State of Salsa in Cambridge near the end of 2005

December 26, 2005

Within less than 2 years after opening, Club Salsa has become the dominant Salsa venue in Cambridge, and it has the best dancing on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. LA style is becoming dominant at Club Salsa with three groups of instructors teaching mostly LA style classes on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, half to all of the dancers are dancing LA style most of the time. On Fridays, one third to two third of the dancers are dancing predominantly LA style. There is a talk about possibility of another set of instructors starting in 2006 on Sundays at Club Salsa, but no details have been released.

Nelson Batista's Cellar 8 Salsa Sundays (held at Greens at the start of the year) probably attracts the most number of dancers in Cambridge aside from Club Salsa. I have not seen this new venue, but it is supposedly larger than Club Salsa. I have little else to add except that I recall a recent announcement about price reduction for class and/or club presumably in response to free entry being offered by Club Salsa on the same night. Nelson's venue attracts mostly Cuban stylists.

Wolfson College Salsa night on Wednesdays is dominated mostly by Cuban stylists. Because it is a free event (presumably thanks to subsidy from Cambridge University), this venue should stick around for a long time.

Po Na Na, which seemed to have Mondays secure in the beginning of the year took a nosedive in the summer. I had been wondering if they still had Salsa nights because their website stopped advertising Salsa for since the beginning of December, and Latindance in Cambridge website last week announced cancellation of Salsa in Po Na Na.

Probably the biggest shortcoming of Club Salsa is its small size; it feels tiny and cramped even with small number of dancers. A larger venue is probably needed to increase the number of Cambridge Salsa dancers and to push the level of dancing higher. However, it probably will be difficult to start a weekly Salsa event with a much larger event right away - a monthly event may be more feasible with a venue similar in size to Johnny & Serap's Big Salsa Party.

How does the ratio of LA to Cuban style Salsa in Cambridge compare to London? I still need to see more of London, but I now wonder if Cambridge can be considered a Cuban bastion anymore (compared to London) as it clearly was couple of years ago. I had been under the impression that no one in London danced Cuban style anymore because SOS was the only venue I visited. However, my visits to Ealing Town Hall (or Joice's Bar emergency replacement) and Bar Latina (Christmas Eve party) revealed many more Cuban style dancers and very few LA style dancers. Presumably Bar Salsa on Mondays does not attract Cuban style dancers, but it's conceivable that most other London venues have more Cuban style dancers compared to LA style dancers.

On-2 NY style dancers in Cambridge can be counted in one hand - this list includes people who are primarily on-1 dancers who can dance on-2 (but not as well as they can dance on-1) but does not include Sergio, who is currently in the USA. It will be surprising if Cambridge were to see on-2 dancing in a club setting in regular basis in 2006 unless a more concerted effort is made to teach on-2.