December 31, 2005
An ongoing plague at work involving great number of deaths over last few weeks kept me from getting to the Club Salsa New Year's Eve party until around 11 PM. At this point I'm not sure how many more lives will be lost before it ends - it is inconceivable that all will perish but my best guess will be that 1/3 to 1/2 of all adults will be gone before it all ends.
I don't recall ever having been at a New Year's Eve Party with so many people. Probably my last big New Year's Eve Party was in '97 or '98. I think I liked this year's party better - this felt more festive with better dancing, singing and toasting. Dancing of course is de rigueur at Club Salsa. Singing (karaoke style) is somewhat unusual - I think this was the second time ever at Club Salsa.
I ended up talking a lot more than I am accustomed to with several people tonight on many topics. In a brief exchange, I was asked when my next party will be (answer: probably February for a Tony & Claudia encore). In another I was introduced to a new person as a 'safe dancer', which was amusing because I had used the same phrase to describe couple of dancers in Cambridge several months ago. I have no idea if the word had same meaning both times.
I tried a different approach to dancing (or more accurately selecting dance partners) than the usual approach I take at Club Salsa. I think it worked out pretty well for me; it allowed me to get in rhythm quickly and improvise some untried ideas without too much mayhem. Because of combination of late start, many odd interruptions and a lot of talking, I ended up dancing with only 8 people - a very small number especially considering the nature of the event tonight.
I also became more aware at conscious level of the fact that the way your dance partner responds to your dancing can have a great deal of effect on next. I prefer to dance with someone who looks happy to be dancing with me. It feels great when someone compliments the way I dance. It’s even better when my dance partner appears thrilled by something I just did on the dance floor. People who are generous about showing their pleasure are more likely to be sought out as dance partners because they will seem more approachable. This is applicable to both men and women, and I suspect many people would agree with what I am saying here.
Taking a slightly cynical or gamesman-like approach, one might ask whether it might be useful to “fake” happiness. My take is that faking enjoyment at least to some degree does not hurt even with not-so-good dance or when dancing with a beginner (that beginner may become very good very quickly). Such generosity will leave a positive impression upon your dance partner (and possibly other onlookers). A positive first impression can last a long time, and it is difficult to fix a bad reputation. Also, acting happy could lead to actually being happy. On the other hand, complimenting someone whom you are not interested in dancing with later in the evening is more problematic (some people might consider this a good thing at least until the novelty wears off … if you already established a positive rapport with the other person, a repeat dance (bigger issue for followers than leaders generally) could be declined gently without causing offence … insincere compliment could become problematic in the long run if you are not interested in having at least one dance a night or so with the other person). By the way, it matters little whether you are happy or pleased; the key here is to convey this fact to the other person effectively. I add that a great skill to have is to be able to modulate your level of perceived happiness. Using similar line of reasoning, it's probably not a good idea to criticize or give advice unless you are willing to be not asked again or you have established credibility first AND you are able to give advice or criticism in a very tactful way OR unless you are in immediate danger of getting injured (I hate saying this because it is difficult to correct techniques without proper feedback and because I find it difficult to obtain a useful feedback from my dance partners).
One of the conversations I had tonight became an extended discussion of things I wrote in this blog. It was interesting to discuss various observations I had made and hearing different perspective, interpretation or take of topics I raised in my blog. It also reminded me of a prediction that the blog may become quite influential and the accompanying advice that I should be careful of what I write. At this point, this blog is an open secret - it's not advertised anywhere but it could be found fairly easily if people decided to look for it and its presence has been spread mostly through word-of-mouth. It would seem that at least for some people (and who knows how many there are?) this blog defines me. I guess that is a fact of life for placing things in the internet - it's not difficult to find all sorts of information on people with a little bit of know-how, especially for people with an unusual name.
By the way, I had a great time.
First impressions of Joe Cuba and Cal Tjader
December 30, 2005
Three of the CDs I ordered recently arrived today - The Best of Joe Cuba Sextet, Cal Tjader - The Latin Vibe, and Tito Puente - Rough Guide to Tito Puente. As expected, most of the songs in all of these albums will not work as a Salsa dance track. Here are my quick reactions to each of the albums.
Joe Cuba Sextet - One third into the first CD I am not sure I heard a song that can be played at a Salsa club. Two third into the first CD and after 'El Pito', I'm still not sure. The second CD has many more conventional Salsa tracks.
Cal Tjader - Nearly half of the album is live and everything sounds very jazzy and pretty, but how many of them work as Salsa dance track? Incidentally, this album led me to discover the name Poncho Sanchez.
Tito Puente - As I glanced at the album information on the back of the CD I was thinking, "I didn't realize I was buying an album by the Ramones! Most of the songs are under 3 minutes."
Club Salsa was not crowded but also not deserted either. It bodes well for New Year's Eve Party. I might have had better Bachata practice than I had Salsa practice tonight.
Three of the CDs I ordered recently arrived today - The Best of Joe Cuba Sextet, Cal Tjader - The Latin Vibe, and Tito Puente - Rough Guide to Tito Puente. As expected, most of the songs in all of these albums will not work as a Salsa dance track. Here are my quick reactions to each of the albums.
Joe Cuba Sextet - One third into the first CD I am not sure I heard a song that can be played at a Salsa club. Two third into the first CD and after 'El Pito', I'm still not sure. The second CD has many more conventional Salsa tracks.
Cal Tjader - Nearly half of the album is live and everything sounds very jazzy and pretty, but how many of them work as Salsa dance track? Incidentally, this album led me to discover the name Poncho Sanchez.
Tito Puente - As I glanced at the album information on the back of the CD I was thinking, "I didn't realize I was buying an album by the Ramones! Most of the songs are under 3 minutes."
Club Salsa was not crowded but also not deserted either. It bodes well for New Year's Eve Party. I might have had better Bachata practice than I had Salsa practice tonight.
Building a Salsa library
December 28, 2005
I have been slowly buying more latin music CDs to help improve my dancing and also to get a taste of music outside that being played all the time in Cambridge. While some artists like Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and Celia Cruz are ubiquitous in the Top 100 Salsa CDs in Amazon, finding other more obscure but interesting artists needed some personal recommendations. Some of the CDs were purchased because of recommendations regarding the artist while others were purchased after finding out who did certain songs I liked and some were bought because a particular CD was recommended.
CDs are ordered by date of purchase. Recommendation for or information regarding the artist or CD from someone I know personally are noted within parentheses. Song recommendations from salsanewyork.com (new york) and song or album recommendation from salsavideoreviews.org (neallatino) are indicated when appropriate. Reviews from Amazon readers, Descarga editors and others are given with links. Links to Amazon or other sites with song samples are given when possible. Some links point to vendors offering the item at a good price.
June 2005
Various artists - Salsa Fresca (Vishal)
Amazon, new york (6 songs), neallatino (album)
Sonora Carruseles - Heavy Salsa (Vishal)
Amazon, Descarga, new york (1 song), neallatino (3 songs, album)
Frankie Ruiz - Exitos Eternos (Enrique)
new york (7 songs), neallatino (2 songs)
[note: This is one of many good Frankie Ruiz compilation CDs to choose from.]
Gloria Estefan - Mi Tierra (Po Na Na DJ)
Descarga, Amazon
August 2005
Africando - Baloba (Enrique)
neallatino (1 song, album), Descarga, Amazon
Africando - Mandali (Enrique)
Amazon, Descarga, new york (2 songs),
Eddie Palmieri - The Best of Eddie Palmieri (2 CDs)
new york (2 songs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap. I don't recommend this CD.]
December 2005
Grupo Niche - 20 Exitos Originales (Ignacio)
new york (8 songs)
[note: There are other compilation CDs that may be as good.]
Eddie Palmieri - Ritmo Caliente
Amazon, Descarga
[note: Released after new york and neallatino listings. Not all songs are Salsa.]
Eddie Palmieri - La Perfecta II
Amazon, Descarga
[note: Released after new york and neallatino listings. Not all songs are Salsa.]
N'Klabe - I Love Salsa (Tony Lara)
Released 2005
[note: released after new york and neallatino listings.]
Tito Puente - King of Kings: The Very Best of Tito Puente
Amazon, new york (2 songs), neallatino (1 song)
[note: I think about half of the songs work for Salsa although some songs are well under 3 minutes long. I generally like this album a lot.]
Tito Puente - Oye Como Va: The Dance Collection
Amazon, new york (2 studio recorded songs)
[note: Last 3 songs are recorded live. Otherwise possibly the best Tito Puente Salsa dance CD.]
Joe Cuba Sextet - The Best of Joe Cuba (2 CDs) (Sergio)
neallatino (1 song, album), Amazon (no song samples)
Cal Tjader - The Latin Vibe (2 CDs) (Sergio)
[note: Compilation of songs from Concorde Picante label (Jazz) covering his work from late 70's to early 80's.]
Tito Puente - The Rough Guide to Tito Puente
[note: I wanted studio versions of Ran Kan Kan and Oye Como Va.]
January 2006
Tito Puente - King of Timbales (3 CDs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap.]
Lebron Brothers - Super Hits Vol. 2 (Sergio)
Oscar D'Leon - Las 32 Mas Grandes (2 CDs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap and am already regretting the purchase because of presence of live tracks.]
Orchestra Harlow - Salsa (Sergio)
Descarga, Salsa Musts
Eddie Palmieri - Gold 1973-1976
Descarga, new york (1 song), Salsa musts, Amazon (no samples)
Tito Puente & Eddie Palmieri - Obra Maestra
Descarga, new york (2 songs), Amazon
Toque De Keda - Te Extrano (Bachata - Tony Lara)
Released 2005
[note: Released with different ordering of songs in USA (song samples available).]
Domenic M - Intimamente (Bachata - Tony Lara)
Released 2004
[note: USA site with song samples.]
Tito Puente – Doctor Feelgood (2 CD) This is another Concorde Picante compilation, which covers all but two of the songs in Oye Como Va: The Dance Collection.
Ray Barretto – Salsa Caliente de Nu York –
[note: A compilation CD. Two songs were immediately recognizable – Acid (Sergio used to play this a lot in his classes – it used to drive me nuts because it sounded so different) and Quitate la mascara (covered by Hansel Martinez y La Orquestra Calle Ocho in Salsa Fresca compilation)]
Poncho Sanchez – Baila Baila (2 CD)
[note: Compilation (UK site with errors) CD of a prominent former member (percussion, timbales) of Cal Tjader’s band in the 70’s and 80’s. Concorde Picante label (Jazz).]
Delayed orders - definitely planning on getting these CDs
Lebron Brothers - Super Hits Vol. 1 (Sergio)
new york (1 song)
Orchestra Harlow - The Best of Orchestra Harlow (Sergio)
Descarga
[last updated: January 13, 2006]
I have been slowly buying more latin music CDs to help improve my dancing and also to get a taste of music outside that being played all the time in Cambridge. While some artists like Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and Celia Cruz are ubiquitous in the Top 100 Salsa CDs in Amazon, finding other more obscure but interesting artists needed some personal recommendations. Some of the CDs were purchased because of recommendations regarding the artist while others were purchased after finding out who did certain songs I liked and some were bought because a particular CD was recommended.
CDs are ordered by date of purchase. Recommendation for or information regarding the artist or CD from someone I know personally are noted within parentheses. Song recommendations from salsanewyork.com (new york) and song or album recommendation from salsavideoreviews.org (neallatino) are indicated when appropriate. Reviews from Amazon readers, Descarga editors and others are given with links. Links to Amazon or other sites with song samples are given when possible. Some links point to vendors offering the item at a good price.
June 2005
Various artists - Salsa Fresca (Vishal)
Amazon, new york (6 songs), neallatino (album)
Sonora Carruseles - Heavy Salsa (Vishal)
Amazon, Descarga, new york (1 song), neallatino (3 songs, album)
Frankie Ruiz - Exitos Eternos (Enrique)
new york (7 songs), neallatino (2 songs)
[note: This is one of many good Frankie Ruiz compilation CDs to choose from.]
Gloria Estefan - Mi Tierra (Po Na Na DJ)
Descarga, Amazon
August 2005
Africando - Baloba (Enrique)
neallatino (1 song, album), Descarga, Amazon
Africando - Mandali (Enrique)
Amazon, Descarga, new york (2 songs),
Eddie Palmieri - The Best of Eddie Palmieri (2 CDs)
new york (2 songs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap. I don't recommend this CD.]
December 2005
Grupo Niche - 20 Exitos Originales (Ignacio)
new york (8 songs)
[note: There are other compilation CDs that may be as good.]
Eddie Palmieri - Ritmo Caliente
Amazon, Descarga
[note: Released after new york and neallatino listings. Not all songs are Salsa.]
Eddie Palmieri - La Perfecta II
Amazon, Descarga
[note: Released after new york and neallatino listings. Not all songs are Salsa.]
N'Klabe - I Love Salsa (Tony Lara)
Released 2005
[note: released after new york and neallatino listings.]
Tito Puente - King of Kings: The Very Best of Tito Puente
Amazon, new york (2 songs), neallatino (1 song)
[note: I think about half of the songs work for Salsa although some songs are well under 3 minutes long. I generally like this album a lot.]
Tito Puente - Oye Como Va: The Dance Collection
Amazon, new york (2 studio recorded songs)
[note: Last 3 songs are recorded live. Otherwise possibly the best Tito Puente Salsa dance CD.]
Joe Cuba Sextet - The Best of Joe Cuba (2 CDs) (Sergio)
neallatino (1 song, album), Amazon (no song samples)
Cal Tjader - The Latin Vibe (2 CDs) (Sergio)
[note: Compilation of songs from Concorde Picante label (Jazz) covering his work from late 70's to early 80's.]
Tito Puente - The Rough Guide to Tito Puente
[note: I wanted studio versions of Ran Kan Kan and Oye Como Va.]
January 2006
Tito Puente - King of Timbales (3 CDs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap.]
Lebron Brothers - Super Hits Vol. 2 (Sergio)
Oscar D'Leon - Las 32 Mas Grandes (2 CDs)
[note: I bought this because it was cheap and am already regretting the purchase because of presence of live tracks.]
