February 27, 2006
Intermediate – Joe Davids
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic closed
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower ending closed (hair comb) (rocking motion)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead and full traveling counterclockwise turn for follower ending in R-L check (rocking motion to help minimize traveling)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (forward for follower and back) and lead follower into stationary double turn with R-L with R-L coming down as follower is nearly finished with first turn (I think the speed of R-L coming down can be made too fast – I have been aware of this for a little while now but I’m still not leading this consistently well) so that R-L ends behind follower’s L waist – on 7, leader can do a swivel turn (full clockwise) – change connection to L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 R hand on follower’s front L shoulder – rock basic into cross body lead and traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower (rock forward on 5) [note: follower has free R hand styling opportunity on 1,2,3] – R hand on follower’s back to get back into closed position
1,2,3,5,6,7 change line (turn line around by 180) and L-L hat and end with cross body lead simple
Improver – Joe Davids
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic closed
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower ending closed (hair comb) (try to stay connected throughout)
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body ending open – switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 L-L showing and connecting – open break and Copa with R going to follower’s R waist and fully committed to Copa as opposed to reverse cross body lead (unlike as taught by LA teachers? hmm…) – follower’s turn is led with L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 L-L hat for leader and cross body lead
As I have now come to expect, the material was covered thoroughly and exhaustively and apparently with long-range plan – apparently it’s a 20-week plan. Supposedly, we should expect 3 more weeks of zippering down. If I’m not completely comfortable with this maneuver after few more lessons, I should consider myself retarded and probably should give up Salsa.
Shine snippet of interest
Slave Suzy Q
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
3 L foot cross back
5,6,7 L foot Suzy Q
1 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 R foot cross back
5,6,7 R foot Suzy Q
I’m getting near the point where I almost feel like I know way more shines than I am likely to find the opportunity to use except in special circumstances with a select number of dance partners. Still, it’s probably better to know too much rather than too little.
I stayed until shortly after 11 PM after the class. The Latin Collective representatives tonight were Joe Davids and Russell. Joe brought along a huge pile of fliers for Guildhall event advertising. According to the flier, the second Guildhall event will be held in May – so the Guildhall party will apparently start as once every 2 months event. With caveat that my opinion should not count for anything here (as many will attest that I know nothing and that I am wrong all the time), I think this makes perfect sense.
I’m probably about 80% recovered - definitely nowhere near peak condition.
I’m not sure where my dancing is going. Is it in a transitional phase, transformational phase or a minor slump? Or are my priorities changed? Or maybe I’m a little burnt out? Is it because of my determination to cut down? Is it because of some possibly strained relationships? Next few Salsa outings should go long in figuring it out.
Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge and ability, there is nothing in this post intended to be hurtful about anyone or derogatory about any subject with the possible exception of negativity towards the author and that only to keep my ego in check. Not everything written in this post is about what happened tonight, and it might be safer to assume that a statement is likely to be about something other than tonight unless stated explicitly. Also try to avoid assuming that I’m talking about you in particular (unless stated explicitly, of course). Other than trying to do as well as I can because I feel that I might as well if I’m doing it, I don’t take any of this very seriously and I hope others don’t either – at least not to the point of becoming unhappy.
Gingerly dipping my toes back into Salsa
February 25, 2006
Johnny & Serap’s Big Salsa Party 2
The party was held at Frank and Lee Center – a part of the Addenbrooke’s Hospital complex. The dance hall shape was a large octagonal space serving as the main floor with a smaller rectangular space leading to the bar. Diverse mix of people from all over both familiar and unfamiliar to me was present, dancing, chilling or socializing. It seemed to me that Johnny & Serap were pleased with how the party turned out. Highlight of the party for me – happenings during a Michael Jackson song reminding me of a certain freakish moment.
The beginner lessons were scheduled to start at 7 PM and the party proper would have started by no later than 8:30 PM. As for me, I missed essentially the first half of the party as I arrived around 10:30 PM, which was just as well because I wanted to minimize amount of dancing I did tonight for a number of reasons. In order to help achieve this aim, I wore more layers of clothing than I needed and wore slippers instead of normal shoes to the party. Thus I didn’t notice that the dance floor was nice and slippery until I changed to my other shoes about half an hour after my arrival.
As of early Friday evening, I was thinking that I would not be able to attend tonight’s party. This was because although my conditions were slowly improving but not quickly enough. Thus when I found myself in much better condition (relatively speaking) this morning, several thoughts entered my mind including, “This is the kind of big improvement I told Johnny that I would need to have for me to go to his party” and “I’m still not in good enough condition for a normal night of dancing” and “I should do what I can to show there’s room and demand for a big monthly Salsa social in a larger venue in Cambridge.” Once I arrived, one more thought came to my mind, “I don’t want to be seen as recklessly risking other people into catching whatever bug that I had.” I must admit that this last thought is a little bizarre considering that I was already there and some diseases can be transmitted without body contact. That I considered the risk of infection spreading from me very low and that there were other people who came to party without fully having recovered from their own illness are somewhat beside the point. Anyhow, during my time at tonight’s party I ended up only doing some shines, which was enough of an exercise - as my muscles have barely begun to recover from aches and mass loss. I'm guessing I lost about 3-4 pounds in body weight over last 3-4 days. With the British diet, it may take months if not several weeks to regain that.
Prognosis for near future. I don’t expect any more dramatic improvement – I only get one such event per illness. I expect to have fair bit of muscle soreness for another 2-3 days. Some activities (e.g. sitting in front of computer at work and driving) may continue to aggravate soreness for a week or two. I probably won’t make this blog private and inaccessible despite some temptations. My voice and breathing may not return to normal for about a week.
Chances of going to SOS tomorrow – zero (driving long distance is not a good idea for me right now).
Chances of going to Club Salsa upcoming Monday – well over 50%.
Johnny & Serap’s Big Salsa Party 2
The party was held at Frank and Lee Center – a part of the Addenbrooke’s Hospital complex. The dance hall shape was a large octagonal space serving as the main floor with a smaller rectangular space leading to the bar. Diverse mix of people from all over both familiar and unfamiliar to me was present, dancing, chilling or socializing. It seemed to me that Johnny & Serap were pleased with how the party turned out. Highlight of the party for me – happenings during a Michael Jackson song reminding me of a certain freakish moment.
The beginner lessons were scheduled to start at 7 PM and the party proper would have started by no later than 8:30 PM. As for me, I missed essentially the first half of the party as I arrived around 10:30 PM, which was just as well because I wanted to minimize amount of dancing I did tonight for a number of reasons. In order to help achieve this aim, I wore more layers of clothing than I needed and wore slippers instead of normal shoes to the party. Thus I didn’t notice that the dance floor was nice and slippery until I changed to my other shoes about half an hour after my arrival.
As of early Friday evening, I was thinking that I would not be able to attend tonight’s party. This was because although my conditions were slowly improving but not quickly enough. Thus when I found myself in much better condition (relatively speaking) this morning, several thoughts entered my mind including, “This is the kind of big improvement I told Johnny that I would need to have for me to go to his party” and “I’m still not in good enough condition for a normal night of dancing” and “I should do what I can to show there’s room and demand for a big monthly Salsa social in a larger venue in Cambridge.” Once I arrived, one more thought came to my mind, “I don’t want to be seen as recklessly risking other people into catching whatever bug that I had.” I must admit that this last thought is a little bizarre considering that I was already there and some diseases can be transmitted without body contact. That I considered the risk of infection spreading from me very low and that there were other people who came to party without fully having recovered from their own illness are somewhat beside the point. Anyhow, during my time at tonight’s party I ended up only doing some shines, which was enough of an exercise - as my muscles have barely begun to recover from aches and mass loss. I'm guessing I lost about 3-4 pounds in body weight over last 3-4 days. With the British diet, it may take months if not several weeks to regain that.
Prognosis for near future. I don’t expect any more dramatic improvement – I only get one such event per illness. I expect to have fair bit of muscle soreness for another 2-3 days. Some activities (e.g. sitting in front of computer at work and driving) may continue to aggravate soreness for a week or two. I probably won’t make this blog private and inaccessible despite some temptations. My voice and breathing may not return to normal for about a week.
Chances of going to SOS tomorrow – zero (driving long distance is not a good idea for me right now).
Chances of going to Club Salsa upcoming Monday – well over 50%.
Placed on physically unable to perform list
February 22, 2006
It doesn't feel very good to try to walk or expose myself to cold air. It's probably a flu or a very strong common cold. Don't expect to see me dancing for next several days unless there's a dramatic and rapid improvement - I'm not betting on this. I really hate it, but there isn't much I can do about it. Have a great time y'all without me!
It doesn't feel very good to try to walk or expose myself to cold air. It's probably a flu or a very strong common cold. Don't expect to see me dancing for next several days unless there's a dramatic and rapid improvement - I'm not betting on this. I really hate it, but there isn't much I can do about it. Have a great time y'all without me!
There was a gaping hole in my Salsa knowledge!
February 20, 2006
Joe Davids was back – this time with Russell and without Dawn. I’m finding his instructions quite useful. It’s great that he teaches 2-3 different variations of the routine. While in the class and with “doctored” followers, the most difficult versions are often doable. However, I find that in social dance situations, I have to use the simplest version or simplify things even more than the simplest version taught in order to lead the move and stay in time to the music. Perhaps in time, I will be able to lead more difficult versions when I become more comfortable with the simplest possible versions. Also, I was surprised to see that ALL of the material taught in the improver class was new to me – or at least I don’t recall seeing this material before in any of my previous 200+ classes. Amazing. I wonder if this sort of thing will happen again if I were to learn with yet another new teacher.
Intermediate routine - Latin Collective (Joe Davids)
(Joe’s preference would be that his classes are technique based not routine based, but I’m going to keep to my format)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead stationary double clockwise turn for follower with L-R coming down (straight) after the first turn so that it ends up wrapping follower with L-R connection positioned behind follower’s R waist – leader turns full clockwise on 7 (not a hook turn, R foot slightly back on 5, L foot in place on 6, turn around on 7/8 squeezing (I don’t recall the exact wording of the instruction) feet together – in any case, I don’t think I’m comfortable enough with this routine to try this additional leader’s turn without mucking up the next part)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward (leader takes small steps backwards on 1,2,3,5,6,7 while follower is turned around 1/4 counterclockwise by 3) and bring follower further forward for what ends up being 1 1/2 free traveling counterclockwise turn (2 1/2 is possible too) with hands going down to indicate number of rotations being asked for and to mark final position (leader’s footwork is R foot pointing towards the line on 5, step into the path through which follower passed with L foot (forward and to L) on 6 and turn 1/4 clockwise to face follower – I found this surprisingly tricky. For me an easier option was to stay essentially where I was and then to lead a cross body lead next)
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 simple shine (Suzy Q) - how to spot follower finishing a shine - cross body lead using R hand on follower’s back and offering L hand but giving an option to the follower for taking up the offered hand (there was a bit about forward (along the follower’s line rather than into it) body posture on 3 used for several different reasons)
Short interesting shine snippets
1 L foot tap
2 L foot forward and start to turn around clockwise
3 R foot together for a tap
4 R foot forward (now facing backwards as turning around 1/2 is completed)
5 L foot together for a tap
6 L foot forward and start to turn around clockwise
7 R foot together for a tap
8 R foot forward (now facing forward again as turning around 1/2 is completed)1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1 turn around 1/4 clockwise as L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly to side
3 L foot point to L (towards original forward position and start turning around)
5 complete turning around 1/2 counterclockwise as R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot slightly to side
7 R foot point to R (towards original forward position and start turning around again)
a playful variation of above is as follows
1 turn around 1/4 clockwise as L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slide sideways as L foot is pointed to L on heels
3 L foot close in slightly (and transfer weight)
5 complete turning around 1/2 counterclockwise as R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot slide sideways as R foot is pointed to R on heels
7 R foot close in slightly (and transfer weight)
It would appear that shines are getting increasing attention in Cambridge. There even was a question about when shines should be initiated. Possible answers included chorus and instrumental section. I imagine instrumental solo might be a possibility although in general I suppose anytime it feels right is an option too especially for people who are still trying to get into habit of using shines and become comfortable with them.
Improvers
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic from open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 In-and-out from open hold and into another open hold (also did into closed hold with follower learning to have their L hand over their chest to avoid getting tangled)
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa from open hold and into another open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa from open hold and into closed hold (with follower doing a haircomb with L hand in part to avoid getting tangled again – a haircomb out of necessity – neat concept)
As I mentioned earlier, the material for improvers was new and revelatory for me. It makes sense that in-and-out and Copa could be done from open hold now that I have seen it. I should think that this version would be considered the most basic fundamental Copa and in-and-out. I simply didn’t know this before because I hadn’t seen it done this way after over 200 hours of Salsa classes; other versions of Copa started either with crossed hold, R-R hold. R-L hold with the connection behind follower’s back R waist, or L-L hold with the connection behind follower’s back R waist (also with R-R). Perhaps I did see this before, but I have no recollection of it.
Turn combo exercise level I
2 o’clock turn
broken left
half and half turn
prepare and turn full clockwise stationary on 1,2,3 and prepare and turn full counterclockwise on 5,6,7
For followers, turn combo I was done with a haircomb for 2 o’clock turn and double-flare for broken left and without the last two turns for the last measure. Nice exercise. I hadn’t practiced 2 o’clock turn or broken left since last May in Sergio’s CDC classes (I think Sergio called it 3 o’clock, not 2 o’clock). I hope to see level II and level III soon – in fact I may find that these turn combo exercises might end up being one of the most useful thing from the Latin Collective classes because spinning is a big weakness here in Cambridge except for a very small number of most experienced dancers.
I stayed until just past 11 PM for some dancing and fair bit of practicing. In many ways, I found tonight’s session very useful. I hope there will be more.
Joe Davids was back – this time with Russell and without Dawn. I’m finding his instructions quite useful. It’s great that he teaches 2-3 different variations of the routine. While in the class and with “doctored” followers, the most difficult versions are often doable. However, I find that in social dance situations, I have to use the simplest version or simplify things even more than the simplest version taught in order to lead the move and stay in time to the music. Perhaps in time, I will be able to lead more difficult versions when I become more comfortable with the simplest possible versions. Also, I was surprised to see that ALL of the material taught in the improver class was new to me – or at least I don’t recall seeing this material before in any of my previous 200+ classes. Amazing. I wonder if this sort of thing will happen again if I were to learn with yet another new teacher.
Intermediate routine - Latin Collective (Joe Davids)
(Joe’s preference would be that his classes are technique based not routine based, but I’m going to keep to my format)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead stationary double clockwise turn for follower with L-R coming down (straight) after the first turn so that it ends up wrapping follower with L-R connection positioned behind follower’s R waist – leader turns full clockwise on 7 (not a hook turn, R foot slightly back on 5, L foot in place on 6, turn around on 7/8 squeezing (I don’t recall the exact wording of the instruction) feet together – in any case, I don’t think I’m comfortable enough with this routine to try this additional leader’s turn without mucking up the next part)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward (leader takes small steps backwards on 1,2,3,5,6,7 while follower is turned around 1/4 counterclockwise by 3) and bring follower further forward for what ends up being 1 1/2 free traveling counterclockwise turn (2 1/2 is possible too) with hands going down to indicate number of rotations being asked for and to mark final position (leader’s footwork is R foot pointing towards the line on 5, step into the path through which follower passed with L foot (forward and to L) on 6 and turn 1/4 clockwise to face follower – I found this surprisingly tricky. For me an easier option was to stay essentially where I was and then to lead a cross body lead next)
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 simple shine (Suzy Q) - how to spot follower finishing a shine - cross body lead using R hand on follower’s back and offering L hand but giving an option to the follower for taking up the offered hand (there was a bit about forward (along the follower’s line rather than into it) body posture on 3 used for several different reasons)
Short interesting shine snippets
1 L foot tap
2 L foot forward and start to turn around clockwise
3 R foot together for a tap
4 R foot forward (now facing backwards as turning around 1/2 is completed)
5 L foot together for a tap
6 L foot forward and start to turn around clockwise
7 R foot together for a tap
8 R foot forward (now facing forward again as turning around 1/2 is completed)1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1 turn around 1/4 clockwise as L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly to side
3 L foot point to L (towards original forward position and start turning around)
5 complete turning around 1/2 counterclockwise as R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot slightly to side
7 R foot point to R (towards original forward position and start turning around again)
a playful variation of above is as follows
1 turn around 1/4 clockwise as L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slide sideways as L foot is pointed to L on heels
3 L foot close in slightly (and transfer weight)
5 complete turning around 1/2 counterclockwise as R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot slide sideways as R foot is pointed to R on heels
7 R foot close in slightly (and transfer weight)
It would appear that shines are getting increasing attention in Cambridge. There even was a question about when shines should be initiated. Possible answers included chorus and instrumental section. I imagine instrumental solo might be a possibility although in general I suppose anytime it feels right is an option too especially for people who are still trying to get into habit of using shines and become comfortable with them.
Improvers
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic from open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 In-and-out from open hold and into another open hold (also did into closed hold with follower learning to have their L hand over their chest to avoid getting tangled)
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa from open hold and into another open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 back basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa from open hold and into closed hold (with follower doing a haircomb with L hand in part to avoid getting tangled again – a haircomb out of necessity – neat concept)
As I mentioned earlier, the material for improvers was new and revelatory for me. It makes sense that in-and-out and Copa could be done from open hold now that I have seen it. I should think that this version would be considered the most basic fundamental Copa and in-and-out. I simply didn’t know this before because I hadn’t seen it done this way after over 200 hours of Salsa classes; other versions of Copa started either with crossed hold, R-R hold. R-L hold with the connection behind follower’s back R waist, or L-L hold with the connection behind follower’s back R waist (also with R-R). Perhaps I did see this before, but I have no recollection of it.
