But you better not tell her this!” I left feeling pretty good about having made an effort in humor but also slightly puzzled. Two minutes later as I hit the road I realized that Batman thought I said he was a better follower than another woman (I’ll call her Supergirl) not Superman!!! Groan!
A dreaded moment finally came to pass. I was asked, "Can you dance on-2?" I was asked the same question couple of times in London, but this was a first for Cambridge. Too bad Sergio's on-2 class continues to get postponed time after time.
closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with leadering turning 1/4 counterclockwise on 7/8 with L-R in front of leader’s forehead (do not move in front of follower’s line that appears on the next bar – I think the better position possibly might be either on the line itself or perhaps next cross body lead position)
1,2,3 step slightly to L on 1 and full counterclockwise turn on 2,3 and return to cross body lead position
5,6,7 immediately lead follower to completely normal cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3 basic (preparing movement – optional?)
5,6,7 lead follower to a pivot clockwise full turn two-handed (follower steps forward on 5 in this particular lesson) while completing basic
1,2,3 open break on 1 and get into reverse cross body lead position with L-R going over follower’s head and pointing towards follower’s original position and R-L on follower’s R shoulder (in part to help prevent further turn by the follower as is done in Enchufe)
5,6,7 see two options below –
option 1 (Standard Copa-like)
lead follower back towards where she came from (i.e. to leader’s L) with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn – straight to L on 5 and then start leading the turn with L-R hand lead and R hand on the shoulder lead
option 2 (going the other way)
lead follower to leader’s R (towards the direction where the follower was heading on 1,2,3) with L-R lead for 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (I don’t think there’s much R hand can do here to help the lead) (my guesswork on this option is that with a LA stylist follower, R hand check on follower’s R shoulder could be skipped or de-emphasized so that her momentum towards R is not sharply curtailed on 3/4 – I should test this idea when I get an opportunity)
after option 1
1,2,3 pivot 1/2 counterclockwise turn for leader with L-R high
5,6,7 while facing away from follower, lead follower to a full clockwise turn – leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise on 7/8 to face follower again
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
I had another pleasure of a short tutorial when Sally made rounds near the end of the class. This time, she commented upon my tendency to keep my arms raised and apart. I think this may possibly have to do with me trying to overcompensate her suggestion from last week. I’m not completely sure but the comment here about keeping arms closer together may have been restricted to two-handed open break part only (as opposed to her comment last week, which may have been about cross body lead from closed position).
A humorous although slightly unnerving moment - There was a small surplus of men at the class tonight. So at one point, Sally suggested to a guy (I’ll call him Batman) who was just standing around not taking part of the class to play the part of follower with me – it should be a good way to test my ability to lead. Some amused look here and there. No problem though; this isn’t the first time as similar thing had happened a few times in Peter’s class and once in Johnny’s class. At the conclusion of the class just before I left Club Salsa, I decided to approach Batman and say, “Hey! I thought you were easier to lead than Superman (a bystander who acted as follower in one of Johnny’s class some time ago)! It’s probably because you’re smaller.” Batman laughed with delight and said, “Thanks! But you better not tell her this!” I left feeling pretty good about having made an effort in humor but also slightly puzzled. Two minutes later as I hit the road I realized that Batman thought I said he was a better follower than another woman (I’ll call her Supergirl) not Superman!!! Groan!
A dreaded moment finally came to pass. I was asked, "Can you dance on-2?" I was asked the same question couple of times in London, but this was a first for Cambridge. Too bad Sergio's on-2 class continues to get postponed time after time.
No Salsa lessons at work
October 13, 2005
This is two days old news, but I first wanted to make sure that there was no problem with me posting this. I am posting information I received as is with minor changes only.
--
Due to bureaucratic problems, Mariella has dropped plans to give Salsa lessons at my workplace. It would have cost her more to pay for the price of insurance compared to what she could have earned.
She has started teaching at Comberton Village College though, where the college covers her insurance.
I do not know the process as the college takes care of all the administration, but I am sure it is cheap and they do accept more pupils.
Lessons are held at the college (directions here) on Mondays from 8:00 to 9:30 PM. It is only at beginner´s level for the time being.
She would be happy to organise private lessons if anyone can offer a venue where to hold them.
This is two days old news, but I first wanted to make sure that there was no problem with me posting this. I am posting information I received as is with minor changes only.
--
Due to bureaucratic problems, Mariella has dropped plans to give Salsa lessons at my workplace. It would have cost her more to pay for the price of insurance compared to what she could have earned.
She has started teaching at Comberton Village College though, where the college covers her insurance.
I do not know the process as the college takes care of all the administration, but I am sure it is cheap and they do accept more pupils.