Orchestra Harlow - Salsa (Sergio)
Descarga, Salsa Musts
Eddie Palmieri - Gold 1973-1976
Descarga, new york (1 song), Salsa musts, Amazon (no samples)
Tito Puente & Eddie Palmieri - Obra Maestra
Descarga, new york (2 songs), Amazon
Toque De Keda - Te Extrano (Bachata - Tony Lara)
Released 2005
[note: Released with different ordering of songs in USA (song samples available).]
Domenic M - Intimamente (Bachata - Tony Lara)
Released 2004
[note: USA site with song samples.]
Tito Puente – Doctor Feelgood (2 CD) This is another Concorde Picante compilation, which covers all but two of the songs in Oye Como Va: The Dance Collection.
Ray Barretto – Salsa Caliente de Nu York –
[note: A compilation CD. Two songs were immediately recognizable – Acid (Sergio used to play this a lot in his classes – it used to drive me nuts because it sounded so different) and Quitate la mascara (covered by Hansel Martinez y La Orquestra Calle Ocho in Salsa Fresca compilation)]
Poncho Sanchez – Baila Baila (2 CD)
[note: Compilation (UK site with errors) CD of a prominent former member (percussion, timbales) of Cal Tjader’s band in the 70’s and 80’s. Concorde Picante label (Jazz).]
Delayed orders - definitely planning on getting these CDs
Lebron Brothers - Super Hits Vol. 1 (Sergio)
new york (1 song)
Orchestra Harlow - The Best of Orchestra Harlow (Sergio)
Descarga
[last updated: January 13, 2006]
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.
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.
Bar Latina - There is a lot more Cuban style Salsa in London than I expected
December 24, 2005
On a last minute whim, I drove through thick fog to Bar Latina in Tottenham (North London) for their Christmas Eve party hosted by the Latin Collective. Bar Latina is a short walk from Tottenham Hotspurs home stadium and seemingly in a less hospitable part of London as I gathered from spying a signpost warning motorists of thefts in the area as I parked my car one street away. The bouncer in front of the bar told me I should have a flier or a printout of an advertisement for this free event, but he eventually let me in without forcing me to pay a £5 entry fee.
I arrived more than 3/4 hours after the start of their lessons - which mattered not one bit as they were doing a very basic Cha Cha Cha lesson. The Cha Cha Cha lesson was a little different from the CDC (Cambridge Dancers Club) version in that men stepped backwards with R foot on 2 rather than stepping forward with L foot on 2. Also, New Yorker was initiated with R foot to L on 2 and a turn from New Yorker was taught with L-R connection left intact and positioned high. I watched the lesson but did not participate. Cha Cha Cha was not played during the rest of the evening.
The setup of the venue was as follows: the main dancing area was a ring surrounding the cavernous bar - although not all parts of the ring was useful as I found many parts of the floor tilted or cracked. A small elevated area in the far right corner (from the entrance) was okay but could only accommodate 3-4 couples and some spots in the far left corner (another 3-4 couples) and some spots step below the aforementioned elevated area in the far right corner (another 6-8 couples) was also not too bad. Middle of a separate back room (sound might have been slightly worse here) several steps above the main floor was also fairly even and could accommodate another 9 couples.
I estimate that 90% of the people were dancing Cuban style Salsa with a small minority of LA stylists occupying the back room. There were some followers who were dancing mainly Cuban who also could follow CBL credibly. So this was almost like a repeat of Joice's Bar (replacement venue for Ealing Town Hall) couple of weeks ago.
Music was pretty standard overplayed Salsa fare early on. I thought things hit rock bottom when a song based on theme to Rocky came on (and started again about 30 seconds later). Unfortunately things got even worse thereafter, especially after a DJ switch, which led to a whole lot of what some may consider shapeless and non-melodious tunes which seemingly drove people from stop dancing.
I had one dance I enjoyed and 2-3 alright dances in the beginning of the evening. This unfortunately was followed by a couple of painful dances (one too stiff and one too fancy) and couple of no's, which put me off from dancing for quite some time (maybe over an hour). This situation was exacerbated by my observation that 90% of the dancing was Cuban and seeing someone who looked like someone I had a bad experience with (meanwhile the music selection became increasingly worse). I seriously contemplated taking a loss and leaving early, but I forced myself for few more dances - one of which went well enough to revitalize me for several more dances (including a request for a non-consecutive encore, which is still somewhat rare for me outside of Cambridge) before they stopped pretending to play Salsa altogether after 2 AM.
There were some LA stylists at Bar Latina but I think I ended up preferring to dance with some of the mainly Cuban followers who could follow CBL tonight. I daresay in general people there appreciated qualities of my lead more than I liked Bar Latina in general - people were generally okay but I didn't think the larger floor was enough of a factor to alleviate unevenness of the floor and the music was often not fun to listen to.
The Latin Collective website is not well-maintained right now. It had no advertisement of tonight's events and also contains a lot of outdated information (e.g. it still lists SuperMario/Susanna Montero Thursday classes at Our Place in its list of classes while failing to mention another class they organize at Bar Latina on Thursdays). I also learned that Scala Latina for January 1st 2006 is cancelled only by looking at a flier left on a table at Bar Latina tonight.
On a last minute whim, I drove through thick fog to Bar Latina in Tottenham (North London) for their Christmas Eve party hosted by the Latin Collective. Bar Latina is a short walk from Tottenham Hotspurs home stadium and seemingly in a less hospitable part of London as I gathered from spying a signpost warning motorists of thefts in the area as I parked my car one street away. The bouncer in front of the bar told me I should have a flier or a printout of an advertisement for this free event, but he eventually let me in without forcing me to pay a £5 entry fee.
I arrived more than 3/4 hours after the start of their lessons - which mattered not one bit as they were doing a very basic Cha Cha Cha lesson. The Cha Cha Cha lesson was a little different from the CDC (Cambridge Dancers Club) version in that men stepped backwards with R foot on 2 rather than stepping forward with L foot on 2. Also, New Yorker was initiated with R foot to L on 2 and a turn from New Yorker was taught with L-R connection left intact and positioned high. I watched the lesson but did not participate. Cha Cha Cha was not played during the rest of the evening.
The setup of the venue was as follows: the main dancing area was a ring surrounding the cavernous bar - although not all parts of the ring was useful as I found many parts of the floor tilted or cracked. A small elevated area in the far right corner (from the entrance) was okay but could only accommodate 3-4 couples and some spots in the far left corner (another 3-4 couples) and some spots step below the aforementioned elevated area in the far right corner (another 6-8 couples) was also not too bad. Middle of a separate back room (sound might have been slightly worse here) several steps above the main floor was also fairly even and could accommodate another 9 couples.
I estimate that 90% of the people were dancing Cuban style Salsa with a small minority of LA stylists occupying the back room. There were some followers who were dancing mainly Cuban who also could follow CBL credibly. So this was almost like a repeat of Joice's Bar (replacement venue for Ealing Town Hall) couple of weeks ago.
Music was pretty standard overplayed Salsa fare early on. I thought things hit rock bottom when a song based on theme to Rocky came on (and started again about 30 seconds later). Unfortunately things got even worse thereafter, especially after a DJ switch, which led to a whole lot of what some may consider shapeless and non-melodious tunes which seemingly drove people from stop dancing.
I had one dance I enjoyed and 2-3 alright dances in the beginning of the evening. This unfortunately was followed by a couple of painful dances (one too stiff and one too fancy) and couple of no's, which put me off from dancing for quite some time (maybe over an hour). This situation was exacerbated by my observation that 90% of the dancing was Cuban and seeing someone who looked like someone I had a bad experience with (meanwhile the music selection became increasingly worse). I seriously contemplated taking a loss and leaving early, but I forced myself for few more dances - one of which went well enough to revitalize me for several more dances (including a request for a non-consecutive encore, which is still somewhat rare for me outside of Cambridge) before they stopped pretending to play Salsa altogether after 2 AM.
There were some LA stylists at Bar Latina but I think I ended up preferring to dance with some of the mainly Cuban followers who could follow CBL tonight. I daresay in general people there appreciated qualities of my lead more than I liked Bar Latina in general - people were generally okay but I didn't think the larger floor was enough of a factor to alleviate unevenness of the floor and the music was often not fun to listen to.
The Latin Collective website is not well-maintained right now. It had no advertisement of tonight's events and also contains a lot of outdated information (e.g. it still lists SuperMario/Susanna Montero Thursday classes at Our Place in its list of classes while failing to mention another class they organize at Bar Latina on Thursdays). I also learned that Scala Latina for January 1st 2006 is cancelled only by looking at a flier left on a table at Bar Latina tonight.
Curry and Salsa do not mix well
December 23, 2005
I think I had too much curry tonight before Salsa dancing. When Tony was in Cambridge for the Bachata workshop, he repeatedly made comment about being able to feel the curry in his stomach throughout the evening. I also consumed curry that evening (in fact twice as much as Tony and Claudia), but it didn't affect me much presumably because the quantity was not large. I felt the curry in my stomach more on the Club Salsa Christmas party earlier this month. Dancing on full stomach is good but it might be better to stuff myself with less complex fare.
Having larger number of male dancers compared to female dancers has to be a unique phenomenon for Cambridgeshire. Tonight was especially bad; there were approximately 20 men and 6-8 women at around 10:30 PM. More people arrived thereafter, but I don't think there was a time when the number of women outnumbered men.
There were at least 4 or 5 songs in which two men were seen dancing humorously together - they did it pretty well. Same-sex Salsa dance is so common in Cambridge that I no longer am surprised when I see one, but it seemed there were more of male-male dancing tonight presumably because of lack of followers. I have only a very limited experience playing the part of the follower - the only occasion being at SOS the other day with Serap leading. Knowing the part of follower no doubt can help to learn how to lead. By the way, I think it might be interesting to have a gender reversal Salsa dance competition. I have observed more than half of male Salsa instructors in Cambridge play the part of follower one time or another, and the other half also probably could do it reasonably well.
I tried do practice some on-2 footwork with mixed results. I think it will take a lot of effort to become proficient on-2. At this point, I still don't understand how dancing on-2 would change the way Salsa is danced dramatically as some people claim.
Practicing to lead follower forward on 5 on cross body lead with turns (see yesterday's post) was not particularly productive because there were very few followers tonight who has learned to follow cross body lead style. Despite the recent explosion of CBL craze in Cambridge, many still are doing Cuban - I think 1/3 of followers tonight were comfortable with CBL, 1/3 were still exclusively Cuban, and 1/3 either did not dance or were incapable of dancing in time to the music. Thus there were very few dances tonight at high level done with good control (then again some people seemed to like what I thought were wildly-out-of-control dances).
I did get some Bachata practice, which was nice. I think some others who attended the workshop were also doing well with it. An encore workshop may work out okay or so I keep telling myself.
I think I had too much curry tonight before Salsa dancing. When Tony was in Cambridge for the Bachata workshop, he repeatedly made comment about being able to feel the curry in his stomach throughout the evening. I also consumed curry that evening (in fact twice as much as Tony and Claudia), but it didn't affect me much presumably because the quantity was not large. I felt the curry in my stomach more on the Club Salsa Christmas party earlier this month. Dancing on full stomach is good but it might be better to stuff myself with less complex fare.
Having larger number of male dancers compared to female dancers has to be a unique phenomenon for Cambridgeshire. Tonight was especially bad; there were approximately 20 men and 6-8 women at around 10:30 PM. More people arrived thereafter, but I don't think there was a time when the number of women outnumbered men.
There were at least 4 or 5 songs in which two men were seen dancing humorously together - they did it pretty well. Same-sex Salsa dance is so common in Cambridge that I no longer am surprised when I see one, but it seemed there were more of male-male dancing tonight presumably because of lack of followers. I have only a very limited experience playing the part of the follower - the only occasion being at SOS the other day with Serap leading. Knowing the part of follower no doubt can help to learn how to lead. By the way, I think it might be interesting to have a gender reversal Salsa dance competition. I have observed more than half of male Salsa instructors in Cambridge play the part of follower one time or another, and the other half also probably could do it reasonably well.
I tried do practice some on-2 footwork with mixed results. I think it will take a lot of effort to become proficient on-2. At this point, I still don't understand how dancing on-2 would change the way Salsa is danced dramatically as some people claim.
Practicing to lead follower forward on 5 on cross body lead with turns (see yesterday's post) was not particularly productive because there were very few followers tonight who has learned to follow cross body lead style. Despite the recent explosion of CBL craze in Cambridge, many still are doing Cuban - I think 1/3 of followers tonight were comfortable with CBL, 1/3 were still exclusively Cuban, and 1/3 either did not dance or were incapable of dancing in time to the music. Thus there were very few dances tonight at high level done with good control (then again some people seemed to like what I thought were wildly-out-of-control dances).
I did get some Bachata practice, which was nice. I think some others who attended the workshop were also doing well with it. An encore workshop may work out okay or so I keep telling myself.
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.
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.
Men are better dancers
December 22, 2005
Copied below are excerpts from a news article (subscription required) in Nature. Most news agencies are focusing on the topic of good dancers being perceived as good mates; I think is an old news, which has been discussed to death among dancers. I personally found another tidbit (ignored by everyone else thus far) - that men are better dancers than women - at least as interesting and perhaps more controversial and worth discussing.
---
Researchers led by William Brown of Rutgers University in New Jersey filmed more than 180 teenagers shaking it down, and converted the films into computer-animated, androgynous dancing figures. When shown the animated dancers, viewers gave higher ratings to dances performed by people who in reality had more symmetrical bodies and were generally more attractive.
The effect was stronger for women watching male dances than for men watching women. And the dances performed by men scored more highly overall than those by women, Brown and his colleagues report in Nature.
"An initial surprise was that males were better dancers than females overall. But in retrospect we should have predicted this," says Brown. Because females generally shoulder a greater burden in reproduction, it is understandable that women should be more choosy when picking a partner, he says. Men might therefore be under more pressure to perform on the dance floor.
A high degree of symmetry, such as having similarly sized ankles and evenly levelled ears, is generally thought to be related to someone's overall genetic quality, because it reflects trouble-free development in the womb. Previous studies have shown that symmetrical people are generally rated as being more attractive.
