Walking on water - Johnny & Serap

January 20, 2006

1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into a stationary double clockwise turn with L-R high
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with leader turning 1/4 clockwise on 7/8 with hold changed to R-R to face away from follower
1,2,3 open break and lead follower lightly to turn free 1/2 clockwise on 3 while leader turns 1/2 clockwise and positioned to left of follower with L-L connection made in front of follower L waist and R hand placed on follower’s R back waist
5,6,7 walk backwards together as couple
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized cross body lead followed by leading follower into a traveling full counterclockwise turn with L-L low thus ending with a wrap (L-L is positioned in front of follower’s R waist)
1,2,3 lead follower forward on 1 and turn her 1/2 clockwise while getting into cross body lead position with L-L changed to R-L and with free L hand positioned at follower’s eye level (for follower to catch on 4/5 with her R hand)
5,6,7 lead follower to a 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R connection made

String of good dances continued tonight despite heavy crowding problems. I think I still had leftover glow from last couple of nights and stayed lit through most of tonight. I suspect it helped that four different women asked me for total of five dances; three of the women were people I had never met before and one of the dances was Bachata. This has to be a new record. I’m unsure which was the bigger factor - whether I was getting asked for these dances because I was “on” or I became “on” more because I was getting all these unexpected dance requests. While there were many good dances tonight, I felt that the stretch of dances with “Hong Kong Mambo” and two versions of “Ran Kan Kan” stood out as being especially interesting in terms of improvisation – presumably this was helped by the fact that I really like those songs. It seemed that other people were feeling pretty good about their dancing tonight too – maybe there was something good in the air.

I skipped yet another birthday dance. I must say that I was sorely tempted, but I don’t feel ready for such a public display – at least not yet.

According to Vishal, starting week after Tony & Claudia’s workshop, Club Salsa will start classes on Mondays to be run by Joe Davids and the Latin Collective. I think the main instructor’s name is Russell. Apparently on-2 dancing instruction is a possibility. Hmm. I guess this is an ongoing effort from Vishal to try to get to a point where Club Salsa will be open 7 days a week. If everything sticks, Club Salsa will be closed only on Tuesdays. This seems highly remarkable to me; even in London, Bar Salsa is the only Salsa venue that is open 7 days a week. I suppose it probably is necessary for Club Salsa to stay open on as many days as possible to continue with capital improvements and to stay afloat. Presumably the cost of rent, insurance, etc (unlike electricity, heating, and personnel costs) does not change significantly upon the number of days a venue is open on a week.

I was utterly exhausted by the end of the evening. Maybe it’s because of drastically increased dancing load after a small hiatus during which I was concentrating on adjusting my technique. Maybe it is caused by something else altogether. I don’t know for sure.