Lessons are held at the college (directions here) on Mondays from 8:00 to 9:30 PM. It is only at beginner´s level for the time being.
She would be happy to organise private lessons if anyone can offer a venue where to hold them.
Ballroom Beginners (Fast Track) at CDC
October 12, 2005
Waltz
6 beats
basic step (moving forward indefinitely)
1 R foot forward
2 L foot to L (possibly L forward)
3 R foot together
4 L foot forward
5 R foot to R (possibly R forward)
6 L foot together
Foxtrot
8 beats
basic step (moving forward and to left indefinitely)
1 L foot forward (slow)
2 R foot forward (slow)
3 L foot to side (L) (quick)
4 R foot together (quick)
5 L foot backward (slow)
6 R foot backward (slow)
7 L foot to side (L) (quick)
8 R foot together (quick)
Rumba
8 beats
basic step (dance in place)
1 pause
2 L foot forward
3 weight on R foot in place
4 L foot to side (L)
5 pause
6 R foot backward
7 weight on L foot in place
8 R foot to side (R)
Cha Cha Cha
8 beats
basic step (dance in place)
1 R foot to to side (R)
2 L foot forward
3 weight on R foot in place
4,5 L foot to L, R foot together, L foot to L (Cha Cha Cha shuffle = chasse)
6 R foot backward
7 weight on L foot in place
8,1 R foot to R, L foot together, R foot to R (Cha Cha Cha shuffle = chasse)
There are many web sites with information on steps, etc. involved in various ballroom dances, including ballroomdancers.com and dancetv.com. I'm taking notes anyway because it still helps me remember things.
Having gotten decent at learning and dancing Salsa has helped me with quickly picking up the lessons and with confidence tonight – there was light years worth of difference between tonight and the last time I took one or two Ballroom lessons about three or four years ago. I’m guessing I was one of the oldest if not the oldest student there tonight. One of my dance partners asked me whether I was going to try out for the Beginner Ballroom team. Interesting idea, but I think it’ll require more time than I can really spare. Thus far, I find Foxtrot and Cha Cha Cha more fun compared to Waltz and Rumba – despite the fact that I had long wanted to dance Waltz (or Viennese Waltz) to Strauss (any of the three).
Afterwards, it was back to Club Salsa for more mending of bridges (going better than I could have hoped for and probably better than I deserved) and dancing (with lighter heart). There were at least two or three occasions where I felt positively terrified, but it's nearly done - maybe about 80% done.
Waltz
6 beats
basic step (moving forward indefinitely)
1 R foot forward
2 L foot to L (possibly L forward)
3 R foot together
4 L foot forward
5 R foot to R (possibly R forward)
6 L foot together
Foxtrot
8 beats
basic step (moving forward and to left indefinitely)
1 L foot forward (slow)
2 R foot forward (slow)
3 L foot to side (L) (quick)
4 R foot together (quick)
5 L foot backward (slow)
6 R foot backward (slow)
7 L foot to side (L) (quick)
8 R foot together (quick)
Rumba
8 beats
basic step (dance in place)
1 pause
2 L foot forward
3 weight on R foot in place
4 L foot to side (L)
5 pause
6 R foot backward
7 weight on L foot in place
8 R foot to side (R)
Cha Cha Cha
8 beats
basic step (dance in place)
1 R foot to to side (R)
2 L foot forward
3 weight on R foot in place
4,5 L foot to L, R foot together, L foot to L (Cha Cha Cha shuffle = chasse)
6 R foot backward
7 weight on L foot in place
8,1 R foot to R, L foot together, R foot to R (Cha Cha Cha shuffle = chasse)
There are many web sites with information on steps, etc. involved in various ballroom dances, including ballroomdancers.com and dancetv.com. I'm taking notes anyway because it still helps me remember things.
Having gotten decent at learning and dancing Salsa has helped me with quickly picking up the lessons and with confidence tonight – there was light years worth of difference between tonight and the last time I took one or two Ballroom lessons about three or four years ago. I’m guessing I was one of the oldest if not the oldest student there tonight. One of my dance partners asked me whether I was going to try out for the Beginner Ballroom team. Interesting idea, but I think it’ll require more time than I can really spare. Thus far, I find Foxtrot and Cha Cha Cha more fun compared to Waltz and Rumba – despite the fact that I had long wanted to dance Waltz (or Viennese Waltz) to Strauss (any of the three).
Afterwards, it was back to Club Salsa for more mending of bridges (going better than I could have hoped for and probably better than I deserved) and dancing (with lighter heart). There were at least two or three occasions where I felt positively terrified, but it's nearly done - maybe about 80% done.