Dancing may be a way to advertise body symmetry, Brown's team suggests. This might explain why dancing is such a common feature of courtship rituals the world over, and why more symmetrical people are sexier dancers.
That said, it's not clear exactly how the most symmetrical people become adept at dancing, Brown says. Perhaps greater symmetry allows better coordination and thus more dazzling moves. Or maybe more attractive people are simply less likely to be shy when hitting the dance floor, meaning they become more practised at social dancing.
But even when the researchers controlled for self-esteem and facial attractiveness, there was still a strong association between body symmetry and dance ability. So maybe the old adage is true: some people are just born with rhythm.
Copied below are excerpts from a news article (subscription required) in Nature. Most news agencies are focusing on the topic of good dancers being perceived as good mates; I think is an old news, which has been discussed to death among dancers. I personally found another tidbit (ignored by everyone else thus far) - that men are better dancers than women - at least as interesting and perhaps more controversial and worth discussing.
---
Researchers led by William Brown of Rutgers University in New Jersey filmed more than 180 teenagers shaking it down, and converted the films into computer-animated, androgynous dancing figures. When shown the animated dancers, viewers gave higher ratings to dances performed by people who in reality had more symmetrical bodies and were generally more attractive.
The effect was stronger for women watching male dances than for men watching women. And the dances performed by men scored more highly overall than those by women, Brown and his colleagues report in Nature.
"An initial surprise was that males were better dancers than females overall. But in retrospect we should have predicted this," says Brown. Because females generally shoulder a greater burden in reproduction, it is understandable that women should be more choosy when picking a partner, he says. Men might therefore be under more pressure to perform on the dance floor.
A high degree of symmetry, such as having similarly sized ankles and evenly levelled ears, is generally thought to be related to someone's overall genetic quality, because it reflects trouble-free development in the womb. Previous studies have shown that symmetrical people are generally rated as being more attractive.
Dancing may be a way to advertise body symmetry, Brown's team suggests. This might explain why dancing is such a common feature of courtship rituals the world over, and why more symmetrical people are sexier dancers.
That said, it's not clear exactly how the most symmetrical people become adept at dancing, Brown says. Perhaps greater symmetry allows better coordination and thus more dazzling moves. Or maybe more attractive people are simply less likely to be shy when hitting the dance floor, meaning they become more practised at social dancing.
But even when the researchers controlled for self-esteem and facial attractiveness, there was still a strong association between body symmetry and dance ability. So maybe the old adage is true: some people are just born with rhythm.
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.
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.
Delightful SOS 2005 finale with Leon, Tamambo and 9 people from Cambridge
December 18, 2005
More and more people from Cambridge showed up as night went along. Our group was only 3 because we were without Sean, who had a prior commitment. However, we spotted a couple at the door as we were checking in. Another showed up just as the lessons were about to begin. Another couple arrived in the middle of the lesson (so they did not participate in the lessons). Finally another regular arrived well after the lessons as usual. So that made it 5 men and 4 women from Cambridge thus beating the previous best record by 4; there were two other occasions where I saw 5 people total including me from Cambridge.
I’m going to do something a little different because I came up with some sequences of my own, practiced them once or twice with Serap, then used (most of) them throughout the evening. The sequences are not totally new; they are more of a small variation and/or compilation of routines I learned in various classes.
routine 1 (key component is entry into lasso) – level of difficult (pretty easy)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with leader turning 3/4 clockwise on 7 while letting go R-L and switching to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect with L-L for crossed hold with L-L on top while getting into cross body lead and end with full traveling counterclockwise turn for follower to end in Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare on 1,2,3 (usually going down and sometimes with L foot crossing behind R foot for styling effect) and lead follower to stationary 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L high and letting go R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 full pivot clockwise turn for leader on 1,2,3 so that L-L ends up behind leader’s R waist and break connection with back of R hand with 3 counterclockwise rolling motion
1,2,3,5,6,7 walk underneath raised R-L and turn 1/2 clockwise to end in open cross body lead position and lead follower to a wrapping full counterclockwise turn for lasso with R-L kept low (waist level wrap)
1,2,3,5,6,7 walk around follower (while leading follower to do the same) with both rotating around in counterclockwise motion during 1,2,3 to get back into open cross body lead position and lead follower to a R-L at shoulder level for shoulder wrap (optional: another waist level wrap can be done and repeat the sequence instead to make this routine longer)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2,3 and lead follower to 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn on 5,6,7 and get back into open (optional which I didn’t use but could have done easily – rotate with follower as a unit for 1/2 turn counterclockwise to end in open cross body lead position with R-L still on follower’s shoulder followed by traveling full or double clockwise turn for follower)
routine 2 (this is more challenging but I still managed to do it alright few times during the evening – it’s a slight variation of a SOS routine from this summer)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and get behind follower with both hands on follower’s hip during 2,3 and lead follower back on 5,6,7 and leader does a free full counterclockwise turn on 7,8
1,2,3,5,6,7 get both hands on follower’s hips again by 1 and get into cross body lead position and lead follower to a free traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader following behind to get his R hand on follower’s L shoulder on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 standard cross body lead
routine 3 (Serap took a little while to get used to this, which discouraged me from using this tonight – maybe another time … this is also from a SOS routine and I’m not sure if there is a big change from the routine taught except for couple of different possibility for the ending)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with crossed hold with R-R on top
1,2,3 lead follower to Titanic (half clockwise stationary turn for follower)
5,6,7 lead follower back while moving to left to get into cross body lead position with R-R on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start or twist follower slightly clockwise on 1 with leader’s L foot pointing forward along follower’s line
5,6,7 lead follower forward on 5 and then into a half clockwise traveling to end in open position with crossed hold with L-L on top (alternative would be to lead follower forward on 5 and then into a full traveling counterclockwise turn (R-R high) for Titanic)
1,2,3,5,6,7 follow with Copa or a variation of Copa starting from reverse cross body lead position
Now back to SOS. Leon Rose taught level 4, and Tamambo taught level 3 (my class).
SOS partner routine by Tamambo
L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower with L-R high
1,2,3 prepare with L-R (continue moving to R on 1 and then back on 2,3 with R hand showing)
5,6,7 lead follower into double stationary turn for follower with L-R disconnected and R-L high
1,2,3 open break and lead follower forward towards me on 2,3 while moving to follower’s R side and getting hold of follower’s R hip with my L hand and tossing R-L over leader’s head
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling (but not too much) free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn and get hold of follower’s shoulder with R hand by 8 in open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead standard into open position (L-R hold)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2,3 while reconnecting with R-L, which goes over follower’s head
5,6,7 lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-L going down immediately to end with R-L positioned behind follower’s R waist (this worked really/surprisingly well – like magic)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa – move R-L forward on 1 and back on 2,3 so that follower turns around 1/2 counterclockwise to get into open cross body lead position by 4 and lead follower into a traveling free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn on 5,6,7
Tamambo got into quite long explanation about how to lead and follow etc. during partner work. Tamambo asked leaders to lead as if he were moving water and to get timing right for double turn (starting on 4) and try to stabilize follower but otherwise allow followers to provide power for doing her turn. For followers, he stressed importance of keeping her upper arm forward (as opposed to having them point sideways). Towards the end of the class, I had an eye contact with Tamambo, who looked at my leading and nodded seemingly in approval. At the end of the class, he told the class to come find him later if they are interested in moving up to level 4. I had an impression that he might have been talking to me (and possibly some others), but I decided not to approach him at this time.
Shine of the day (Tamambo again)
1,2,3,5,6 basic
7,8,1,2 crazy steps - syncopated (R foot cross over L foot and to L, L foot slightly to R and essentially behind R foot, R foot slightly to R, L foot slightly to R and essentially behind R foot, R foot to L to the first position of crazy steps, L foot slightly to R, R foot slightly to R)
3 L foot forward
5 R foot behind and L of L foot and
6 slide back with R foot while keeping weight on balls of feet (NOT heels!!! – Tamambo stressed this point and it was very useful to use this hint)
7 L foot step in place
8 R foot cross over L foot
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
After one or two dances in which I successfully incorporated new routines including SOS’s and one or two of my own, I decided find a toilet to remove a layer of clothing. On my way back to the club, I ran into Tamambo at the Hotel lobby (more on the explanation of the venue later). There he complimented me on my leading technique and said I led as if I were moving water – which was the metaphor he used for his recommended leading method. Needless to say, I was very pleased to hear such a compliment. I suspect that I was supposed to ask him if I could try level 4, but I chose not to do so. Instead, I told him a story about my first encounter with him, which summarize below (but expanded compared to what I told him – with what I said to Tamambo in bold).
[Flashback]
[In] My first visit to SOS was probably January 16th of this year (2005). As a still rank beginner I took a level II class after being directed to a level I class by Johnny; this by the way was also the first time I saw Johnny & Serap at SOS. I tried to leave immediately after the class and several times thereafter because I was still not very comfortable about partner dancing, and each time Tamambo refused to let me leave at least until I stayed around to dance with people and watch a show scheduled later in the evening. Thanks to his persistence, I did manage to dance with 3-4 times before finally he allowed me leave but only after much protest from me about having to go back to Cambridge and not having had a dinner by that time (around or after 10 PM). I’m not sure if I even watched the show by the way.
[The end of flashback]
Tamambo commented then, “Well… you seem to have really gotten into it [Salsa dancing] since then,” before I thanked him and went back into the dance hall.
[Flashback]
We made really good time getting to SOS tonight; for a change there was no traffic accident slowing traffic on our way to London for Salsa. With extra time in hand, we decided to experiment with our food venue, which was a little disappointing for Johnny & me because of small portions so we resorted to having desserts, etc. While we were waiting for the main meal (Lasagna), I took a quick walk to Mary Ward Hall to see if it was going to be used tonight. I found the doors closed and locked but did not find a sign that referred to an alternate site. As I was about to turn back, a guy who must have been about 10 steps behind me asked me whether I was here for Salsa. He told me that SOS will be at the Hotel again, this time on the North side, which has a larger wood floor compared to the room on the South side. I asked him what the issue with Mary Ward Hall was and when they expected to return to it. His answer was that there were complaints from 3-4 residents across the street (facing the Hall entrance) about the volume of music so that they were working on soundproofing the Hall. This soundproofing work apparently has not started yet but he was thinking that it shouldn’t take long once the work is started. My guess is that because of the holidays, the work may not be completed one or two weeks into 2006. Apparently, no problem exists for the rear side (where they keep a door open with a fan on for cooling purposes) of the hall because all the buildings on the other side are office buildings. While I was having my inquiry answered, a woman came by looking for SOS as well. Because the eatery was on the way to Hotel, I offered to direct her to it and I walked with her past the eatery (because I spotted that our food was not ready yet) and to the North side entrance of the hotel. Our food was not ready when I got back to the eatery, but even with desserts etc. we arrived at SOS at 6:50 PM with a lot of time to spare.
[The end of flashback]
Tonight’s dancing was brilliant. There were two dances with apparent complete beginners, which were unusual by SOS standards, and maybe one dance in which I thought I might have detected slight boredom from my dance partner, but it was really good otherwise. Oh – and there was one dance that lasted 10-20 second – presumably because my partner was feeling very tired and because the song ended 10-20 second into it. I had assumed that we were going to start another one but no. I was really disappointed about this one because I really wanted a nice dance with her – it might have not helped that I was being unenthused about that 10-20 seconds because I knew that there was no time left on that song. Okay but other than those, it was really great – a big contrast from last week and also better than many other recent nights including Club Salsa Christmas party, which I enjoyed greatly. There often was a lot of traveling room especially at the beginning of the song while many people were scrambling to find a partner. I mentioned in the post regarding the last SOS outing that there was only one really enjoyable dance last week; tonight’s dance with the same person was again really nice and was a highlight (and I told her as much). However, there were many highlights tonight. I imagine that my conversation with Tamambo plus me being able to incorporate fair bit of new material helped a great deal.
Top conversation topics in the car –
To London – My blog and SalsaBravo website, in particular about StatCounter and Site Meter. A Salsa party in Peterborough (is this the one being organized by Cristian???). About my selectivity in asking people for dance in Cambridge. Examples of extremely appalling following techniques and poor etiquettes. Private lessons (and possibly as a project).
At the eatery – Why blog or what are the advantages of using a blog?
From London – The performance by Leon & Tamambo (with another guy who was with us part of the walk back to Johnny’s car). Serap being asked by few people for her availability in entering Salsa competitions. Cambridge contingent at SOS tonight. Cambridge Salsa team. Softness/sharpness of leaders and light/heavy touch of followers: Serap says I have a softer lead than Johnny – this means very little because softness or sharpness of lead doesn’t say anything about how good the leader is. However, because I had been making efforts to make my lead softer all the time, I was pleased to hear Serap’s comment. By the way, I don’t have the softest lead in Cambridge; I think there are at least two others with softer lead – Sergio probably has the softest lead of them all.
We left SOS at 10:45 PM. Tamambo again tried to stop me from leaving as I was retrieving my coat – just like last time. I love the symmetry between the first week of SOS this year (second overall – I don’t know for sure if they were closed on Jan 2) and the last week of SOS this year (SOS will be closed on Dec 25 and will reopen on Jan 1). Tonight by the way was the first time I saw (or at least recognized) Leon Rose in person.
More and more people from Cambridge showed up as night went along. Our group was only 3 because we were without Sean, who had a prior commitment. However, we spotted a couple at the door as we were checking in. Another showed up just as the lessons were about to begin. Another couple arrived in the middle of the lesson (so they did not participate in the lessons). Finally another regular arrived well after the lessons as usual. So that made it 5 men and 4 women from Cambridge thus beating the previous best record by 4; there were two other occasions where I saw 5 people total including me from Cambridge.
