Review of Lady Salsa - Final Cambridge Performance November 5, 2005

November 7, 2005

I am a difficult person to please.

I dislike giving praise without thinking of at least some criticisms at the same time. Rarely do I find things I love without reservation. Perhaps it is a personal failing at some level, and it is possible that I would be a happier person if I weren't so critical all the time. This is not to say I am unhappy; in fact, I am generally quite content and happy with my life although I don't know if most people would be happy if they were living my life.

My reason for such a roundabout preamble for what should be a simple and straightforward review of Lady Salsa is to try to demonstrate that I have nothing personal against the people involved with the show. I don't know if it is necessary but I am just trying to be safe rather than sorry.

A short summary of Lady Salsa I came away with was that it did not thrill me. In fact, I was a little bored most of the time.

The best part of the show was the sound quality of the band. After suffering through so-so sound systems offered by various Salsa venues, it was very refreshing to hear a competent band play Latin music in an environment with good acoustics. Although I'm no expert in Latin concerts (I have been to none), my best guess is that this band would have been received well by Salsa dancers in most if not all Salsa venues.

Perhaps the weakest part of the show was the storyline, which perfunctorily marries history of Cuba from the arrival of Spaniards to just after Castro's revolution and a perspective of a young woman at the time of Castro's revolution. Pre-20th century Cuban history is summarized in about dozen throwaway sentences, and the telling of modern Cuban history is highly reminiscent of parts of the movie Godfather part II.

The political vent of the show is pro-Castro, which I personally don't find objectionable (more on this later) although this would not play well in the U.S.A. so I wouldn't expect that there will a U.S. tour of Lady Salsa anytime soon. Fidel Castro is one of more successful communist leaders, and I don't have any reason to think that he is a egregious or particularly evil, especially in comparison to some other communist leaders such as Stalin, Mao, Ceausescu or Kim. Fidel also compares quite favourably against the likes of Batista, Duvalier, Pinochet, Noriega, etc. However I couldn’t shake the feeling that despite being in pretty good shape despite the U.S. embargo, people of Cuba faces a tumultuous future once Castro passes away if nothing else because of the Cuban exiles in Miami. With this outlook, I found the bright optimistic view of Cuba in the show at best forced and naïve.

What about the dancing? If I had not learned to dance Salsa, I might have been more impressed. I'm not convinced even of this however. I have never been to a Salsa Congress and watched many dance shows, so my threshold for being impressed with people's ability to dance is not exactly sky high. Even so, I was decidedly underwhelmed with the choreography. There were some simple Salsa (reasonably nice partner dancing Salsa and rudimentary Casino Rueda) done well, but I had trouble telling if they even danced Rumba or Cha Cha Cha when appropriate music was played.

This is not to say that the dancers were terrible; on the contrary, they moved impressively and were capable of eyebrow raising acrobatics. Among women, Janet from Friday night seemed to stand out the best overall dancer with greatest stage presence and I don't think my interaction with her resulted in a strong bias. For sheer acrobatics, I was more impressed with the men. However, perhaps by design or perhaps because this was the last performance in Cambridge or perhaps because they were not impressed with the audience, I felt that there may have been fair amount of horsing around and possibly even half-hearted effort by some dancers in some parts of the show, especially during the second half.

There was a segment in the second half in which members of the audience were invited to the stage to dance, which I found to be quite silly and even inane (although I am sure there were plenty of people who liked this part). I actually went up to the stage while dragging along another person I recognized and seated near me (hopefully this disclosure will not result in an easier identification of this reviewer and thereby make it easier for a hit squad). Once on the stage, we were "taught" a basic Salsa step, which did not match basic steps of Salsa generally taught for on-1 (LA style), or on-2 (NY style) or Casino Rueda or anything I would have recognized as standard basic. The steps were essentially Mambo step in mirror image - R foot forward on 1 and L foot back on 6. By the way, there also was some hip shaking requested for and performed by selected members taken up on the stage. Thankfully I wasn't chosen (hmmm… maybe I should fear for my life even more now for revealing my identity further - please note that hardly anyone reads this blog).

In closing, I don't think the cast members have any reason to fear that I will follow them around the country and stalk them - not that there was any chance of this even if I really liked the show. There were many parts of the show I liked but the show as a whole just did not work for this savage critic.