New class & club by old friends Mauricio & Peter, New venue for Nelson, New night for Vishal
October 9, 2005
A somewhat belated post. I heard several news Friday.
One of my first Salsa teacher, Mauricio, is starting a new class and club in Huntingdon. The grand opening is this Wednesday October 12th. The place is Oliver's 12 All Saints Passage, Huntingdon PE29 3PA. For the opening night, Mauricio is joined by another one of my old Salsa teacher and friend, Peter with his Salsa band Cambiando playing live. Classes are held between 7-9 PM. Music til midnight (6 pounds all inclusive).
Nelson Batista is moving his Sunday venue to Cellar Bar 8 starting October 16th. My source suggested that the move is being made in part to have a more club-like atmosphere and better sound. Classes start at 7 PM and dancing til 11:30 PM as before (5 pounds all inclusive).
Meanwhile, Vishal is offering free entry for Salsa dancing on Sundays at Club Salsa. It starts at 8 PM and goes to "late". Did I mention Free Entry - Oh Yes!? This means Club Salsa is now open for business on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week.
Despite all these developments, it's a relief to know that I would not be competing directly with anyone I know personally because of my non-profit and still longshot once-in-a-lifetime venture Project Bachata.
A somewhat belated post. I heard several news Friday.
One of my first Salsa teacher, Mauricio, is starting a new class and club in Huntingdon. The grand opening is this Wednesday October 12th. The place is Oliver's 12 All Saints Passage, Huntingdon PE29 3PA. For the opening night, Mauricio is joined by another one of my old Salsa teacher and friend, Peter with his Salsa band Cambiando playing live. Classes are held between 7-9 PM. Music til midnight (6 pounds all inclusive).
Nelson Batista is moving his Sunday venue to Cellar Bar 8 starting October 16th. My source suggested that the move is being made in part to have a more club-like atmosphere and better sound. Classes start at 7 PM and dancing til 11:30 PM as before (5 pounds all inclusive).
Meanwhile, Vishal is offering free entry for Salsa dancing on Sundays at Club Salsa. It starts at 8 PM and goes to "late". Did I mention Free Entry - Oh Yes!? This means Club Salsa is now open for business on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week.
Despite all these developments, it's a relief to know that I would not be competing directly with anyone I know personally because of my non-profit and still longshot once-in-a-lifetime venture Project Bachata.
Another sequence down the drain thanks to no practice afterwards
October 7, 2005
open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start and lead follower to two-handed 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader with hands going over leader’s head and splitting hands so that R hand goes to L shoulder and L hand goes to R shoulder first and then to about elbow level
5,6,7 release hand connections at chest level and reconnect switching hands to establish R-R and L-L holds – eventually both hands should be lowered down to about waist level
1,2,3 open break on 1 and release L-L – get into approximately open cross body position on 3 (R-R would be approximately parallel to leader’s body)
5,6,7 let momentum carry follower forward and switch to L-R – this is a position I haven’t seen before … follower and leader and standing next to each other side-to-side with follower on the left side and both partners are facing to the right of follower’s original line
1,2,3 I think Johnny said this part is borrowed from Cha Cha Cha – both follower and leader step forward on 1 with L-R also pointing forward on 1, L-R is pulled back on 2 while stepping in place (actually, R foot (L foot for follower) could be pointing backwards in anticipation of pivot on 2 - both turn around together on 3 with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise while follower is turning 1/2 clockwise and switch to R-R
5,6,7 both step forward on 5 and both turn around for a full turn (counterclockwise for leader, clockwise for follower) together on 6,7 and get back into open
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2 with R-R and lead follower to a double turn (clockwise) with both hands up with L-L connection getting made at the last second – followers are doing preparatory step on 1,2 and holding on 3 before start turning on 4 – for leaders, turns involve bunch of hand switches … keep R-R high and use it as support for follower’s turn while L-L is simply touching each other at short intervals – in the end L-L goes on top for a crossed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start and lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with both hands up and again doing multiple hand switches as it was done during last bar of music
I really exhausted myself talking tonight instead of dancing. All the talk meant no good practice for the lesson learned tonight as well as many missed dancing opportunity.
