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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been reading the diary for a while now, and am certainly interested in the diary keeper himself becoming the self- professed guardian of salsa standards. I have been watching the progress of the diary keeper and find it faintly hilarious that his style of salsa " stroll through the moves and fudge the tricky bits crossed with a rather more insane type of martial arts" would somehow qualify him to "test" other dancers to see if their competence can cut the mustard.
Good Luck and 10 out of 10 for the entertainment you offer me at Club Salsa- If there was an aisle, you would find me rolling in it!

hyh said...

Thanks for your comment although perhaps I should say, "Don't look at me! Dance!" Thanks for an interesting description of my dance style; it seems like reasonably fair assessment although I never saw myself dance and I would not have thought of martial arts as an influence. I do recall one of my teacher saying martial arts influenced his dancing however. It's nice to know that you are having fun reading this blog. I'll try to keep getting better and have fun and I hope you'll do the same!

By the way, don't worry about me becoming a guardian of any sort; I don't take myself seriously enough to really carry it out - just as the quote I used above is tongue-in-cheek.