July 31, 2006
Intermediate with Russell – first hour
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with high cross pass (or something similar to it… the way it was done was normal CBL followed by hook turn with L-R raised fingers pointing up quickly during hook turn – I’m not sure if one method is better or easier)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break followed by Enchufe-like exchange followed by back basic followed by what Russell referred to as around-the-world (this might be more Cuban-ie move than CBL) – end with follower on leader’s R side with her R arm across leader’s waist (starting across in front of leader)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower to walk around leader in clockwise motion (leader’s footwork involves L foot cross over in front of R foot, R foot slightly back, L foot slightly back, R foot cross behind L foot, L foot slightly forward, R foot slightly forward) – leader should raise both his arms up by no later than 3 so that follower has a completely clear path [I am pretty sure I have seen Chris use this move a while ago and I might have seen Johnny teach something very much like this last week.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 repeat previous except end 5,6,7 with L arm on follower’s R arm to lead her into a clockwise turn to get back to open position
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa start with L-R toss beyond follower’s head from her R side with both hands on follower’s hips – then lead follower back for a Copa fake
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz (Russell referred to this as a flare… Another name for it I recall from a while ago includes “Whoosh”) followed by leading follower into free 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with R hand across follower’s back for tight closed hold with R foot across follower on 8 for
1,2,3,5,6,7 around-the-world and finish with CBL
Intermediate with Russell – second hour
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with any ole stylization into open L-R (also tried R-R for a triple turn next)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower into a stationary triple turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL ending in closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic until 5, step back on 6 and lead follower into CBL position (reverse of normal CBL – one variation involved preparing on 6 for a lifting follower into CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz? and normal CBL
Vishal asked me to DJ tonight because he had to be away for some other business.
Playlist
Desnudate Mujer – Frankie Ruiz
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (Mamborama) (1)
1-800-Quiereme – Luisito Rosario
Mambo Mongo – Mongo Santamaria (Fania) (2)*
Idilio – Willie Colon
Abran Paso – Larry Harlow / Ismael Miranda
Esas Lagrimas – Gilberto Santa Rosa
Duele Mas – Grupo Niche
Me Prendiste Velas – Oscar D’Leon
La Pantera Mambo – La 33
Anacaona – Cheo Feliciano
Celia Y Tito – Isidro Infante
Amor De Una Noche – N’Klabe
Thinking Of You – Lenny Kravitz (Salsa remix) (3)
Miye Na We – Africando
Me Libere – El Gran Combo
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda (4)
El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Otra Oportunidad – Jimmy Bosch
Oye Me Guaguanco – Tito Puente (Dance Mania) (5)*
I Like It Like That – Pete Rodriguez (6)*
Descarga Lebron – Lebron Brothers (7)
(1) Russell said Ran Kan Kan was one of his favorite so I played one – the oldest version I have.
(2) I had wanted to dance to this for quite some time now. Now I got the chance. Very nice and satisfying.
(3) I danced to this one to with one of my oldest Salsa acquaintances.
(4) Very few people are left by now.
(5) I had another dance for this one with a lovely new dance partner who would have been more than at home at SOS.
(6) A little Boogaloo. I suppose I could have tried to dance to this one but I already had one less than impressive experience trying to dance Cha Cha this week.
(7) Encore dance. Last song of the evening.
All songs were played slow (-5%) except for Thinking of You, Otra Oportunidad and I Like It Like That, all of which were played at normal speed.
My initial assessment was that most of the excellent followers from last week decided to stay away today while very few people who was not here last week reappeared or appeared for the first time. Who knows how or when people decide to come (or not)? It certainly made DJing easier in some ways while difficult in other ways. Yet this evening was an excellent exhibit showing that you never really know that one’s first impression does not always indicate how things will end. In any case, I suspect things may pick up considerably next week with some scheduled returns.
In all, I had five dances (including one between two classes). I would say that I was slightly off from my top form (not surprising given the circumstances like having to DJ), but I enjoyed my dances quite a bit – whether it was with one of my oldest acquaintances or a newcomer to the scene.
A quote – “I could get used to dancing with her.”