Project Bachata – DJ Tony Lara & Claudia is seemingly taking a left turn. I won’t go into details right now, but I would like everyone to know that I have absolutely no desire to reap any financial gain from this venture and that I would not have any problem losing some money by doing this. The aim of the event will be to try to give something back to the Salsa community and try to make sure everyone has a good time. In fact, depending on who ends up being involved, I might make financial details of this project public using this blog. This assumes that Tony & Claudia as well as everyone else involved will be okay with the idea of public financial disclosure. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up too much yet because we still need to get several things confirmed (e.g. venue) before I can say for sure that it will happen.
open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start and lead follower to two-handed 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader with hands going over leader’s head and splitting hands so that R hand goes to L shoulder and L hand goes to R shoulder first and then to about elbow level
5,6,7 release hand connections at chest level and reconnect switching hands to establish R-R and L-L holds – eventually both hands should be lowered down to about waist level
1,2,3 open break on 1 and release L-L – get into approximately open cross body position on 3 (R-R would be approximately parallel to leader’s body)
5,6,7 let momentum carry follower forward and switch to L-R – this is a position I haven’t seen before … follower and leader and standing next to each other side-to-side with follower on the left side and both partners are facing to the right of follower’s original line
1,2,3 I think Johnny said this part is borrowed from Cha Cha Cha – both follower and leader step forward on 1 with L-R also pointing forward on 1, L-R is pulled back on 2 while stepping in place (actually, R foot (L foot for follower) could be pointing backwards in anticipation of pivot on 2 - both turn around together on 3 with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise while follower is turning 1/2 clockwise and switch to R-R
5,6,7 both step forward on 5 and both turn around for a full turn (counterclockwise for leader, clockwise for follower) together on 6,7 and get back into open
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2 with R-R and lead follower to a double turn (clockwise) with both hands up with L-L connection getting made at the last second – followers are doing preparatory step on 1,2 and holding on 3 before start turning on 4 – for leaders, turns involve bunch of hand switches … keep R-R high and use it as support for follower’s turn while L-L is simply touching each other at short intervals – in the end L-L goes on top for a crossed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start and lead follower to a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with both hands up and again doing multiple hand switches as it was done during last bar of music
I really exhausted myself talking tonight instead of dancing. All the talk meant no good practice for the lesson learned tonight as well as many missed dancing opportunity.
Project Bachata – DJ Tony Lara & Claudia is seemingly taking a left turn. I won’t go into details right now, but I would like everyone to know that I have absolutely no desire to reap any financial gain from this venture and that I would not have any problem losing some money by doing this. The aim of the event will be to try to give something back to the Salsa community and try to make sure everyone has a good time. In fact, depending on who ends up being involved, I might make financial details of this project public using this blog. This assumes that Tony & Claudia as well as everyone else involved will be okay with the idea of public financial disclosure. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up too much yet because we still need to get several things confirmed (e.g. venue) before I can say for sure that it will happen.
Excellent first class – Sally Intermediate
October 6, 2005
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2,3 and lead follower to a double clockwise turn (turns start on 4 = standard LA style convention) with R-L high (I place it just at or slightly above follower's forehead)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start followed by leading follower to a two-handed (keep both hands together)1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start followed by leading follower to a two-handed 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader with hands going over leader’s head and splitting hands so that R hand goes to L shoulder and L hand goes to R shoulder first and then to about elbow level
5,6,7 release hand connections at chest level and reconnect switching hands to establish R-R and L-L holds – eventually both hands should be lowered down to about waist level
1,2,3 open break on 1 – release L-L and move R-R over follower’s head and beyond (watch out for follower’s head to avoid collision!) and reconnect L-L while moving to follower’s R side – the position that you end with on 4 is similar to Titanic
5,6,7 follower gets to move forward on 5 (as is normal in cross body lead with turn) and then follower is lead to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (so essentially a normal traveling turn after a cross body lead start except with a different entry point) – during the turn R-R is released and turn is led with L-L high
1,2,3 pivot turn and leave follower’s L hand by leader’s R neck
5,6,7 basic steps as leader ducks underneath follower’s L hand (bending his neck) and reconnect L-L (I reconnected at neck level but others might have reconnected at a lower elevation)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Standard Copa (a.k.a in-and-out) – R hand resting on follower’s R hips on 3/4 and follower going back with L-L to lead 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn for follower
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader as follower’s L hand is flicked up and get into cross body lead position (open cross body position probably works best here)
5,6,7 catch follower’s L hand coming down from up in the air on 4 (do this at level with leader’s position rather than reaching back) and lead follower to a free 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn – follow the follower to catch her at the end of her turn – followers were given tips for a double-flourish of a styling using both their hands and arms
When Sally came around while making her rounds near the end of the class to make adjustments for student leaders, she pointed out to me as I started my first cross body lead that my basic closed position posture need some adjustments. Specifically, she told me that instead of keeping my L arm hanging limp straight down from my shoulders, it should be raised slightly and that there should be some distance between my side/waist and the point of L-R connection. Note this is not exactly her statement but rather my interpretation of her comment. It's possible that other teachers mentioned this to me but that I didn't pay attention before. Another interesting thing (probably only to me) is that I realize that Mariella (the Argentinean instructor) has been trying to teach me to do exactly the same thing last few weeks. Unfortunately because Mariella does not speak English well, she never managed to communicate to me why she was purposefully raising my L arm to the "proper" position [quotation there to denote my past ignorance]. Instead, I mistakenly had taken it to be something like a follower trying to lead the leader, which I found distracting at the time. I also remember observing this posture in use by some other good leaders in Cambridge. Again, it goes to show that there are many faults I need to correct and that miscommunications lead to misunderstanding, which if left to fester could lead to conflict. Now, what is the benefit of keeping my L arm slightly raised and keeping L-R further away from my body? One guess is that this can give leaders a better control in his leads and better support for follower's turns during cross body lead, etc. Just as important may be that this starting position allows clearer communication between the leader and follower in conveying whether the lead is going to be simply cross body lead, cross body lead with counterclockwise turn, cross body lead with clockwise turn, etc.