I’m going to do something a little different because I came up with some sequences of my own, practiced them once or twice with Serap, then used (most of) them throughout the evening. The sequences are not totally new; they are more of a small variation and/or compilation of routines I learned in various classes.
routine 1 (key component is entry into lasso) – level of difficult (pretty easy)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with leader turning 3/4 clockwise on 7 while letting go R-L and switching to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect with L-L for crossed hold with L-L on top while getting into cross body lead and end with full traveling counterclockwise turn for follower to end in Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare on 1,2,3 (usually going down and sometimes with L foot crossing behind R foot for styling effect) and lead follower to stationary 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-L high and letting go R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 full pivot clockwise turn for leader on 1,2,3 so that L-L ends up behind leader’s R waist and break connection with back of R hand with 3 counterclockwise rolling motion
1,2,3,5,6,7 walk underneath raised R-L and turn 1/2 clockwise to end in open cross body lead position and lead follower to a wrapping full counterclockwise turn for lasso with R-L kept low (waist level wrap)
1,2,3,5,6,7 walk around follower (while leading follower to do the same) with both rotating around in counterclockwise motion during 1,2,3 to get back into open cross body lead position and lead follower to a R-L at shoulder level for shoulder wrap (optional: another waist level wrap can be done and repeat the sequence instead to make this routine longer)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare follower on 1,2,3 and lead follower to 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn on 5,6,7 and get back into open (optional which I didn’t use but could have done easily – rotate with follower as a unit for 1/2 turn counterclockwise to end in open cross body lead position with R-L still on follower’s shoulder followed by traveling full or double clockwise turn for follower)
routine 2 (this is more challenging but I still managed to do it alright few times during the evening – it’s a slight variation of a SOS routine from this summer)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and get behind follower with both hands on follower’s hip during 2,3 and lead follower back on 5,6,7 and leader does a free full counterclockwise turn on 7,8
1,2,3,5,6,7 get both hands on follower’s hips again by 1 and get into cross body lead position and lead follower to a free traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader following behind to get his R hand on follower’s L shoulder on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 standard cross body lead
routine 3 (Serap took a little while to get used to this, which discouraged me from using this tonight – maybe another time … this is also from a SOS routine and I’m not sure if there is a big change from the routine taught except for couple of different possibility for the ending)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with crossed hold with R-R on top
1,2,3 lead follower to Titanic (half clockwise stationary turn for follower)
5,6,7 lead follower back while moving to left to get into cross body lead position with R-R on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3 stylized cross body lead start or twist follower slightly clockwise on 1 with leader’s L foot pointing forward along follower’s line
5,6,7 lead follower forward on 5 and then into a half clockwise traveling to end in open position with crossed hold with L-L on top (alternative would be to lead follower forward on 5 and then into a full traveling counterclockwise turn (R-R high) for Titanic)
1,2,3,5,6,7 follow with Copa or a variation of Copa starting from reverse cross body lead position
Now back to SOS. Leon Rose taught level 4, and Tamambo taught level 3 (my class).
SOS partner routine by Tamambo
L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower with L-R high
1,2,3 prepare with L-R (continue moving to R on 1 and then back on 2,3 with R hand showing)
5,6,7 lead follower into double stationary turn for follower with L-R disconnected and R-L high
1,2,3 open break and lead follower forward towards me on 2,3 while moving to follower’s R side and getting hold of follower’s R hip with my L hand and tossing R-L over leader’s head
5,6,7 lead follower to traveling (but not too much) free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn and get hold of follower’s shoulder with R hand by 8 in open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead standard into open position (L-R hold)
1,2,3 open break on 1 and lead follower forward on 2,3 while reconnecting with R-L, which goes over follower’s head
5,6,7 lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-L going down immediately to end with R-L positioned behind follower’s R waist (this worked really/surprisingly well – like magic)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa – move R-L forward on 1 and back on 2,3 so that follower turns around 1/2 counterclockwise to get into open cross body lead position by 4 and lead follower into a traveling free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn on 5,6,7
Tamambo got into quite long explanation about how to lead and follow etc. during partner work. Tamambo asked leaders to lead as if he were moving water and to get timing right for double turn (starting on 4) and try to stabilize follower but otherwise allow followers to provide power for doing her turn. For followers, he stressed importance of keeping her upper arm forward (as opposed to having them point sideways). Towards the end of the class, I had an eye contact with Tamambo, who looked at my leading and nodded seemingly in approval. At the end of the class, he told the class to come find him later if they are interested in moving up to level 4. I had an impression that he might have been talking to me (and possibly some others), but I decided not to approach him at this time.
Shine of the day (Tamambo again)
1,2,3,5,6 basic
7,8,1,2 crazy steps - syncopated (R foot cross over L foot and to L, L foot slightly to R and essentially behind R foot, R foot slightly to R, L foot slightly to R and essentially behind R foot, R foot to L to the first position of crazy steps, L foot slightly to R, R foot slightly to R)
3 L foot forward
5 R foot behind and L of L foot and
6 slide back with R foot while keeping weight on balls of feet (NOT heels!!! – Tamambo stressed this point and it was very useful to use this hint)
7 L foot step in place
8 R foot cross over L foot
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
After one or two dances in which I successfully incorporated new routines including SOS’s and one or two of my own, I decided find a toilet to remove a layer of clothing. On my way back to the club, I ran into Tamambo at the Hotel lobby (more on the explanation of the venue later). There he complimented me on my leading technique and said I led as if I were moving water – which was the metaphor he used for his recommended leading method. Needless to say, I was very pleased to hear such a compliment. I suspect that I was supposed to ask him if I could try level 4, but I chose not to do so. Instead, I told him a story about my first encounter with him, which summarize below (but expanded compared to what I told him – with what I said to Tamambo in bold).
[Flashback]
[In] My first visit to SOS was probably January 16th of this year (2005). As a still rank beginner I took a level II class after being directed to a level I class by Johnny; this by the way was also the first time I saw Johnny & Serap at SOS. I tried to leave immediately after the class and several times thereafter because I was still not very comfortable about partner dancing, and each time Tamambo refused to let me leave at least until I stayed around to dance with people and watch a show scheduled later in the evening. Thanks to his persistence, I did manage to dance with 3-4 times before finally he allowed me leave but only after much protest from me about having to go back to Cambridge and not having had a dinner by that time (around or after 10 PM). I’m not sure if I even watched the show by the way.
[The end of flashback]
Tamambo commented then, “Well… you seem to have really gotten into it [Salsa dancing] since then,” before I thanked him and went back into the dance hall.
[Flashback]
We made really good time getting to SOS tonight; for a change there was no traffic accident slowing traffic on our way to London for Salsa. With extra time in hand, we decided to experiment with our food venue, which was a little disappointing for Johnny & me because of small portions so we resorted to having desserts, etc. While we were waiting for the main meal (Lasagna), I took a quick walk to Mary Ward Hall to see if it was going to be used tonight. I found the doors closed and locked but did not find a sign that referred to an alternate site. As I was about to turn back, a guy who must have been about 10 steps behind me asked me whether I was here for Salsa. He told me that SOS will be at the Hotel again, this time on the North side, which has a larger wood floor compared to the room on the South side. I asked him what the issue with Mary Ward Hall was and when they expected to return to it. His answer was that there were complaints from 3-4 residents across the street (facing the Hall entrance) about the volume of music so that they were working on soundproofing the Hall. This soundproofing work apparently has not started yet but he was thinking that it shouldn’t take long once the work is started. My guess is that because of the holidays, the work may not be completed one or two weeks into 2006. Apparently, no problem exists for the rear side (where they keep a door open with a fan on for cooling purposes) of the hall because all the buildings on the other side are office buildings. While I was having my inquiry answered, a woman came by looking for SOS as well. Because the eatery was on the way to Hotel, I offered to direct her to it and I walked with her past the eatery (because I spotted that our food was not ready yet) and to the North side entrance of the hotel. Our food was not ready when I got back to the eatery, but even with desserts etc. we arrived at SOS at 6:50 PM with a lot of time to spare.
[The end of flashback]
Tonight’s dancing was brilliant. There were two dances with apparent complete beginners, which were unusual by SOS standards, and maybe one dance in which I thought I might have detected slight boredom from my dance partner, but it was really good otherwise. Oh – and there was one dance that lasted 10-20 second – presumably because my partner was feeling very tired and because the song ended 10-20 second into it. I had assumed that we were going to start another one but no. I was really disappointed about this one because I really wanted a nice dance with her – it might have not helped that I was being unenthused about that 10-20 seconds because I knew that there was no time left on that song. Okay but other than those, it was really great – a big contrast from last week and also better than many other recent nights including Club Salsa Christmas party, which I enjoyed greatly. There often was a lot of traveling room especially at the beginning of the song while many people were scrambling to find a partner. I mentioned in the post regarding the last SOS outing that there was only one really enjoyable dance last week; tonight’s dance with the same person was again really nice and was a highlight (and I told her as much). However, there were many highlights tonight. I imagine that my conversation with Tamambo plus me being able to incorporate fair bit of new material helped a great deal.
Top conversation topics in the car –
To London – My blog and SalsaBravo website, in particular about StatCounter and Site Meter. A Salsa party in Peterborough (is this the one being organized by Cristian???). About my selectivity in asking people for dance in Cambridge. Examples of extremely appalling following techniques and poor etiquettes. Private lessons (and possibly as a project).
At the eatery – Why blog or what are the advantages of using a blog?
From London – The performance by Leon & Tamambo (with another guy who was with us part of the walk back to Johnny’s car). Serap being asked by few people for her availability in entering Salsa competitions. Cambridge contingent at SOS tonight. Cambridge Salsa team. Softness/sharpness of leaders and light/heavy touch of followers: Serap says I have a softer lead than Johnny – this means very little because softness or sharpness of lead doesn’t say anything about how good the leader is. However, because I had been making efforts to make my lead softer all the time, I was pleased to hear Serap’s comment. By the way, I don’t have the softest lead in Cambridge; I think there are at least two others with softer lead – Sergio probably has the softest lead of them all.
We left SOS at 10:45 PM. Tamambo again tried to stop me from leaving as I was retrieving my coat – just like last time. I love the symmetry between the first week of SOS this year (second overall – I don’t know for sure if they were closed on Jan 2) and the last week of SOS this year (SOS will be closed on Dec 25 and will reopen on Jan 1). Tonight by the way was the first time I saw (or at least recognized) Leon Rose in person.
Ringers from Cambridge at Ealing Town Hall ... err Joice's Bar
December 16, 2005
There were two candidates for our London outing; Bar Rez and Ealing Town Hall. From what I read in the Salsa Mafia forum (which has been down for a long time and may be going defunct) and London Salsa website, I was leaning towards Ealing Town Hall. Because Johnny had enjoyed some Mambocity Saturday events, Johnny & Serap also favored Ealing Town Hall. Sean was okay with either venue; both offered novelty value. It probably didn't help Bar Rez that their club probably would not have started until nearly 11 PM as they had classes starting at 9:45 PM.
Route taken was M11 to A406 (North Circular) to Uxbridge Road. Traffic was mild for the most part (we didn't have delays at M11/A11 junction for a change!) except for a stretch of A406 from High Green Road to Bounds Green Road, which was extremely slow. From the way the road was laid out, that short segment will always be a trouble spot. It might be better to take M25 and A1 to avoid that spot even though M25 also has poor reputation.
It took us a little over 1.5 hours but under 2 hours to get to Uxbridge Road after hitting M11, which left us with about 30 minutes for a meal. We chose Pizza Hut located across the Town Hall for a quick meal, and I was feeling pretty good about how the journey was managed when we entered the Ealing Town Hall at 8:35 PM.
Unfortunately, we found out that there was a problem with the hall and that the venue was moved to another location called Joice's Bar about 5-10 min drive away. There were other stranded visitors who were in similar predicament except without a car. We would have offered them a ride except it would have been impossible to fit six people into Johnny's car. Later, I looked at the underground map and saw that going from Ealing Town Hall to Joice's Bar would have involved going to a tube stop 3 stations away and involving a change of train (going from Ealing Broadway to Park Royal).
We arrived at Joice's Bar shortly before 9 PM to find there being only two Salsa classes (beginner and intermediate but no advanced) and a Bachata class (by Tony & Claudia). After watching the intermediate Salsa (which looked pretty simple - not more difficult than second most difficult lessons offered by any of the Club Salsa teachers), Serap, Sean and I opted for Bachata, which had some new elements compared to the Tony & Claudia's Cambridge Bachata class while Johnny sat out altogether for the lessons.
Side turn into wrap and out
1,2,3,4 travel to left basic
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn ~3/4 counterclockwise with L-R high and R-L low to end in wrap - R-L ends on follower's R waist while L-R is kept at shoulder level fair distance away toward follower's left
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn ~1/2 clockwise keeping connection at same heigh and ending with another wrap with L-R on follower's L shoulder and R-L at waist level fair distance away towards follower's right
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn ~1/2 counterclockwise to get back to same position as before
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn ~3/4 clockwise with L-R raised to unwrap
5,6,7,8 travel to right basic
Side turn into shoulder wrap and wrapped basic
1,2,3,4 travel to left basic
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn full counterclockwise with L-R starting low and ending on follower's R shoulder and L-R placed behind follower's back waist (requires turn of wrist)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn full clockwise to unwrap
5,6,7,8 travel to right basic is one option ... another is to get both hands on follower's shoulders to close in
Syncopated basic (requires a little more room compared to plain side-to-side basic)
1 L to L
2 R close
3 L to L
4 R cross behind L and quick L step slightly forward R
5 R to R
6 L close
7 R to R
8 L cross behind R and quick R step slightly forward L
Because of simulateous Salsa and Bachata lessons, there were couple of breaks in the Bachata lesson for free-style Salsa. During one of these dances, my follower at the time said to me, "No one here dances like you do," which seemed like a positive comment and a compliment but also slightly worrying nevertheless.
After the lessons, the organizers decided to get the women in the venue to follow Claudia for a Reggaeton demonstration with the winner getting a Tony & Claudia Bachata DVD. Serap decided to join in, and after watching the demonstration for a few minutes I turned to Johnny and asked, "I don't suppose you bought Tony's DVD last month by any chance?" Johnny replied, "No." Lo and behold - Serap won the DVD (and a Bachata CD?).
