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.
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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.
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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.
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