Thanks to Sally for her permission for me to publish my reconstruction of the routine taught in her class tonight.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2,3 and lead follower to a double clockwise turn (turns start on 4 = standard LA style convention) with R-L high (I place it just at or slightly above follower's forehead)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start followed by leading follower to a two-handed (keep both hands together)1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead start followed by leading follower to a two-handed 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader with hands going over leader’s head and splitting hands so that R hand goes to L shoulder and L hand goes to R shoulder first and then to about elbow level
5,6,7 release hand connections at chest level and reconnect switching hands to establish R-R and L-L holds – eventually both hands should be lowered down to about waist level
1,2,3 open break on 1 – release L-L and move R-R over follower’s head and beyond (watch out for follower’s head to avoid collision!) and reconnect L-L while moving to follower’s R side – the position that you end with on 4 is similar to Titanic
5,6,7 follower gets to move forward on 5 (as is normal in cross body lead with turn) and then follower is lead to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn (so essentially a normal traveling turn after a cross body lead start except with a different entry point) – during the turn R-R is released and turn is led with L-L high
1,2,3 pivot turn and leave follower’s L hand by leader’s R neck
5,6,7 basic steps as leader ducks underneath follower’s L hand (bending his neck) and reconnect L-L (I reconnected at neck level but others might have reconnected at a lower elevation)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Standard Copa (a.k.a in-and-out) – R hand resting on follower’s R hips on 3/4 and follower going back with L-L to lead 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn for follower
1,2,3 pivot turn for leader as follower’s L hand is flicked up and get into cross body lead position (open cross body position probably works best here)
5,6,7 catch follower’s L hand coming down from up in the air on 4 (do this at level with leader’s position rather than reaching back) and lead follower to a free 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn – follow the follower to catch her at the end of her turn – followers were given tips for a double-flourish of a styling using both their hands and arms
When Sally came around while making her rounds near the end of the class to make adjustments for student leaders, she pointed out to me as I started my first cross body lead that my basic closed position posture need some adjustments. Specifically, she told me that instead of keeping my L arm hanging limp straight down from my shoulders, it should be raised slightly and that there should be some distance between my side/waist and the point of L-R connection. Note this is not exactly her statement but rather my interpretation of her comment. It's possible that other teachers mentioned this to me but that I didn't pay attention before. Another interesting thing (probably only to me) is that I realize that Mariella (the Argentinean instructor) has been trying to teach me to do exactly the same thing last few weeks. Unfortunately because Mariella does not speak English well, she never managed to communicate to me why she was purposefully raising my L arm to the "proper" position [quotation there to denote my past ignorance]. Instead, I mistakenly had taken it to be something like a follower trying to lead the leader, which I found distracting at the time. I also remember observing this posture in use by some other good leaders in Cambridge. Again, it goes to show that there are many faults I need to correct and that miscommunications lead to misunderstanding, which if left to fester could lead to conflict. Now, what is the benefit of keeping my L arm slightly raised and keeping L-R further away from my body? One guess is that this can give leaders a better control in his leads and better support for follower's turns during cross body lead, etc. Just as important may be that this starting position allows clearer communication between the leader and follower in conveying whether the lead is going to be simply cross body lead, cross body lead with counterclockwise turn, cross body lead with clockwise turn, etc.
Thanks to Sally for her permission for me to publish my reconstruction of the routine taught in her class tonight.