After 2-3 dances, I was beginning to wonder if having the four of us from Cambridge helped to raise the bar in Salsa dancing at this place. By and large the followers here were no better than in Cambridge. I was also getting enough declines for dance early on, which happens often in Cambridge also. There were a lot of complete beginners who opted to stay out of the dance floor. Most (but not all) people were quite friendly. Even the follower who acted most bored of them all was not so bad as the memorably haughty follower I danced with last weekend at SOS. Then again, I also had one follower who seemed incapable of dancing to the timing of the music even with much effort from me. The middle segment of the evening was getting so bad that I resorted to asking a familar face - Claudia - for a dance to get my bearings straight. This helped, but it also meant this dance was far from ideal and that I missed out on havnig a really enjoyable dance with a super follower. I think that this sacrifice (followed by a second therapeutic dance with Serap) did get me back on right footing and made the last hour reasonably enjoyable. Positive statements from Serap regarding my traveling maneuvers also helped to loosen me up. Having second or even third dance with followers I liked helped, and a lot of space opening up during the last hour really helped. It would have been nice to get a second dance with Claudia but I failed to do so as I lost track of time.
It was nice to catch up with Tony & Claudia again. I think he was pleased to see me and others from Cambridge here tonight. Tony mentioned that he has a show Saturday night and a class at Club Havana on Sunday, and we talked couple of times about possibility of a return tour stop at Cambridge in February. He seemed quite interested in doing another Monday class in Cambridge and told me that he'll get in touch with me in January; I suspect that he enjoyed his Cambridge experience. I'll have to talk to Vishal and others about it to see if there's sufficient interest. I don't think I want to lose a lot of money again so I'll have to keep my expenses down if I were to organize another Tony & Claudia workshop.
We talked about tonight's venue on the way back. Serap enjoyed many of the dances. Sean enjoyed it as well - although he found himself reverting to Cuban style a lot presumably because many dancers here were dancing more Cuban rather than LA. Johnny was not impressed with the dancers tonight. Same for me; the level of dancing was no better than in Cambridge although it was nice to have more space. I told Johnny my earlier thought about the four of us from Cambridge raising the standard of dancing tonight, and Johnny replied, "Maybe Cambridge will get a revenge on London. London Salsa dancers used to travel to provincial cities to compete in and win Salsa contests. Maybe people in Cambridge will start traveling to London to win the contests in London." This will need a lot more effort from people in Cambridge but it didn't seem completely ridiculous tonight. I didn't think it was worth coming back with the caveat that this event was held in a emergency backup venue; Tony told me that Ealing Town Hall is much nicer also. Because we saw some dancers we recognized from SOS, maybe we can find out from them how tonight compares to usual night at Ealing Town Hall on Fridays.
By the way, the floor was about half the size of Mary Ward Hall and capabable of accommodating well over 25 couples. Floor quality was okay - marginally better than Club Salsa in its present condition. I found a lot of purple wax-like stuck to my soles at the end of the evening.
A big part of the conversation on the way back was about history of Cambridge Salsa as remembered by Johnny. Johnny must have been in Cambridge by 2001 in the early days of Cambridge Rueda. Johnny helped in organizing Rueda weekly classes with Steve Reid, which typically included apparently only 4 regular students - Johnny, Peter, Rhona, and Helen. Also by 2001 or so, many of the best recognized Salsa teachers and dancers currently in Cambridge were already established as being very good or showing promise. Teaching venues included St. Columba's and the Catholic Church. Apparently the Catholic Church has been a launching pad for many things, including Cambridge Rueda (see their history section) and Ivan's classes. More recently, there was an attempt to start an on-2 class using the Catholic Church. Other snippets included Sally inviting Susanna Montero to Cambridge few years ago, Special Tee coming to Po Na Na earlier this year - around February (I have a vague recollection of seeing someone like him in the context Johnny's description - this episode must have been instrumental in how my opinion about good-looking Salsa dancing came about), and the identity of the anonymous person who left the comment about Special Tee; maybe we'll meet at SOS one of these days.
There were two candidates for our London outing; Bar Rez and Ealing Town Hall. From what I read in the Salsa Mafia forum (which has been down for a long time and may be going defunct) and London Salsa website, I was leaning towards Ealing Town Hall. Because Johnny had enjoyed some Mambocity Saturday events, Johnny & Serap also favored Ealing Town Hall. Sean was okay with either venue; both offered novelty value. It probably didn't help Bar Rez that their club probably would not have started until nearly 11 PM as they had classes starting at 9:45 PM.
Route taken was M11 to A406 (North Circular) to Uxbridge Road. Traffic was mild for the most part (we didn't have delays at M11/A11 junction for a change!) except for a stretch of A406 from High Green Road to Bounds Green Road, which was extremely slow. From the way the road was laid out, that short segment will always be a trouble spot. It might be better to take M25 and A1 to avoid that spot even though M25 also has poor reputation.
It took us a little over 1.5 hours but under 2 hours to get to Uxbridge Road after hitting M11, which left us with about 30 minutes for a meal. We chose Pizza Hut located across the Town Hall for a quick meal, and I was feeling pretty good about how the journey was managed when we entered the Ealing Town Hall at 8:35 PM.
Unfortunately, we found out that there was a problem with the hall and that the venue was moved to another location called Joice's Bar about 5-10 min drive away. There were other stranded visitors who were in similar predicament except without a car. We would have offered them a ride except it would have been impossible to fit six people into Johnny's car. Later, I looked at the underground map and saw that going from Ealing Town Hall to Joice's Bar would have involved going to a tube stop 3 stations away and involving a change of train (going from Ealing Broadway to Park Royal).
We arrived at Joice's Bar shortly before 9 PM to find there being only two Salsa classes (beginner and intermediate but no advanced) and a Bachata class (by Tony & Claudia). After watching the intermediate Salsa (which looked pretty simple - not more difficult than second most difficult lessons offered by any of the Club Salsa teachers), Serap, Sean and I opted for Bachata, which had some new elements compared to the Tony & Claudia's Cambridge Bachata class while Johnny sat out altogether for the lessons.
Side turn into wrap and out
1,2,3,4 travel to left basic
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn ~3/4 counterclockwise with L-R high and R-L low to end in wrap - R-L ends on follower's R waist while L-R is kept at shoulder level fair distance away toward follower's left
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn ~1/2 clockwise keeping connection at same heigh and ending with another wrap with L-R on follower's L shoulder and R-L at waist level fair distance away towards follower's right
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn ~1/2 counterclockwise to get back to same position as before
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn ~3/4 clockwise with L-R raised to unwrap
5,6,7,8 travel to right basic
Side turn into shoulder wrap and wrapped basic
1,2,3,4 travel to left basic
5,6,7,8 lead follower to travel and turn full counterclockwise with L-R starting low and ending on follower's R shoulder and L-R placed behind follower's back waist (requires turn of wrist)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side
1,2,3,4 lead follower to travel and turn full clockwise to unwrap
5,6,7,8 travel to right basic is one option ... another is to get both hands on follower's shoulders to close in
Syncopated basic (requires a little more room compared to plain side-to-side basic)
1 L to L
2 R close
3 L to L
4 R cross behind L and quick L step slightly forward R
5 R to R
6 L close
7 R to R
8 L cross behind R and quick R step slightly forward L
Because of simulateous Salsa and Bachata lessons, there were couple of breaks in the Bachata lesson for free-style Salsa. During one of these dances, my follower at the time said to me, "No one here dances like you do," which seemed like a positive comment and a compliment but also slightly worrying nevertheless.
After the lessons, the organizers decided to get the women in the venue to follow Claudia for a Reggaeton demonstration with the winner getting a Tony & Claudia Bachata DVD. Serap decided to join in, and after watching the demonstration for a few minutes I turned to Johnny and asked, "I don't suppose you bought Tony's DVD last month by any chance?" Johnny replied, "No." Lo and behold - Serap won the DVD (and a Bachata CD?).
After 2-3 dances, I was beginning to wonder if having the four of us from Cambridge helped to raise the bar in Salsa dancing at this place. By and large the followers here were no better than in Cambridge. I was also getting enough declines for dance early on, which happens often in Cambridge also. There were a lot of complete beginners who opted to stay out of the dance floor. Most (but not all) people were quite friendly. Even the follower who acted most bored of them all was not so bad as the memorably haughty follower I danced with last weekend at SOS. Then again, I also had one follower who seemed incapable of dancing to the timing of the music even with much effort from me. The middle segment of the evening was getting so bad that I resorted to asking a familar face - Claudia - for a dance to get my bearings straight. This helped, but it also meant this dance was far from ideal and that I missed out on havnig a really enjoyable dance with a super follower. I think that this sacrifice (followed by a second therapeutic dance with Serap) did get me back on right footing and made the last hour reasonably enjoyable. Positive statements from Serap regarding my traveling maneuvers also helped to loosen me up. Having second or even third dance with followers I liked helped, and a lot of space opening up during the last hour really helped. It would have been nice to get a second dance with Claudia but I failed to do so as I lost track of time.
It was nice to catch up with Tony & Claudia again. I think he was pleased to see me and others from Cambridge here tonight. Tony mentioned that he has a show Saturday night and a class at Club Havana on Sunday, and we talked couple of times about possibility of a return tour stop at Cambridge in February. He seemed quite interested in doing another Monday class in Cambridge and told me that he'll get in touch with me in January; I suspect that he enjoyed his Cambridge experience. I'll have to talk to Vishal and others about it to see if there's sufficient interest. I don't think I want to lose a lot of money again so I'll have to keep my expenses down if I were to organize another Tony & Claudia workshop.
We talked about tonight's venue on the way back. Serap enjoyed many of the dances. Sean enjoyed it as well - although he found himself reverting to Cuban style a lot presumably because many dancers here were dancing more Cuban rather than LA. Johnny was not impressed with the dancers tonight. Same for me; the level of dancing was no better than in Cambridge although it was nice to have more space. I told Johnny my earlier thought about the four of us from Cambridge raising the standard of dancing tonight, and Johnny replied, "Maybe Cambridge will get a revenge on London. London Salsa dancers used to travel to provincial cities to compete in and win Salsa contests. Maybe people in Cambridge will start traveling to London to win the contests in London." This will need a lot more effort from people in Cambridge but it didn't seem completely ridiculous tonight. I didn't think it was worth coming back with the caveat that this event was held in a emergency backup venue; Tony told me that Ealing Town Hall is much nicer also. Because we saw some dancers we recognized from SOS, maybe we can find out from them how tonight compares to usual night at Ealing Town Hall on Fridays.
By the way, the floor was about half the size of Mary Ward Hall and capabable of accommodating well over 25 couples. Floor quality was okay - marginally better than Club Salsa in its present condition. I found a lot of purple wax-like stuck to my soles at the end of the evening.
A big part of the conversation on the way back was about history of Cambridge Salsa as remembered by Johnny. Johnny must have been in Cambridge by 2001 in the early days of Cambridge Rueda. Johnny helped in organizing Rueda weekly classes with Steve Reid, which typically included apparently only 4 regular students - Johnny, Peter, Rhona, and Helen. Also by 2001 or so, many of the best recognized Salsa teachers and dancers currently in Cambridge were already established as being very good or showing promise. Teaching venues included St. Columba's and the Catholic Church. Apparently the Catholic Church has been a launching pad for many things, including Cambridge Rueda (see their history section) and Ivan's classes. More recently, there was an attempt to start an on-2 class using the Catholic Church. Other snippets included Sally inviting Susanna Montero to Cambridge few years ago, Special Tee coming to Po Na Na earlier this year - around February (I have a vague recollection of seeing someone like him in the context Johnny's description - this episode must have been instrumental in how my opinion about good-looking Salsa dancing came about), and the identity of the anonymous person who left the comment about Special Tee; maybe we'll meet at SOS one of these days.
Transportation fiascoes in getting to and out of London
December 15, 2005
7:40 AM - I wake up after about 5-6 hours of sleep. I'm still getting used to changing time zones.
8:30 AM - I leave for MOT test.
8:45 AM - I start my walk back - I choose to go home first because it was a little colder than I expected.
9:45 AM - After a quick change of clothes, I get on my bicycle to head for the rail station.
10:15 AM - I arrive at rail station and miss the train by 1-2 min. I had not been able to find my Network Rail Pass, which was going to expire soon anyway. I stop at a photo booth for a photo card; I learn later that this was unnecessary if I'm not purchasing a weekly (or longer) rail pass. No matter. I purchase a rail pass and a cheap day return ticket to London with underground access.
11:45 AM - I arrive at Kings Cross.
12:00 AM - I emerge from Oxford Circus underground station.
12:50 PM - I arrive at Henry Holland Pub near Bond Street station after wandering around Oxford street looking for a suitable gift. I meet with a large group of people from work.
1:00 PM - A long lunch (dim sum) starts.
3:45 PM - Lunch ends.
4:00 PM - A pub stop near Oxford Circus station.
5:15 PM - At Oxford Circus station, I discover that I lost my rail tickets. I get separated from my group.
6:15 PM - After a short stop at the pub and restaurant, I give up my search for my tickets and take the underground from Baker Street.
6:30 PM - I rejoin my group at the London Eye after getting off at Waterloo station.
7:15 PM - After several unsuccessful attempt at finding a pub or bar that can seat a group of over a dozen near Embankment and Charing Cross, we end up inside a crowded pub with a alarm going off outside the pub. Here I find that severe train delays (and replacement buses) have been scheduled after 9:15 PM. Best possible option for returning to Cambridge may involve taking a 9:58 PM train from Liverpool Street. I don't think I could handle 2-3 hour train/bus ride back to Cambridge late in the evening followed by an hour walk to pick up my car from MOT testing Friday morning.
This train schedule change essentially rules out going to Bar Salsa because their club does not start until 9:30 PM. Second option is to go to Little Tree, look at their lesson for last 10 min or so, and then check out the club for 1 to 1.5 hours before returning to Cambridge.
7:55 PM - I arrive at Litten Tree (near Old Street station). Classes and club are cancelled because of the holidays. The pub is cavernous, but the dance floor is fairly small and has a large column near the middle of the floor. I estimate that the main elevated wood floor could accommodate about 12-15 couples. Overall, I wasn't impressed - but maybe I would think differently with dancers present.
8:15 PM - I arrive at Kings Cross. I purchase a replacement network rail pass and a ticket back to Cambridge from a not-very-friendly and unsympathetic cashier. By the way, one-way ticket to Cambridge cost more than cheap day return from Cambridge with underground access.