Turn combo exercise level I
2 o’clock turn
broken left
half and half turn
prepare and turn full clockwise stationary on 1,2,3 and prepare and turn full counterclockwise on 5,6,7
For followers, turn combo I was done with a haircomb for 2 o’clock turn and double-flare for broken left and without the last two turns for the last measure. Nice exercise. I hadn’t practiced 2 o’clock turn or broken left since last May in Sergio’s CDC classes (I think Sergio called it 3 o’clock, not 2 o’clock). I hope to see level II and level III soon – in fact I may find that these turn combo exercises might end up being one of the most useful thing from the Latin Collective classes because spinning is a big weakness here in Cambridge except for a very small number of most experienced dancers.
I stayed until just past 11 PM for some dancing and fair bit of practicing. In many ways, I found tonight’s session very useful. I hope there will be more.
Monthly Salsa Social at Guildhall, Cambridge
February 20, 2006
First advertisement for the monthly Salsa party in Cambridge is out now at londonsalsa.co.uk.
--
Saturday 25th March 2006
from 7pm until 1am
The Latin Collective & Salsa Allegra present the Launch Party of the monthly Saturday Party nights featuring guest masterclasses and guest showcases all set in the stunning rooms of the Cambridge Guildhall.
The venue boasts superb wooden dance floors, excellent acoustics and licensed bar.
7-8.20pm masterclasses in Salsa on1 at 4 levels (beg, imp, int & adv) Then 8.20pm-1am non-stop dancing to the hottest salsa, mambo, merengue & bachata from Djs JD, Sally & guests
The Guildhall, Cambridge, CB2 3QJ
Prices: £12(non-mem) / £9 (mem or with flyer) / £6 (NUS)
--
I think we have seen that Cambridge can support large Salsa parties in bigger venues from the examples like the Big Salsa Party hosted by Johnny & Serap back in October last year. By the way, there is another Big Salsa Party by Johnny & Serap on February 25th, which also should be good and may serve as a possible indicator to show how successful the Guildhall event will be. Notwithstanding a possible backlash or bias against big outsiders being involved (I personally don't see how all the pluses would not overwhelm any perceived or potential negatives), the Guildhall event should be a smash - probably superior to any Salsa-related weekly Saturday events in London (or for that matter as good as or better than all but couple of the very best London weekly Salsa events based upon what little I have seen and read).
First advertisement for the monthly Salsa party in Cambridge is out now at londonsalsa.co.uk.
--
Saturday 25th March 2006
from 7pm until 1am
The Latin Collective & Salsa Allegra present the Launch Party of the monthly Saturday Party nights featuring guest masterclasses and guest showcases all set in the stunning rooms of the Cambridge Guildhall.
The venue boasts superb wooden dance floors, excellent acoustics and licensed bar.
7-8.20pm masterclasses in Salsa on1 at 4 levels (beg, imp, int & adv) Then 8.20pm-1am non-stop dancing to the hottest salsa, mambo, merengue & bachata from Djs JD, Sally & guests
The Guildhall, Cambridge, CB2 3QJ
Prices: £12(non-mem) / £9 (mem or with flyer) / £6 (NUS)
--
I think we have seen that Cambridge can support large Salsa parties in bigger venues from the examples like the Big Salsa Party hosted by Johnny & Serap back in October last year. By the way, there is another Big Salsa Party by Johnny & Serap on February 25th, which also should be good and may serve as a possible indicator to show how successful the Guildhall event will be. Notwithstanding a possible backlash or bias against big outsiders being involved (I personally don't see how all the pluses would not overwhelm any perceived or potential negatives), the Guildhall event should be a smash - probably superior to any Salsa-related weekly Saturday events in London (or for that matter as good as or better than all but couple of the very best London weekly Salsa events based upon what little I have seen and read).
SOS in crisis
February 19, 2006
Shine of the day (Level 3 – taught by the tall guy and Miriam)
1 L foot forward with R foot crossed behind L foot (no weight on R foot)
2 R foot back
3 L foot together
5 R foot back
6 L foot in place and R foot cross behind L foot (no weight on R foot)
7&8 R foot back and L foot cross in front of R foot (no weight on L foot)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 both feet slide backwards (keeping rest of the body staying in place for as long as possible)
1,2,3 basic
5 R foot back (pointing slightly to R?)
6 L foot slide long forward with R foot coming along
7,8 cha cha cha
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly back
3 L foot slightly back and to L of R foot
4 R foot cross over in front of L foot
5 L foot slightly back
6 R foot to normal standing position
7 L foot cross over in front of R foot
1 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
5,6,7 R foot cross over in front of L foot while keeping weight on L foot and R foot slide to R and back to L and crossing over in front of L foot (arms can be pointing directions opposite of R foot at the same time)
1 start over (infinite loop)
Arm and body movement during the shine seemed fairly natural to me (aside from the last 5,6,7, which took a small amount of practice).
Partner work
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a stationary double clockwise turn for follower with L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn for follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot full clockwise turn followed by double stationary clockwise turn for follower with L-R and with leader turning 1/2 clockwise and switching to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and R-R goes over follower’s head while making L-L connection in front and lead follower into traveling full clockwise turn with L-L low for a wrap (R hand can be used for this lead with it on follower’s R shoulder) – leader positioned slightly to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and turn follower around 1/2 clockwise with switch to R-L and lead follower to free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn ending with leader’s L hand catching follower’s back reaching from her L side
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower forward and reach for follower’s back with R hand from her R side and lead her into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader also turning counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 change the line by 180 and cross body lead
The next to last bit was voted over a simpler version. I tweaked my shoulder while trying this. Otherwise, this seemed like nothing more than a simple review of things I’ve seen many times. Maybe I’m also reaching a point of diminishing returns with Level 3 classes at SOS. The shine was piece of cake as well with caveat that just because I could do this in class setting does not mean I could lead the routine or do the shine with ease in social dance setting with fast tempo song.
I arrived at 6:45 PM in part because the organizers said that they plan to start classes at 6:45 PM this week. The classes started at 7 PM with another announcement that they will try to start the classes at 6:45 PM next week. Many of the people, whom I have come to enjoy dancing with at SOS, were absent tonight. While finding dance partners was not a problem still, they were missed. The music tonight was a little weird. They played TWO Bachata tracks as well as TWO Cha Cha Cha tracks. A small number of Salsa tracks were Cuban. After having been to some SOS nights with nothing but Salsa, this was a bit of a surprise and a turn-off for me. Because of Ray Barretto passing away this week, at least 3 Barretto tracks were played. I think I recognized two of the three (one was Indestructible, which is a bit too fast for my taste) – the DJ seemed to have chosen the fastest Barretto songs available. [note added later: Ray Barretto tracks were apparently Swing La Moderna, Indestructible, El Hijo de Obatala, and Que Viva La Musica.] They tried to make a tribute to Ray Barretto couple of times during the night, but it seemed to have caused more confusion than anything else – especially as to whether people were supposed to dance to these tribute songs or not. There were two birthday dances – also announced in a sloppy manner. There were all kinds of technical problems – including something like 20 seconds of total sound system failure. The volume of the music was never very high to begin with and it was further lowered during the last hour – actually make it last 3/4 hour because SOS decided to close 15 minutes early once again – like last week. It would seem that whatever soundproofing work they have done (if any) was not deemed sufficient. I wonder if things like early closure and forced lowering of the music volume caused some people to stay way this week. If the kind of problems that plagued SOS tonight were to continue, I think they’ll be in big trouble. As for me, I’m trying to cut down on my Salsa activities a little. With the problems continuing at SOS and also with M11 road works causing traffic delays, I feel a lot less inclined to return to SOS regularly – certainly not every week.
Despite it all, dancing was pretty good on the whole. However, I’m also beginning to notice a lot of sloppiness too. I guess I’m sloppy too but… As I was leaving, yet another person (someone I danced with for the first time) asked me whether I was going to be at Bar Salsa tomorrow night. Hmmm. I really ought to make time for Bar Salsa one of these days, but I really should try to cut down!
I’m going to be at Club Salsa on Monday and Thursday this week. This is by no means an endorsement or a statement to the effect that these two nights are better than others in Cambridge; I have my own reasons for finding these two nights particularly intriguing at the moment. As for other days of the week, my first priority will be work – meaning unless I will not shortchange or sacrifice work to go Salsa dancing.
Another thought… I wonder if I have been badmouthing various things about Salsa lately in order to help me cut down the amount of time I’m spending on going out dancing? Amusing thought, but probably wrong. My life-long training to be analytical and critical of everything is the real reason - that plus lack of discretion and time and inability to stop myself from flaunting and showboating and generally making a big spectacle of myself. As I said elsewhere, I'm going to take a break from being critical or overly negative for a little while.
Shine of the day (Level 3 – taught by the tall guy and Miriam)
1 L foot forward with R foot crossed behind L foot (no weight on R foot)
2 R foot back
3 L foot together
5 R foot back
6 L foot in place and R foot cross behind L foot (no weight on R foot)
7&8 R foot back and L foot cross in front of R foot (no weight on L foot)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 both feet slide backwards (keeping rest of the body staying in place for as long as possible)
1,2,3 basic
5 R foot back (pointing slightly to R?)
6 L foot slide long forward with R foot coming along
7,8 cha cha cha
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly back
3 L foot slightly back and to L of R foot
4 R foot cross over in front of L foot
5 L foot slightly back
6 R foot to normal standing position
7 L foot cross over in front of R foot
1 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
5,6,7 R foot cross over in front of L foot while keeping weight on L foot and R foot slide to R and back to L and crossing over in front of L foot (arms can be pointing directions opposite of R foot at the same time)
1 start over (infinite loop)
Arm and body movement during the shine seemed fairly natural to me (aside from the last 5,6,7, which took a small amount of practice).
Partner work
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a stationary double clockwise turn for follower with L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn for follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot full clockwise turn followed by double stationary clockwise turn for follower with L-R and with leader turning 1/2 clockwise and switching to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and R-R goes over follower’s head while making L-L connection in front and lead follower into traveling full clockwise turn with L-L low for a wrap (R hand can be used for this lead with it on follower’s R shoulder) – leader positioned slightly to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and turn follower around 1/2 clockwise with switch to R-L and lead follower to free 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn ending with leader’s L hand catching follower’s back reaching from her L side
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower forward and reach for follower’s back with R hand from her R side and lead her into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader also turning counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 change the line by 180 and cross body lead
The next to last bit was voted over a simpler version. I tweaked my shoulder while trying this. Otherwise, this seemed like nothing more than a simple review of things I’ve seen many times. Maybe I’m also reaching a point of diminishing returns with Level 3 classes at SOS. The shine was piece of cake as well with caveat that just because I could do this in class setting does not mean I could lead the routine or do the shine with ease in social dance setting with fast tempo song.
I arrived at 6:45 PM in part because the organizers said that they plan to start classes at 6:45 PM this week. The classes started at 7 PM with another announcement that they will try to start the classes at 6:45 PM next week. Many of the people, whom I have come to enjoy dancing with at SOS, were absent tonight. While finding dance partners was not a problem still, they were missed. The music tonight was a little weird. They played TWO Bachata tracks as well as TWO Cha Cha Cha tracks. A small number of Salsa tracks were Cuban. After having been to some SOS nights with nothing but Salsa, this was a bit of a surprise and a turn-off for me. Because of Ray Barretto passing away this week, at least 3 Barretto tracks were played. I think I recognized two of the three (one was Indestructible, which is a bit too fast for my taste) – the DJ seemed to have chosen the fastest Barretto songs available. [note added later: Ray Barretto tracks were apparently Swing La Moderna, Indestructible, El Hijo de Obatala, and Que Viva La Musica.] They tried to make a tribute to Ray Barretto couple of times during the night, but it seemed to have caused more confusion than anything else – especially as to whether people were supposed to dance to these tribute songs or not. There were two birthday dances – also announced in a sloppy manner. There were all kinds of technical problems – including something like 20 seconds of total sound system failure. The volume of the music was never very high to begin with and it was further lowered during the last hour – actually make it last 3/4 hour because SOS decided to close 15 minutes early once again – like last week. It would seem that whatever soundproofing work they have done (if any) was not deemed sufficient. I wonder if things like early closure and forced lowering of the music volume caused some people to stay way this week. If the kind of problems that plagued SOS tonight were to continue, I think they’ll be in big trouble. As for me, I’m trying to cut down on my Salsa activities a little. With the problems continuing at SOS and also with M11 road works causing traffic delays, I feel a lot less inclined to return to SOS regularly – certainly not every week.
Despite it all, dancing was pretty good on the whole. However, I’m also beginning to notice a lot of sloppiness too. I guess I’m sloppy too but… As I was leaving, yet another person (someone I danced with for the first time) asked me whether I was going to be at Bar Salsa tomorrow night. Hmmm. I really ought to make time for Bar Salsa one of these days, but I really should try to cut down!
I’m going to be at Club Salsa on Monday and Thursday this week. This is by no means an endorsement or a statement to the effect that these two nights are better than others in Cambridge; I have my own reasons for finding these two nights particularly intriguing at the moment. As for other days of the week, my first priority will be work – meaning unless I will not shortchange or sacrifice work to go Salsa dancing.
Another thought… I wonder if I have been badmouthing various things about Salsa lately in order to help me cut down the amount of time I’m spending on going out dancing? Amusing thought, but probably wrong. My life-long training to be analytical and critical of everything is the real reason - that plus lack of discretion and time and inability to stop myself from flaunting and showboating and generally making a big spectacle of myself. As I said elsewhere, I'm going to take a break from being critical or overly negative for a little while.
Ray Barretto dies at age 76
February 18, 2006
A few different versions of his obituary can be found in LA Times, NewJersey.com, Associated Press and of course The New York Times.
The first Ray Barretto track I heard was Acid - courtesy of Sergio at CDC. My initial reaction was, "Is this Salsa?" Acid gets played a lot especially in class settings and often for practicing shines at SOS and at Salsa Congresses.
Check his album Salsa Caliente De Nu York! to sample some of his biggest Salsa hits (courtesy of Amazon).
A few different versions of his obituary can be found in LA Times, NewJersey.com, Associated Press and of course The New York Times.
The first Ray Barretto track I heard was Acid - courtesy of Sergio at CDC. My initial reaction was, "Is this Salsa?" Acid gets played a lot especially in class settings and often for practicing shines at SOS and at Salsa Congresses.
Check his album Salsa Caliente De Nu York! to sample some of his biggest Salsa hits (courtesy of Amazon).
Salsa Romantica at the LeL, St. Ives
February 17, 2006
Sally intermediate
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with L-R high
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break with L-R and approach follower on the right side with R hand on follower’s L shoulder (or was it just me who used this L hand on shoulder stuff?) and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 switch to R-L open break? or was it cross body lead? and 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower – bring R-L down so that it ends up behind follower’s R back waist – leader does hook turn ~7 (try to end so that getting into cross body position is easy for the next part) and switch to L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect with R-R – cross body lead and 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower to get back into open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead and into 1 1/2 traveling turn with R-L low throughout and L-R high temporarily for a wrap
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn with R-L on follower’s R shoulder (L-R could be behind leader’s head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with L-R going down and up
1,2,3,5,6,7 switch to crossed hold with L-L on top and into cross body lead and into Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 follower’s styling (R foot cross over L foot on 1, L over R on 2, R over L on 3, bring leader’s R hand to follower’s stomach, undulate, lead self into 1 1/2 clockwise turn to get back into open position) … as leader, you just let follower do whatever she wants
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s hat with L-L and cross body lead (with extra turn if desired)
The routine was fairly long but it felt like more of an improver level class compared to many of the Sally’s intermediate classes at Club Salsa last year. So not only do different teachers have different definition of intermediate, but a same teacher may use a different definition depending on the venue (or students). On second thought, maybe the difficulty of the material is the same and that I simply got better so that this routine feels like a piece of cake now. Now if harder stuff would just get easier to do consistently.
It seemed like most of the Cambridge regulars (and not a regular at LeL) who decided to venture out to LeL tonight might have been men rather than women. I could be wrong. Some people I haven’t seen for a long time are apparently regulars here.
The venue is very large. The dance floor takes up perhaps 1/3 of the floor space or perhaps less. The dance floor alone is essentially the same size as entire danceable surface (and not just the main floor) of Club Salsa. Some obstacles like pillars/beam exist to make the effective danceable area smaller; this is similar to Po Na Na Cambridge. Some parts of the floor were sticky, but it might have due to spilled drink and may not be a permanent problem.
There must have been at least 4 different DJs tonight of varying quality. There was a stretch of 4-8 songs I liked because it reminded me of SOS, but this stretch also included my 3 rejections for a dance in a row. I don’t think anyone else said no to me before or after - so it was just bad timing. Either that or I asked wrong people at wrong time. I didn't expect to hear New Swing Sextet (an oldie from 1969) (Also see links here. It is listed in Mr. Bongo's catalog) and wasn't able to find a dance partner of it. Oh well – a lot of good songs wasted. Even in London, there are people who don't like that song (My Favorite Things), possibly because they had bad experience with it or perhaps because it's overplayed there - I have no idea.
Joe Davids and his friends made an appearance – a mild surprise for me. They certainly made the evening more interesting although I really didn’t feel like I took full advantage of it. By the way, even if Joe’s dancing is nothing to write home about (he did a demonstration/show on-2), he does really well coming off as appearing considerate, caring and well-meaning towards other people. This shows off not just in his dancing but also in his interactions with people when not dancing as well. He certainly impressed heck out of me – it’s no surprise that he’s successful in the Salsa world. Assuming that the way I have seen him act is the way he is most of the time if not all the time (and I’m beginning to suspect that he’s like this most of the time – although I imagine that he must have some ruthless side too in order to be a successful businessman), he should have no problem extracting loyalty from his underlings and his customers. I also liked his friends a lot more than I did the first night – familiarity might have helped. Having said that, I still am not enthused with his music choices from last couple of times at Club Salsa.