Project Bachata - DJ Tony Lara & Claudia
October 6, 2005
I mentioned in a recent post that it would be nice to have a good Bachata lesson (I erased the sentence during my recent editorial action because the sentence no longer "flowed".). I now have a Bachata project. It’s a long shot, and it would be surprising if I pull it off. I have been in contact with a well-known Italian Salsa/Bachata instructor/DJ named Tony Lara over the weekend. Tony and his dance partner Claudia will be doing a UK Bachata tour during November/December to promote their new Bachata instruction DVD. I have been in contact with Tony to see if he would be interested in including Cambridge as a part of his tour, and he asked me whether I would be interested in organizing it – I would have to act very quickly because there are other people who want to book him as well, and there will be tons of logistics that will have to be ironed out. Thus far, I’ve talked to Vishal about this and hope to be talking to CDC and other teachers in Cambridge. The best date right now is Monday, November 21st. If this were to happen, I also may want to organize a “pre-event” to teach absolute basics of dancing Bachata to get as much out of their visit as possible. With luck, we'll stop being plonkers and finally learn Bachata properly.
Over 300 people attended Tony’s Bachata lesson at the recent UK International Salsa Congress. I spoke to some Cambridge people who attended Tony & Claudia's class, and they were highly impressed with Tony and Claudia. List of performers, teachers and DJs at the UK Congress (Tony was all of above), along with their mugshots can be found in this link. Tony also won the BEST DJ award at this UK Salsa Congress. This is an exciting opportunity, and it would be dynamite if we can get them to Cambridge. Feel free to leave comments here (anonymous is fine) or find me at Club Salsa tonight or tomorrow if you are interested in any way about this.
I mentioned in a recent post that it would be nice to have a good Bachata lesson (I erased the sentence during my recent editorial action because the sentence no longer "flowed".). I now have a Bachata project. It’s a long shot, and it would be surprising if I pull it off. I have been in contact with a well-known Italian Salsa/Bachata instructor/DJ named Tony Lara over the weekend. Tony and his dance partner Claudia will be doing a UK Bachata tour during November/December to promote their new Bachata instruction DVD. I have been in contact with Tony to see if he would be interested in including Cambridge as a part of his tour, and he asked me whether I would be interested in organizing it – I would have to act very quickly because there are other people who want to book him as well, and there will be tons of logistics that will have to be ironed out. Thus far, I’ve talked to Vishal about this and hope to be talking to CDC and other teachers in Cambridge. The best date right now is Monday, November 21st. If this were to happen, I also may want to organize a “pre-event” to teach absolute basics of dancing Bachata to get as much out of their visit as possible. With luck, we'll stop being plonkers and finally learn Bachata properly.
Over 300 people attended Tony’s Bachata lesson at the recent UK International Salsa Congress. I spoke to some Cambridge people who attended Tony & Claudia's class, and they were highly impressed with Tony and Claudia. List of performers, teachers and DJs at the UK Congress (Tony was all of above), along with their mugshots can be found in this link. Tony also won the BEST DJ award at this UK Salsa Congress. This is an exciting opportunity, and it would be dynamite if we can get them to Cambridge. Feel free to leave comments here (anonymous is fine) or find me at Club Salsa tonight or tomorrow if you are interested in any way about this.
Check out that shiny new floor at Club Salsa
October 5, 2005
Wow! What a transformation! It’s not quite finished yet but the repair of the flood-damaged floor has taken a giant step forward. The upper floor by the DJ booth has been completely renovated; it never looked better (at least during the time I’ve been here). The upper floor by the stairs is also fixed and the additional area, which used to be covered with metal covering, is getting new wooden floors as well. I originally was resigned to a half-assed repair job, so I’m pleasantly surprised.
I still have that glow leftover from SOS few nights ago so my dancing was still pretty good. In fact, I was struck by my suddenly new observation that the followers in Cambridge are quite good – certainly not at SOS level, but I think I may have underestimated them quite a bit. This might be because I myself wasn’t all that good or confident enough with my leading. It’s interesting for me to note that I was underwhelmed with SOS back in August, although I blamed it on it being a Scala night at the time.
As the last of us were leaving, Vishal was getting ready to do more work to fix the floor. When I mentioned to one of the last male dancer to leave that Vishal was staying longer to work on the floor, he appeared flabbergasted. Knowing Vishal better than I did last week, I would not be surprised if Vishal took the money he got from the insurance company for flooding damage, and then decided to do most of the work himself to save on labor costs so that he can improve the Club instead of simply bringing it back to the way it was. Now that I’ve done some boosting for Vishal, maybe I can raise complaints about those skipping CD tracks? Also try to get some sleep when you’re done, Vishal. Also, it would be a great idea to try to prevent further flooding – maybe by building a levee or something?