Because because because
July 30, 2006
Because last week's SOS outing was a general disappointment, I wanted to go again this week. Because there was the danger of SOS being held at the hotel again, I was hesitant. My dilemma was resolved by learning from multiple sources (including a text message) that SOS will be at Mary Ward "definitely". Because I wanted to relax and read a book in transit, I was determined to take the train. Because of work, etc. I arrived at the train station late. Because I had said that I was going to be at SOS, I took the next train even though this meant that I would arrive only around 9 PM for only about one and half hour of dancing (it turned out to be closer to 8:45 PM).
So it was a short but sweet session - even if it started off roughly. The first dance turned out to be to a Cha Cha song; I might have been better off begging off once I realized that it was not Salsa. Next couple of dances were with people who were very unsteady - one seemed to be shaking the entire time although I couldn't figure out whether this was caused by nerves. In any case, things got better progressively. I ended the evening with at least 14 dances, including to the final song - which made me miss the 10:38 PM train.
Music was never more familiar and included 2 Cha Cha (incl. Ahora Si - Markolino Dimond), 1 Bachata, 1 Boogaloo (Push Push Push - Joe Cuba). Salsa included Esto Es Guaguanco - Cheo Feliciano, Descarga Lebron - Lebron Brothers, Perdoname - Gilberto Santa Rosa, a song I remember from the Frankie Martinez DVD - Ray Barretto. The DJ tonight by the way was the boyfriend of one of my fellow LDA students. The Salsa scene in London is not as small as Cambridge's but it certainly seems to be shrinking (in a sense that you become familiar with all the regulars pretty quickly).
Finally, I had one person in London guess correctly my londonsalsa.co.uk forum identity tonight (on my way back to Kings Cross station). I suspect that there are more people who suspect the same. Of course, this is not a big secret, especially here in Cambridge. By the way, there were 11 Cambridge-associated people here tonight - many of them are based in London now though.
Because last week's SOS outing was a general disappointment, I wanted to go again this week. Because there was the danger of SOS being held at the hotel again, I was hesitant. My dilemma was resolved by learning from multiple sources (including a text message) that SOS will be at Mary Ward "definitely". Because I wanted to relax and read a book in transit, I was determined to take the train. Because of work, etc. I arrived at the train station late. Because I had said that I was going to be at SOS, I took the next train even though this meant that I would arrive only around 9 PM for only about one and half hour of dancing (it turned out to be closer to 8:45 PM).
So it was a short but sweet session - even if it started off roughly. The first dance turned out to be to a Cha Cha song; I might have been better off begging off once I realized that it was not Salsa. Next couple of dances were with people who were very unsteady - one seemed to be shaking the entire time although I couldn't figure out whether this was caused by nerves. In any case, things got better progressively. I ended the evening with at least 14 dances, including to the final song - which made me miss the 10:38 PM train.
Music was never more familiar and included 2 Cha Cha (incl. Ahora Si - Markolino Dimond), 1 Bachata, 1 Boogaloo (Push Push Push - Joe Cuba). Salsa included Esto Es Guaguanco - Cheo Feliciano, Descarga Lebron - Lebron Brothers, Perdoname - Gilberto Santa Rosa, a song I remember from the Frankie Martinez DVD - Ray Barretto. The DJ tonight by the way was the boyfriend of one of my fellow LDA students. The Salsa scene in London is not as small as Cambridge's but it certainly seems to be shrinking (in a sense that you become familiar with all the regulars pretty quickly).
Finally, I had one person in London guess correctly my londonsalsa.co.uk forum identity tonight (on my way back to Kings Cross station). I suspect that there are more people who suspect the same. Of course, this is not a big secret, especially here in Cambridge. By the way, there were 11 Cambridge-associated people here tonight - many of them are based in London now though.
Two birthdays
July 28, 2006
The evening started with a small gathering at the Tandoori Station with predominantly hardcore regulars at Club Salsa and on the whole a very eclectic mix of people. I enjoyed this pre-party where an initial tentative and potentially even awkward atmosphere eventually livened up and became rather friendly. Probably the most oft brought on topic was the see-through top/shirt/whatever worn by Vishal, who went out of his way to play the part of the generous host.
I had a better opportunity to have a look at Johnny & Serap's class in action. As it has been the case for at least couple of months, their practices were being done at normal club music speed. While not everyone was getting it, it was apparent that more dedicated students have gotten accustomed to leading and following moves at fast speed. It was nice to see - in part because I had harped on them about it since abuot a year ago.