Nobody's perfect. Vishal for one I think is amazing for having started and keeping up Club Salsa in a small market like Cambridge. However, when he comes in to substitute as the DJ, my gut reaction is, "Oh well. The music selection is going to get very limited. And he's going to use those annoying tricks like looping and fusing." Also, I'll never claim that I'm perfect.
In any case, maybe I should stop complaining and try not to be seen too critical. After all, having seen some of the other clubs in London other than SOS, I would venture to guess that Club Salsa stacks fairly well compared to many places in London. But hey - it could always get better!
For the most part, dancing tonight felt incomplete for me – parts were just not adding up although there were snippets of nice interesting moments – mostly me showing off. My dances do not have to be perfect – in my case, it never is (I always make some mistakes) – and not many evenings are magical; I just want it to be closer to perfect and more frequently magical. Oh well. I guess I’m being greedy because life is pretty good right now all things considered. Not to say that I live in the best of all possible worlds or that life is happiness indeed, I know of people who are envious of kind of life I have had - at least on paper and without a full context. Whatever. In any case, I might have to give myself another dose of SOS this weekend.
Sally intermediate
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with L-R high
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break with L-R and approach follower on the right side with R hand on follower’s L shoulder (or was it just me who used this L hand on shoulder stuff?) and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 switch to R-L open break? or was it cross body lead? and 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower – bring R-L down so that it ends up behind follower’s R back waist – leader does hook turn ~7 (try to end so that getting into cross body position is easy for the next part) and switch to L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect with R-R – cross body lead and 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower to get back into open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead and into 1 1/2 traveling turn with R-L low throughout and L-R high temporarily for a wrap
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn with R-L on follower’s R shoulder (L-R could be behind leader’s head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with L-R going down and up
1,2,3,5,6,7 switch to crossed hold with L-L on top and into cross body lead and into Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 follower’s styling (R foot cross over L foot on 1, L over R on 2, R over L on 3, bring leader’s R hand to follower’s stomach, undulate, lead self into 1 1/2 clockwise turn to get back into open position) … as leader, you just let follower do whatever she wants
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s hat with L-L and cross body lead (with extra turn if desired)
The routine was fairly long but it felt like more of an improver level class compared to many of the Sally’s intermediate classes at Club Salsa last year. So not only do different teachers have different definition of intermediate, but a same teacher may use a different definition depending on the venue (or students). On second thought, maybe the difficulty of the material is the same and that I simply got better so that this routine feels like a piece of cake now. Now if harder stuff would just get easier to do consistently.
It seemed like most of the Cambridge regulars (and not a regular at LeL) who decided to venture out to LeL tonight might have been men rather than women. I could be wrong. Some people I haven’t seen for a long time are apparently regulars here.
The venue is very large. The dance floor takes up perhaps 1/3 of the floor space or perhaps less. The dance floor alone is essentially the same size as entire danceable surface (and not just the main floor) of Club Salsa. Some obstacles like pillars/beam exist to make the effective danceable area smaller; this is similar to Po Na Na Cambridge. Some parts of the floor were sticky, but it might have due to spilled drink and may not be a permanent problem.
There must have been at least 4 different DJs tonight of varying quality. There was a stretch of 4-8 songs I liked because it reminded me of SOS, but this stretch also included my 3 rejections for a dance in a row. I don’t think anyone else said no to me before or after - so it was just bad timing. Either that or I asked wrong people at wrong time. I didn't expect to hear New Swing Sextet (an oldie from 1969) (Also see links here. It is listed in Mr. Bongo's catalog) and wasn't able to find a dance partner of it. Oh well – a lot of good songs wasted. Even in London, there are people who don't like that song (My Favorite Things), possibly because they had bad experience with it or perhaps because it's overplayed there - I have no idea.
Joe Davids and his friends made an appearance – a mild surprise for me. They certainly made the evening more interesting although I really didn’t feel like I took full advantage of it. By the way, even if Joe’s dancing is nothing to write home about (he did a demonstration/show on-2), he does really well coming off as appearing considerate, caring and well-meaning towards other people. This shows off not just in his dancing but also in his interactions with people when not dancing as well. He certainly impressed heck out of me – it’s no surprise that he’s successful in the Salsa world. Assuming that the way I have seen him act is the way he is most of the time if not all the time (and I’m beginning to suspect that he’s like this most of the time – although I imagine that he must have some ruthless side too in order to be a successful businessman), he should have no problem extracting loyalty from his underlings and his customers. I also liked his friends a lot more than I did the first night – familiarity might have helped. Having said that, I still am not enthused with his music choices from last couple of times at Club Salsa.
Nobody's perfect. Vishal for one I think is amazing for having started and keeping up Club Salsa in a small market like Cambridge. However, when he comes in to substitute as the DJ, my gut reaction is, "Oh well. The music selection is going to get very limited. And he's going to use those annoying tricks like looping and fusing." Also, I'll never claim that I'm perfect.
In any case, maybe I should stop complaining and try not to be seen too critical. After all, having seen some of the other clubs in London other than SOS, I would venture to guess that Club Salsa stacks fairly well compared to many places in London. But hey - it could always get better!
For the most part, dancing tonight felt incomplete for me – parts were just not adding up although there were snippets of nice interesting moments – mostly me showing off. My dances do not have to be perfect – in my case, it never is (I always make some mistakes) – and not many evenings are magical; I just want it to be closer to perfect and more frequently magical. Oh well. I guess I’m being greedy because life is pretty good right now all things considered. Not to say that I live in the best of all possible worlds or that life is happiness indeed, I know of people who are envious of kind of life I have had - at least on paper and without a full context. Whatever. In any case, I might have to give myself another dose of SOS this weekend.
People, Space and Music
February 16, 2006
Ivan & Sally Intermediate (I probably will need to re-examine this note thoroughly)
crossed hold L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead into Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7 hands down and up on 1,2,3 and then follower is turned around 5 (1/2 to 3/4 turn clockwise depending on the speed of music) with R-R (L-L is let go), catch follower’s L hand with L hand (follower’s hand should be at waist level) and stop follower’s clockwise motion and lead her into a full counterclockwise stationary turn instead
[note: A similar type of catch, stop and lead a stationary counterclockwise turn can be done from an open position starting with normal hold – in this case, R-L is usually at chest level rather than waist level so L-L catch and stop would happen at chest level rather than at waist level. I think I saw this version first in a class by Sergio and probably saw it again one or more times thereafter. Because of this experience, I kept having my L hand at chest level instead of at waist level and thus failing to connect properly in practices after the class. In cases where the follower can easily see the hand being offered, the hand in question can be at a higher elevation. In cases where it’s not so easy for the follower to see the hand well in advance (e.g. because follower was facing away), maybe trying to make new connections at or closer to waist level is a good practice in general. In any case, I’ll have to test this and see if it is a useful general principle.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break on 1 – reconnect R-R and overtake (somewhat like reverse cross body lead but instead of facing follower on 3/4, keep body forward and towards the direction from which the follower came from with R-R pointing back towards the direction from which the leader came from) – disconnect L-L – lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R toss (moving in counterclockwise motion) and reconnect L-R by leader’s L waist
[note: I think there was another version taught in the class but I can’t remember the details of this alternate version.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with L-R ending in a wrap at follower’s L back waist
1,2,3 open break and overtake follower from right with R-L connection made at higher elevation and with L-R kept low
5,6,7 keeping a very neutral lead and thus not giving a turn signal, go around to follower’s R side – both now facing the same direction – stay in line and stay close – L-R is no longer wrapping follower on 8 and is pointing forward
1,2,3 get back to follower’s L side with L-R ending up wrapping follower with the connection at follower’s front R waist (bring L-R back on 1 and over follower’s head to get to this position)
5,6,7 lead follower to walk backwards together
1,2,3,5,6,7 L foot back and into open cross body position – lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise(?) turn and end with L-R toss under R-L to get back into open hold (as opposed to double crossed hold – this could be done during basic on next 1-8)
Because I did not have access to my laptop after the Thursday class/club and because I had no time on Friday, this note was written down during wee hours of Saturday morning. I most certainly will need to go through this routine with a dance partner make sure that this note is essentially correct. This was a toughie to write because of having to wait an extra day before putting it down on paper.
During the second hour of the classes, I sat in on the improver class this time in part because there didn’t seem to be large excess of leaders this week. The class was about Reverse cross body lead with some fillers like pivot turns and hats. I think next week’s lessons for improvers will be about Copa. Ivan’s designs for the improver class may be evolving (a pure speculation on my part). During the first couple of weeks, improver classes were seemingly about doing easier version of intermediate class routines. This was followed by one-time only Cuban class. I didn’t see the material for the improver class for last two weeks so I could only guess the material taught then. Based in part upon what I saw and heard today, I would guess that the classes this week and next couple of weeks are designed to build towards the intermediate workshop to be held on March. It seems like a very reasonable plan designed so that most people who attends all the classes and the workshop should have excellent chance of becoming highly proficient with many variations of cross body leads with turns and reverse cross body/Copa. This would make sense especially if last two weeks of improvers dealt with cross body leads with turns (often ending in wraps). Hmm. I could easily envision Ivan’s six weeks of improver classes being remarkably similar to part of a syllabus proposal for 8-week Salsa course I wrote up for fun back in December (unpublished) but with a workshop to cap it off. It would make a great deal of sense to teach double stationary turns for the Thursday improver class couple of days before the workshop (and quite possibly ~10 days before the workshop as well).
For someone to venture to a high profile London venue to dance NY/LA/CBL style Salsa at social level and have a decent chance of getting good number of dances, ability to lead or follow a double stationary turn with ease is essentially a requirement. A follower who finds double turns challenging is likely to be unsteady when doing 1 1/2 traveling turns and often failing to stay in line during this maneuver. If the follower cannot stay in line during 1 1/2 turns, a good (or at least a careful or conservative) leader would not be willing to lead it in more crowded conditions (unfortunately a fairly sparse conditions at Club Salsa would be considered packed in many other places) and probably refrain from using large part of his repertoire. Thinking about this more, I think this might be one reason why many other leaders abandon using CBL with rather large number of followers, with whom I am a lot more willing to try to lead CBL – even if I don’t always succeed in keeping follower to stay in line consistently. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is causing more harm than good in the long run. I seem to have become quite adept at predicting/anticipating/correcting aberrant movements from the follower to a point where compensating for follower has almost become second nature. Again, I'm not sure if this is all good. At this point, the only thing that really bothers me is dancing with followers who cannot stay in time to music in addition to being erratic and wild. I usually try my best to avoid people who cannot stay in time (with exceptions made sometimes for people I have known for a long time), but I can’t always avoid them – sometimes by mistake and sometimes because I don’t think I’m really allowed to refuse a dance when a follower asks me.
What are most important factors in having an enjoyable night of dancing? I would rank - #1 people you dance with, #2 dance space and #3 music. Some people may order them differently and I may reorder them in the future. Convergence of all three factors working out in one’s favor for most of the night is not common – but then again, I suppose there will always be times when it’s more fun than usual or just as when it’s not quite as fun doing anything. As long as things get better as times goes by most of the times (as it has for me thus far), I should be and would be content.
I was pleased and somewhat surprised to hear Pantera Mambo (by LA 33 (La Treinta y Tres)) being played by Ivan during the club hours. Last week, someone was trying to convince Vishal to get this song and album (seemingly without much success). I like this song (I’ve heard this at both SOS and at the Brit Salsafest) quite a bit so I had been looking into buying a copy for myself (I should add that there are many other songs I like just as much). I feel that people at Club Salsa don’t get to hear a lot of new music (songs released in 2005 or even 2004) or classic old music (from 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or even 80’s!). Even when new music is available, DJs are sometimes afraid to use it. For example, I was flabbergasted to learn that Vishal had the album "I Love Salsa" by N'Klabe (or at least I think that's what he said when I played a track from the album few Sundays ago) but never played anything from it.
Many Salsa CDs are not easy to find. In the case of LA 33, I had only found two internet sellers in my initial search - Descarga and Prodland. Both sellers are less than perfect. Descarga is rather expensive both in terms of CD pricing and shipping cost. Descarga supposedly isn’t very fast with their delivery either. Prodland has been really bad about responding to my purchase requests; they often don’t have what they advertise as being available. When something is not available, they simply cancel the order rather than shipping it when it becomes available without much of an explanation. Prodland also takes fairly long to process orders. Amazon and other vendors accessible via Amazon (I have dealt many times with a very-well run an Amazon-affiliated company called Caiman) are much better about speed of delivery as well as offering CDs at lower cost, but their selections are fairly limited. I talked about all with Ivan (who by the way apparently is a staunch believer in anti-piracy and supporting musicians – I on the other hand generally prefer to buy my own copy of music I like (I probably bought over 300 CDs in my lifetime) but I must also have 5-10 CDs worth of music I copied from my parents), and he recommended a UK based vendor specializing in Latin music called Mr. Bongo.
I liked tonight’s dancing – a lot - it didn't really matter that it wasn't SOS or Congress quality. I should be and would be content as long as it keeps getting better and better.
Ivan & Sally Intermediate (I probably will need to re-examine this note thoroughly)
crossed hold L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead into Titanic
1,2,3,5,6,7 hands down and up on 1,2,3 and then follower is turned around 5 (1/2 to 3/4 turn clockwise depending on the speed of music) with R-R (L-L is let go), catch follower’s L hand with L hand (follower’s hand should be at waist level) and stop follower’s clockwise motion and lead her into a full counterclockwise stationary turn instead
[note: A similar type of catch, stop and lead a stationary counterclockwise turn can be done from an open position starting with normal hold – in this case, R-L is usually at chest level rather than waist level so L-L catch and stop would happen at chest level rather than at waist level. I think I saw this version first in a class by Sergio and probably saw it again one or more times thereafter. Because of this experience, I kept having my L hand at chest level instead of at waist level and thus failing to connect properly in practices after the class. In cases where the follower can easily see the hand being offered, the hand in question can be at a higher elevation. In cases where it’s not so easy for the follower to see the hand well in advance (e.g. because follower was facing away), maybe trying to make new connections at or closer to waist level is a good practice in general. In any case, I’ll have to test this and see if it is a useful general principle.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break on 1 – reconnect R-R and overtake (somewhat like reverse cross body lead but instead of facing follower on 3/4, keep body forward and towards the direction from which the follower came from with R-R pointing back towards the direction from which the leader came from) – disconnect L-L – lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R toss (moving in counterclockwise motion) and reconnect L-R by leader’s L waist
[note: I think there was another version taught in the class but I can’t remember the details of this alternate version.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with L-R ending in a wrap at follower’s L back waist
1,2,3 open break and overtake follower from right with R-L connection made at higher elevation and with L-R kept low
5,6,7 keeping a very neutral lead and thus not giving a turn signal, go around to follower’s R side – both now facing the same direction – stay in line and stay close – L-R is no longer wrapping follower on 8 and is pointing forward
1,2,3 get back to follower’s L side with L-R ending up wrapping follower with the connection at follower’s front R waist (bring L-R back on 1 and over follower’s head to get to this position)
5,6,7 lead follower to walk backwards together
1,2,3,5,6,7 L foot back and into open cross body position – lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise(?) turn and end with L-R toss under R-L to get back into open hold (as opposed to double crossed hold – this could be done during basic on next 1-8)
Because I did not have access to my laptop after the Thursday class/club and because I had no time on Friday, this note was written down during wee hours of Saturday morning. I most certainly will need to go through this routine with a dance partner make sure that this note is essentially correct. This was a toughie to write because of having to wait an extra day before putting it down on paper.
During the second hour of the classes, I sat in on the improver class this time in part because there didn’t seem to be large excess of leaders this week. The class was about Reverse cross body lead with some fillers like pivot turns and hats. I think next week’s lessons for improvers will be about Copa. Ivan’s designs for the improver class may be evolving (a pure speculation on my part). During the first couple of weeks, improver classes were seemingly about doing easier version of intermediate class routines. This was followed by one-time only Cuban class. I didn’t see the material for the improver class for last two weeks so I could only guess the material taught then. Based in part upon what I saw and heard today, I would guess that the classes this week and next couple of weeks are designed to build towards the intermediate workshop to be held on March. It seems like a very reasonable plan designed so that most people who attends all the classes and the workshop should have excellent chance of becoming highly proficient with many variations of cross body leads with turns and reverse cross body/Copa. This would make sense especially if last two weeks of improvers dealt with cross body leads with turns (often ending in wraps). Hmm. I could easily envision Ivan’s six weeks of improver classes being remarkably similar to part of a syllabus proposal for 8-week Salsa course I wrote up for fun back in December (unpublished) but with a workshop to cap it off. It would make a great deal of sense to teach double stationary turns for the Thursday improver class couple of days before the workshop (and quite possibly ~10 days before the workshop as well).
For someone to venture to a high profile London venue to dance NY/LA/CBL style Salsa at social level and have a decent chance of getting good number of dances, ability to lead or follow a double stationary turn with ease is essentially a requirement. A follower who finds double turns challenging is likely to be unsteady when doing 1 1/2 traveling turns and often failing to stay in line during this maneuver. If the follower cannot stay in line during 1 1/2 turns, a good (or at least a careful or conservative) leader would not be willing to lead it in more crowded conditions (unfortunately a fairly sparse conditions at Club Salsa would be considered packed in many other places) and probably refrain from using large part of his repertoire. Thinking about this more, I think this might be one reason why many other leaders abandon using CBL with rather large number of followers, with whom I am a lot more willing to try to lead CBL – even if I don’t always succeed in keeping follower to stay in line consistently. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is causing more harm than good in the long run. I seem to have become quite adept at predicting/anticipating/correcting aberrant movements from the follower to a point where compensating for follower has almost become second nature. Again, I'm not sure if this is all good. At this point, the only thing that really bothers me is dancing with followers who cannot stay in time to music in addition to being erratic and wild. I usually try my best to avoid people who cannot stay in time (with exceptions made sometimes for people I have known for a long time), but I can’t always avoid them – sometimes by mistake and sometimes because I don’t think I’m really allowed to refuse a dance when a follower asks me.