Wow! What a transformation! It’s not quite finished yet but the repair of the flood-damaged floor has taken a giant step forward. The upper floor by the DJ booth has been completely renovated; it never looked better (at least during the time I’ve been here). The upper floor by the stairs is also fixed and the additional area, which used to be covered with metal covering, is getting new wooden floors as well. I originally was resigned to a half-assed repair job, so I’m pleasantly surprised.
I still have that glow leftover from SOS few nights ago so my dancing was still pretty good. In fact, I was struck by my suddenly new observation that the followers in Cambridge are quite good – certainly not at SOS level, but I think I may have underestimated them quite a bit. This might be because I myself wasn’t all that good or confident enough with my leading. It’s interesting for me to note that I was underwhelmed with SOS back in August, although I blamed it on it being a Scala night at the time.
As the last of us were leaving, Vishal was getting ready to do more work to fix the floor. When I mentioned to one of the last male dancer to leave that Vishal was staying longer to work on the floor, he appeared flabbergasted. Knowing Vishal better than I did last week, I would not be surprised if Vishal took the money he got from the insurance company for flooding damage, and then decided to do most of the work himself to save on labor costs so that he can improve the Club instead of simply bringing it back to the way it was. Now that I’ve done some boosting for Vishal, maybe I can raise complaints about those skipping CD tracks? Also try to get some sleep when you’re done, Vishal. Also, it would be a great idea to try to prevent further flooding – maybe by building a levee or something?
Class Updates - Sergio & Sally
October 4, 2005
A gossip I heard last Friday that I didn't get around to writing about is Sergio's class. To my disappointment, Sergio informed me that he will be away in six months in the Washington DC area because of his other real work. For the Cambridge Salsa community, this means his on-2 class will be on hold for a while longer. It also explains why he's not teaching Salsa at CDC this term. A silver lining for me is that I already had plans to be in the same area for about two weeks, so I'll likely have some company for Salsa outings while I'm in the States. It should be fun.
While on the subject of classes, Sally's class will be starting this Thursday. Perusing through her website should make it clear that Sally has been teaching many Salsa classes as sole headliner. I think anyone who's in the know recognizes Sally as one of the best dancers in Cambridgeshire, so I imagine expectations are high. I plan to attend as many classes as I can this year (if I can get around the early starting time). I also look forward to Ivan's return in January because Ivan & Sally's workshop led to one of major lead-forward in my Salsa dancing.
A gossip I heard last Friday that I didn't get around to writing about is Sergio's class. To my disappointment, Sergio informed me that he will be away in six months in the Washington DC area because of his other real work. For the Cambridge Salsa community, this means his on-2 class will be on hold for a while longer. It also explains why he's not teaching Salsa at CDC this term. A silver lining for me is that I already had plans to be in the same area for about two weeks, so I'll likely have some company for Salsa outings while I'm in the States. It should be fun.
While on the subject of classes, Sally's class will be starting this Thursday. Perusing through her website should make it clear that Sally has been teaching many Salsa classes as sole headliner. I think anyone who's in the know recognizes Sally as one of the best dancers in Cambridgeshire, so I imagine expectations are high. I plan to attend as many classes as I can this year (if I can get around the early starting time). I also look forward to Ivan's return in January because Ivan & Sally's workshop led to one of major lead-forward in my Salsa dancing.
SOS loves me and I love them back
October 2, 2005
I glanced at the clock; it said 6 PM. One of my favorite colleagues had entered the empty room. She is so breathtakingly lovely that every time I see her, I think my heart skips a beat. She looked at me and then frowned. She said, “You look very tired.” I smiled and agreed but did not elaborate. We talked for a short while and then she said, “Well, I’m going to go look after my babies. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I had already missed my usual deadline to depart for SOS, which is 5 PM. Also, two friends who I invited for tonight’s outing had backed out for various reasons. I decided that I have done as much as I could for now and wrapped things up as I told myself, “Okay, I’m definitely going to miss the lessons this time. But I really need to go to SOS tonight no matter what.”
As I drive down M11, I feel turmoil in my mind slowly dissipating away. I grab a quick bite when I get to Tavistock Place. I already feel at peace with myself. I can feel that this is going to be good. No bombs. No Scala. SOS as it normally is – the best Salsa dancing spot I have been to thus far in my life.
I enter the ballroom. I see the usual greeter and cashier, who recognizes me, smiles and says, “Have a great night.” I reply, “I know I will. I always do.” I look around. I feel like I’m a child in a candy store. No. Make it – I feel like I’m Charlie in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
I am sore. I had never felt the need to stretch, but I do this time. Then comes the first dance – the warm-up dance. Good. Next. Good. Next. I’m getting into the groove. It’s great knowing that I could grab a random woman at SOS and be about 80-90% confident that I’ll enjoy dancing with my partner.
