Que una aventura or what an adventure!
The evening starts – I meet Tony & Claudia
Aside from some e-mails, the evening began in earnest when I set out for Tesco at Bar Hill to pick up some plastic champagne glasses at 4 PM. After a short detour at home, I arrived at Sauce bar/restaurant next to Club Salsa at 5 PM. Here I was dismayed to find that Tandoori Station Restaurant did not open until 6 PM – a small screw-up by me as I had told people to be there as early as 5:30 PM. Just as I was about to order a drink, Tony rang my mobile phone from his parked car. About 5 minutes later, we met face to face for the first time, and the first thought that came to my mind was “Wow. He’s shorter than me!”
Small talk at the Sauce
Fortunately the late opening time for Tandoori Station Restaurant did not affect anyone except for Tony & Claudia as the Baranco members I invited and still waiting on did not reply early (and ended up not coming) while the only other people who had planned on being at the dinner called in transit to let me know that they were delayed by traffic conditions. This gave me some time to chitchat for nearly an hour at Sauce over coffee, tea, and soft drink with Tony and me talking mostly as Claudia’s English was limited. Some vital statistics for Tony was clarified – he’s fully Spanish (as opposed to half-Spanish as one person suggested to me) and the girl pictured behind him in his Salsa Mafia ID is indeed his fiancé, Daniella.
High comedy at Tandoori Station
At 5:55 PM, Tandoori Station Restaurant was still completely dark. Then almost like magic, the friendly waiter I recognized came up the stairs and lit up the restaurant and let us in. Another moody waiter, who greatly amused Tony throughout the hour, took over at this point and seated us. As I was perusing over the menu, the friendly waiter came back to inform me that Vishal wanted to speak to me. I went back with the waiter and was handed a phone. Uh oh. “Hi Vishal. What’s up?” “Hi. I’m still stuck in Stansted. It’ll take me another 40 minutes to get to Club Salsa. I will get there before 7 PM.” Hmmm. I had expected to have the Club open by 6:30 PM as the workshop was supposed to have started at 7 PM. Oh well. We’ll just have to improvise.
Enrique was the first to get there – on time (6:15 PM) as he had informed me earlier in the day, and talks turned to DJ issues. We ordered drinks, appetizers and food – not very much for Tony & Claudia as they didn’t want to eat too much before teaching a class. As it was, curry joke ended up being a frequent refrain during the workshop. If there is to be next time, I’ll take them to Sauce for tapas instead although I’m not sure how it would stand up to Tony’s Spanish standard. Cristian arrived with a friend of his next and naturally the talk turned into general discussion of Bachata (teaching, et al.). Finally Rhona arrived last for a coffee.
As it turned out, our main dish did not appear until 6:40 PM, which I wolfed down. Even before I was done eating, people started arriving and coming into the Tandoori Station Restaurant to escape the frigid weather. After I finished eating, I went outside to let early arrivals that Vishal was delayed, and I suggested them to chat with people they know in Tandoori Station Restaurant. As more people piled in, I was imagining that we were playing a game to see how many people we could fit into the restaurant before the moody waiter's head exploded in frustration. In the end, we had well over 20 people inside Tandoori Station Restaurant before Vishal finally arrived shortly after 7 PM to let everyone in.
First workshop starts 30 minutes late
I think there must have been some running around with little purpose as people settled down. I had the bar staff and other helpful volunteers serve complimentary sparkling wine to people attending the workshop. So the workshop did not get started until around 7:30 PM. As it was, some people were more than 30 minutes late as 2-3 people joined in after the late start with some joining in as much as 10-15 minute into the first workshop!
Workshop I
Steps described below are for leaders as usual. In many of the steps, followers are doing mirror image steps.
Avoid ballroom hold as the standard hold. R hand on follower’s spine close to neck, especially for dip-like situations. Keep L-R pointing to the ground unless playing around with moving L-R up and down, etc.