What are most important factors in having an enjoyable night of dancing? I would rank - #1 people you dance with, #2 dance space and #3 music. Some people may order them differently and I may reorder them in the future. Convergence of all three factors working out in one’s favor for most of the night is not common – but then again, I suppose there will always be times when it’s more fun than usual or just as when it’s not quite as fun doing anything. As long as things get better as times goes by most of the times (as it has for me thus far), I should be and would be content.
I was pleased and somewhat surprised to hear Pantera Mambo (by LA 33 (La Treinta y Tres)) being played by Ivan during the club hours. Last week, someone was trying to convince Vishal to get this song and album (seemingly without much success). I like this song (I’ve heard this at both SOS and at the Brit Salsafest) quite a bit so I had been looking into buying a copy for myself (I should add that there are many other songs I like just as much). I feel that people at Club Salsa don’t get to hear a lot of new music (songs released in 2005 or even 2004) or classic old music (from 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or even 80’s!). Even when new music is available, DJs are sometimes afraid to use it. For example, I was flabbergasted to learn that Vishal had the album "I Love Salsa" by N'Klabe (or at least I think that's what he said when I played a track from the album few Sundays ago) but never played anything from it.
Many Salsa CDs are not easy to find. In the case of LA 33, I had only found two internet sellers in my initial search - Descarga and Prodland. Both sellers are less than perfect. Descarga is rather expensive both in terms of CD pricing and shipping cost. Descarga supposedly isn’t very fast with their delivery either. Prodland has been really bad about responding to my purchase requests; they often don’t have what they advertise as being available. When something is not available, they simply cancel the order rather than shipping it when it becomes available without much of an explanation. Prodland also takes fairly long to process orders. Amazon and other vendors accessible via Amazon (I have dealt many times with a very-well run an Amazon-affiliated company called Caiman) are much better about speed of delivery as well as offering CDs at lower cost, but their selections are fairly limited. I talked about all with Ivan (who by the way apparently is a staunch believer in anti-piracy and supporting musicians – I on the other hand generally prefer to buy my own copy of music I like (I probably bought over 300 CDs in my lifetime) but I must also have 5-10 CDs worth of music I copied from my parents), and he recommended a UK based vendor specializing in Latin music called Mr. Bongo.
I liked tonight’s dancing – a lot - it didn't really matter that it wasn't SOS or Congress quality. I should be and would be content as long as it keeps getting better and better.
Arriving later and with diminishing returns
February 15, 2006
I didn't getthere to Club Salsa until 10:45 PM - latest arrival thus far yet. Things were beginning to wind down by the time I arrived - fairly normal for a weeknight at Club Salsa. I ended up having only four low-key dances and some shine practices. If I cannot get there earlier, maybe I should just call it a night from now on.
One thing I noted was that with just 2 Bachata CDs, I arguably have the best and most up-to-date collection of Bachata music in Cambridge. Between my 2 CDs, I have 10 Bachata songs I would rather listen and dance to over any of the Bachata that is currently being played at Club Salsa. Wednesdays is the only night at Club Salsa when more than a couple of Bachata track is played on a given night, and on other nights one or two same tired tracks gets played if at all (added Feb 17). Maybe what I need to do is to bring my music collections to Club Salsa more often. I think the Salsa song selection at Club Salsa also is very limited (some nights are better than others) but I am very unsatisfied with the Bachata selectionsare just dreadful.
For whatever it's worth, Bachata songs I'd play from my 2 CD collection are as follows (in no particular order)
by Toque D'Keda - Te Extrano, Debo Pensar, Pecado, No Me Resigno, Lamento Boliviano, Quiero Hacerte el Amor
by Dominic M - Ven Tu, Senora, La Quiero, You Will Remember Me
[Note: I usually don't bother showing changes I made to the original post, but I thought certain things might lose context otherwise (see comments below).strikethroughs indicate deletions from the original post while underlines show additions to the original post.]
I didn't get
One thing I noted was that with just 2 Bachata CDs, I arguably have the best and most up-to-date collection of Bachata music in Cambridge. Between my 2 CDs, I have 10 Bachata songs I would rather listen and dance to over any of the Bachata that is currently being played at Club Salsa. Wednesdays is the only night at Club Salsa when more than a couple of Bachata track is played on a given night, and on other nights one or two same tired tracks gets played if at all (added Feb 17). Maybe what I need to do is to bring my music collections to Club Salsa more often. I think the Salsa song selection at Club Salsa also is very limited (some nights are better than others) but I am very unsatisfied with the Bachata selections
For whatever it's worth, Bachata songs I'd play from my 2 CD collection are as follows (in no particular order)
by Toque D'Keda - Te Extrano, Debo Pensar, Pecado, No Me Resigno, Lamento Boliviano, Quiero Hacerte el Amor
by Dominic M - Ven Tu, Senora, La Quiero, You Will Remember Me
[Note: I usually don't bother showing changes I made to the original post, but I thought certain things might lose context otherwise (see comments below).
Official Brit Salsafest Photographs
February 14, 2006
Official photographs thus far only of the first night (including the party) of Brit Salsafest are now available. Some people from Cambridge should be recognizable, including yours truly with varying degrees of horrifying expression and body position (and to think Tony thought it was going to look good). I guess it's not easy to take good photos of people dancing unless they take many different shots? It is mostly the Salsa celebrities like Edie and Super Mario (and other teachers, performers and organizers), who gets multiple-shot treatment. I don't think I was photographed by the official photographer on Saturday or Sunday.
Londonsalsa.co.uk photographs of Brit Salsafest (they also have some Cambridge folks) can be found here.
Official photographs thus far only of the first night (including the party) of Brit Salsafest are now available. Some people from Cambridge should be recognizable, including yours truly with varying degrees of horrifying expression and body position (and to think Tony thought it was going to look good). I guess it's not easy to take good photos of people dancing unless they take many different shots? It is mostly the Salsa celebrities like Edie and Super Mario (and other teachers, performers and organizers), who gets multiple-shot treatment. I don't think I was photographed by the official photographer on Saturday or Sunday.
Londonsalsa.co.uk photographs of Brit Salsafest (they also have some Cambridge folks) can be found here.
Debut of Latin Collective at Club Salsa
February 13, 2006
Intermediate – Joe Davids & Dawn(?)
basic from closed position, cross body lead into open hold (New York hold optional)
1,2,3 start of cross body lead and R-L into Pizza waiter’s position for follower
5,6,7 lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn dropping R-L low (straight down) after the first 1/2 turn so that R-L ends up behind follower’s back R waist and leader is positioned slightly to L of follower
1,2,3 open break on 1 and bring follower forward on 2,3 while keeping R-L straight towards the direction from which follower came from (somewhat like a version of Copa in my opinion but it becomes something else) – I think leader’s body position is away from the follower’s line by 3 (I think leader and follower may end up nearly back-to-back on 3 also)
[note: a simpler version not involving leader’s turn on 5,6,7 but still with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower and without Copa-like lead on 3 was explained first]
4,5,6,7 R-L arcs high around along follower’s line and ends up (magically?) wrapped in front of follower’s R waist with leader and follower positioned in cross body position (thus leader turned another 1/2 turn while follower has turned 1 1/2 counterclockwise during this maneuver – leader’s R palm should be facing away from follower’s body – offer L hand in front of follower upon completion of this turn
1,2,3 stylized cross body start – L-R is used (get follower to look back if possible) to get follower to stylize on the start of the cross body (3 different options were suggested for leader’s footwork – step in place, step into follower's line and back, or L foot sliding behind R foot and back)
5,6,7 R-L is disconnected and R hand on follower’s back waist is used to lead follower forward on 5 and L-R is used to lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with leader also turning 1/2 clockwise on 7/8
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns clockwise to get back into cross body lead position and finish with a simple cross body lead
Fairly large number shines lasting a single measure (1,2,3,5,6,7) of music were taught; the type of shines taught were most similar in nature to shines taught by Johnny & Serap and Ivan & Sally as opposed to longer shines taught by Sergio, at SOS, at Brit Salsafest workshops and by Tony Lara. Joe claimed that there were 200-some shines out there; approximately 10-20 shines were covered tonight with each shine given a name (e.g. zombie).
From what I have seen thus far, most of the praise given to Joe Davids at londonsalsa.co.uk forum could be well-justified even if they sound a little too enthusiastic and optimistic for my taste. For the record, here are some excerpts (edited for brevity and clarity) given. Full unedited comment can be seen by clicking on writer's name at the top of each comment.
---
Litey
Dance is a language that is spoken without words - therefore it's incredibly difficult for students to remember a routine (or communicate it to others) without being able to translate the language of dance into something we can deal with in discrete pieces. Joe's encyclopaedic knowledge of the names of the techniques (which he imparts to his students) give us that dictionary - this is missing from nearly every teacher's lessons on the London circuit (except the very best – and there aren’t many), and why Joe's crystal clear breakdowns can be made to stick. Whilst other teachers show pieces of a routine and mark time calling one, two, three... Joe calls out the names of the moves which allow all students to progress quickly – mambo, cross-pass, back-charge, copa…
Joe's weekly classes are consistent, work around perfecting variations of a particular technique in a well planned syllabus, contain crystal clear breakdowns of footwork, attention to men's lead and additional reference to ladies styling.
Salsa Mouse
I've been taking Joe's classes for a few months now and have really enjoyed all of them!
The material he teaches is always systematic, so by the end of every few weeks you have learnt a number of variations on a theme before he moves onto the next thing. This makes it easier to remember moves and routines (something i have found more difficult with other teachers!). He is also open to suggestions and will sometimes alter the following week's material to include moves that people have requested.
His teaching style is very thorough, he teaches the footwork really well with lots of repetition, and he also watches as the class practise and then remarks on specific points that people had been getting wrong. I feel like I get a lot of feedback from him and he's always approachable both during and after the classes for questions. All of this means that usually by the end of a lesson everyone has managed to do the routine even if they originally found it challenging.
the tall guy
I have been practising Salsa for over half a year now in London and have visited the most popular places in the first and second Zone.
I was looking for a class that would offer me a consistent development path. A class I could go regularly and progress step by step. What was also very important for me is precision (or quality). Precision is what ultimately makes a difference and make some people achieve much while others stay the same or get worse as they struggle to perform more complex combinations with no technique.
This is why I recommend Joe's classes. Attend regularly and you will gain real understanding of how different combinations can be performed, combined and even learn their origins. You will be surprised by detailed but at the same time easy to understand instructions.
ihatemerengue
Right, I've never taken classes with Mr Davids, but he is a top bloke and often misunderstood for his enthusiastic promotion of events. I've seen him dance and although his dancing is nothing to write home about, he makes it look enjoyable to the ladies he's dancing with and doesn't seem to have what I call the 'Super Mario idiotic syndrome'. If you don't know what the 'Super Mario idiotic syndrome' is, watch Mario Hazarika a little when he's out social dancing; he makes a complete prat out of himself.
Anyway, keep up the good work, Mr Davids.
---
I’m not sure if a systemic approach will work for all new students, but I suspect the reductionist in me would have appreciated such an approach when I started learning to dance Salsa. In my case, I took a rather tortured and circuitous route where I started by spending nearly 3 months and close to 30 hours of lessons/workshops with two different teachers at the beginner level without ever trying to move up a level and still not able to lead cross body lead properly after all that. This was followed by a partial segue into Rueda (which helped me greatly with timing but not a great deal with partner dancing) and up to 5 lessons with 5 different set of teachers on one week 6 months after I started taking lessons before making a gradual immersion into cross body style Salsa as I started to deconstruct fundamentals of this style independently. It is impossible to know if I would have progressed would have been smoother and faster with a more consistent and systemic approach rather than switching back and forth between Cuban and CBL, etc. For what it's worth, Tony Lara once lamented on the old Salsa Mafia forum that he couldn’t tell if the results of his teaching were different between the times when he was teaching in drop-in type of classes and the times when he was using a more systemic and structured approach.
Joe Davids as a Salsa instructor is a fast-talker, which shows his background as a consultant. About half of the talk was about technique involved in the routine being taught, about a third was devoted to Salsa history (whether his stories are true or not is something I cannot verify, but some of the stories could be considered a part of a teaching tool - more on this later), and the rest were promotion. One of the stories Joe told would be considered provocative and even incendiary - Joe claimed that there is no such thing as LA style and that all Salsa styles can be grouped into 3 categories - New York, Puerto Rican, and Cuban. LA is supposedly a version of New York taking up a lot more space and danced on a different timing. By the way, I have heard of Puerto Rican style from couple of sources but I know very little about it except that it could be danced on-1 or on-2 with a lot of shines and that Tony Lara doesn't like it. So-called London style was dismissed as mishmash of things people in London do (strikingly similar to a statement I made at the Salsa Mafia forum last year (now defunct?) - presumably many people came to same conclusion independently and I doubt I was the first one to put forward such an opinion). A story that was more useful involved why New Yorkers decided to dance along a line - this is good because there are many people (none today by the way) taking supposedly LA intermediate or advanced level classes who still don’t understand that they should be dancing along a line. Promotions included couple of blurbs about Latin Collective and the events they organize; Latin Collective supposedly is the biggest UK Salsa organization and the second biggest in Europe. Of special interest to Cambridge is the start of monthly social at the Guildhall - probably starting in March in collaboration with Ivan & Sally as I mentioned here last week. Apparent target for the number of attendees for this monthly Guildhall event is 200-300 - not quite at same level with Scala Latina, which attracts well over 1000 people, but such a regular event would certainly confirm Cambridge as a major Salsa hub.
[note: Similar sized Salsa events have been done in the past year both by Johnny & Serap and by CDC. Johnny & Serap is also organizing another party on February 25th.]
After the class, I took part in the beginner class. My reason for doing this was mostly because they were very short on leaders but also to see how these guys taught the beginners. The class was considerably smaller than last couple of beginner class on Thursdays. While the material was essentially the same, there were some interesting stylistic differences, but I can't say whether one method is better than the others (incl. the first hour of more extensive Johnny & Serap 3 hour beginner workshop last month).
One of the things Joe stressed in class was safety. Thus it was amusing and shocking to see a guy I don't recall seeing before practicing and performing some very dangerous dips with his dance partner. I cringed because at one point because I thought the follower in question was less than a foot away from being decapitated by another couple, who were dancing fairly sedately. I don't know if this guy took part in any of the classes though; I don't recall seeing him in the intermediate or beginner class.
I had some pretty good dances tonight. The crowd was decent and so was the space. There was also good distribution of people of different level dancing. While the music was not very different from Friday, it was much easier to enjoy - presumably because of there being more space to dance. Unfortunately, the floor was very uneven with some very slippery spots. Hmmm. There were also a very large number of spectators after the class - possibly because of novelty value. It seemed like a good start - and we'll see how things go in coming weeks. The lead teacher for next week should be someone named Russell (but I could be wrong).
Unfortunately for me, the number of Salsa nights each week is getting beyond my threshold. There is no way I will do 4 nights or 3 lessons a week in Cambridge because Salsa is interfering with my work too much as is. Something will have to go; I had been meaning to cut down for some time. I might go as low as 1 lesson a week in Cambridge by end of February or March. The value of drop-in classes (or for that matter a "systemic" intermediate level classes) for me is mostly in tweaking and fine-tuning techniques rather than learning something very new - but I might change my mind on this too.
Intermediate – Joe Davids & Dawn(?)
basic from closed position, cross body lead into open hold (New York hold optional)
1,2,3 start of cross body lead and R-L into Pizza waiter’s position for follower
5,6,7 lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn dropping R-L low (straight down) after the first 1/2 turn so that R-L ends up behind follower’s back R waist and leader is positioned slightly to L of follower
1,2,3 open break on 1 and bring follower forward on 2,3 while keeping R-L straight towards the direction from which follower came from (somewhat like a version of Copa in my opinion but it becomes something else) – I think leader’s body position is away from the follower’s line by 3 (I think leader and follower may end up nearly back-to-back on 3 also)
[note: a simpler version not involving leader’s turn on 5,6,7 but still with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower and without Copa-like lead on 3 was explained first]
4,5,6,7 R-L arcs high around along follower’s line and ends up (magically?) wrapped in front of follower’s R waist with leader and follower positioned in cross body position (thus leader turned another 1/2 turn while follower has turned 1 1/2 counterclockwise during this maneuver – leader’s R palm should be facing away from follower’s body – offer L hand in front of follower upon completion of this turn
1,2,3 stylized cross body start – L-R is used (get follower to look back if possible) to get follower to stylize on the start of the cross body (3 different options were suggested for leader’s footwork – step in place, step into follower's line and back, or L foot sliding behind R foot and back)
5,6,7 R-L is disconnected and R hand on follower’s back waist is used to lead follower forward on 5 and L-R is used to lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with leader also turning 1/2 clockwise on 7/8
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns clockwise to get back into cross body lead position and finish with a simple cross body lead
Fairly large number shines lasting a single measure (1,2,3,5,6,7) of music were taught; the type of shines taught were most similar in nature to shines taught by Johnny & Serap and Ivan & Sally as opposed to longer shines taught by Sergio, at SOS, at Brit Salsafest workshops and by Tony Lara. Joe claimed that there were 200-some shines out there; approximately 10-20 shines were covered tonight with each shine given a name (e.g. zombie).
From what I have seen thus far, most of the praise given to Joe Davids at londonsalsa.co.uk forum could be well-justified even if they sound a little too enthusiastic and optimistic for my taste. For the record, here are some excerpts (edited for brevity and clarity) given. Full unedited comment can be seen by clicking on writer's name at the top of each comment.