Tonight seems very special. I’m having a blast. I think my dance partners are having wonderful time too. It’s infectious. It’s simply marvelous. It doesn’t matter if I screw up. I don’t care if my partner misses something – it’s always leader’s fault anyway. During my short breaks, I sometimes look at other dancers. I used to think others were way better than me. Tonight I look at them and think that well over half of the leaders don’t look all that good after all!
Two other groups from Cambridge are here, and I greet them all. One of them is almost like a friend now even though we really don’t know each other at all outside the dance hall. He tells me that I really should come here more often.
I look at the clock. It’s almost closing time. For the last dance, I ask the one of the partner who seemed to have had especially good time dancing with me earlier in the evening. The song ends. Another song comes on. It doesn’t matter; I already had my last dance. We give each other pecks on each other’s cheeks.
We talk through the next song and beyond. She tells me about the beginnings of SOS – about a woman from Chilean embassy starting up this place as a Salsa venue, about Leon, Tamambo and the SOS team taking over when the Chilean woman goes back home, and about the greeter/cashier who is Leon’s mom. She tells me it’s all a family affair. I tell her that Leon’s mother looks impossibly young and happy. I also say that I am now really exhausted but feel very happy about it. By the time we change and leave, the staff is half done with cleaning up; I can’t believe that I’m practically the last one to leave. She tells me, “Bring more of your friends from Cambridge.” We part ways at the door, and I head to my car. As I drive down Gray's Inn Road, I feel like a millionaire and my mind exclaims, “SOS loves me and I love them back.”
I glanced at the clock; it said 6 PM. One of my favorite colleagues had entered the empty room. She is so breathtakingly lovely that every time I see her, I think my heart skips a beat. She looked at me and then frowned. She said, “You look very tired.” I smiled and agreed but did not elaborate. We talked for a short while and then she said, “Well, I’m going to go look after my babies. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I had already missed my usual deadline to depart for SOS, which is 5 PM. Also, two friends who I invited for tonight’s outing had backed out for various reasons. I decided that I have done as much as I could for now and wrapped things up as I told myself, “Okay, I’m definitely going to miss the lessons this time. But I really need to go to SOS tonight no matter what.”
As I drive down M11, I feel turmoil in my mind slowly dissipating away. I grab a quick bite when I get to Tavistock Place. I already feel at peace with myself. I can feel that this is going to be good. No bombs. No Scala. SOS as it normally is – the best Salsa dancing spot I have been to thus far in my life.
I enter the ballroom. I see the usual greeter and cashier, who recognizes me, smiles and says, “Have a great night.” I reply, “I know I will. I always do.” I look around. I feel like I’m a child in a candy store. No. Make it – I feel like I’m Charlie in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
I am sore. I had never felt the need to stretch, but I do this time. Then comes the first dance – the warm-up dance. Good. Next. Good. Next. I’m getting into the groove. It’s great knowing that I could grab a random woman at SOS and be about 80-90% confident that I’ll enjoy dancing with my partner.
Tonight seems very special. I’m having a blast. I think my dance partners are having wonderful time too. It’s infectious. It’s simply marvelous. It doesn’t matter if I screw up. I don’t care if my partner misses something – it’s always leader’s fault anyway. During my short breaks, I sometimes look at other dancers. I used to think others were way better than me. Tonight I look at them and think that well over half of the leaders don’t look all that good after all!
Two other groups from Cambridge are here, and I greet them all. One of them is almost like a friend now even though we really don’t know each other at all outside the dance hall. He tells me that I really should come here more often.
I look at the clock. It’s almost closing time. For the last dance, I ask the one of the partner who seemed to have had especially good time dancing with me earlier in the evening. The song ends. Another song comes on. It doesn’t matter; I already had my last dance. We give each other pecks on each other’s cheeks.
We talk through the next song and beyond. She tells me about the beginnings of SOS – about a woman from Chilean embassy starting up this place as a Salsa venue, about Leon, Tamambo and the SOS team taking over when the Chilean woman goes back home, and about the greeter/cashier who is Leon’s mom. She tells me it’s all a family affair. I tell her that Leon’s mother looks impossibly young and happy. I also say that I am now really exhausted but feel very happy about it. By the time we change and leave, the staff is half done with cleaning up; I can’t believe that I’m practically the last one to leave. She tells me, “Bring more of your friends from Cambridge.” We part ways at the door, and I head to my car. As I drive down Gray's Inn Road, I feel like a millionaire and my mind exclaims, “SOS loves me and I love them back.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)