... and dancers with passion and sabor :)

May 9, 2006

I think I understand Ivan a little better now. Given similar circumstances, I could easily choose to do as he does. It would be so easy and pleasant – why take the hard road? Then again, I am a bit of a masochist and I am still learning.

I had missed my chance to see Pete’s band Cambiando on numerous occasions in the past. I thought this would be as good a time as any to see them for the first time. I arrived around 8:45 PM in the middle of their first set. The band sounded quite good – considerably better than the only other Salsa band I heard live at PPAA in Portland, Oregon last June. Generally, I have found musicianship of bands in Cambridge superior to many bands I have listened to in larger cities in USA. Generally, dancing to the band was better than dancing to the recorded music tonight – with caveat that the DJ work was extremely basic and with a minor complaint that the endings of the songs played live were a bit abrupt and lacked flourish.

I held out from dancing for a while until I was asked first – something like a repeat of Sunday. I guess I was amusing myself and staying relaxed knowing that if I waited long enough, someone will drag me to the dance floor. I suppose it’s like a new game – one I’m sure I’ll get tired of fairly soon.

There were not many really superb dancers, but there were plenty of fun people to dance with nevertheless. Superb dance partners are fun because of possibility of having more sophisticated and rich complex dances. Less experienced dance partners can be fun often because it’s easier to delight them with surprises and challenges – provided that they enjoy surprises and challenges.

Having just one or two amazing dance partners who are several levels better than everyone else can be jarring. The situation is not unlike when I try dancing while DJing or after I am done DJing - it's difficult to hit full stride. When I dance with the amazing ones who can follow everything I can lead, often I’m too stunned and do not feel ready to take full advantage of the situation. It’s not exactly intimidation, but after doing a series of simple things (nothing wrong with this approach by the way), I might try something that nearly never works with most people. If my dance partner follows and executes the move effortlessly, I would be delighted, thrilled and surprised – and at the same time, my mind would go blank as I struggle and fail to think of other interesting moves to try because of the excitement. Even though my memory is pretty good, it’s easier to recall challenging moves to try to practice in between dances when there is less urgency. This is not a complaint; it’s a great pleasure dancing with superb partners – it would be great if I could dance with them more and even better if I can find and develop comfort level more quickly.

Cuban style dancers were predominant tonight, and my idea that I was pretty good interacting with Cuban style dancers took a small beating tonight. I better amend my assessment to something like, “I can lead people who dance predominantly Cuban style assuming they are very experienced and/or have some familiarity with CBL style.” Another possibility is that I have had less practice dancing with Cuban style dancers recently. More I learn, less I know.

I solved the mystery of the dancer with great deal of sabor and élan from Ljubljana. It’s always fun solving the identities of friendly lurkers in cyberspace. Now if I can figure out the identity of my biggest fan.

Some people were trying to get me to go to Club Salsa tomorrow night. Although it's very doable (especially because I don't have much to do at work this week), I'm leery of going out for Salsa 7 days in a row.

Evening ended with a chat with Pete downstairs. Many topics were touched upon including about some people I danced and chatted with earlier and about the upcoming Guildhall event. An amusing exchange at the end came about when Sean briefly joined us and Pete had difficulty remembering his name. I said in jest to Pete, “You have no trouble remembering my name. Of course, I’m very memorable.” Pete laughed and replied, “Yeah, but that’s because you’re famous… Or maybe I should say infamous.” I am that – a lightning rod for controversy – an amusing cautionary tale to others with blogs. By the way, may I read yours if you’re reading mine?

Word of the day: Butterfly. No. Not me.