10:00 PM - I arrive at Cambridge rail station.
10:05 PM - I stop at Club Salsa for a short and not-intensive night of dancing after a hectic, tiring and largely irritating day. I was informed that I missed a nice routine at the class.
7:40 AM - I wake up after about 5-6 hours of sleep. I'm still getting used to changing time zones.
8:30 AM - I leave for MOT test.
8:45 AM - I start my walk back - I choose to go home first because it was a little colder than I expected.
9:45 AM - After a quick change of clothes, I get on my bicycle to head for the rail station.
10:15 AM - I arrive at rail station and miss the train by 1-2 min. I had not been able to find my Network Rail Pass, which was going to expire soon anyway. I stop at a photo booth for a photo card; I learn later that this was unnecessary if I'm not purchasing a weekly (or longer) rail pass. No matter. I purchase a rail pass and a cheap day return ticket to London with underground access.
11:45 AM - I arrive at Kings Cross.
12:00 AM - I emerge from Oxford Circus underground station.
12:50 PM - I arrive at Henry Holland Pub near Bond Street station after wandering around Oxford street looking for a suitable gift. I meet with a large group of people from work.
1:00 PM - A long lunch (dim sum) starts.
3:45 PM - Lunch ends.
4:00 PM - A pub stop near Oxford Circus station.
5:15 PM - At Oxford Circus station, I discover that I lost my rail tickets. I get separated from my group.
6:15 PM - After a short stop at the pub and restaurant, I give up my search for my tickets and take the underground from Baker Street.
6:30 PM - I rejoin my group at the London Eye after getting off at Waterloo station.
7:15 PM - After several unsuccessful attempt at finding a pub or bar that can seat a group of over a dozen near Embankment and Charing Cross, we end up inside a crowded pub with a alarm going off outside the pub. Here I find that severe train delays (and replacement buses) have been scheduled after 9:15 PM. Best possible option for returning to Cambridge may involve taking a 9:58 PM train from Liverpool Street. I don't think I could handle 2-3 hour train/bus ride back to Cambridge late in the evening followed by an hour walk to pick up my car from MOT testing Friday morning.
This train schedule change essentially rules out going to Bar Salsa because their club does not start until 9:30 PM. Second option is to go to Little Tree, look at their lesson for last 10 min or so, and then check out the club for 1 to 1.5 hours before returning to Cambridge.
7:55 PM - I arrive at Litten Tree (near Old Street station). Classes and club are cancelled because of the holidays. The pub is cavernous, but the dance floor is fairly small and has a large column near the middle of the floor. I estimate that the main elevated wood floor could accommodate about 12-15 couples. Overall, I wasn't impressed - but maybe I would think differently with dancers present.
8:15 PM - I arrive at Kings Cross. I purchase a replacement network rail pass and a ticket back to Cambridge from a not-very-friendly and unsympathetic cashier. By the way, one-way ticket to Cambridge cost more than cheap day return from Cambridge with underground access.
10:00 PM - I arrive at Cambridge rail station.
10:05 PM - I stop at Club Salsa for a short and not-intensive night of dancing after a hectic, tiring and largely irritating day. I was informed that I missed a nice routine at the class.
London London London...
December 14, 2005
It looks like I'm going to be in London all day Thursday. I might as well try one of the London Salsa clubs while I'm there. Top three candidates are in order Bar Salsa (home of SuperMario & Susanna Montero... alas only on Mondays), The Litten Tree (with Manhattan Mambo... alas not on-2 on Thursdays) and Tito's Latin Club (seemingly the only other convenient spot with club hours) mainly because they are within easy traveling distance from Kings Cross via underground.
Meanwhile, if we go to Ealing Town Hall on Friday (seems increasingly likely), we'll run in to Tony & Claudia. What an amusing coincidence!
It looks like I'm going to be in London all day Thursday. I might as well try one of the London Salsa clubs while I'm there. Top three candidates are in order Bar Salsa (home of SuperMario & Susanna Montero... alas only on Mondays), The Litten Tree (with Manhattan Mambo... alas not on-2 on Thursdays) and Tito's Latin Club (seemingly the only other convenient spot with club hours) mainly because they are within easy traveling distance from Kings Cross via underground.
Meanwhile, if we go to Ealing Town Hall on Friday (seems increasingly likely), we'll run in to Tony & Claudia. What an amusing coincidence!
Recovering from SOS at Club Salsa
December 14, 2005
Time of arrival at Club Salsa - a little after 10 PM with Rome serving as a main distraction. I'm sucker for historical drama and BBC keeps coming up with one after another. Earlier this year it was Space Race with focus on rocket scientists, now it's Rome with emphasis on peripheral characters - this new show's portrayal of Octavius (later Augustus) is brilliant and inspired. Almost as good is how Mark Antony is depicted. Polly Walker (playing Atia) delivers great lines episode after episode.
Overall it was a pretty good night.
Funniest thought (complaint) of early in the evening - "This is like SOS all over again!"
Above line came to my head early in the evening after several dances, in which I found my partners a bit stiff and heavy to lead. I'm spoiled by followers with light touches, such as Claudia and several other to be left unnamed. Later on, there were nicer dances too but also a whole lot of declined dances. Have I mentioned that there are not many competent followers in Cambridge who do not get enough dances to suit them?
Time of arrival at Club Salsa - a little after 10 PM with Rome serving as a main distraction. I'm sucker for historical drama and BBC keeps coming up with one after another. Earlier this year it was Space Race with focus on rocket scientists, now it's Rome with emphasis on peripheral characters - this new show's portrayal of Octavius (later Augustus) is brilliant and inspired. Almost as good is how Mark Antony is depicted. Polly Walker (playing Atia) delivers great lines episode after episode.
Overall it was a pretty good night.
Funniest thought (complaint) of early in the evening - "This is like SOS all over again!"
Above line came to my head early in the evening after several dances, in which I found my partners a bit stiff and heavy to lead. I'm spoiled by followers with light touches, such as Claudia and several other to be left unnamed. Later on, there were nicer dances too but also a whole lot of declined dances. Have I mentioned that there are not many competent followers in Cambridge who do not get enough dances to suit them?
A poor SOS outing for me – Special Tee and other topics and rants
December 11, 2005
Driving to SOS is getting Traffic in general has been generally bad especially between exit 9 and exit 8 when we drive SOS, but it seems to be getting worse every time. There was yet another accident in M11 – there was an accident last time I tried to go to SOS also. Driving conditions are getting worse with windowpanes getting fogged up. It seems impossible to keep a comfortable temperature in the car with four people riding in the car in winter. I don’t know what is the best solution – use A/C powered defogger or use heated defogger with windows slightly open; all other options tried thus far resulted in dangerous driving conditions. I also missed one of my exits thus causing additional delay, which made us miss the shine portion of the class once again.
The topic of conversation during the drive to SOS that interested me most was about a Salsa instructor in London who calls himself Special Tee. I had first heard of Special Tee around June in Cambridge. Since then, I had made some minor efforts to find out more information about this instructor with almost zero success. I found no advertising about his classes in the web, and the only reference of him I found early on might have been from Edie the Salsa Freak, who in passing mentioned him within context of one of her visits to London [note added later: I can't even find this reference anymore, and there are a little more things you can find about Special Tee now using Google or MSN search.]. When londonsalsa.co.uk came into existence with its extensive listing of classes, teachers and promoters, I again tried finding Special Tee again without success (I don’t think I was very thorough in this search by this time though). Also about this time, I saw another mention of Special Tee in about of how he refused to teach someone who was posting on the Salsa Mafia forum (down at the moment). At that time, because of the topic of the discussion (learning to dance on time), I led myself to believe that Special Tee refused to teach this poster how to dance on time, which I found patently ridiculous and which made me wonder if he was a very good teacher. By contrast, a recent post in londonsalsa.co.uk names Special Tee (along with Manhanttan Mambo) as the only worthwhile teacher for on-2 dancing in London. So for some time, Special Tee has been a man of mystery for me. Anyhow, our talk about dancing on-2 led to Johnny talking about Special Tee, which explained why I had such difficulty. Apparently, Special Tee’s classes are by invitation only. Someone has to recommend you to Special Tee in order for a prospective student to have a chance of learning from him. Once you start taking his classes, it is badly frowned upon if you miss classes. So his classes are a bit like a secret society with strict regimen – a cult within the cult of Salsa. If his classes are by invitation only, there is absolutely no reason why his classes would be advertised even in generally for-everyone website like londonsalsa.co.uk. I can’t imagine that Special Tee is a better teacher for on-2 compared to New Yorkers like Eddie Torres, Nelson Flores or Frankie Martinez, but I would imagine that there should be pretty strict quality control in his classes. While I find it satisfying that a longstanding mystery has been solved, and I also find the whole thing both amusing and absurd.
Quickly with the lesson of the day...
closed hold (started with 2 basics)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to stationary double turn (clockwise) and switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead and lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 disconnect R-R with outside of L hand/wrist – roll it around (counterclockwise) during 2,3 and flick on 5 as leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise – reconnect R-R at leader’s R waist – leader is facing away from follower on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break on 1, R-R goes over follower’s head as follower is pulled forward and L-L connection is made in front on 2,3 and lead follower to full counterclockwise turn with both connections intact with R-R high and L-L low (so L-L ends up across followers front R waist) – follower is facing away from leader on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (forward L step on 1 for leader) and back so that follower is facing leader by 3 and lead follower to a stationary clockwise double turn with all connections high and intact throughout – R-R after the first turn makes a thrusting-like motion and leader turns counterclockwise (1/2) during follower’s last turn – open reverse cross body position on 8 with crossed hold with L-L on top
1,2,3 open break and bring follower forward into Titanic
5,6,7 bring follower back to leader’s R side with R-R on her shoulder – open cross body position on 8
1,2,3 twist on 1 and back on 3 (essentially stylized start of cross body lead)
5,6,7 bring follower forward on 5 and turn follower 1/2 clockwise into open (crossed hold) position
1,2,3 flick L-L (counterclockwise motion) and leader turns 1/2 clockwise and reconnect R-L by leader’s R waist in open cross body position
5,6,7 lead follower to a free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn ending with a dip
I’m now finding the level III routine in SOS to be very easy to pick up. Practicing is somewhat more difficult because most people in the class seem to find the material very difficult. I’m getting to a point where I’m not getting very much out of these classes – not because the material is not new but because there are so precious few people I could practice these new moves with. I feel that I am probably doing a credible job of leading the most difficult routines I am being taught while I’m still in class (as well as doing it immediately afterwards), but better practice during the lessons would be really nice. Sometimes I think I'm just picking up bad habits trying to lead moves most followers in the class finds extremely challenging.
By the way, Mary Ward Hall was closed (apparently for at least second week in a row) today, so SOS was held at a nearby hotel in a room that was used in my July trip to SOS. Apparently yet another room with slightly bigger wood floor was used last week.
Dancing today started out promising but was horrible overall. About the worst dancing I had in recent memory in terms of me being bad rather (as opposed to me faulting everyone else). It started off nice – I liked my first dance well enough and my second felt really good and enjoyable. Thereafter, things went downhill with a series of followers I found unimpressive. It took a gigantic nosedive with a follower who seemed to get very bored with me very quickly. I was already in poor spirits by this point so by the time she broke off to do shines, my face must have been an awful mix of resignation, indignation, boredom, helplessness and general unhappiness. So the dance ended prematurely with what seemed to be a mutual agreement. This dance was followed by a dance with another follower, who could not keep herself balanced – I tried hard but there wasn’t very much I could do without resorting to doing very little outside of doing mostly basics (I might add that this does not fly well at SOS in my experience – maybe I should have anyway – my confidence was so shot by then that I didn’t know what to think anymore). So this dance ended with her elbowing another couple, followed by another prematurely ended dance. I never recovered from these series of dances. Everything else thereafter was either with yet another follower who couldn’t follower cross body lead properly and consistently or with a follower with strange tic or two which I found disruptive or with more followers, who I felt was getting bored and/or frustrated with me (sometimes all of the above). What a nightmare! At one point, I came to decide that some new routines I apparently made up spontaneously in last couple of weeks were quite trite. Worse I began to question my style of leading in general – quite a few of the followers seemed not to like slow-flowing type of lead I have been favoring generally recently and seemed to want something more staccato. On other days, I may have had more luck adjusting but this wasn’t the day. Near the end, I resorted to dancing couple of familiar faces (including my first dance partner of the night) in hopes of straightening myself up, but both attempts were futile. I had felt really good last Sunday and Friday, so this crash down to earth (and beyond into a deep chasm) was unexpected and bewildering; it was a bubble-bursting occasion. Sigh. Everyone else in my group seemed to have had a good time dancing tonight, so that much is good.
The drive back ended with me mostly moaning and groaning about everything I find difficult about Salsa. I’m thinking that I’m getting near a point where rate of improving is flattening out with current method of learning (which is to take drop-in classes with followers of many different levels of ability and practice at social level where I am generally dancing with a particular partner once or twice (or at best three times) often with not much of an opportunity to practice any new things (learned in class or invented on my own). Johnny suggested getting a regular practice partner, but this is not an easy proposition in Cambridge. The topic of the Cambridge Salsa Team came up in this context because it would have been a very convenient place to get a regular partner. I had seriously considered trying out for the team back in September until this blog controversy blew up on my face and led me to give up on the idea based upon what now seem like mistaken assumptions. While having this blog probably helped with my Salsa dancing (by nothing else making me think about it a lot more than I might have otherwise), it has also caused some setbacks. After all, talking about complaining about Salsa beyond a certain point will be considerably less productive than practicing it.
