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.