First Salsa lesson for me in Cambridge in 5 weeks – also the last Salsa lesson in Cambridge in 2005.

December 22, 2005

1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead (closed hold)
1,2,3,5,6,7 ladies footwork styling opportunity in cross body lead position (firm support with both hands from 3 onwards)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with both hands high (make sure to have follower travel forward on 5 – makes next move much easier?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break on 1 (very slight?) wrap follower going into cross body position with R-L going over follower’s head on 2,3 – get hands all the way down to waist on 5 - then L-R high to turn follower back 3/4 turn clockwise on 6,7 into open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 into open cross body position with L-R toss outwards on 3 to open up follower and then lasso on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader and follower go around each other (both walking counterclockwise) to get back into open cross body position by 3/4 and lasso again with change to L-L near the end of lasso
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower around to reverse cross body position with R hand offered to make R-R connection by 3, then lead 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower with R-R only (it’s possible to skip next 1,2,3,5,6,7 with L-L reconnection)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and reverse cross body into leading 1 1/2 clockwise (?) traveling turn while catching L-L early at follower's waist to have it wrap follower around her back waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 give follower hat with R-R (release afterwards) while getting into cross body lead position and lead follower into unwrapping 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 rotating cross body

ladies footwork styling
1 L foot slide forward and R foot jump/slide backwards (keep R weight on toes)
3 R foot cross over in front of L foot
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot
6,7,8,1 R foot make a circular motion to cross in front of L foot then make another circular motion to step backwards
2 weight on L foot (and back to basic)

Serap showed me a way to lead cross body with free turn using arms only (arm-in-arm). It was interesting but I'm not sure I have it down pat as I was not able to lead it very smoothly with others.

Probably because of the upcoming holidays, club afterwards was on the quiet side and felt like a private party made up of the Salsa team, Johnny & Serap and several others. This actually made for some impressive dancing – especially by Johnny putting on some inspired shows. Despite having accumulated of respectable number (by Cambridge standard) of routines, there are many moves that I see others use (especially Johnny, who probably has more moves than anyone else in Cambridge) that I have not learned. I ended up doing a lot more watching than I have in last several months.

Meanwhile Sally pointed out that I often fail to lead follower forward on 5 on cross body lead with turns (this is seemingly not a problem in reverse cross body lead with turns apparently … what about lasso? … so many questions and so few opportunities to get an answer from someone knowledgeable). In any case, I hope that this will not be too difficult to fix, and I also hope that the process of fixing won’t distract me too much from doing other parts of leading well. I wonder if some of the other people I danced with noticed this failure and found it annoying but decided to ignore it and not tell me about it – this is quite possible as getting a feedback (involving criticism or correction) can be very difficult (or so some people tell me). It may help to have a regular practice partner who would not be afraid to give feedback (easier said than done). In addition, I still need to work on leading a series of dance without getting repetitive. I am getting better about making one dance distinctive. Right now, I usually feel okay about 2 dances with same person on a given night, but the third dance generally leaves me running out of ideas (ideas don’t have to be about learning new moves of course). Until now I have been taking approach of trying to dance with as many people as possible (but not doing a second or third dance until I run out of new people), which certainly had its benefits (in learning to lead people of many different quality/temperament/etc), but I don't think this approach can be used as a fix-all.

I asked Vishal about the dance floor because it has gotten much better recently. Major water damage was caused by flash flooding in September 9. Woodboards of a large part of the upper floor was replaced during the first week of October. Although the main floor still had some warped floorboards, things looked much improved. During the last week of October, Vishal worked on sanding the main floor (10-12 hours) to make the floor even (great idea) and then priming and varnishing (3-4 hours?) the floor (very bad in short term, possibly good long term). It took about 2 weeks for the varnish to dry. Around November 9, floor was polished (2 hours) and double spins became possible. Apparently no other major renovations done to the floor thereafter except for regular maintenance. However, my recollection is that floor conditions changed from day to day after polishing; it was okay on November 9 but it was still on sticky side on the evening of the Bachata workshop. I thought it was still about the same when I got back on December 9, but now it seems much slipperier this week. I still don't understand why conditions change from day to day and week to week.

I think my rehabilitation of recovering from the blog controversy from almost 3 months ago is essentially complete with most people. Perhaps most of these people have been okay with me for a long time now, but it is only now that I feel I can relax. There remain a couple of people I feel the need to win over, so there is still unfinished work.

Next Salsa class in Club Salsa will be held on January 4th with Sally & Ivan substituting for Cristian & Dee. This will be followed by regular Sally & Ivan class on the 5th, followed by Johnny & Serap on the 6th. It should be interesting to see if Ivan had much time to work on his Salsa in Africa.