Call me Don Quixote

June 13, 2006

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t - this describes problems of deciding upon a method of transportation to LDA.

Going to London for Salsa lessons requires a lot of effort. I know that many of the finest Salsa dancers in the present Cambridge scene have went to London in the past. Of course until fairly recently, there was little option for learning CBL style Salsa in Cambridge. Nowadays, learning CBL style Salsa in Cambridge to get to a fairly high level is doable, and things should only get better as more people become more proficient. However, it is still difficult to get beyond intermediate level merely by taking drop-in classes in Cambridge only unless a larger pool of intermediate level dancers form and more of the intermediate level dancers take part in these classes.

5:30 PM – I check various websites to check on automobile traffic in London and on train engineering schedule. Traffic website shows delay on M11 (slow traffic between M25 and North circular) while there’s no scheduled engineering works for the train. It’s raining. I might want to avoid walking in the rain, but rain might mean traffic conditions could be bad. What to do?

6:10 PM – Traffic website says that the delay on M11 is cleared.

6:30 PM – It’s now a little too late to take the train.

6:40 PM – Time of departure. I decided that it might be better to leave somewhat early. Last week, I left at 6:30 PM, and it took only 65 minutes. But the weather is poor.

6:50 PM – I’m on M11, and traffic warning signs suggesting 50 mph, and then 40 mph maximum is on. I’m already regretting not having taken the train.

6:55 PM – After seeing couple of cars stopped on the side of the road, I now see a big puddle in the middle of the motorway and four or five car on the side of the road apparently having lost control. Scary.

7:00 PM – Less than a mile after traffic warning sign read “End” of reduced advised maximum speed, a traffic jam appears.

7:10 PM – Traffic jam clears up. Last week, I was on local road by this time. This time, I have not yet reached M25 junction.

7:20 PM – Another traffic jam - this time after M25. Uh oh.

7:40 PM – It looks like the traffic jam is going to continue into North Circular Road. Oh No. I decided to improvise because I’m definitely going to be late at this rate.

7:55 PM – I have made some missteps. I circled around Redbridge Roundabout twice before taking A12, and then I left A12 prematurely. I thought I was on Whipps Cross Road, but I was on High Street instead. I eventually make my way to Lea Bridge Road.

8:10 PM – This alternate route is slower than last week’s route. A107 is particularly bad.

8:15 PM – I’m finally on Seven Sisters Road – finally back to a familiar road.

8:38 PM – Rest of the road was pretty good. I think I took a pretty good route last week. My guess is that I did not save much time by taking an alternate route. Then again, I probably did not lose any time either.

LDA 3.3 with Susana & Mario

1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL ending with L-R hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 pivot 1/2 clockwise turn for leader – switch to R-R briefly and place follower’s R hand on leader’s R waist while stepping in place on 5 – transfer weight to L foot on 6 and turn 1 1/2 counterclockwise (follower does a body roll, etc) [note: I missed instructions and preparations for this section because of late arrival. This is based upon my reading of how other students were leading this during and after the class.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL start and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with R hand on follower’s stomach level and with R foot level or overtaking follower on her L side
1,2,3,5,6,7 in place on 1, transfer weight to R on 2 and initiate and finish turn as a unit 1/2 counterclockwise between 2 and 3 into CBL position [note: need to end in a position and with enough space to allow follower to step forward on 5] – lead follower forward using R hand on follower’s back on 5,6 with L-R high initially (is this essentially high cross pass?) and bring L-R down between 6 and 7 to lead follower to turn 1/2 counterclockwise and with leader turning 1/2 to 3/4 clockwise on 7 and switch to R-R
1,2,3,5,6,7 reconnecting L-L above R-R at some point, lead follower into Copa and into 2 1/2 Copa traveling turn with L-L going over follower’s head and staying high with leader (very possibly following follower to stay within short distance during 5,6) turning 1/2 counterclockwise on 7 or after follower is done with her spin (L-L ends at about shoulder level to L) [note: main lead for Copa turn is with R hand on follower's hip on 4]
1,2,3,5,6,7 find a convenient place to step on 1 while bringing L-L way down, move to L into open CBL position during 2,3 while switching to R-L – lead follower into free traveling counterclockwise turn

Being over 20 minutes late to the class gave me no time to relax and breath it all in. The starting bit is fairly demanding for the leader. I started off okay with the starting bit then I lost it before regaining some control. This is unfortunate. I'll need a lot of practice to stay balanced throughout.

Practices were done to songs like “Asia Mood” and “Nina Y Senora” by Tito Puente at normal speed. There's no trick of playing artificially slow song to make students feel better about themselves, which is the way to go to teach things properly.

At the end of the class, Justin clued me on what I missed during the first 20 minutes or so. There was preparatory work for leader’s spins. My guess is that I would have been a little more relaxed and confident during the early part of the routine had I arrived on time. I would have struggled a bit with the latter part of the routine in normal speed no matter what. Justin also mentioned that Mario asked where the guy from Cambridge is at the beginning of the class. I guess simply having the longest commute among all students made me somewhat remarkable.

After the class, I took time to look at some of the other leaders in class. After more observation, I reconfirmed my earlier assessment that I am no better than average lead in this 3.3 class. In fact, I’m probably slightly below average. I don’t think I am the worst lead by significant margin based upon brief observation of some nearby students. In other words, I’m not in the same league as some of the strongest leads in this class but I’m not completely out of my league in this class either. It’s both nice and not so nice being one of the strongest lead in the class as I usually am in a class in Cambridge.

Some of the better leads in the class reminded me of some Cambridge instructors like Ivan, Jay, Johnny, etc. It’s impossible to judge whether these students are better than their Cambridge parallels based upon my little observations, but I think they looked just as good and possibly better. Some of the leaders had as good a good recall of last week’s routine if not better. I thought at least one of the leader might have been a better than average as a follower in the 3.3 class.

Maybe I could make myself feel better about being below average by thinking that most of these guys probably have been dancing Salsa for longer amount of time. But then again, who cares?

It would seem that some people dropped out after the first class while other new ones joined in. The class was 2 or 3 women short this week, but I did not find this to be a problem. In fact, I appreciated a little break now and then to catch my breath and to refocus.

The drive home was no better than drive to London. It took a little over 2 hours because of traffic jam in North Circular, which led me to take a detour to M25 (which entailed getting lost and going towards the opposite direction briefly), and a 10+ mile-long detour on M25 courtesy of road works. This kind of detour is a rarity in the USA; it's fact of life in the UK.

Thus far, 4 out of 6 commute to and from LDA would get a poor grade in my opinion. If this continues, it would be very difficult to justify taking these classes even though they are pretty darn good. Commutes lasting 70-90 minutes each way with normal traffic condition is pretty rough already, and 2 hour commute each way makes it not worthwhile for me. I think I’ll take the train next time, especially if the weather is poor. Driving should be made an option only if there is a scheduled engineering works for railroad.