---
Litey
Dance is a language that is spoken without words - therefore it's incredibly difficult for students to remember a routine (or communicate it to others) without being able to translate the language of dance into something we can deal with in discrete pieces. Joe's encyclopaedic knowledge of the names of the techniques (which he imparts to his students) give us that dictionary - this is missing from nearly every teacher's lessons on the London circuit (except the very best – and there aren’t many), and why Joe's crystal clear breakdowns can be made to stick. Whilst other teachers show pieces of a routine and mark time calling one, two, three... Joe calls out the names of the moves which allow all students to progress quickly – mambo, cross-pass, back-charge, copa…
Joe's weekly classes are consistent, work around perfecting variations of a particular technique in a well planned syllabus, contain crystal clear breakdowns of footwork, attention to men's lead and additional reference to ladies styling.
Salsa Mouse
I've been taking Joe's classes for a few months now and have really enjoyed all of them!
The material he teaches is always systematic, so by the end of every few weeks you have learnt a number of variations on a theme before he moves onto the next thing. This makes it easier to remember moves and routines (something i have found more difficult with other teachers!). He is also open to suggestions and will sometimes alter the following week's material to include moves that people have requested.
His teaching style is very thorough, he teaches the footwork really well with lots of repetition, and he also watches as the class practise and then remarks on specific points that people had been getting wrong. I feel like I get a lot of feedback from him and he's always approachable both during and after the classes for questions. All of this means that usually by the end of a lesson everyone has managed to do the routine even if they originally found it challenging.
the tall guy
I have been practising Salsa for over half a year now in London and have visited the most popular places in the first and second Zone.
I was looking for a class that would offer me a consistent development path. A class I could go regularly and progress step by step. What was also very important for me is precision (or quality). Precision is what ultimately makes a difference and make some people achieve much while others stay the same or get worse as they struggle to perform more complex combinations with no technique.
This is why I recommend Joe's classes. Attend regularly and you will gain real understanding of how different combinations can be performed, combined and even learn their origins. You will be surprised by detailed but at the same time easy to understand instructions.
ihatemerengue
Right, I've never taken classes with Mr Davids, but he is a top bloke and often misunderstood for his enthusiastic promotion of events. I've seen him dance and although his dancing is nothing to write home about, he makes it look enjoyable to the ladies he's dancing with and doesn't seem to have what I call the 'Super Mario idiotic syndrome'. If you don't know what the 'Super Mario idiotic syndrome' is, watch Mario Hazarika a little when he's out social dancing; he makes a complete prat out of himself.
Anyway, keep up the good work, Mr Davids.
---
I’m not sure if a systemic approach will work for all new students, but I suspect the reductionist in me would have appreciated such an approach when I started learning to dance Salsa. In my case, I took a rather tortured and circuitous route where I started by spending nearly 3 months and close to 30 hours of lessons/workshops with two different teachers at the beginner level without ever trying to move up a level and still not able to lead cross body lead properly after all that. This was followed by a partial segue into Rueda (which helped me greatly with timing but not a great deal with partner dancing) and up to 5 lessons with 5 different set of teachers on one week 6 months after I started taking lessons before making a gradual immersion into cross body style Salsa as I started to deconstruct fundamentals of this style independently. It is impossible to know if I would have progressed would have been smoother and faster with a more consistent and systemic approach rather than switching back and forth between Cuban and CBL, etc. For what it's worth, Tony Lara once lamented on the old Salsa Mafia forum that he couldn’t tell if the results of his teaching were different between the times when he was teaching in drop-in type of classes and the times when he was using a more systemic and structured approach.
Joe Davids as a Salsa instructor is a fast-talker, which shows his background as a consultant. About half of the talk was about technique involved in the routine being taught, about a third was devoted to Salsa history (whether his stories are true or not is something I cannot verify, but some of the stories could be considered a part of a teaching tool - more on this later), and the rest were promotion. One of the stories Joe told would be considered provocative and even incendiary - Joe claimed that there is no such thing as LA style and that all Salsa styles can be grouped into 3 categories - New York, Puerto Rican, and Cuban. LA is supposedly a version of New York taking up a lot more space and danced on a different timing. By the way, I have heard of Puerto Rican style from couple of sources but I know very little about it except that it could be danced on-1 or on-2 with a lot of shines and that Tony Lara doesn't like it. So-called London style was dismissed as mishmash of things people in London do (strikingly similar to a statement I made at the Salsa Mafia forum last year (now defunct?) - presumably many people came to same conclusion independently and I doubt I was the first one to put forward such an opinion). A story that was more useful involved why New Yorkers decided to dance along a line - this is good because there are many people (none today by the way) taking supposedly LA intermediate or advanced level classes who still don’t understand that they should be dancing along a line. Promotions included couple of blurbs about Latin Collective and the events they organize; Latin Collective supposedly is the biggest UK Salsa organization and the second biggest in Europe. Of special interest to Cambridge is the start of monthly social at the Guildhall - probably starting in March in collaboration with Ivan & Sally as I mentioned here last week. Apparent target for the number of attendees for this monthly Guildhall event is 200-300 - not quite at same level with Scala Latina, which attracts well over 1000 people, but such a regular event would certainly confirm Cambridge as a major Salsa hub.
[note: Similar sized Salsa events have been done in the past year both by Johnny & Serap and by CDC. Johnny & Serap is also organizing another party on February 25th.]
After the class, I took part in the beginner class. My reason for doing this was mostly because they were very short on leaders but also to see how these guys taught the beginners. The class was considerably smaller than last couple of beginner class on Thursdays. While the material was essentially the same, there were some interesting stylistic differences, but I can't say whether one method is better than the others (incl. the first hour of more extensive Johnny & Serap 3 hour beginner workshop last month).
One of the things Joe stressed in class was safety. Thus it was amusing and shocking to see a guy I don't recall seeing before practicing and performing some very dangerous dips with his dance partner. I cringed because at one point because I thought the follower in question was less than a foot away from being decapitated by another couple, who were dancing fairly sedately. I don't know if this guy took part in any of the classes though; I don't recall seeing him in the intermediate or beginner class.
I had some pretty good dances tonight. The crowd was decent and so was the space. There was also good distribution of people of different level dancing. While the music was not very different from Friday, it was much easier to enjoy - presumably because of there being more space to dance. Unfortunately, the floor was very uneven with some very slippery spots. Hmmm. There were also a very large number of spectators after the class - possibly because of novelty value. It seemed like a good start - and we'll see how things go in coming weeks. The lead teacher for next week should be someone named Russell (but I could be wrong).
Unfortunately for me, the number of Salsa nights each week is getting beyond my threshold. There is no way I will do 4 nights or 3 lessons a week in Cambridge because Salsa is interfering with my work too much as is. Something will have to go; I had been meaning to cut down for some time. I might go as low as 1 lesson a week in Cambridge by end of February or March. The value of drop-in classes (or for that matter a "systemic" intermediate level classes) for me is mostly in tweaking and fine-tuning techniques rather than learning something very new - but I might change my mind on this too.
Kicking and screaming at SOS
February 12, 2006
shine of the day
basic
1,2,3 Suzy Q
5,6,7 start of Suzy Q then R foot slides to R then slides back to Suzy Q start position (Suzy Q-like mechanics were used in this case rather than simple slides)
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot (again like Suzy Q)
2 R foot slightly back (or just weight on it)
3 L foot into normal standing position (together)
4 R foot forward keeping weight on L foot
5 R foot back to normal standing position
6 L foot forward
7 R foot together
8 both feet slide back slightly
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
5 R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot cross over in front of R foot
7 R foot cross over in front of L foot
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly back
3 L foot into normal standing position (together) - body but not feet turned 1/4 counterclockwise maybe
4 R foot cross over in front of L foot and possibly pointing L (if body wasn't turned on 3, it should be on 4)
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot and turn around 1/2 clockwise
6 R foot into normal standing position (still facing R)
7 L foot cross over in front of R foot
1 R foot to side (somewhat apart from L foot but similar to normal standing position)
2 L foot slightly back
3 R foot cross over in front of L foot
4 L foot now turned 1/4 counterclockwise toward the follower
5,6,7 not sure - basic or in place with R foot, L foot, R foot
After having gone through a number of shines classes at the Congress and that murder of a shine by Tony Lara, this was a piece of cake. Thanks again Tony for raising the bar. Next time I'm at SOS, I'll probably request that I be allowed to partake in Level IV shines while probably staying with Level III partner work.
Partner work - Level III - taught by don't-know-his-name and Miriam.
Leon was with Level IV, the tall guy with Level II, and Mauro with Level I today. I don't remember seeing Lee tonight.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with R-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a double turn ending with fingers (both mine and follower's) pointing upwards
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and traveling 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower with R-R ending behind follower's L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 offer L hand in front - cross body lead into full traveling (use R-R to help lead follower forward on 5) counterclockwise turn - keep R-R behind follower's waist and L-L is in half-Titanic - leader should be positioned to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 go around follower in front of her (L-L is placed behind follower's waist - into straightjacket position) - release R-R and let follower unwrap with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise with L-L pointing upwards after follower is mostly done with her turn on 7/8
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader completes his counterclockwise turn to get back to cross body position with connection switch to R-L - offer L hand in front of follower and - lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot turn (full clockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 and lead follower into a double stationary turn with L-R
This wasn't too difficult either as I was familiar with technique involved with much of the routine - I was able to complete the routine couple of times afterwards. However, I still need to work on it - especially leading the 2 1/2 turn part.
I wasn't sure if I was going to go until 5:10 PM. As it stood, I still had some things left unfinished so I told myself I would come back afterwards to finish my work. Thus I went alone for the first time since that magical evening of October 2nd, 2005. It's nice to have company most of the time, but having no obligations or responsibilities and total freedom to do things as I wanted was also quite nice. I only saw one (or two?) other from Cambridge - a bit of a surprise.
SOS tonight was on the whole very nice, although couple of things kept it from being perfect. The volume of the music was turned down a little - this wasn't too bad but I did hear complaints from others. During my fifth or sixth dance (as things were going brilliantly to that point), I received a hard kick on my inside left ankle near the end of the song. It was bad enough that I REFUSED to dance with two women immediately afterwards - telling them I need to take at least one song worth of break. I did make things up by dancing with both women in rapid succession after a short break. But then, I had to ask for another rain-check from a third woman; I never got around to her until near the end and by then she was no longer in the mood (because of low volume of music mostly) and SOS decided to end about 10 minutes early. One of the women was a stranger but the other two were among my favorites. My ankle was feeling hurt the rest of night so I wasn't exactly dancing with 100% energy level, and I was dancing quite tentatively immediately after the accident. Perhaps the worst incident was that one my dance partner later was kicked even harder by another couple (I'm 99.9% sure it was not our fault as I was more or less back to normal and we were dancing with good control and it happened while we were doing a simple cross body lead - the other couple just rammed into her seemingly from nowhere). She dropped to the floor in severe pain and decided to call it a night thereafter. I can't think of too many worse things that could happen on the dance floor. By the way, I think I ended up dancing with the woman who probably kicked me (I think she was blithely unaware); my estimation based upon this dance was that she was a bit on the erratic side on her control by the SOS standard.
I had couple of long-ish conversations - both touching on my work a little. An amusing excerpt from one of the conversation went something like this -
X - "Are you going to Bar Salsa tomorrow?"
me - "That would be asking a lot. Remember that I'm living in Cambridge?"
X - "Oh yeah! I forgot about that. What was it that you do again?"
[part of the conversation omitted]
X - "So have you ever been to Bar Salsa?"
me - "No. I tried going once on a Thursday in December but never made it because of some problems with interruptions in the train schedule. I hear it's very crowded on Mondays at Bar Salsa?"
X - "Yeah that's true, but it gets great after midnight."
me - "Midnight? Oh no…"
X - "Well, you could take a day off. It really is good."
me - "Ha ha. So do you like it more than SOS?"
X - "This is nice too but like the music here tonight was not good. The volume was so low; I didn't feel very energetic because of it. I guess you could say that Bar Salsa on Mondays is my favorite. [Super] Mario plays really good music."
Mondays at Bar Salsa gets really good reviews so I'll have to check it out one of these days. I had been wanting to do this for some time now anyway. The question is when I would be able to find the time and energy.
After the drive back to work (to finish what I started earlier in the day) as I was walking out of my car, I found that my ankle had stiffened. Owww. This sucks. SOS has made me a gimp (hopefully not for too long).
shine of the day
basic
1,2,3 Suzy Q
5,6,7 start of Suzy Q then R foot slides to R then slides back to Suzy Q start position (Suzy Q-like mechanics were used in this case rather than simple slides)
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot (again like Suzy Q)
2 R foot slightly back (or just weight on it)
3 L foot into normal standing position (together)
4 R foot forward keeping weight on L foot
5 R foot back to normal standing position
6 L foot forward
7 R foot together
8 both feet slide back slightly
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot cross over in front of L foot
3 L foot cross over in front of R foot
5 R foot cross over in front of L foot
6 L foot cross over in front of R foot
7 R foot cross over in front of L foot
1 L foot cross over in front of R foot
2 R foot slightly back
3 L foot into normal standing position (together) - body but not feet turned 1/4 counterclockwise maybe
4 R foot cross over in front of L foot and possibly pointing L (if body wasn't turned on 3, it should be on 4)
5 L foot cross over in front of R foot and turn around 1/2 clockwise
6 R foot into normal standing position (still facing R)
7 L foot cross over in front of R foot
1 R foot to side (somewhat apart from L foot but similar to normal standing position)
2 L foot slightly back
3 R foot cross over in front of L foot
4 L foot now turned 1/4 counterclockwise toward the follower
5,6,7 not sure - basic or in place with R foot, L foot, R foot
After having gone through a number of shines classes at the Congress and that murder of a shine by Tony Lara, this was a piece of cake. Thanks again Tony for raising the bar. Next time I'm at SOS, I'll probably request that I be allowed to partake in Level IV shines while probably staying with Level III partner work.
Partner work - Level III - taught by don't-know-his-name and Miriam.
Leon was with Level IV, the tall guy with Level II, and Mauro with Level I today. I don't remember seeing Lee tonight.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with R-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a double turn ending with fingers (both mine and follower's) pointing upwards
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and traveling 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower with R-R ending behind follower's L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 offer L hand in front - cross body lead into full traveling (use R-R to help lead follower forward on 5) counterclockwise turn - keep R-R behind follower's waist and L-L is in half-Titanic - leader should be positioned to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 go around follower in front of her (L-L is placed behind follower's waist - into straightjacket position) - release R-R and let follower unwrap with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise with L-L pointing upwards after follower is mostly done with her turn on 7/8
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader completes his counterclockwise turn to get back to cross body position with connection switch to R-L - offer L hand in front of follower and - lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot turn (full clockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 and lead follower into a double stationary turn with L-R
This wasn't too difficult either as I was familiar with technique involved with much of the routine - I was able to complete the routine couple of times afterwards. However, I still need to work on it - especially leading the 2 1/2 turn part.
I wasn't sure if I was going to go until 5:10 PM. As it stood, I still had some things left unfinished so I told myself I would come back afterwards to finish my work. Thus I went alone for the first time since that magical evening of October 2nd, 2005. It's nice to have company most of the time, but having no obligations or responsibilities and total freedom to do things as I wanted was also quite nice. I only saw one (or two?) other from Cambridge - a bit of a surprise.
SOS tonight was on the whole very nice, although couple of things kept it from being perfect. The volume of the music was turned down a little - this wasn't too bad but I did hear complaints from others. During my fifth or sixth dance (as things were going brilliantly to that point), I received a hard kick on my inside left ankle near the end of the song. It was bad enough that I REFUSED to dance with two women immediately afterwards - telling them I need to take at least one song worth of break. I did make things up by dancing with both women in rapid succession after a short break. But then, I had to ask for another rain-check from a third woman; I never got around to her until near the end and by then she was no longer in the mood (because of low volume of music mostly) and SOS decided to end about 10 minutes early. One of the women was a stranger but the other two were among my favorites. My ankle was feeling hurt the rest of night so I wasn't exactly dancing with 100% energy level, and I was dancing quite tentatively immediately after the accident. Perhaps the worst incident was that one my dance partner later was kicked even harder by another couple (I'm 99.9% sure it was not our fault as I was more or less back to normal and we were dancing with good control and it happened while we were doing a simple cross body lead - the other couple just rammed into her seemingly from nowhere). She dropped to the floor in severe pain and decided to call it a night thereafter. I can't think of too many worse things that could happen on the dance floor. By the way, I think I ended up dancing with the woman who probably kicked me (I think she was blithely unaware); my estimation based upon this dance was that she was a bit on the erratic side on her control by the SOS standard.
I had couple of long-ish conversations - both touching on my work a little. An amusing excerpt from one of the conversation went something like this -
X - "Are you going to Bar Salsa tomorrow?"
me - "That would be asking a lot. Remember that I'm living in Cambridge?"
X - "Oh yeah! I forgot about that. What was it that you do again?"
[part of the conversation omitted]
X - "So have you ever been to Bar Salsa?"
me - "No. I tried going once on a Thursday in December but never made it because of some problems with interruptions in the train schedule. I hear it's very crowded on Mondays at Bar Salsa?"
X - "Yeah that's true, but it gets great after midnight."
me - "Midnight? Oh no…"
X - "Well, you could take a day off. It really is good."
me - "Ha ha. So do you like it more than SOS?"
X - "This is nice too but like the music here tonight was not good. The volume was so low; I didn't feel very energetic because of it. I guess you could say that Bar Salsa on Mondays is my favorite. [Super] Mario plays really good music."
Mondays at Bar Salsa gets really good reviews so I'll have to check it out one of these days. I had been wanting to do this for some time now anyway. The question is when I would be able to find the time and energy.