Basic (stationary)
1 weight on L foot
2 weight on R foot
3 weight on L foot
4 hip action – first to L and then to R
5 weight on R foot
6 weight on L foot
7 weight on R foot
8 hip action – first to R and then to L
Basic (side-to-side)
1 L foot to L
2 R foot close
3 L foot to L
4 hip action
5 R foot to R
6 L foot close
7 R foot to R
8 hip action
Basic (forward and back)
1 L foot step forward (small step)
2 R foot close
3 L foot step forward (small step)
4 hip action
5 R foot step backwards (small step)
6 L foot close
7 R foot step backwards (small step)
8 hip action
Side turn
move away from follower during previous 5,6,7,8 to give room
1 L foot point to L
2 R foot to L with turn (traveling) 1/2 counterclockwise
3,4 L foot to L with turn (traveling) 1/2 counterclockwise ending with hip action
5 R foot point to R
6 L foot to R with turn (traveling) 1/2 clockwise
7,8 R foot to R with turn (traveling) 1/2 clockwise ending with hip action
When leading follower into side turn, use L-R high with fingers pointing down. L-R is high for leader’s turn also except with fingers pointing up. This is standard leading technique.
Broken turn
probably start from stationary basic
1 L foot forward R and start to turn right (clockwise) and turning as a unit
2 R foot backward L and continue turning as a unit
3 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
4 hip action – at this point, overall rotation is 1/2 clockwise as a unit
5 R foot backward L and restart turning clockwise as a unit
6 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
7 R foot backward L and continue turning as a unit
8 hip action – full clockwise turn from 1
Other moves included swinging while going down and up. And choreographed dip sequences including full sweeping type dip taking all 8 beats, wave inducing dip done twice in 8 beats, and a shorter sweeping dip during first 4 beats followed by shoulder wiggling by the follower.
Late start unfortunately meant there was quite a bit of waiting done by the people who came only for the second workshop. I suspect they might have gotten some useful tip from watching for an extended amount of time, so I didn’t feel too terrible about this. I think with the first workshop, we were one or two men short and asked couple of extra men hanging about to join in. For the second workshop, we were three women short, so three extras from beginners workshop were rounded up.
Workshop II
Sharper clockwise turn as a unit
1,2,3,4 short going down and up ending with weight on L foot
5 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
6 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
7 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
8 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
1 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
2 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
3 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
4 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
5 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
6 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
7 R foot back L and start turning as a unit
8 L foot forward R and continue turning as a unit
one-and-two
1 L foot to L
2 R foot close – keep weight on L foot
3 R foot to R
4 L foot close – keep weight on R foot
5 L foot to L
6 R foot close
7 L foot to L
8 R foot close
1 R foot to R
2 L foot close – keep weight on R foot
3 L foot to L
4 R foot close – keep weight on L foot
5 R foot to R
6 L foot close
7 R foot to R
8 L foot close
name?
1 L foot to L and point diagonally to front L – keep weight on R foot
2 L foot return to original position = closed
3 L foot to L (still doing diagonal pointing?)
4 R foot close
5 R foot to R and point diagonally to front R – keep weight on L foot
6 R foot return to original position = closed
7 R foot to R (still doing diagonal pointing?)
8 L foot close
A longer sequence
make distance to lead a turn for the follower during previous 5,6,7,8
1,2,3,4 side turn for follower with both hands high together initially and ending with L hand trapping both of follower’s hands
5,6,7,8 R hand goes in between follower’s hands and back of R hand is used to bring follower’s L hand down to leader’s R waist (this involves small rolling of leader’s R hand around follower’s wrist) – footwork is side-to-side basic
1,2,3,4 back of leader’s L hand is used to do with follower’s R hand what was done during previous 5,6,7,8 so that her R hand ends up on leader’s L waist – footwork is side-to-side basic – both of follower’s hands end up on leader’s waist
5,6,7,8 dip both hands in between follower’s arms and bring follower’s hand/arm up with down, out, up and in motion (R hand counterclockwise motion and L hand clockwise motion) and get follower’s hands (or better yet wrists) to land on leader’s shoulders (L on R and R on L)
1,2,3,4 walk away from each other ending with open-like hold and doing what is rather like open break but with both feet level
5,6,7,8 bring follower in and lead follower into a full counterclockwise turn (Tony said like Enchufe but I’m not sure if this was accurate) with L-R high initially and ending with a wrap (and wiggle on 8)
1,2,3,4 unwrap follower (letting go with L-R) – so follower is going clockwise with her R hand pointing outwards in the end
5,6,7,8 roll follower back in (counterclockwise turn for her) and end with both hands on her waist hold – optional Rattlesnake (shuffling of feet) for the follower at the end
Dip sequence from Workshop was repeated except with an additional variation involving using both hands to hold follower on her back.
