My fifth lesson with Sally (her sixth overall at Club Salsa)

November 10, 2005

closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with leader turning 1/2 clockwise with L-R going over leader’s head and dropped on 7 and follower’s R hand is caught with leader’s R hand by 8/1 at leader’s R waist level
1,2,3 open break followed by R-R going over follower’s head and keep connection low while L-L connection is made in front or ahead of follower’s line
5,6,7 lead follower forward on 5 and into a traveling full clockwise turn with L-L high and R-R low ending with L-L ending on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3 forward left on 1 and back on 2,3 while turning as a unit 1/2 counterclockwise – follower is still in front of leader and both are now parallel to the follower’s line
5,6,7 keeping R-R low, lead follower into 1 1/4 traveling counterclockwise turn with L-L high ending up facing the follower – R-R wraps up behind follower’s L waist
1,2,3 L-L goes over follower’s head and is disconnected while leader moves around follower’s R side as R-R too is disconnected and both of leader’s hands hold the follower at the waist level
5,6,7 give follower a free clockwise spin [my own option: leader do a hook turn after follower initiates turn]
1,2,3,5,6,7 do a free pivot turn followed by hook turn (both clockwise) with hands ready for crossed hold with L-L on top
1,2,3 establish crossed hold with L-L on top and open break on 1 followed by a pull with L-L going over follower’s head for beat 4 Titanic into a reverse cross body lead (or Copa) position
5,6,7 lead follower into a 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 give follower a hat and cross body lead

Bachata ticket sale is going fairly well. Beginner workshop is essentially half full. Half of the slots for men’s place for the improver Bachata have been booked also. Only a couple of slots for women’s place have been booked though, so I still will need to keep a close watch on this matter. In any case, I now suspect I can keep my losses to under 100 pounds without too much problem, and breaking even seems well within reach although I won’t know for certain until around 10 PM on November 21st.

It seems Thursday club scene at Club Salsa is slowly gaining steam – I’ll probably know with more certainty after few more weeks. Somewhat like Wednesday at Club Salsa, Thursday night at Club Salsa seems to be becoming a dancer’s venue. The fact that it does not as crowded as it gets on Friday allows improved chance of nice relaxed dances without constantly in fear worrying about other people bumping into you (or my partner hurtling into someone else – I’m excluding myself because I haven’t stepped on anyone else for a very long time … I think the last time I stepped on someone’s foot might have been early in the summer this year and I don’t think there was another incident before that for at least 2-3 months). The key word here is ‘constantly’ because there being more space does not mean that you can ignore your surroundings and make gigantic steps or stumble about without watching the space into which you and/or your partner are entering. As it was, someone stepped on my Achilles heel despite there being fairly large volume of space for everyone.

A(n esoteric) discussion tonight about Salsa dancing involved dancing along the line, which is pretty standard for LA or CBL style. This was brought about because I was telling my opposite that many in Cambridge are unable to keep to the line. The reply I got was that it’s fine to ignore and break the line rule as long as you are aware that you are doing so. This wasn’t much of an argument because I agree with my opposite’s statement in general. However I think I can argue that this breaking of the rule works much better when both parties (leader and follower) are well aware of the line rule as they proceed to break the rule.

A bemused reader of this blog asked me whether I was going to write about certain friends of the reader dancing ballroom dance to Salsa tonight. It seemed a little silly to me because the music and the dance they were dancing did not matc, which meant that they were not getting proper practice. But this is a free country and I'm not going to stop them doing what they seem to be enjoying; just as I am not going to yell at people who dance Salsa to a Bachata song or a Merengue song.

Lastly, I think it would be worthwhile to learn more Cuban style Salsa, which depends very little on cross body lead or Dile que no. It would be good to have a bit more in my Salsa repertoire that does not use cross body lead. So what do I do? Do I start taking classes from Nelson Batista? I’m not sure but this will have to wait until next year at the earliest.