Because I’m rather frustrated, I’m rant about a topic, which may prove controversial and may get me in trouble. During the drive back to Cambridge, I argued that there are more competent leaders than followers in Cambridge at Club Salsa at hour-by-hour basis. By this, I do not mean that there are more good leaders than followers in absolute number. Rather I mean that for every one good follower who is present at Club Salsa at a given time, there is more than one good leader to dance with her more often than not. I think one reason for this is that a good follower is a lot more likely to bring with her a good leader to the club (another way to put it is that a good follower is less likely to come alone compared to a good leader alone). Also, good followers are much more likely to leave early compared to good leaders. Moreover, a good follower in Cambridge is very likely to be inundated with offers of dance – so much so that she is much more likely to decline to dance unlike in other places like London, Washington DC or Portland, Oregon (the other three places where I have tried Salsa dancing). I think there are exceptions – some of the very best followers (somewhat ironically) are less likely to be inundated with offers of dance compared to followers of slightly less ability. I think the most likely reason for this is because intermediate-to-advanced level leaders are often intimidated by followers who they consider above their level and thus would only ask the best followers sparingly and only when they feel especially confident. This is based upon a often (but ot always) mistaken assumption that best followers will be bored dancing with anyone who’s not at their level. The best leaders will have no compunctions about asking followers of any level to dance with them and will not limit himself to dancing with the very best. By the end of the drive, I think I convinced others of my argument, but others may have simply decided to give up on the topic because I sounded so sure about it (and the way I talked – ranting vociferously and tirelessly – may have discouraged counterarguments after a while).
Club Salsa apparently is hosting a private party this Friday. In lieu of Club Salsa this Friday, tonight’s gang will try to explore another London Salsa venue - maybe Ealing Town Hall.
Driving to SOS is getting Traffic in general has been generally bad especially between exit 9 and exit 8 when we drive SOS, but it seems to be getting worse every time. There was yet another accident in M11 – there was an accident last time I tried to go to SOS also. Driving conditions are getting worse with windowpanes getting fogged up. It seems impossible to keep a comfortable temperature in the car with four people riding in the car in winter. I don’t know what is the best solution – use A/C powered defogger or use heated defogger with windows slightly open; all other options tried thus far resulted in dangerous driving conditions. I also missed one of my exits thus causing additional delay, which made us miss the shine portion of the class once again.
The topic of conversation during the drive to SOS that interested me most was about a Salsa instructor in London who calls himself Special Tee. I had first heard of Special Tee around June in Cambridge. Since then, I had made some minor efforts to find out more information about this instructor with almost zero success. I found no advertising about his classes in the web, and the only reference of him I found early on might have been from Edie the Salsa Freak, who in passing mentioned him within context of one of her visits to London [note added later: I can't even find this reference anymore, and there are a little more things you can find about Special Tee now using Google or MSN search.]. When londonsalsa.co.uk came into existence with its extensive listing of classes, teachers and promoters, I again tried finding Special Tee again without success (I don’t think I was very thorough in this search by this time though). Also about this time, I saw another mention of Special Tee in about of how he refused to teach someone who was posting on the Salsa Mafia forum (down at the moment). At that time, because of the topic of the discussion (learning to dance on time), I led myself to believe that Special Tee refused to teach this poster how to dance on time, which I found patently ridiculous and which made me wonder if he was a very good teacher. By contrast, a recent post in londonsalsa.co.uk names Special Tee (along with Manhanttan Mambo) as the only worthwhile teacher for on-2 dancing in London. So for some time, Special Tee has been a man of mystery for me. Anyhow, our talk about dancing on-2 led to Johnny talking about Special Tee, which explained why I had such difficulty. Apparently, Special Tee’s classes are by invitation only. Someone has to recommend you to Special Tee in order for a prospective student to have a chance of learning from him. Once you start taking his classes, it is badly frowned upon if you miss classes. So his classes are a bit like a secret society with strict regimen – a cult within the cult of Salsa. If his classes are by invitation only, there is absolutely no reason why his classes would be advertised even in generally for-everyone website like londonsalsa.co.uk. I can’t imagine that Special Tee is a better teacher for on-2 compared to New Yorkers like Eddie Torres, Nelson Flores or Frankie Martinez, but I would imagine that there should be pretty strict quality control in his classes. While I find it satisfying that a longstanding mystery has been solved, and I also find the whole thing both amusing and absurd.
Quickly with the lesson of the day...
closed hold (started with 2 basics)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to stationary double turn (clockwise) and switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead and lead follower to traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 disconnect R-R with outside of L hand/wrist – roll it around (counterclockwise) during 2,3 and flick on 5 as leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise – reconnect R-R at leader’s R waist – leader is facing away from follower on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break on 1, R-R goes over follower’s head as follower is pulled forward and L-L connection is made in front on 2,3 and lead follower to full counterclockwise turn with both connections intact with R-R high and L-L low (so L-L ends up across followers front R waist) – follower is facing away from leader on 8
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (forward L step on 1 for leader) and back so that follower is facing leader by 3 and lead follower to a stationary clockwise double turn with all connections high and intact throughout – R-R after the first turn makes a thrusting-like motion and leader turns counterclockwise (1/2) during follower’s last turn – open reverse cross body position on 8 with crossed hold with L-L on top
1,2,3 open break and bring follower forward into Titanic
5,6,7 bring follower back to leader’s R side with R-R on her shoulder – open cross body position on 8
1,2,3 twist on 1 and back on 3 (essentially stylized start of cross body lead)
5,6,7 bring follower forward on 5 and turn follower 1/2 clockwise into open (crossed hold) position
1,2,3 flick L-L (counterclockwise motion) and leader turns 1/2 clockwise and reconnect R-L by leader’s R waist in open cross body position
5,6,7 lead follower to a free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn ending with a dip
I’m now finding the level III routine in SOS to be very easy to pick up. Practicing is somewhat more difficult because most people in the class seem to find the material very difficult. I’m getting to a point where I’m not getting very much out of these classes – not because the material is not new but because there are so precious few people I could practice these new moves with. I feel that I am probably doing a credible job of leading the most difficult routines I am being taught while I’m still in class (as well as doing it immediately afterwards), but better practice during the lessons would be really nice. Sometimes I think I'm just picking up bad habits trying to lead moves most followers in the class finds extremely challenging.
By the way, Mary Ward Hall was closed (apparently for at least second week in a row) today, so SOS was held at a nearby hotel in a room that was used in my July trip to SOS. Apparently yet another room with slightly bigger wood floor was used last week.
Dancing today started out promising but was horrible overall. About the worst dancing I had in recent memory in terms of me being bad rather (as opposed to me faulting everyone else). It started off nice – I liked my first dance well enough and my second felt really good and enjoyable. Thereafter, things went downhill with a series of followers I found unimpressive. It took a gigantic nosedive with a follower who seemed to get very bored with me very quickly. I was already in poor spirits by this point so by the time she broke off to do shines, my face must have been an awful mix of resignation, indignation, boredom, helplessness and general unhappiness. So the dance ended prematurely with what seemed to be a mutual agreement. This dance was followed by a dance with another follower, who could not keep herself balanced – I tried hard but there wasn’t very much I could do without resorting to doing very little outside of doing mostly basics (I might add that this does not fly well at SOS in my experience – maybe I should have anyway – my confidence was so shot by then that I didn’t know what to think anymore). So this dance ended with her elbowing another couple, followed by another prematurely ended dance. I never recovered from these series of dances. Everything else thereafter was either with yet another follower who couldn’t follower cross body lead properly and consistently or with a follower with strange tic or two which I found disruptive or with more followers, who I felt was getting bored and/or frustrated with me (sometimes all of the above). What a nightmare! At one point, I came to decide that some new routines I apparently made up spontaneously in last couple of weeks were quite trite. Worse I began to question my style of leading in general – quite a few of the followers seemed not to like slow-flowing type of lead I have been favoring generally recently and seemed to want something more staccato. On other days, I may have had more luck adjusting but this wasn’t the day. Near the end, I resorted to dancing couple of familiar faces (including my first dance partner of the night) in hopes of straightening myself up, but both attempts were futile. I had felt really good last Sunday and Friday, so this crash down to earth (and beyond into a deep chasm) was unexpected and bewildering; it was a bubble-bursting occasion. Sigh. Everyone else in my group seemed to have had a good time dancing tonight, so that much is good.
The drive back ended with me mostly moaning and groaning about everything I find difficult about Salsa. I’m thinking that I’m getting near a point where rate of improving is flattening out with current method of learning (which is to take drop-in classes with followers of many different levels of ability and practice at social level where I am generally dancing with a particular partner once or twice (or at best three times) often with not much of an opportunity to practice any new things (learned in class or invented on my own). Johnny suggested getting a regular practice partner, but this is not an easy proposition in Cambridge. The topic of the Cambridge Salsa Team came up in this context because it would have been a very convenient place to get a regular partner. I had seriously considered trying out for the team back in September until this blog controversy blew up on my face and led me to give up on the idea based upon what now seem like mistaken assumptions. While having this blog probably helped with my Salsa dancing (by nothing else making me think about it a lot more than I might have otherwise), it has also caused some setbacks. After all, talking about complaining about Salsa beyond a certain point will be considerably less productive than practicing it.
Because I’m rather frustrated, I’m rant about a topic, which may prove controversial and may get me in trouble. During the drive back to Cambridge, I argued that there are more competent leaders than followers in Cambridge at Club Salsa at hour-by-hour basis. By this, I do not mean that there are more good leaders than followers in absolute number. Rather I mean that for every one good follower who is present at Club Salsa at a given time, there is more than one good leader to dance with her more often than not. I think one reason for this is that a good follower is a lot more likely to bring with her a good leader to the club (another way to put it is that a good follower is less likely to come alone compared to a good leader alone). Also, good followers are much more likely to leave early compared to good leaders. Moreover, a good follower in Cambridge is very likely to be inundated with offers of dance – so much so that she is much more likely to decline to dance unlike in other places like London, Washington DC or Portland, Oregon (the other three places where I have tried Salsa dancing). I think there are exceptions – some of the very best followers (somewhat ironically) are less likely to be inundated with offers of dance compared to followers of slightly less ability. I think the most likely reason for this is because intermediate-to-advanced level leaders are often intimidated by followers who they consider above their level and thus would only ask the best followers sparingly and only when they feel especially confident. This is based upon a often (but ot always) mistaken assumption that best followers will be bored dancing with anyone who’s not at their level. The best leaders will have no compunctions about asking followers of any level to dance with them and will not limit himself to dancing with the very best. By the end of the drive, I think I convinced others of my argument, but others may have simply decided to give up on the topic because I sounded so sure about it (and the way I talked – ranting vociferously and tirelessly – may have discouraged counterarguments after a while).
Club Salsa apparently is hosting a private party this Friday. In lieu of Club Salsa this Friday, tonight’s gang will try to explore another London Salsa venue - maybe Ealing Town Hall.
Christmas Party at Club Salsa
December 9, 2005
Now that was an interesting event; packed, sometimes frustrating, sometimes disorientating but ultimately thrilling and fun.
It started with a large dinner at Tandoori Station Restaurant. There were fair amount of hiccups and grumbling but I think most things worked out in the end. It is difficult to coordinate and execute a large dinner flawlessly unless you do it all the time. I arrived at Heathrow at 9 AM from Washington DC and had around 2-3 hours of sleep in the plane and another 2-3 hours of sleep on the bus (both sitting down), so by the time I got up from my chair at the end of the dinner, my back was already in tatters.
Despite worries from some dinner guests that we were missing opportunity for dancing, there was another 10 min or so of lessons left unfinished when I arrived at the club. Because I remembered that the event was packed (and Friday in general is packed), I started dancing immediately without taking any breaks. I then proceeded to do the same when it became really packed. However unlike usual Fridays at Club Salsa, I was quite pleased to note that I managed to string many very nice dances in extremely crowded conditions. I think this was partly becasue I am better but also because there were a lot of good dancers period. Also although I didn't really learn much from class-type setting in Washington DC, simply dancing with many people with different style with novel approaches in many new settings improved my abilities.
Vishal had said the club will be open until up to 3:30 AM. Actual closing time was around 3 AM, but I thought it highly remarkable that so many people stayed late. I managed to dance Salsa for about 40-45 songs with approximately 25 different partners as well as dancing to about 2 songs of Bachata. Towards the end of the evening, I felt as if I was sleep-dancing. I also estimate that I received 20-25 rejections for dance - about half of the rejections were from people who I ended up not dancing with tonight. Percentage-wise, frequency of rejections was about norm; for some reason I get so many no's in Cambridge compared to anywhere else.
Other snippets. There was a show by four couples from the Salsa team; their routine was supposedly practiced for 2 weeks only. Salsa competitions (couples and same sex) were judged by popularity (who's supporters can make louder noise?). Not surprisingly, same sex competition was won by two males - I wonder if it is possible for two women to beat two men in this type of setting. Men seem to have inherent advantages in terms of humor and in creating antics that draw attention to themselves so it would take quite a stunt from a pair of women to make it out of the preliminary round.
Now that was an interesting event; packed, sometimes frustrating, sometimes disorientating but ultimately thrilling and fun.
It started with a large dinner at Tandoori Station Restaurant. There were fair amount of hiccups and grumbling but I think most things worked out in the end. It is difficult to coordinate and execute a large dinner flawlessly unless you do it all the time. I arrived at Heathrow at 9 AM from Washington DC and had around 2-3 hours of sleep in the plane and another 2-3 hours of sleep on the bus (both sitting down), so by the time I got up from my chair at the end of the dinner, my back was already in tatters.
Despite worries from some dinner guests that we were missing opportunity for dancing, there was another 10 min or so of lessons left unfinished when I arrived at the club. Because I remembered that the event was packed (and Friday in general is packed), I started dancing immediately without taking any breaks. I then proceeded to do the same when it became really packed. However unlike usual Fridays at Club Salsa, I was quite pleased to note that I managed to string many very nice dances in extremely crowded conditions. I think this was partly becasue I am better but also because there were a lot of good dancers period. Also although I didn't really learn much from class-type setting in Washington DC, simply dancing with many people with different style with novel approaches in many new settings improved my abilities.
Vishal had said the club will be open until up to 3:30 AM. Actual closing time was around 3 AM, but I thought it highly remarkable that so many people stayed late. I managed to dance Salsa for about 40-45 songs with approximately 25 different partners as well as dancing to about 2 songs of Bachata. Towards the end of the evening, I felt as if I was sleep-dancing. I also estimate that I received 20-25 rejections for dance - about half of the rejections were from people who I ended up not dancing with tonight. Percentage-wise, frequency of rejections was about norm; for some reason I get so many no's in Cambridge compared to anywhere else.
