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.