Rabo Karabekian sneaking off to the Museum of Modern Art

March 4, 2006

The original plan was to leave very early in the evening so that I can have a leisurely dinner, followed by taking a class (perhaps not Salsa), then dance all night. Of course this is not what happened because there was fair bit of work to be done - just like the way it will be tomorrow, except there will be even more to do and there will be no Salsa tomorrow. Between getting lost few times (taking wrong turn towards Chingsford and missing Seven Sisters Road several times and ending up in places like the Old Church Road/Ridgeway and Bolelyn Road/Ball’s Pond Road - London isn’t the easiest city to navigate), having a fastest/simplest dinner possible and the longest line for ATM, it was a bit after 11 PM by the time I gave my money to Joe at the entrance.

The Rocket (166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB) is apparently part of the London Metropolitan University For those who will be going to this place for the first time, this fact might be quite useful for finding the venue in part because the sign for the Rocket is very small – practically invisible. Look for a building designed by Daniel Libeskind. The other useful thing to note is that the Rocket is very close to Holloway Road Tube stop towards the central London – maybe about 100 yards away. Finding the venue in the maps in the internet isn’t the easiest thing in the world either. Let me help here.

My understanding is that the Rocket is bigger than the Scala, so I was slightly surprised to find the venue smaller than I expected. A big caveat is that one of the main room was closed for soundproofing work (as noted in the fliers) so two Salsa programs (SalsaMax and Viva Cuba) were merged into a single room. This merged Salsa room had a main dance floor somewhat larger than the size of the dance floor at the LeL but with fewer obstructions. Additional area (corridors, etc) was also used for dancing by some people. Even so, the total area for Salsa tonight seemed somewhat smaller than Mary Ward Hall. I have no idea how big the temporarily closed room is. As for the other two rooms (Brazilian Beach Bums and Urban Latino rooms), I only took a passing look – just enough to get an impression that the main attraction by far was Salsa.

Now I wonder just how small Scala is. I am even more curious to find out how small Bar Salsa is. Surely, Bar Salsa must have a dance floor at least comparable in size to Clarendon Grill.

Ventilation did not seem to be a problem – I don’t know if air conditioning was on, but I wasn’t really straining myself tonight either. In any case, I felt pretty comfortable with the temperature, etc all night. While there seemed to be plenty of volume in the music system, I don’t think the sound system ever felt strained. Another way to put it would be that it was loud but it didn’t feel too loud.

There were plenty of people dancing although it never felt out of control either. There were a number of people from Cambridge, but I recognized even more people from SOS and other London venues. I like to think that I'm pretty good at remembering faces, names, etc but sometimes it feels like people are better at remembering me than the other way around - at least one person remembered that I am from Cambridge, but I had no clear recollection of this person. Maybe my memory isn't what it used to be.

The official version of the event by Joe seems pretty accurate. I knew about a competing event at the Colloseum but not about yet another second competing event.

There was a perfomance by Rafael and Abbey. They really move very well with airy qualities – floating more than flying or gliding. I think I must have seen Rafael before somewhere although he didn’t leave a big impression before with his (social) dancing – probably because I wasn’t paying attention as usual.

Despite some mishaps, I ended up having a pretty good time once again. A few highlights come to mind. One was hearing La Palomilla by Joe Cuba during the last hour - I won't get into reasons why this was a highlight. Maybe one of these days, I’ll hear Porque Adore by Markolino Dimond/Frankie Dante. There were quite a number of dances I really enjoyed tonight, but one really stood out from the beginning to the end. The beginning – When the song starts. I look around for prospective dance partners. About 15 meters away, I spot one of my favorite partners from SOS. I catch her eyes and I give a simple questioning look and a shadow of a smile (no verbalizing or any kind of body gesture), which is enough to get her to smile back and walk towards me to dance with me. The dance itself felt spot on and it seems hardly possible that we could be much more in synch. I can’t speak for her but I felt like we were dancing as if our mind had melded together. A curious parallel (probably wildly inaccurate yet seemingly appropriate somehow) that came to my mind was about Rabo Karabekian sneaking off to Museum of Modern Art with Marilee in Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard. The end - a squeeze, hug and a comment, “I have no idea how anyone could be unhappy or complain about dancing with you.” I don’t think there was nothing flashy or spectacular or showy about the dance, but it felt amazingly intimate, effortless, frozen in time yet timeless and dreamy.

Disclaimer. This post is probably full of error and omission. I find that every dance has qualities that are enjoyable. I mainly picked and highlighted one from tonight because it's unusual to have a dance leading me to think of an obscure literary reference. I apologize if these disclaimers are beginning to sound like a parody and a joke.