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.