After the drive back to work (to finish what I started earlier in the day) as I was walking out of my car, I found that my ankle had stiffened. Owww. This sucks. SOS has made me a gimp (hopefully not for too long).
Sorry in advance for not being more enthusiastic
February 10, 2006
Johnny & Serap level IV
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower ending in closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and overtake follower on the left side (L-R is tossed to straight over leader’s R shoulder and R hand is on follower’s stomach in a neutral position) on 1,2,3 and go around follower to be on follower’s left side into open cross body position on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized initiation of cross body lead followed by leading follower into a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot turn (clockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 with L-R low into a wrap for leader with L-R at leader’s back R waist – then use R hand to toss follower’s R hand onto a leader’s L hand now awaiting in front of leader and then turn follower into a half counterclockwise turn with shoulder stop with R hand on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn
Joe Davids and his minions came up from London to DJ tonight and presumably to scope out the scenery – some of them even lowered themselves to dance with the local hoi polloi and perhaps even enjoy it. This was arguably the weakest Friday evening of the year thus far at Club Salsa. By 10 PM, I was thinking that perhaps I should just go home. Music was relentlessly generic popular overplayed stuff and mostly boring to my jaded ears. Perhaps it would have not seemed so bad if there were more room and people to dance with - then again I could also wish that I were a better dancer too. Many others may have enjoyed tonight’s music more than I did as there were plenty of people dancing – but it’s always like this on Friday so I don’t know if the music selection tonight was a positive or a negative. It’s not a good night when one of the top 3 dances of the evening ended 10-20 seconds before the end of the song. Another bad sign was that four or five of six or seven songs that made my ears perk up were Merengue – I don’t dance Merengue. When treated as an occasion to practice Salsa moves, Merengue holds no interest to me, but I would be more likely to consider dancing Merengue if Merengue were to be danced as distinct dance and with a pattern more complicated than 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2. I might add that watching dancing by the posse of Joe Davids was more interesting with Merengue rather than Salsa. Combinations of many things put me off from dancing much tonight so I ended up doing a lot more watching than usual. Aside from most of the Salsa song selections, Joe Davids as DJ seemed excellent and seemingly had deft and subtle touch. Many people also say good things about his teaching so I look forward to seeing how the classes go – with and without him in the premise. I just hope that the music that will be played on Mondays would be more varied. As I was writing this, I tried to remember the last time I was so unimpressed with the music selection, and I was amused to realize that the second DJ at the Bar Latina Christmas Eve Party still takes the top honors as my least favorite DJ in the UK. I should add that I was probably more disappointed because I probably had higher expectations and also because of tonight comparing unfavorably compared to the Brit Salsafest last weekend (this is an unfair comparison, of course).
Johnny & Serap level IV
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower ending in closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and overtake follower on the left side (L-R is tossed to straight over leader’s R shoulder and R hand is on follower’s stomach in a neutral position) on 1,2,3 and go around follower to be on follower’s left side into open cross body position on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized initiation of cross body lead followed by leading follower into a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot turn (clockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 with L-R low into a wrap for leader with L-R at leader’s back R waist – then use R hand to toss follower’s R hand onto a leader’s L hand now awaiting in front of leader and then turn follower into a half counterclockwise turn with shoulder stop with R hand on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into 1 1/2 stationary clockwise turn
Joe Davids and his minions came up from London to DJ tonight and presumably to scope out the scenery – some of them even lowered themselves to dance with the local hoi polloi and perhaps even enjoy it. This was arguably the weakest Friday evening of the year thus far at Club Salsa. By 10 PM, I was thinking that perhaps I should just go home. Music was relentlessly generic popular overplayed stuff and mostly boring to my jaded ears. Perhaps it would have not seemed so bad if there were more room and people to dance with - then again I could also wish that I were a better dancer too. Many others may have enjoyed tonight’s music more than I did as there were plenty of people dancing – but it’s always like this on Friday so I don’t know if the music selection tonight was a positive or a negative. It’s not a good night when one of the top 3 dances of the evening ended 10-20 seconds before the end of the song. Another bad sign was that four or five of six or seven songs that made my ears perk up were Merengue – I don’t dance Merengue. When treated as an occasion to practice Salsa moves, Merengue holds no interest to me, but I would be more likely to consider dancing Merengue if Merengue were to be danced as distinct dance and with a pattern more complicated than 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2. I might add that watching dancing by the posse of Joe Davids was more interesting with Merengue rather than Salsa. Combinations of many things put me off from dancing much tonight so I ended up doing a lot more watching than usual. Aside from most of the Salsa song selections, Joe Davids as DJ seemed excellent and seemingly had deft and subtle touch. Many people also say good things about his teaching so I look forward to seeing how the classes go – with and without him in the premise. I just hope that the music that will be played on Mondays would be more varied. As I was writing this, I tried to remember the last time I was so unimpressed with the music selection, and I was amused to realize that the second DJ at the Bar Latina Christmas Eve Party still takes the top honors as my least favorite DJ in the UK. I should add that I was probably more disappointed because I probably had higher expectations and also because of tonight comparing unfavorably compared to the Brit Salsafest last weekend (this is an unfair comparison, of course).
A full plate of Salsa
February 10, 2006
They are trying their best to overload Cambridge with Salsa over next several days. Main lineup is as follows.
Friday (tonight) - Club Salsa (regular night with Salsa Bravo, DJ Enrique, etc)
Saturday - Salsa workshop (Salsa Bravo)
Sunday - Salsa workshops (Salsa Allegra)
Sunday - Club Salsa (Salsa Chillout)
Sunday - Cellar Bar 8 with Nelson Batista
Monday - Debut of Club Mambo at Club Salsa featuring classes taught by the Latin Collective (London). The leader of the Latin Collective Joe Davids should be present on the first evening.
Monday - Soul Tree (regular night with C-Swing)
Tuesday - Valentines Day Salsa Party at Club Salsa
Wednesday - Club Salsa (regular night with Cristian & Dee)
Thursday - Club Salsa (regular night with Pure Salsa)
Thursday - Casino Rueda with Rhona & Helen (regular night)
Friday - Club Salsa (regular night with Salsa Bravo, DJ Enrique, etc)
Friday - SalsaRomantica Party at The LeL, St. Ives by Salsa Allegra
Is anyone planning on going to all of the events listed here?
They are trying their best to overload Cambridge with Salsa over next several days. Main lineup is as follows.
Friday (tonight) - Club Salsa (regular night with Salsa Bravo, DJ Enrique, etc)
Saturday - Salsa workshop (Salsa Bravo)
Sunday - Salsa workshops (Salsa Allegra)
Sunday - Club Salsa (Salsa Chillout)
Sunday - Cellar Bar 8 with Nelson Batista
Monday - Debut of Club Mambo at Club Salsa featuring classes taught by the Latin Collective (London). The leader of the Latin Collective Joe Davids should be present on the first evening.
Monday - Soul Tree (regular night with C-Swing)
Tuesday - Valentines Day Salsa Party at Club Salsa
Wednesday - Club Salsa (regular night with Cristian & Dee)
Thursday - Club Salsa (regular night with Pure Salsa)
Thursday - Casino Rueda with Rhona & Helen (regular night)
Friday - Club Salsa (regular night with Salsa Bravo, DJ Enrique, etc)
Friday - SalsaRomantica Party at The LeL, St. Ives by Salsa Allegra
Is anyone planning on going to all of the events listed here?
Illuminations and ruminations
February 9, 2006
Ivan & Sally Intermediate
basic with L-R hold
1,2,3 This was the most difficult part. I’m not quite sure about the footwork – in specific, do I turn with my weight on my R foot or on my L foot? leader goes forward right with toe pointing L on 1, then turn full turn stationary counterclockwise on 2,3 while keeping tension so that the follower turns around 1/2 while traveling as is done somewhat like cross body lead (except done in half the time) – L-R is in front of leader’s waist
5,6,7 leader’s R foot cross over in front of L foot on 5 to make room for follower to do what is essentially the second half of cross body lead once again – leader closes the line by stepping back into original position to get back into open hold
[note: This is the second time this maneuver was attempted this year by Ivan. I still find this difficult although I might be doing it marginally better than last time.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break, close in and suzy Q shine for 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 Enchufe-like – open break (?) and bring follower in around like enchufe (half turn counterclockwise for follower) with L-R high and R-L low to bring follower into a wrap on 2,3, and walk around clockwise on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 bring follower out of the wrap by leading a stationary double clockwise turn ending with R-L behind follower’s R waist (probably the best way to lead this is to start initiating turn with both with L-R disconnected early and R-L coming up high then going down fairly sharply after the completion of the first turn by the follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader does pivot turn with double hand switch (R-L to L-L and back to R-L) on 1,2,3 and bring follower forward (like reverse cross body?) and into 1 1/2 or even 2 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with R-L coming up high after the completion of the first 1/2 turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic and back to open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and close in with L-R tucked onto leader’s L collarbone and 1,2,3 and hook turn on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 toss R-L underneath L-R and reconnect R-L above L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower around 1/2 and bring R-L down to her waist and lead follower into a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with R-L coming up only after completion of first 1/2 turn by follower (otherwise, I think it’s uncomfortable for her)
Second hour left me with a choice between improvers and complete beginners. There was a surplus of men for improvers while there was a huge surplus of women for complete beginners. I decided to do beginners again – but this time with some intent to work on some body isolation exercises on the side. Interestingly, I found that there were technical issues I still could work on even at the complete beginner level, including how and how not to lead and transition from various basic steps and keeping finger/arm/shoulder positions in optimal position during leader’s pivot turn, etc (former took a little prodding from Sally). It goes to show that need for fine adjustments for doing even the simplest things can be found even after getting to a level where many people might consider “advanced”.
Rest of the time was spent on dancing (surprisingly many times and often with illuminating results - a small record was broken), practicing and getting some feedback about the Tony & Claudia workshops. Maybe I should ask a few more people and perhaps print out a survey form for the workshop articipants. Based upon what I was able to find out from a quick search on the internet, I would guess that Tony was talking about returning sometime during the last week of April, just prior to the London 5 Star Congress organized by Mambo City.
So many things to think about and to digest…
Ivan & Sally Intermediate
basic with L-R hold
1,2,3 This was the most difficult part. I’m not quite sure about the footwork – in specific, do I turn with my weight on my R foot or on my L foot? leader goes forward right with toe pointing L on 1, then turn full turn stationary counterclockwise on 2,3 while keeping tension so that the follower turns around 1/2 while traveling as is done somewhat like cross body lead (except done in half the time) – L-R is in front of leader’s waist
5,6,7 leader’s R foot cross over in front of L foot on 5 to make room for follower to do what is essentially the second half of cross body lead once again – leader closes the line by stepping back into original position to get back into open hold
[note: This is the second time this maneuver was attempted this year by Ivan. I still find this difficult although I might be doing it marginally better than last time.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break, close in and suzy Q shine for 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 Enchufe-like – open break (?) and bring follower in around like enchufe (half turn counterclockwise for follower) with L-R high and R-L low to bring follower into a wrap on 2,3, and walk around clockwise on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 bring follower out of the wrap by leading a stationary double clockwise turn ending with R-L behind follower’s R waist (probably the best way to lead this is to start initiating turn with both with L-R disconnected early and R-L coming up high then going down fairly sharply after the completion of the first turn by the follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader does pivot turn with double hand switch (R-L to L-L and back to R-L) on 1,2,3 and bring follower forward (like reverse cross body?) and into 1 1/2 or even 2 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with R-L coming up high after the completion of the first 1/2 turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic and back to open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and close in with L-R tucked onto leader’s L collarbone and 1,2,3 and hook turn on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 toss R-L underneath L-R and reconnect R-L above L-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower around 1/2 and bring R-L down to her waist and lead follower into a traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with R-L coming up only after completion of first 1/2 turn by follower (otherwise, I think it’s uncomfortable for her)
Second hour left me with a choice between improvers and complete beginners. There was a surplus of men for improvers while there was a huge surplus of women for complete beginners. I decided to do beginners again – but this time with some intent to work on some body isolation exercises on the side. Interestingly, I found that there were technical issues I still could work on even at the complete beginner level, including how and how not to lead and transition from various basic steps and keeping finger/arm/shoulder positions in optimal position during leader’s pivot turn, etc (former took a little prodding from Sally). It goes to show that need for fine adjustments for doing even the simplest things can be found even after getting to a level where many people might consider “advanced”.
Rest of the time was spent on dancing (surprisingly many times and often with illuminating results - a small record was broken), practicing and getting some feedback about the Tony & Claudia workshops. Maybe I should ask a few more people and perhaps print out a survey form for the workshop articipants. Based upon what I was able to find out from a quick search on the internet, I would guess that Tony was talking about returning sometime during the last week of April, just prior to the London 5 Star Congress organized by Mambo City.
So many things to think about and to digest…
Readjusting to the pace of Club Salsa
February 8, 2006
Work kept me away from Club Salsa until around 10:30 PM. Quite a few unexpected people were present. I managed to squeeze in about a half dozen dances. I noticed that I had to slow down considerably from the speed I got used to dancing at Winter Gardens. I also had to work harder on my leading sometimes to stay in time to the music. Had I forgotten how difficult it is to do relatively simple things in time or had I never realized this or perhaps been more fast and loose and forgiving about this? It could be a while before leading another triple turn in the middle of a complex maneuver would be considered fun and exhilarating rather than being a challenge.
Work kept me away from Club Salsa until around 10:30 PM. Quite a few unexpected people were present. I managed to squeeze in about a half dozen dances. I noticed that I had to slow down considerably from the speed I got used to dancing at Winter Gardens. I also had to work harder on my leading sometimes to stay in time to the music. Had I forgotten how difficult it is to do relatively simple things in time or had I never realized this or perhaps been more fast and loose and forgiving about this? It could be a while before leading another triple turn in the middle of a complex maneuver would be considered fun and exhilarating rather than being a challenge.
Brit Salsafest 8 - Final thoughts
February 8, 2006
I finally had a restful sleep Tuesday night - possibly the first one in almost 2 weeks. I can't say everything is back to normal - is it ever? But the level of excitement, anxiety, expectations and apprehension is no longer extreme. Sense of fatigue is being replaced slowly by calm, which allows me to reflect back upon Brit Salsafest from a distance.
This was my first Salsa congress so I have no idea how it compares to other Salsa congresses. It was unlike any other kind of vacation I have experienced. I suppose this isn't saying very much (even to or at least to myself) because I don't use vacations very much either. Even with free tickets in hand, I wasn't always completely sure that I would go to this congress - I wasn't sure if I was going to have fun. In the end, I went with some prodding from others telling me to go and try to enjoy the experience. And I did have great deal of fun - possibly more than anyone else who was there. Certainly there were times when I felt annoyed or bored or feeling less than my best, but I imagine that everyone else had a little bit of the same - if not, congratulations to those who had even more fun than I did. Other people who have been to other Salsa congresses may have better perspective or perhaps more jaded view. For me, memories of the first Brit Salsafest will have a special place in my heart.
I think I had about 100 dances altogether (range = 85-115). I had perhaps 3 dances with people from Cambridge, 1 dance with someone I met in my Bar Latina trip, 1 dance with someone I apparently met in my Ealing trip, and several dances with people I met at SOS. I danced more than once with same person probably less than 10 times. This means I probably danced with approximately 75 completely new dance partners. Is dancing with small number of people (or even one person) many times better than dancing with many people small number of times? I don't know - maybe I will be able to give an opinion if I ever get a desire and an opportunity to try the other way. I enjoyed vast majority of my dances, and I daresay vast majority of people I danced with gave me an impression that they enjoyed dancing with me.
I can't say I did much socializing outside of dancing. It's impossible for me to make others have fun and enjoy themselves although I could hope that people I interacted with felt better for having interacted with me rather than worse (either through dancing or interacting in other ways).
Aside from three dinners, I think I only had conversations that lasted more than 30 seconds cumulative with maybe dozen people - less than half with people from Cambridge. I guess this is … typical.
Of all Salsa celebrities present at the Britfest, the only one who made an impression on me for social dancing was Edie the Salsafreak. Until now, I have seen a number of British Salsa celebrities (e.g. Leon Rose, Laith Sami, Susana Montero and other teachers at SOS) dance socially, which left me no impression other than that they can do complex moves with precision and style; they’re all very good but I never felt that I wanted to dance like them. Now I don’t want to dance like Edie the Salsafreak either, but she most certainly brought something extra to the table. I’m not quite sure how to define it – maybe an attitude or perhaps better yet an exquisite style and elegance in expressing or acting out upon some attitudes. I was quite amazed to see her “kill” her dance partners simply by giving him a certain look or posing without any movement. I was too absorbed in my own dances to look at teachers or performers social dancing, but when I noticed a guy breaking out in hysterics every 10 seconds while dancing with Edie, I stopped and watched for good two or three minutes. It didn’t exactly inspire me to ask her for a dance (I’m pretty sure she would have danced with me, but what would have been the point? I don’t think I would have danced with her any differently with her as I would have with any other competent followers, and I probably have a better chance of giving a memorable or special dance with a normal person rather than a celebrity.), but it certainly made me think, “Whatever it is that she is doing, it sure is very impressive.”
[note added later: Serap recollected attending a class taught by Edie, at which Edie apparently told the class to smile when leader is doing something simple but not to smile when leader is asking for something difficult. It somehow fits.]
Photographs of some Cambridge people dancing at Brit Salsafest are now displayed at londonsalsa.co.uk. I seemed to have managed to make myself scarce from the londonsalsa.co.uk photographer - probably by dancing in the middle of the dance floor most of the time rather than in the periphery. I recognize other people as well - both teachers and social dancers based in London, including my mystery guest. I got a free bottle of water, a dance and perhaps some goodwill and/or karma out of my spare ticket.
