Piled deeper and higher

April 27, 2006

Last week (and weekend) was a very exhausting. Work has been problematic. Salsa was intense and very energy consuming. I was quite tired after Sunday, but somehow ended up spending a lot of energy on Monday too. My blog was worrying me too – a new record for number of page views for a week was set last week. Someone from Guadalupe going through 199 pages in one sitting helped, but even discounting those 199 remaining 401 would have been close to a new record (17 fewer than first week of October last year in the middle of the big initial hoopla and 11 more than that week in February this year during which a lot of comments were made and nerves were frayed). When there were exceptionally many visits to the blog in the past, it signaled that a lot of people are annoyed by something I wrote. However, there were no obvious indications that I wrote something controversial recently.

So what’s going on? I tried not to think about it – tried not to listen to Salsa music again to help keep my mind off everything Salsa. Unfortunately, trying to not think about Salsa didn’t help. I ended up thinking about writing more entries for the blog, for example about the upcoming Salsa Congresses (both at Heathrow and Bognor Regis), but changing my mind every time if nothing else so keep number of visitors down. By the way, the price for Bognor Congress (5th UK international Salsa Congress) goes up by 20 pounds at the end of this month. I am thinking that I should not go. I used to wake up in the morning thinking about my studies when I was still in school. Now I wake up thinking about things related to Salsa while also struggling to think about my work instead. Perhaps I should stop thinking about my work as a hobby – after all, is it possible to have two different serious hobbies or obsessions and do well with both? And I certainly don’t want Salsa to become my work.

By Tuesday, I found myself with very little energy. I went to play basketball for first time in 3 weeks. At the start of the game, I felt as if I only had quarter of tank of gas in me, and I was running on fumes for last 10-15 minutes or so. This is so unusual; normally I would be outrunning everyone near the end of the game. Only by Thursday did I feel somewhat recovered. Even though I am thinking that I need to cut down on Salsa somehow (especially if I end up keep acting as DJ on Fridays as well as working on fundamentals with Sergio), I decided to continue with the Thursday lessons for another week, but Sally wasn’t there tonight. Instead, Ivan and Jane acted as substitute instructors. Warm-up music used was “Get it up,” courtesy of Rajiv.

Intermediate with Ivan with Jane

1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with 2 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower with L-R ending in arm-lock (L position for both)
1,2,3,5,6,7 clockwise L-R toss on 1,2,3 – reconnect to lead follower to a full clockwise turn on 5,6,7
1,2,3,5,6,7 step to follower’s R on 1 (into tight closed hold ~CBL-like position), turn as unit 180 or 1/2 counterclockwise into CBL position and finish CBL and switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL again with R-R straight down and slightly forward along follower’s line (keep arms straight) – 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower (windmill lead) ending with toss – leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise and connect L-R by leader’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward – reconnect R-L and lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn to get back to open
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into double clockwise turn - pulling the zipper after the first turn to get R-L behind follower’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect L-R and exchange position with follower on 1,2,3 (from follower’s left position) with L-R going over follower’s head – need to keep tension and keep follower fairly close – bring follower around to behind leader via leader’s R side (both connections end up above leader’s L shoulder)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower forward on leader’s L side and into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn to get back to open

During the second hour of classes, I spied Ivan teaching around-the-world move to the improver class. It seemed like many people were doing pretty well with the move. It’s not long ago when I wrote about having an “around-the-world” envy – maybe January? I ended up working it out for myself after some effort and now lead it with pretty much everyone. Now I suspect everyone will be leading it in no time. I saw that Jane’s beyond beginner class was severely short of leaders, so I decided to help out with this class – hopefully I did more good than harm.

Dancing afterwards was uneven despite there being a lot of good dancersdancers (perhaps due to the Ivan effect). There were many good dances but there were also many dances that were either too much or too little (for lack of better words). Often I couldn’t find the right balance with the way I was leading the dance. I also am finding that some of the New York style material taught by Joe is unfamiliar and too subtle to a lot of people. I think people will adapt to them though, some sooner than others.

Music was adventuresome. I think Ivan was sticking mostly to classics and Salsa Dura and with touch of recent (but before my time) odd hits. Some of the songs he played were songs I considered playing tomorrow – “Nina Y Senora” by Tito Puente was a particularly amusing example for me, and “Quinto Sabroso” by Joe Cuba Sextet (apparently with Jose “Cheo” Feliciano) was another example. At one point, I told Ivan that people would have tried to lynch him if he tried playing some of tonight’s songs about a month ago on a Friday. Ivan commented that he had tried DJing on Fridays in the past and that he found it very tricky because of a very mixed constituency represented on Fridays. Apparently with tonight’s crowd mostly being well known to him, Ivan felt freer playing whatever he liked.

Interestingly, the music became even more adventuresome and possibly questionable at times when Vishal took over for Ivan. I wasn’t even sure if some of the songs would be considered proper Salsa. I would have considered one early song Reggaeton, but what do I know? At one point, I turned to ask Jane whether the song being played at that time would be considered Salsa. Jane thought it sounded more like Samba but she may not have been completely sure about it. In any case, there must have been 6-10 Salsa songs in a row that I did not recognize. I guess Vishal wants more Salsa with R & B feel to it; he has said this on more than one occasion to me. I guess I have been pretty loud in talking about wanting less of the same old same old, so I really should not be complaining of other people playing different sounding songs. Different people have different taste regarding type of music they like to dance Salsa to; I probably would play mostly instrumental tracks with jazzy feel (both complex and mellow) more than half the time if I were playing solely for myself.

Couple of Bachata was thrown by Vishal in later in the evening, which meant that I finally had some opportunity to practice Bachata; I haven’t had much of an opportunity in any manner after the Tony & Claudia workshop. I have been regretting declining an opportunity to dance Bachata with Daniela last week, and this regret was more acute than ever tonight. I certainly don’t think of myself as a natural in partner dancing. Considering how long it took me to get used to Salsa, I must wonder how difficult Bachata would be especially considering that it requires more comfort level (at least at the outset) with one’s partner to dance it well. Knowing the mechanics of the lead for Bachata thus far has not been difficult. Getting the proper mindset or attitude or command or other intangibles is more elusive. To top it off with musicality makes it even more challenging to practice. I wonder how much practice in private you-know-who had if any or if it came naturally very quickly.

Who knows? Maybe I will get in trouble anyway. Maybe I’ll get myself in trouble by some self-fulfilling method. Maybe I did it already. I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep tonight. [Added later: sleep turned out fairly restful – at least I didn’t feel tired or bothered when I woke up.]

Other topics at Club Salsa included another assessment of Bar Salsa on Mondays (pro - it lasts longer; con - alcohol drinkers), further talk of muscles regarding tension, Cache (I’m thinking and hoping that it would have more than one good track – Descarga.com review gives me hope), CDC Salsa night upcoming in Tuesday 9th of May (with Cambiando playing live), volume of music ("Is it getting louder here on Wednesdays and Thursdays?"), and the Bognor Congress (some people will indeed be booking this month - it makes sense if one is sure of going).