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).