Workshops - Quick summary
Michael Pottinger - Intro to on-2. Generally well done intro. 8/10
Neeraj Maskara - Shines intermediate on-1. Fairly easy but still interesting. 7/10
Super Mario - Turn patterns intermediate on-1. Well taught but only 10% of followers could follow. 4/10 (teaching gets 8/10 but the most of the rest of the class gets 1/10 for being way over their head). I should have done Bachata instead.
Mushi - Men's shine and styling on-1. His style of teaching did not work for me. I might have been too tired and hungry, and I walked out on this one. I should have done on-2 with Lee & Shelley instead (see below). 3/10 (benefit of doubt given because of my poor conditions)
Lee & Shelley - Turn patterns improver on-2. Nice and clean. Just what the doctor ordered. 8/10
Nicky & Gormack - Shines advanced on-1. I was really looking forward to Tony Lara (Oh well - I did get an opportunity the next night). Decent replacement and gave me some challenges. 7/10
Susana Montero - Shines and body movement improver on-1. Body movement section was alright. Shine without the body movement was simple. She gave very detailed instructions. 7/10
Mushi - Turn patterns improver on-2. This guy is insufferable; he tells too many jokes and does not do enough teaching. He loves basking in the spotlight and showboating. I felt like walking out once again but stuck it out. I'd never take a class with him again. 2/10
Sacuye - Turn patterns advanced on-1. This probably was the best workshop of the weekend. The level of difficulty was not an order higher than Super Mario Intermediate. I loved the sound effect made by the woman instructor in lieu of counting. Most of the followers were okay. 9/10
[modified February 9, 2006]
I finally had a restful sleep Tuesday night - possibly the first one in almost 2 weeks. I can't say everything is back to normal - is it ever? But the level of excitement, anxiety, expectations and apprehension is no longer extreme. Sense of fatigue is being replaced slowly by calm, which allows me to reflect back upon Brit Salsafest from a distance.
This was my first Salsa congress so I have no idea how it compares to other Salsa congresses. It was unlike any other kind of vacation I have experienced. I suppose this isn't saying very much (even to or at least to myself) because I don't use vacations very much either. Even with free tickets in hand, I wasn't always completely sure that I would go to this congress - I wasn't sure if I was going to have fun. In the end, I went with some prodding from others telling me to go and try to enjoy the experience. And I did have great deal of fun - possibly more than anyone else who was there. Certainly there were times when I felt annoyed or bored or feeling less than my best, but I imagine that everyone else had a little bit of the same - if not, congratulations to those who had even more fun than I did. Other people who have been to other Salsa congresses may have better perspective or perhaps more jaded view. For me, memories of the first Brit Salsafest will have a special place in my heart.
I think I had about 100 dances altogether (range = 85-115). I had perhaps 3 dances with people from Cambridge, 1 dance with someone I met in my Bar Latina trip, 1 dance with someone I apparently met in my Ealing trip, and several dances with people I met at SOS. I danced more than once with same person probably less than 10 times. This means I probably danced with approximately 75 completely new dance partners. Is dancing with small number of people (or even one person) many times better than dancing with many people small number of times? I don't know - maybe I will be able to give an opinion if I ever get a desire and an opportunity to try the other way. I enjoyed vast majority of my dances, and I daresay vast majority of people I danced with gave me an impression that they enjoyed dancing with me.
I can't say I did much socializing outside of dancing. It's impossible for me to make others have fun and enjoy themselves although I could hope that people I interacted with felt better for having interacted with me rather than worse (either through dancing or interacting in other ways).
Aside from three dinners, I think I only had conversations that lasted more than 30 seconds cumulative with maybe dozen people - less than half with people from Cambridge. I guess this is … typical.
Of all Salsa celebrities present at the Britfest, the only one who made an impression on me for social dancing was Edie the Salsafreak. Until now, I have seen a number of British Salsa celebrities (e.g. Leon Rose, Laith Sami, Susana Montero and other teachers at SOS) dance socially, which left me no impression other than that they can do complex moves with precision and style; they’re all very good but I never felt that I wanted to dance like them. Now I don’t want to dance like Edie the Salsafreak either, but she most certainly brought something extra to the table. I’m not quite sure how to define it – maybe an attitude or perhaps better yet an exquisite style and elegance in expressing or acting out upon some attitudes. I was quite amazed to see her “kill” her dance partners simply by giving him a certain look or posing without any movement. I was too absorbed in my own dances to look at teachers or performers social dancing, but when I noticed a guy breaking out in hysterics every 10 seconds while dancing with Edie, I stopped and watched for good two or three minutes. It didn’t exactly inspire me to ask her for a dance (I’m pretty sure she would have danced with me, but what would have been the point? I don’t think I would have danced with her any differently with her as I would have with any other competent followers, and I probably have a better chance of giving a memorable or special dance with a normal person rather than a celebrity.), but it certainly made me think, “Whatever it is that she is doing, it sure is very impressive.”
[note added later: Serap recollected attending a class taught by Edie, at which Edie apparently told the class to smile when leader is doing something simple but not to smile when leader is asking for something difficult. It somehow fits.]
Photographs of some Cambridge people dancing at Brit Salsafest are now displayed at londonsalsa.co.uk. I seemed to have managed to make myself scarce from the londonsalsa.co.uk photographer - probably by dancing in the middle of the dance floor most of the time rather than in the periphery. I recognize other people as well - both teachers and social dancers based in London, including my mystery guest. I got a free bottle of water, a dance and perhaps some goodwill and/or karma out of my spare ticket.
Workshops - Quick summary
Michael Pottinger - Intro to on-2. Generally well done intro. 8/10
Neeraj Maskara - Shines intermediate on-1. Fairly easy but still interesting. 7/10
Super Mario - Turn patterns intermediate on-1. Well taught but only 10% of followers could follow. 4/10 (teaching gets 8/10 but the most of the rest of the class gets 1/10 for being way over their head). I should have done Bachata instead.
Mushi - Men's shine and styling on-1. His style of teaching did not work for me. I might have been too tired and hungry, and I walked out on this one. I should have done on-2 with Lee & Shelley instead (see below). 3/10 (benefit of doubt given because of my poor conditions)
Lee & Shelley - Turn patterns improver on-2. Nice and clean. Just what the doctor ordered. 8/10
Nicky & Gormack - Shines advanced on-1. I was really looking forward to Tony Lara (Oh well - I did get an opportunity the next night). Decent replacement and gave me some challenges. 7/10
Susana Montero - Shines and body movement improver on-1. Body movement section was alright. Shine without the body movement was simple. She gave very detailed instructions. 7/10
Mushi - Turn patterns improver on-2. This guy is insufferable; he tells too many jokes and does not do enough teaching. He loves basking in the spotlight and showboating. I felt like walking out once again but stuck it out. I'd never take a class with him again. 2/10
Sacuye - Turn patterns advanced on-1. This probably was the best workshop of the weekend. The level of difficulty was not an order higher than Super Mario Intermediate. I loved the sound effect made by the woman instructor in lieu of counting. Most of the followers were okay. 9/10
[modified February 9, 2006]
Tony & Claudia at Bromley tonight
February 7, 2006
I found this advertisement on the Salsa-UK website. It'll be up for today only so I reproduced the text below.
--
BROMLEY KICKS OFF
Tuesday 7 February
Tony & Claudia from Italy are coming back to teach another Bachata class.
This time the Bachata class will be at 7.30pm which is BEFORE all other classes.
The class will be for salsa dancers of improver level and above, and will cost £7.
For those of you wishing taking part in the 8.30pm class afterwards, you can still benefit from the old deal of 2 hours for £10.
See you on the dance floor
Imogen x
--
I thought I would show this to as another indicator that the workshop last night gave a good deal for dancers in Cambridge. I think Tony & Claudia flies back to Italy tomorrow (Wednesday).
I found this advertisement on the Salsa-UK website. It'll be up for today only so I reproduced the text below.
--
BROMLEY KICKS OFF
Tuesday 7 February
Tony & Claudia from Italy are coming back to teach another Bachata class.
This time the Bachata class will be at 7.30pm which is BEFORE all other classes.
The class will be for salsa dancers of improver level and above, and will cost £7.
For those of you wishing taking part in the 8.30pm class afterwards, you can still benefit from the old deal of 2 hours for £10.
See you on the dance floor
Imogen x
--
I thought I would show this to as another indicator that the workshop last night gave a good deal for dancers in Cambridge. I think Tony & Claudia flies back to Italy tomorrow (Wednesday).
Tony & Claudia Bachata & Salsa Workshop – I made profit of one pound sterling
February 6, 2006
This worked out much better than I expected although it was far from perfect. I thought it was going to be dead because of the Brit Salsafest. There were many more followers signed up in advance for Bachata – 6 men and 10 women. Quite a few unexpected people showed up – 4 and 3 leaders for Bachata and Salsa, respectively and 3 women each for Bachata and Salsa. Unfortunately, some leaders I had counted upon to show up did not show up – including 2 supposedly definite for Bachata, 1 supposedly very interested for Salsa and 2 definite maybes for one of each. By contrast all of women who reserved spots showed up. One of the women led for Bachata, and two spectators were roped into leading. Even then, I think we generally had two followers extra for Bachata. The numbers for Salsa was even; it was supposed to be even and it remained even with one “extra” leader and follower each partaking in the class.
Some people left early without taking part in the Salsa workshop because of the delays in getting the Salsa workshop started on time. In my defense, it’s not easy trying to do this on short notice (less than 3 weeks) with shoestring budget and manpower (more on this below – especially read what happened financially last time) with most people not paying in advance with unexpected people showing up and expected people showing up late or not showing up at all. People who left did not book with me in advance either. Also, Tony was uncompromising in making sure that people received good deal of interesting material and teach it well so this meant that classes ran slightly overlong. I think what will need to be done next time is to try harder to start on time and also to have a long break between two workshops (say 30 minutes) so that the second class would have better chance of starting closer to on time. As it was, the second workshop started about 40 minutes late. There were other feathers ruffled over because I was trying to be diligent about keeping numbers even by removing or not inviting some people from the class. I think I managed to placate the situation more or less in the end.
My biggest regret was that I was so tired - I had difficulty moving and concentrating for the workshops. Organizing and policing (not perfectly, I admit) added to distract me from concentrating properly on the lessons.
Thanks very much to everyone who showed up. Thanks especially to those who lent moral support early and throughout. You know who you are.
Apparently Tony & Claudia have plans to be back in April! This announcement was made during the class, which could go long towards generating more interest quickly. It looks like I might be forced into doing this yet another time! I was both happy and horrified to hear this announcement – do I have to go through this again? It probably won’t be happening on a Monday next time though because the new weekly Latin Collective class will start beginning next Monday. Tuesday is one option – it’s the only night without a regular schedule. However, I think I would need to talk to some people (e.g. Ivan) about other possibilities as well. In any case, organizing this should only get easier as their reputation gets more and more word-of-mouth boosting. Already, I don’t feel that I’m the biggest fan of Tony & Claudia in Cambridge (I don’t know if I ever was) because there are others who seem even more enthusiastic about them than I am. In case it wasn’t clear above, I think Tony & Claudia are great; I’m merely saying that there are other people who seem to be bigger fans.
I made a tidy1 pound profit. This is a big improvement over last time when I lost approximately 100 pounds with larger number of participants and higher ticket prices. I was hoping for a loss of less than 50 pounds, so breaking even was a pleasant surprise. This happened despite the fact that no money was collected from the spectators and people who came only for the dance afterwards, not everyone paying full price for logistical reasons, etc – something like this happened last time too. Some of the materials I bought for last workshop were used for this workshop thus keeping expenses down this time. We (by this I mean Vishal and I - both working as volunteers) also skimped on hired help this time, but I think I will definitely need a reliable cashier next time and perhaps start printing out tickets once again (tickets to be collected at the very beginning of each workshop) to expedite entry process. By the way, I have absolutely no desire to do this on weekly basis. Even once every two months often feels like too much.
Before the start of the workshop, I ran into Joe Davids, who was talking business with Vishal at Tandoori Station Restaurant. Among other things, we talked about Ihatemerengue, DarkMoves, Nelson, Brit Salsafest, Bar Latina and ScalaLatina. Joe will be present at the first Monday class at Club Salsa next week. Apparently Joe, Sally and Ivan are planning on organizing a monthly Salsa social in Cambridge to start pretty soon.
Bachata workshop
In some ways, the most important component of the class was incorporation of body movement to Bachata – such as shoulder go up on legs with the weight on and forward chest movement with each step. These things will need a lot of exercises.
The routine taught was apparently identical to the one taught at the Bachata workshop at the Brit Salsafest (Tango routine??). What was the big difference? No one was more than 8 feet away from the Tony & Claudia and many people were no more than 2 feet away. It’s a lot easier to see what’s going on in a small setting like Club Salsa as I said several days ago. People who did the Brit Salsafest Bachata workshop seemingly had a head start. Now I wish I had took that class too – especially in hindsight after having experienced that nightmare of intermediate turn pattern class (through no fault of SuperMario & Susana Montero by the way – I thought they were very good).
Parts of the routine would be considered to be choreography or freestyle/shine designed specifically for the song "Te Quiero" by Oliver. I couldn't find this song being sold anywhere although a sample can be heard in Tony's website for the moment.
The beginning bit had leader kneeling down on his knees declaring his love with his free R hand raised (L-R hold). As leader gets up, follower slinks down with knees bending and swaying while keeping together. Next part has leader getting close to the follower from her behind and to her left and holding her at the hips and bring her in contact with his body, which is to coincide with a strong beat. Next, leader and follower sway their body together - first to left, then to right, then to left, then while follower sways to left leader sways to right. This is followed by a chest body movement to coincide with heartbeat like rhythm of the song. Follower is turned around (1/2 counterclockwise) and basic side-to-side step is initiated on 5,6,7,8 with leader giving a distance between himself and follower for his turns (see below).
1,2,3,4 leader turns (side-to-side)
5,6,7,8 leader turns (side-to-side) with L-R at neck level to end in a neck wrap for leader
1,2,3,4 R-L connection is made at waist level on 8/1 and leader turns (side-to-side)
5,6,7,8 in place and prepare (both connections go R-L-R then high) and follower turns full clockwise - leader turns half (which direction? I'll have to check this) with connections ending up under arms of leaders - leader can get follower to close in by pulling connections apart L-R to L and R-L to R
1,2,3,4,5,6,7 basic in place except doing follower's basic
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader initiates body roll by leaning back with his shoulder and straightening up in wave-like manner first, and follower can reciprocate by leaning forward starting low and rolling up
less sure about the next part below
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader turns around and gets back into basic position and starts doing basic (?)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader steps forward and chest body movement (forward-back-forward?), then leader steps backward and chest body movement again (back-forward-back?)
Salsa workshop
Shine of the day (Finally! This is so cool! I’m excited about this more than anything else!)
I wonder if this is the first shine that lasts more than one bar of music taught in Cambridge. Tony claimed during the class that I requested for a difficult shine for this class. I must admit that he had fair bit justification for saying this even if it wasn’t the literal truth. I would say that these were at least equivalent to level III shines at SOS.
core pattern (could be repeated … this was done to music in parts of the song with pronounced core beats only)
1 L forward
3 R to side R
5 L straight back
7 R to side L
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1 L foot lift
2 L foot point to R while still lifted
3 R foot slide to side R while L foot on heels
5,6 L foot toe (cross behind R foot) twice
7 L foot slide to side L while R foot on heels
1 R foot toe (cross behind L foot)
2 R foot slide to side R while L foot on heels
3 L foot toe (cross behind R foot)
4 L foot slide to side L while R foot on heels
5 R foot back
6 L foot forward
7 R foot step/cross over in front of L foot
1,2,3 crazy steps (end with L foot in front and to R of R foot) (dum-ka-dum-ka-dum?)
5 R foot step/cross over in front of L foot with L foot on toe crossed behind R foot
6 both feet slide backwards together
7 both feel slide/jump apart landing on heels
8 both feel slide/jump back into normal standing position
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
Followers learned a different shine from Claudia. I thought this was great because it gave many people a taste of bigger Salsa scenes like London (SOS in particular) except more intimate. I loved it. The face-off added a fun little twist to the proceedings.
Turn patterns
By this point in the evening, my brain must have been feeling overloaded. This routine wasn’t impossible for me (it was a very smooth routine I might add) but I still was having difficulties at multiple points – at least part of the reason had to be fatigue. Also even though the students were some of the best in Cambridge, one could say that the difference in levels from one end of the spectrum to the other was stark. I don’t think this can be helped much because the size of student base is so small in Cambridge. Very different style and feel compared to most other Salsa classes I have taken. Closest comparison (but not quite so) might be the Sacuye advanced Turn pattern class from Brit Salsafest.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with both facing the line at the end with L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 Is this like Enchufe? It also felt somewhat like Copa (reverse cross body) but without it being in-and-out. I thought it might have had a shade of Cuban flavor while staying linear rather than being strictly LA. There might be NY influence here. I do remember that Tony saying that he prefers Cuban style over Puerto Rican style – whatever it means. I’m not an expert of this though so I could be talking nonsense here. Bring follower forward along the line and 1 1/2 turn (or was it 1/2?) counterclockwise for follower ending with leader turning 1/2 clockwise with L-R lowered to waist level to face away from follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward on leader’s L side with L-R outstretched and pointing forward on 3/4 and lead follower into traveling full counterclockwise (?) turn to end with waist wrap for follower (L-R in front of follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 bring follower back (via R side of leader) and leader gets into open position facing follower with change to R-R hold (L hand goes over follower’s head?) – why did this take so long? poor footwork maybe?
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower ending with leader’s L hand on follower’s L shoulder and R-R behind leader’s head
1,2,3,5,6,7 down (but not really … R knees bend a little with L leg outstretched or is it the other way around?) and up on 1,2,3 as preparatory step? – double stationary turn for follower with roll of hands for a leaders full turn at the same time as the follower’s second turn (or hair behind).
