Mix of old and new faces

December 21, 2005

Club Salsa is a tiny dancing venue, but it still attracts many good (at social level at least) dancers who are getting better all the time. I wouldn’t say the level of dancing at Club Salsa is at same level as SOS in London, but the difference is fairly small and it might be getting smaller. Comparing Club Salsa to Ealing Town Hall (or at least its replacement venue Joice’s Bar last Friday), I would give higher marks to Ealing/Joice’s for the size of the venue (allowing more space for dancing) and total number of dancers, but I think Club Salsa gets slightly higher mark for the overall quality of followers. A caveat to this remark is that Joice’s Bar last Friday might have been unusually poor and may not be representative of Ealing Town Hall Salsa on Fridays, which has a sterling reputation among some in London and which I hoped would have served as a benchmark if and when I write a blurb about Cambridge Salsa scene for Phil at londonsalsa.co.uk.

The floor tonight was on the slippery side - I liked it; I’m guessing that dancing wax was applied to the floor. I did overhear one person saying it was too slippery, but I also observed others taking full advantage of slippery conditions. I am curious if other Salsa venues do to keep their dance floor in good condition aside from normal cleaning. I am also curious about how much work is involved in waxing the floor or how frequently the floor needs to be waxed to keep the floor condition conducive to easy spinning while also being more consistent and predictable at Club Salsa. My best guess is that maintenance is easier when starting with properly treated floor (with right type of varnish, etc?).

[correction: Vishal claims no wax was used. Floor conditions apparently improved after the varnish finally dried and polished.]

Lack of space at Club Salsa can be considered a mixed blessing. This is because once you get good at dancing complex routines in crowded condition at Club Salsa, you will have easy time dancing credibly anywhere else with more breathing room to let loose. I have yet to see any Salsa venue be as jammed packed as it gets at Club Salsa during the heart of Friday night. This reminds me – it might be useful to deliberately check out some of London venues (such as Ronnie Scott’s) with reputation for having no space for dancing. Lack of space tonight (which of course was not as bad as Fridays) did mean that there was very little room for error (caused by hesitation, miscommunication, etc.) when I was trying everything I did at SOS last weekend (which by the way worked with many people – I’m now guessing that most routines taught in London could be led in Cambridge with minimal or no instructions beforehand).

Miscellaneous items. Several faces I hadn’t seen in a long time made an appearance tonight - very nice. Another blog reader confessed to skipping over description of routines. I wonder if anyone reads them - perhaps the soon-to-be-ex-reader-in-Madagascar-and-Mauritius; I doubt it. I certainly am going to miss the novelty of having a regular reader in Africa. The blog reader also seemed intrigued by SOS – I must be one of the biggest advertisements for Club Salsa for Londoners while also being one of the biggest advertisements for SOS among Cambridgeshirers. I talked to Vishal about a possible return engagement for Tony & Claudia and availability of Club Salsa for the encore under same conditions as the first visit. No problem. Vishal also suggested I do not make flyers with a professional printer so that I don’t lose so much money next time around – I of course had no intention of repeating that “mistake” (in quote because I knew that the flier was a mistake in the first place if I cared about not losing money but I made them anyway because I really wanted to). Nelson Batista’s Cellar 8 (which used to be Sophbeck Sessions) venue is apparently larger than Club Salsa – Cellar 8 should be the Cuban Salsa central for Cambridge, so I'm not perfectly comfortable going there but I should check it out nevertheless so that I have firsthand knowledge of Nelson's new venue.