The steps and sequences described above were taken from memory. Tony gave me a free DVD for my troubles and I’ll certainly watch it to review things. However, I don’t think I will describe the moves in the DVD in detail because it feels like cheating. This is not to say that describing things from memory is different ultimately but I simply feel more comfortable doing it my way.
A brief panic as the after-party gets underway
The second workshop ends close to 10 PM, so each workshop ended up being slightly over an hour each. Since the club was supposed to have started at 9 PM, this was not great news for people who paid for club entry only. Music starts playing and I spy some people already getting their coats! I was also disappointed to find only a small number of people who showed up for the after party only (Thanks to all those who showed up, by the way). It’s a minor disaster if not enough people stay behind for some dancing. And then, Tony comes to rescue by asking about the show and presenting me with an incentive for people to stay longer and dance. I started spreading the word (with help from Vishal) that Tony & Claudia will perform a show in about 30 minutes and that it will be worth staying extra for. I then proceeded to grab people who I thought were more likely to leave for a dance or two to help convince them to stay longer. So for more than half of the songs during the next 40 minutes or so (including the song immediately after the show), I was the first one on the dance floor – lead by example. It worked. I don’t think anyone left until the show, and once everyone started dancing the momentum carried through for quite some time. For some of the songs, I think we had essentially 100% of the people on the dance floor. I would have argued that the level of dancing would have compared favorably to any night in Club Salsa – not too crowded but far from empty with mixed level dancers but with pretty high average by Club Salsa standard. I felt like I was fumbling a bit during the workshop, but I was pleased to note that I was able to use many of the steps immediately without a lot of awkwardness.
Bachata show
What’s left to say but that we’ll all need more practice. However, I felt that most of the routines that were done during the show were eminently doable. This is a good thing.
Success – not an overwhelming success but a success that met expectations
Workshop was great. My only complaint regarding the workshop is with the couple who booked for two spots last week without paying and did not show up tonight. In retrospect, it almost felt like a scam for the woman in the couple to get dances with me that night. I can’t believe that I get to say, “I hate it when those women use me for my body only.” Only other disappointment was the gate receipt for attendance for after-party only was dismal and much below what I had expected.
Fortunately, there still were enough people staying around to make dancing very good – I enjoyed many good dances and even one dance with a non-Salsa dancer (by this I only mean not LA and not Cuban either) was made energetic and interesting. Dancing with Claudia (to Salsa) was special – her touches were even lighter than the lightest I have experienced in both Cambridge and London. Another Cambridge dancer described the experience as dancing with air.
Financial report
I had always planned to treat this like a private party and was planning on losing some money on this venture. I was more concerned about having and providing good time.
The amount of loss was completely acceptable albeit on the high end of acceptable; I may post receipts and expenses (but not in too much detail) later this week. Meanwhile, the amount of good will generated by doing this was – priceless. Same goes for the amount of fun I had simply organizing it and pulling it off.
An encore?
It's possible. Tony & Claudia talked about doing another mini-tour in February after Brit-Salsafest and a Congress in Zurich. I’ll have to see how things play out over next few weeks. Tony and I’ll be keeping in touch – if I end up going to Brit-Salsafest, I’ll be sure to stop and say hello to them both.
First, I thought I was smart about having chosen tonight as the workshop night but now…
Biggest regret? I won’t be here this week to show off my new Bachata moves to people who did not come tonight’s event to show off and let them see what they missed. Then again, it is possible that Bachata will have established a solid beachhead by the time I return in 2+ weeks with some people even coming up with new moves.
[November 22 update: In addition to many congratulations I received last night, several more people e-mailed this morning to compliment me for the event.]
ticket design
My original intent was for people to keep their tickets possibly as a keepsake or memento, but this did not happen in part because of scrambling in the beginning. Not that there was any big danger of anyone showing up with a fake ticket, but I held off until now to display the designs for the tickets until the event was completed.
Front
Back
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