I think this workshop might also have brought about more interaction between people who primarily partake in classes held on different dates at Club Salsa.
Tony the DJ was also very good – a real pro. I relieved him while he took a meal break. Good job here in this regard by Vishal. Below was my playlist.
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda
Duele Mas – Grupo Niche
El Molestoso II – Eddie Palmieri
Chang – Tito Puente (not well-received)
Para Darte Fuego – Frankie Ruiz
Un Alto En El Camino - Grupo Niche
Miye Na We - Africando
This worked out much better than I expected although it was far from perfect. I thought it was going to be dead because of the Brit Salsafest. There were many more followers signed up in advance for Bachata – 6 men and 10 women. Quite a few unexpected people showed up – 4 and 3 leaders for Bachata and Salsa, respectively and 3 women each for Bachata and Salsa. Unfortunately, some leaders I had counted upon to show up did not show up – including 2 supposedly definite for Bachata, 1 supposedly very interested for Salsa and 2 definite maybes for one of each. By contrast all of women who reserved spots showed up. One of the women led for Bachata, and two spectators were roped into leading. Even then, I think we generally had two followers extra for Bachata. The numbers for Salsa was even; it was supposed to be even and it remained even with one “extra” leader and follower each partaking in the class.
Some people left early without taking part in the Salsa workshop because of the delays in getting the Salsa workshop started on time. In my defense, it’s not easy trying to do this on short notice (less than 3 weeks) with shoestring budget and manpower (more on this below – especially read what happened financially last time) with most people not paying in advance with unexpected people showing up and expected people showing up late or not showing up at all. People who left did not book with me in advance either. Also, Tony was uncompromising in making sure that people received good deal of interesting material and teach it well so this meant that classes ran slightly overlong. I think what will need to be done next time is to try harder to start on time and also to have a long break between two workshops (say 30 minutes) so that the second class would have better chance of starting closer to on time. As it was, the second workshop started about 40 minutes late. There were other feathers ruffled over because I was trying to be diligent about keeping numbers even by removing or not inviting some people from the class. I think I managed to placate the situation more or less in the end.
My biggest regret was that I was so tired - I had difficulty moving and concentrating for the workshops. Organizing and policing (not perfectly, I admit) added to distract me from concentrating properly on the lessons.
Thanks very much to everyone who showed up. Thanks especially to those who lent moral support early and throughout. You know who you are.
Apparently Tony & Claudia have plans to be back in April! This announcement was made during the class, which could go long towards generating more interest quickly. It looks like I might be forced into doing this yet another time! I was both happy and horrified to hear this announcement – do I have to go through this again? It probably won’t be happening on a Monday next time though because the new weekly Latin Collective class will start beginning next Monday. Tuesday is one option – it’s the only night without a regular schedule. However, I think I would need to talk to some people (e.g. Ivan) about other possibilities as well. In any case, organizing this should only get easier as their reputation gets more and more word-of-mouth boosting. Already, I don’t feel that I’m the biggest fan of Tony & Claudia in Cambridge (I don’t know if I ever was) because there are others who seem even more enthusiastic about them than I am. In case it wasn’t clear above, I think Tony & Claudia are great; I’m merely saying that there are other people who seem to be bigger fans.
I made a tidy1 pound profit. This is a big improvement over last time when I lost approximately 100 pounds with larger number of participants and higher ticket prices. I was hoping for a loss of less than 50 pounds, so breaking even was a pleasant surprise. This happened despite the fact that no money was collected from the spectators and people who came only for the dance afterwards, not everyone paying full price for logistical reasons, etc – something like this happened last time too. Some of the materials I bought for last workshop were used for this workshop thus keeping expenses down this time. We (by this I mean Vishal and I - both working as volunteers) also skimped on hired help this time, but I think I will definitely need a reliable cashier next time and perhaps start printing out tickets once again (tickets to be collected at the very beginning of each workshop) to expedite entry process. By the way, I have absolutely no desire to do this on weekly basis. Even once every two months often feels like too much.
Before the start of the workshop, I ran into Joe Davids, who was talking business with Vishal at Tandoori Station Restaurant. Among other things, we talked about Ihatemerengue, DarkMoves, Nelson, Brit Salsafest, Bar Latina and ScalaLatina. Joe will be present at the first Monday class at Club Salsa next week. Apparently Joe, Sally and Ivan are planning on organizing a monthly Salsa social in Cambridge to start pretty soon.
Bachata workshop
In some ways, the most important component of the class was incorporation of body movement to Bachata – such as shoulder go up on legs with the weight on and forward chest movement with each step. These things will need a lot of exercises.
The routine taught was apparently identical to the one taught at the Bachata workshop at the Brit Salsafest (Tango routine??). What was the big difference? No one was more than 8 feet away from the Tony & Claudia and many people were no more than 2 feet away. It’s a lot easier to see what’s going on in a small setting like Club Salsa as I said several days ago. People who did the Brit Salsafest Bachata workshop seemingly had a head start. Now I wish I had took that class too – especially in hindsight after having experienced that nightmare of intermediate turn pattern class (through no fault of SuperMario & Susana Montero by the way – I thought they were very good).
Parts of the routine would be considered to be choreography or freestyle/shine designed specifically for the song "Te Quiero" by Oliver. I couldn't find this song being sold anywhere although a sample can be heard in Tony's website for the moment.
The beginning bit had leader kneeling down on his knees declaring his love with his free R hand raised (L-R hold). As leader gets up, follower slinks down with knees bending and swaying while keeping together. Next part has leader getting close to the follower from her behind and to her left and holding her at the hips and bring her in contact with his body, which is to coincide with a strong beat. Next, leader and follower sway their body together - first to left, then to right, then to left, then while follower sways to left leader sways to right. This is followed by a chest body movement to coincide with heartbeat like rhythm of the song. Follower is turned around (1/2 counterclockwise) and basic side-to-side step is initiated on 5,6,7,8 with leader giving a distance between himself and follower for his turns (see below).
1,2,3,4 leader turns (side-to-side)
5,6,7,8 leader turns (side-to-side) with L-R at neck level to end in a neck wrap for leader
1,2,3,4 R-L connection is made at waist level on 8/1 and leader turns (side-to-side)
5,6,7,8 in place and prepare (both connections go R-L-R then high) and follower turns full clockwise - leader turns half (which direction? I'll have to check this) with connections ending up under arms of leaders - leader can get follower to close in by pulling connections apart L-R to L and R-L to R
1,2,3,4,5,6,7 basic in place except doing follower's basic
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader initiates body roll by leaning back with his shoulder and straightening up in wave-like manner first, and follower can reciprocate by leaning forward starting low and rolling up
less sure about the next part below
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader turns around and gets back into basic position and starts doing basic (?)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 leader steps forward and chest body movement (forward-back-forward?), then leader steps backward and chest body movement again (back-forward-back?)
Salsa workshop
Shine of the day (Finally! This is so cool! I’m excited about this more than anything else!)
I wonder if this is the first shine that lasts more than one bar of music taught in Cambridge. Tony claimed during the class that I requested for a difficult shine for this class. I must admit that he had fair bit justification for saying this even if it wasn’t the literal truth. I would say that these were at least equivalent to level III shines at SOS.
core pattern (could be repeated … this was done to music in parts of the song with pronounced core beats only)
1 L forward
3 R to side R
5 L straight back
7 R to side L
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
1 L foot lift
2 L foot point to R while still lifted
3 R foot slide to side R while L foot on heels
5,6 L foot toe (cross behind R foot) twice
7 L foot slide to side L while R foot on heels
1 R foot toe (cross behind L foot)
2 R foot slide to side R while L foot on heels
3 L foot toe (cross behind R foot)
4 L foot slide to side L while R foot on heels
5 R foot back
6 L foot forward
7 R foot step/cross over in front of L foot
1,2,3 crazy steps (end with L foot in front and to R of R foot) (dum-ka-dum-ka-dum?)
5 R foot step/cross over in front of L foot with L foot on toe crossed behind R foot
6 both feet slide backwards together
7 both feel slide/jump apart landing on heels
8 both feel slide/jump back into normal standing position
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
Followers learned a different shine from Claudia. I thought this was great because it gave many people a taste of bigger Salsa scenes like London (SOS in particular) except more intimate. I loved it. The face-off added a fun little twist to the proceedings.
Turn patterns
By this point in the evening, my brain must have been feeling overloaded. This routine wasn’t impossible for me (it was a very smooth routine I might add) but I still was having difficulties at multiple points – at least part of the reason had to be fatigue. Also even though the students were some of the best in Cambridge, one could say that the difference in levels from one end of the spectrum to the other was stark. I don’t think this can be helped much because the size of student base is so small in Cambridge. Very different style and feel compared to most other Salsa classes I have taken. Closest comparison (but not quite so) might be the Sacuye advanced Turn pattern class from Brit Salsafest.
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead ending with both facing the line at the end with L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 Is this like Enchufe? It also felt somewhat like Copa (reverse cross body) but without it being in-and-out. I thought it might have had a shade of Cuban flavor while staying linear rather than being strictly LA. There might be NY influence here. I do remember that Tony saying that he prefers Cuban style over Puerto Rican style – whatever it means. I’m not an expert of this though so I could be talking nonsense here. Bring follower forward along the line and 1 1/2 turn (or was it 1/2?) counterclockwise for follower ending with leader turning 1/2 clockwise with L-R lowered to waist level to face away from follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward on leader’s L side with L-R outstretched and pointing forward on 3/4 and lead follower into traveling full counterclockwise (?) turn to end with waist wrap for follower (L-R in front of follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 bring follower back (via R side of leader) and leader gets into open position facing follower with change to R-R hold (L hand goes over follower’s head?) – why did this take so long? poor footwork maybe?
1,2,3,5,6,7 cross body lead with traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower ending with leader’s L hand on follower’s L shoulder and R-R behind leader’s head
1,2,3,5,6,7 down (but not really … R knees bend a little with L leg outstretched or is it the other way around?) and up on 1,2,3 as preparatory step? – double stationary turn for follower with roll of hands for a leaders full turn at the same time as the follower’s second turn (or hair behind).
I think this workshop might also have brought about more interaction between people who primarily partake in classes held on different dates at Club Salsa.
Tony the DJ was also very good – a real pro. I relieved him while he took a meal break. Good job here in this regard by Vishal. Below was my playlist.
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda
Duele Mas – Grupo Niche
El Molestoso II – Eddie Palmieri
Chang – Tito Puente (not well-received)
Para Darte Fuego – Frankie Ruiz
Un Alto En El Camino - Grupo Niche
Miye Na We - Africando
Brit Salsafest 7 – Drive back
February 6, 2006
I think there will have to be one more post after this one.
I woke up at 9:25 AM because of loud talking outside my room. I hurriedly got dressed, ate breakfast, showed and checked out as I had told Johnny & Serap that I would meet them at 10 AM. It was cloudy again today but the visibility was best thus far and I was able to see the ocean, etc. I departed from Carlton Hotel at 10:05 AM and picked up Johnny & Serap to begin the return journey in earnest by 10:15 AM. Johnny & Serap seemed even more exhausted than I was at the beginning of the trip, but I think I caught up with them in feeling exhausted. Unlike me, Johnny & Serap had not had breakfast (they had stayed at Winter Gardens until 4:30 AM), so we had a stop for their breakfast. Tony and I exchanged some texts during this break for me to given him a general directions to Cambridge from Blackpool during this break. The drive itself was tortuous as it went on because I was already quite tired to begin with. There was absolutely nothing interesting to watch on the road. Probably the most picturesque thing I saw was a hill (between Preston and Manchester?). Things like Manchester Waterway, Spaghetti Junction and other parts of Birmingham made absolutely no impression. The biggest hightlight (not a bad one I might add) happened during a break for lunch. I ran into another Brit Salsafest participant, who apparently enjoyed dancing with me very much and wished that she could have run into me again for another dance during this weekend. I was asked if I would be going to the UK International Congress (which isn’t until September!). She also talked about needing a lot more practice before it so that she could have even more fun dancing. I guess even with my dubious techniques, I can satisfy and have fun dancing with some of the people. I missed my exit to A14 so a detour via A45 was used instead, which resulted in further delays. The trip ended at 3:50 PM; not a minute too soon.
I think there will have to be one more post after this one.
I woke up at 9:25 AM because of loud talking outside my room. I hurriedly got dressed, ate breakfast, showed and checked out as I had told Johnny & Serap that I would meet them at 10 AM. It was cloudy again today but the visibility was best thus far and I was able to see the ocean, etc. I departed from Carlton Hotel at 10:05 AM and picked up Johnny & Serap to begin the return journey in earnest by 10:15 AM. Johnny & Serap seemed even more exhausted than I was at the beginning of the trip, but I think I caught up with them in feeling exhausted. Unlike me, Johnny & Serap had not had breakfast (they had stayed at Winter Gardens until 4:30 AM), so we had a stop for their breakfast. Tony and I exchanged some texts during this break for me to given him a general directions to Cambridge from Blackpool during this break. The drive itself was tortuous as it went on because I was already quite tired to begin with. There was absolutely nothing interesting to watch on the road. Probably the most picturesque thing I saw was a hill (between Preston and Manchester?). Things like Manchester Waterway, Spaghetti Junction and other parts of Birmingham made absolutely no impression. The biggest hightlight (not a bad one I might add) happened during a break for lunch. I ran into another Brit Salsafest participant, who apparently enjoyed dancing with me very much and wished that she could have run into me again for another dance during this weekend. I was asked if I would be going to the UK International Congress (which isn’t until September!). She also talked about needing a lot more practice before it so that she could have even more fun dancing. I guess even with my dubious techniques, I can satisfy and have fun dancing with some of the people. I missed my exit to A14 so a detour via A45 was used instead, which resulted in further delays. The trip ended at 3:50 PM; not a minute too soon.
Keeping fingers crossed (temporary post - 4:20 PM)
February 6, 2006
The attendence level for tonight's workshop could be good, bad or ugly. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
p.s. At least I made it back to Cambridge in one piece... What a long exhausting drive!
The attendence level for tonight's workshop could be good, bad or ugly. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
p.s. At least I made it back to Cambridge in one piece... What a long exhausting drive!
Brit Salsafest 6 – Final night
February 5, 2006
At dinner, I said to Johnny that if I were a country, I would like to be something like Finland – neutral, well-developed and with good international reputation. Because of this blog, I was more like North Korea in the Cambridge Salsa scene – distrusted by most and disliked by many. Now, I’m somewhere in between - maybe Mexico.
I arrived at Winter Gardens at 9:50 PM for the show, meaning I managed to skip much of Paul Young’s babbling in the beginning. I think the highlight of the lineup was Swing Guys once again. I liked Lee & Shelley but there’s probably some personal bias there since I’ve taken several classes with them and like them. I might have found Leon Rose & Susana Montero interesting except that I essentially saw the same show last weekend with much better view. Salsa Dance Squad seemed to be a slightly weaker version of Tropical Gem.
It was amusing to find myself standing next to bunch of familiar faces repeatedly and not realize that they were there for the longest time. At the show, it took me almost ten minutes to realize that I was standing right next to Sally’s group, who were seated. Later in the evening, I was standing next to Tony Lara and not realizing this until he said hello to me. Tony seemed somewhat recovered but seemingly needed more rest and did not stay long. I did find out that Cambridge is the only place he’ll be stopping at in this trip; he’ll be flying back to Italy on Wednesday. Apparently, Brit Salsafest organizer(s) gave Tony a hard time when he told them that he was going to do a workshop in Cambridge.
I probably had another 30-40 dances between ~10:30 PM and 3 AM. About 1/4 were by request, and many of these were quite fun. In this trip, not counting couple of presumptive non-dancers and people from Cambridge, I had only one rejection for dance throughout the weekend. There were two long stretches of very enjoyable series of dances. The final dance was also quite fun. I’m going to miss having so much room to dance.
I’ll probably make one more post regarding the Brit Salsafest. Now, I need to get some sleep, and tomorrow is going to be another busy day.
At dinner, I said to Johnny that if I were a country, I would like to be something like Finland – neutral, well-developed and with good international reputation. Because of this blog, I was more like North Korea in the Cambridge Salsa scene – distrusted by most and disliked by many. Now, I’m somewhere in between - maybe Mexico.
I arrived at Winter Gardens at 9:50 PM for the show, meaning I managed to skip much of Paul Young’s babbling in the beginning. I think the highlight of the lineup was Swing Guys once again. I liked Lee & Shelley but there’s probably some personal bias there since I’ve taken several classes with them and like them. I might have found Leon Rose & Susana Montero interesting except that I essentially saw the same show last weekend with much better view. Salsa Dance Squad seemed to be a slightly weaker version of Tropical Gem.
It was amusing to find myself standing next to bunch of familiar faces repeatedly and not realize that they were there for the longest time. At the show, it took me almost ten minutes to realize that I was standing right next to Sally’s group, who were seated. Later in the evening, I was standing next to Tony Lara and not realizing this until he said hello to me. Tony seemed somewhat recovered but seemingly needed more rest and did not stay long. I did find out that Cambridge is the only place he’ll be stopping at in this trip; he’ll be flying back to Italy on Wednesday. Apparently, Brit Salsafest organizer(s) gave Tony a hard time when he told them that he was going to do a workshop in Cambridge.
I probably had another 30-40 dances between ~10:30 PM and 3 AM. About 1/4 were by request, and many of these were quite fun. In this trip, not counting couple of presumptive non-dancers and people from Cambridge, I had only one rejection for dance throughout the weekend. There were two long stretches of very enjoyable series of dances. The final dance was also quite fun. I’m going to miss having so much room to dance.
I’ll probably make one more post regarding the Brit Salsafest. Now, I need to get some sleep, and tomorrow is going to be another busy day.
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