Connecting dots

March 16, 2006

Sally Intermediate

1,2,3,5,6,7 basic Mambo
1,2,3,5,6,7 Cross body lead [CBL] ending with L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with 2 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower (R hand on follower’s L shoulder on 1 as follower is “opened up” with L shoulder further behind R shoulder on 1 and R hand on follower’s L shoulder is used to help with the extra turn – by 3 follower’s L shoulder is more or less pointing forward along the line) and approximately 1/4 turn clockwise with hand switch to R-R
1,2,3 turn follower half clockwise to end in Titanic (perpendicular to the line) with L-L connection made while follower is turning (show of L hand might help but I think it may depend more on the leader’s ability)
5,6,7 lead follower into a stationary clockwise turn with L-L ending on follower’s R waist (back of leader’s L hand or even wrist is placed on the waist) and R-R pointing forward – leader is positioned slightly to R of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower forward on 1 with L-L on waist and bring her back turned around 1/2 clockwise and switch to R-L, then lead follower forward on 5 and into a traveling (not too much – might want to play with 2 o’clock approach) counterclockwise turn for follower low ending in a wrap
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare (bringing R-L up around 3) and lead follower to a stationary 1 1/2 clockwise turn ending with switch to L-L (was there a turn for leader on 7?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 standard Copa with L-L going over follower’s head and R hand on follower’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to a touch-and-go double turn with R-R connection made early above L-L and ending with L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic Mambo with R-R toss underneath L-L (clockwise motion for lead) to and reconnect R-R on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse cross body lead ending with simultaneous turn on 6,7 (clockwise for follower and counterclockwise for leader) to end with crossed hold with R-R still on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic Mambo with L-L toss underneath R-R (clockwise motion – felt strange for me and probably will need some practice to make it seem natural) to get L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse cross body lead into Titanic on 3/4 (parallel to the line) – no further leading by the leader but leader spins full counterclockwise while traveling to L with follower’s L hand at waist level and stays in contact with leader’s waist during the turn (L-L is temporarily disconnected and reconnected after the completion of the turn)
1,2,3,5,6,7 one more turn (stationary counterclockwise) for leader on 1,2,3 (L-L is disconnected again and R-L is established) – use R-L to lead follower to L and into a free 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn (going back towards where she came from on previous 1 – sort of like a very delayed Copa LA style)

I think this might be the longest routine I was ever taught. A small but arguably the most difficult part was covered last week also – this made the routine more manageable. I was nearing brain overload by the end still. I have no idea how others did because I needed every milligram of my attention to get the routine to work during the class. I didn’t get to try the full routine after the class because I got into an intense discussion with Ivan during the second hour of class, and I got into that experimental mode again during the club hours. In fact, I had completely forgotten the last part of the routine until I left Club Salsa and started writing the description of the routine on my laptop. This is a bit unfortunate because it would have been interesting to see how the last bit would have worked independent of the rest. Err – I just realized I forgot about couple of hand tosses (which I might add are decent break points for taking the whole routine into 3 parts – further breakdowns and variations are possible of course). Hmm. hand tosses are something I haven’t really practiced much and perhaps should start playing with. Sally’s really packing in a lot of material into her class last couple of weeks. So many things to try and so little time.

As I mentioned above, I got into a long talk with Ivan. The biggest topic? Tension. This topic will require a separate post of its own. It might take quite some time though (I’m thinking in terms of weeks rather than days). Another big topic? Let’s call it on-2. It looks like I’m not the only person looking forward to Sergio returning and possibly teaching on-2 in Cambridge. Other dance-related topics included Argentine Tango. The number of words spoken between Ivan and me (more by Ivan than me as I’m much better at listening than talking) tonight might amount to more than all other word spoken between me and everyone else at Club Salsa in 2006 thus far. I think this in part illustrates how much talking I do at Club Salsa more than anything else.

Dancing tonight was mostly on experimental mode again. By the way, even though I say it’s experimental, vast majority of the material is based upon what I was taught, and I am simply adding a dash of simple and possibly original (or things I don’t recall being taught) transitory move or leading a class-taught move in a slightly different way and/or with more flourish (which may or may not look good). Being familiar with a very large number of moves and variations probably may make playing around with learned moved easier. Often I think it’s a wonder that so many of my dance partners follow my made-up leads without question and sometimes with apologies because they think they didn’t do it right. These apologies happen even when I’m pretty sure it was caused by my hesitation or last-minute change of heart about a particular move I was about to lead. I guess I must be doing it right most of the time. If it weren’t for the fact that many of these things work with complete strangers in London, I probably would have stopped this experiment long ago. Of course, this experiment has been growing quite a bit and only a small fraction has been tried in London.

Ivan thought that it was nice to see that I was trying something different as opposed to sticking endlessly to a set of predetermined moves and that my lead probably was okay as I seemed to be keeping my dance partners in line (of course, it would be difficult to tell for sure without actually dancing with me). My biggest issue according to Ivan still seems be posture. In my opinion, some of this could be because of distance between my dance partners and me at various moments, but I wonder if some of it is something I do deliberately thinking that it feels good and therefore I mistakenly think that it probably looks okay too. Keeping appropriate distances may help to make leads more precise as well. Sally made essentially the same comment to me during the class.

Word of the day. Salsa handle. Sea horse is good too.

If it weren’t for the fact that I always liked song selections by Sally and Ivan (well…at least after I started accumulating my own collection of CDs, etc), I would suspect that choice of the music they play is influenced by my rants. Actually, I am probably justified in having this suspicion. Anyone can go up to a DJ and say something like, “I really like that song you just played. What is it called?” This will almost certainly result in that song getting more airplay. I imagine that most nights go without anyone talking to a Salsa DJ to compliment his/her choice of music in Cambridge. Criticism on the other hand…

I don’t think I am ready to cut it down to one Salsa lesson a week – and probably not for quite a while. I suppose I never even considered cutting it down to one Salsa night a week for foreseeable future. If nothing else, this is so that I stay in shape and maintain high stamina for Salsa dancing. Something like a six month sabbatical at this point will cause a severe setback. What’s scary is that going back to three lessons a week is not out of question. Cutting down is surprisingly and ridiculously difficult.