Other snippets. There was a show by four couples from the Salsa team; their routine was supposedly practiced for 2 weeks only. Salsa competitions (couples and same sex) were judged by popularity (who's supporters can make louder noise?). Not surprisingly, same sex competition was won by two males - I wonder if it is possible for two women to beat two men in this type of setting. Men seem to have inherent advantages in terms of humor and in creating antics that draw attention to themselves so it would take quite a stunt from a pair of women to make it out of the preliminary round.
Salsa in Washington D.C. IV – SOS (Stuck on Salsa) Monthly Social
December 4, 2005
This was by far the best of Washington D.C. Salsa scene I saw in this trip. I enjoyed this outing very much. It was highly reminiscent of SOS in London. I am not completely sure but I think there were some on-2 dancers present. Earl Rush of Stuck on Salsa is well-deserving of the praise of local dancers who stated that he can be counted upon to throw a good party every time. The cover was $5 and included complimentary unlimited soda and water (However, I suspect that giving free drinks is not fiscally sound, so I expect this will not last long).
The venue (Avenue Night Club) at quick glance looked spacious and covered with wall-to-wall wood floor that could accommodate well over 30 or maybe even 40 couples – or about half the size of Mary Ward Hall (home of SOS or Salsa on Sundays in London) and somewhat smaller than the Grad Pad in Cambridge University. I initially was quite thrilled with the feel of the floor (nice and smooth) until I started dancing upon which I discovered that there was a severe tilt to the floor with the far end of the club being at noticeably higher elevation compared to the entrance of the club. The sloped floor caused me to upset my balance during some spins (almost falling towards downhill several times) for the first several dances; I was getting dizzy and possibly even seasick. I would imagine that the followers had it even worse. I started to despair that I would not be able to take advantage of the space this venue offered and high quality of followers present at this party. Fortunately, I adjusted to the curious floor problem (some parts were worse than others) after about half dozen dances and ended up having a quite good time. I daresay that everyone went through some adjustment period.
The dancers at this party were very good – on average almost equal to London’s SOS. There were slightly more beginners here than at SOS – this I did not mind at all because all of them were really responsive and very friendly. I loved the fact that everyone seemed to be having a good time and that no one was acting bored or being inattentive to my leads; this hadn't been so evident or frequent in my other D.C. Salsa outings. Probably the worst case tonight involved a follower who consistently tried to do more turns than what I was leading (I don’t recall seeing such a blatant case - I interpreted this as her showing off or trying to prove something), but even this dance worked out alright because her technique was generally sound. I estimate that I danced with approximately 90% of the followers present in the course of under 3 1/2 hours; the event ran from 4 PM to 9 PM with an hour of class (including a on-2 class) at the beginning, which I missed. Initially, there were relatively small number of dancers (albeit many good ones not seen at other places), but many more people came in as hours went by compared to small number of people who left early and the floor became more crowded (but still very manageable) for last 1.5-2 hour or so.
Near the end of the evening, I asked a charming follower (nice package of skill, attitude and grace -- ummm, actually there were quite a few of them but...) for a dance and received a reply that she was about to leave and head off to another Salsa club called Polyester. I was invited to come with her group of friends. I wasn’t interested in much more dancing but because I had never heard of this place, I thought it might be useful to check it out. Unfortunately, I was given a wrong address (12th and H), so I took off after searching in vain for 5-10 min after parking on the corner of 12th and H. I tried to look up this venue on the internet afterwards, and found out after a while that the club is called Polly Esther’s and is located at 12th and F, not 12th and H – I only got as far as the corner of 12th and G, which was just one block away. There is no indication in the internet that Polly Esther’s plays any Salsa.
Sergio had told me that next weekend in D.C. should be great for Salsa dancing because of a group of New York dancers coming down. There will be a set of parties celebrating release of two DVDs – Ismael Otero’s “Advanced Turn Patterns with Jamie Matos" and Toronto’s Magna Gopal’s “Turns by Magna”. Somewhat amusing factoid (to me) is that Ismael Otero's nickname is "Man with Million Moves". (I don't know who came up with it first - Otero or SuperMario, but Otero has been teaching Salsa/Mambo long before SuperMario started learning Salsa.) Anyway, the Dual DVD party's first D.C. stop is Earl Rush’s 50th birthday party on Friday. Earl (who by the way is a good and humorous dancer) tried to talk me into coming next weekend but I will be back in Cambridge by then. Based upon tonight, I have full confidence that Earl’s party Friday (and Saturday) will be great. Same goes for his monthly Salsa social in the future (I believe this was the second Sunday social overall for Earl, but first as the start of it being a monthly event) – especially if the event were moved to a venue with more level floor or if everyone can get accustomed to sloped floor very quickly.
This was by far the best of Washington D.C. Salsa scene I saw in this trip. I enjoyed this outing very much. It was highly reminiscent of SOS in London. I am not completely sure but I think there were some on-2 dancers present. Earl Rush of Stuck on Salsa is well-deserving of the praise of local dancers who stated that he can be counted upon to throw a good party every time. The cover was $5 and included complimentary unlimited soda and water (However, I suspect that giving free drinks is not fiscally sound, so I expect this will not last long).
The venue (Avenue Night Club) at quick glance looked spacious and covered with wall-to-wall wood floor that could accommodate well over 30 or maybe even 40 couples – or about half the size of Mary Ward Hall (home of SOS or Salsa on Sundays in London) and somewhat smaller than the Grad Pad in Cambridge University. I initially was quite thrilled with the feel of the floor (nice and smooth) until I started dancing upon which I discovered that there was a severe tilt to the floor with the far end of the club being at noticeably higher elevation compared to the entrance of the club. The sloped floor caused me to upset my balance during some spins (almost falling towards downhill several times) for the first several dances; I was getting dizzy and possibly even seasick. I would imagine that the followers had it even worse. I started to despair that I would not be able to take advantage of the space this venue offered and high quality of followers present at this party. Fortunately, I adjusted to the curious floor problem (some parts were worse than others) after about half dozen dances and ended up having a quite good time. I daresay that everyone went through some adjustment period.
The dancers at this party were very good – on average almost equal to London’s SOS. There were slightly more beginners here than at SOS – this I did not mind at all because all of them were really responsive and very friendly. I loved the fact that everyone seemed to be having a good time and that no one was acting bored or being inattentive to my leads; this hadn't been so evident or frequent in my other D.C. Salsa outings. Probably the worst case tonight involved a follower who consistently tried to do more turns than what I was leading (I don’t recall seeing such a blatant case - I interpreted this as her showing off or trying to prove something), but even this dance worked out alright because her technique was generally sound. I estimate that I danced with approximately 90% of the followers present in the course of under 3 1/2 hours; the event ran from 4 PM to 9 PM with an hour of class (including a on-2 class) at the beginning, which I missed. Initially, there were relatively small number of dancers (albeit many good ones not seen at other places), but many more people came in as hours went by compared to small number of people who left early and the floor became more crowded (but still very manageable) for last 1.5-2 hour or so.
Near the end of the evening, I asked a charming follower (nice package of skill, attitude and grace -- ummm, actually there were quite a few of them but...) for a dance and received a reply that she was about to leave and head off to another Salsa club called Polyester. I was invited to come with her group of friends. I wasn’t interested in much more dancing but because I had never heard of this place, I thought it might be useful to check it out. Unfortunately, I was given a wrong address (12th and H), so I took off after searching in vain for 5-10 min after parking on the corner of 12th and H. I tried to look up this venue on the internet afterwards, and found out after a while that the club is called Polly Esther’s and is located at 12th and F, not 12th and H – I only got as far as the corner of 12th and G, which was just one block away. There is no indication in the internet that Polly Esther’s plays any Salsa.
Sergio had told me that next weekend in D.C. should be great for Salsa dancing because of a group of New York dancers coming down. There will be a set of parties celebrating release of two DVDs – Ismael Otero’s “Advanced Turn Patterns with Jamie Matos" and Toronto’s Magna Gopal’s “Turns by Magna”. Somewhat amusing factoid (to me) is that Ismael Otero's nickname is "Man with Million Moves". (I don't know who came up with it first - Otero or SuperMario, but Otero has been teaching Salsa/Mambo long before SuperMario started learning Salsa.) Anyway, the Dual DVD party's first D.C. stop is Earl Rush’s 50th birthday party on Friday. Earl (who by the way is a good and humorous dancer) tried to talk me into coming next weekend but I will be back in Cambridge by then. Based upon tonight, I have full confidence that Earl’s party Friday (and Saturday) will be great. Same goes for his monthly Salsa social in the future (I believe this was the second Sunday social overall for Earl, but first as the start of it being a monthly event) – especially if the event were moved to a venue with more level floor or if everyone can get accustomed to sloped floor very quickly.
Salsa in Washington D.C. III - after midnight at Divino’s Lounge
December 2, 2005
From what I heard and read, it seemed like it might be a good idea to arrive late. This way, I thought I would avoid big crowds while still catching better dancers who may decide to show up late. Thus I schemed to arrive a little after midnight; the club hour is advertised as 10 PM to 2 AM. In retrospect, it might have been better to arrive earlier because only a very small number of people arrived after me (and I did not think that the late arrivals were better dancers than early arrivals) whereas I definitely missed out on some of the better (or flashier) dancers who left shortly after my arrival.
Divino's Lounge is the smallest of the three Salsa venues I have been to thus far in Washington D.C. area. The main dance floor was made of a very smooth stone surface - nice for spinning, as it was quite slippery. I estimate that the main dance surface could accommodate 15 couples or so, and the floor was slightly above this capacity at the time of my arrival. There isn't much of an extra dance space outside the main dance floor; one end of the main dance floor was situated between dining tables with inferior surface and the other end of the floor was carpeted and surrounded by furniture.
Total number of people at Divino’s was smaller than both Clarendon Grill and Barking Dog – at least by the time of my arrival. Level of difficulty conducted by top-level leaders looked comparable to Clarendon Grill and slightly higher than Barking Dog earlier this week. Divino's like the other two had fair number of beginners (first-timers) and non-dancers. I ended up dancing with pretty much everyone who stayed until I got around to asking (excepting a few who insisted that they didn't know how to dance). Sergio’s assessment earlier this week – sometimes you find good dancers there, sometimes not – is probably accurate. (Note: Sergio said the same about Barking Dog, Zanzibar, South Beach, H2O, etc. He also said you find better dancers in some special events involving people from New York coming down to D.C., like the one that will happen next weekend when I’m back in Cambridge.)
While I generally enjoyed dancing at Divino’s and have no regrets about tonight, I am getting less and less impressed with D.C. Salsa scene as I visit more venues. Thus far the most disappointing aspect of Salsa in D.C. is that I haven’t had any dance that I found thoroughly enjoyable and made me happy. In general I have gotten more enjoyment out of dancing with some of the “less experienced” followers who do not necessarily know how to follow many of my leads but who nevertheless appear to enjoy dancing with me a great deal. As for the “more experienced” (or flashy) followers, all of them turned out to be disappointing for one reason or other; I often found hand-to-hand connection was too strong while mental/emotional connection was often too weak or absent. No one I danced was good enough or nice enough to cover any mistakes I made and follow everything I tried to lead.
No Salsa lessons are given on Fridays at Divino’s. Cover was $10 (same as Barking Dog, twice as expensive as Clarendon Grill). It may be a good idea to call in advance – apparently there will be no Salsa at Divino’s next week because of a private party but they will return the week after next.
From what I heard and read, it seemed like it might be a good idea to arrive late. This way, I thought I would avoid big crowds while still catching better dancers who may decide to show up late. Thus I schemed to arrive a little after midnight; the club hour is advertised as 10 PM to 2 AM. In retrospect, it might have been better to arrive earlier because only a very small number of people arrived after me (and I did not think that the late arrivals were better dancers than early arrivals) whereas I definitely missed out on some of the better (or flashier) dancers who left shortly after my arrival.
Divino's Lounge is the smallest of the three Salsa venues I have been to thus far in Washington D.C. area. The main dance floor was made of a very smooth stone surface - nice for spinning, as it was quite slippery. I estimate that the main dance surface could accommodate 15 couples or so, and the floor was slightly above this capacity at the time of my arrival. There isn't much of an extra dance space outside the main dance floor; one end of the main dance floor was situated between dining tables with inferior surface and the other end of the floor was carpeted and surrounded by furniture.
Total number of people at Divino’s was smaller than both Clarendon Grill and Barking Dog – at least by the time of my arrival. Level of difficulty conducted by top-level leaders looked comparable to Clarendon Grill and slightly higher than Barking Dog earlier this week. Divino's like the other two had fair number of beginners (first-timers) and non-dancers. I ended up dancing with pretty much everyone who stayed until I got around to asking (excepting a few who insisted that they didn't know how to dance). Sergio’s assessment earlier this week – sometimes you find good dancers there, sometimes not – is probably accurate. (Note: Sergio said the same about Barking Dog, Zanzibar, South Beach, H2O, etc. He also said you find better dancers in some special events involving people from New York coming down to D.C., like the one that will happen next weekend when I’m back in Cambridge.)
While I generally enjoyed dancing at Divino’s and have no regrets about tonight, I am getting less and less impressed with D.C. Salsa scene as I visit more venues. Thus far the most disappointing aspect of Salsa in D.C. is that I haven’t had any dance that I found thoroughly enjoyable and made me happy. In general I have gotten more enjoyment out of dancing with some of the “less experienced” followers who do not necessarily know how to follow many of my leads but who nevertheless appear to enjoy dancing with me a great deal. As for the “more experienced” (or flashy) followers, all of them turned out to be disappointing for one reason or other; I often found hand-to-hand connection was too strong while mental/emotional connection was often too weak or absent. No one I danced was good enough or nice enough to cover any mistakes I made and follow everything I tried to lead.
No Salsa lessons are given on Fridays at Divino’s. Cover was $10 (same as Barking Dog, twice as expensive as Clarendon Grill). It may be a good idea to call in advance – apparently there will be no Salsa at Divino’s next week because of a private party but they will return the week after next.
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