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
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