The main party was packed with people. By 10:30 PM or so, it already felt like old packed Fridays at its height around 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Many of the old regulars (mostly from the Cuban crowd) made an appearance. The most notable guests from outside were Russell and Dawn. The music was pretty standard mix of Salsa, Merengue and Bachata with Cristian at DJ. There were some gems I recognized by Cheo Feliciano (Lindo Yambu?) and others. Conditions for dancing were very trying because of crowding and especially the high temperature and humidity even with the air conditioning at full capacity – the biggest factor (aside from this being summer) for this was sheer number of people. The temperature problem was about the worst I have seen at Club Salsa – although not quite as bad as at the SOS at the hotel venue last weekend. Before leaving, I think I had six dances with five people.
The scheduled performance by Body Works Girls was replaced by a demonstration by Johnny and Serap because of a family emergency of one of the Body Works Girls. I left Club Salsa shortly before the start of their demonstration (a little after midnight) and headed to St. Ives for Sally’s birthday party feeling quite spent. Standing and sitting was exhausting – possibly more so than when I was dancing. I did wonder for a second whether I should go because of exhaustion.
It probably took me about 10 minutes at LeL to start feeling comfortable and to get some energy back. The biggest relief was lack of crowding and much cooler temperature. The number of people at Sally’s party was far less than at Club Salsa by the time I arrived shortly after 12:30 AM. I seemed to have caught the tail end of the party although I was not the last one to arrive; another half dozen or so people at Vishal’s party arrived shortly after me. Most people were dressed up for the occasion – to the 70’s theme – quite elaborately. I definitely felt underdressed – I suppose I could have worn a wig or something if I knew where to find one. Many of the people at the party were unrecognizable at first – some were dressed as 70’s icons like John Travolta and Farrah Fawcett while others dressed up as a pimp, American Indian while more were dressed in normal partygoing 70’s people with big hair. I apparently missed a huge Afro because I arrived so late.
The music here was all Salsa and therefore no complaints – even when I found myself in uncharted territories with some songs. For example one of my dance could be likened to driving a Ferrari in Martian landscape. The car is fabulous and responsive and needs getting used to (especially the manual transmission) without risking any damage to the car. The surrounding (here I mean primarily the music) is interesting yet unfamiliar and rather scary for the drive. Despite having fought off exhaustion, I still managed to have about 12 dances with 6 people. Watching other people dance (some on-2 including the DJ) was nice and restful. [note: This reminds me that I have yet to watch myself dance and see how much debacle I am making and what kind of things I might want to stop doing (or do it with less emphasis) to look like a complete idiot.]
All in all, it was an interesting and enjoyable evening. Happy birthdays to Vishal and Sally (Friday for Vishal and Saturday for Sally)! I am sure that after all the hubbub and scrambles, they both ended their evening happy.
The evening started with a small gathering at the Tandoori Station with predominantly hardcore regulars at Club Salsa and on the whole a very eclectic mix of people. I enjoyed this pre-party where an initial tentative and potentially even awkward atmosphere eventually livened up and became rather friendly. Probably the most oft brought on topic was the see-through top/shirt/whatever worn by Vishal, who went out of his way to play the part of the generous host.
I had a better opportunity to have a look at Johnny & Serap's class in action. As it has been the case for at least couple of months, their practices were being done at normal club music speed. While not everyone was getting it, it was apparent that more dedicated students have gotten accustomed to leading and following moves at fast speed. It was nice to see - in part because I had harped on them about it since abuot a year ago.
The main party was packed with people. By 10:30 PM or so, it already felt like old packed Fridays at its height around 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Many of the old regulars (mostly from the Cuban crowd) made an appearance. The most notable guests from outside were Russell and Dawn. The music was pretty standard mix of Salsa, Merengue and Bachata with Cristian at DJ. There were some gems I recognized by Cheo Feliciano (Lindo Yambu?) and others. Conditions for dancing were very trying because of crowding and especially the high temperature and humidity even with the air conditioning at full capacity – the biggest factor (aside from this being summer) for this was sheer number of people. The temperature problem was about the worst I have seen at Club Salsa – although not quite as bad as at the SOS at the hotel venue last weekend. Before leaving, I think I had six dances with five people.
The scheduled performance by Body Works Girls was replaced by a demonstration by Johnny and Serap because of a family emergency of one of the Body Works Girls. I left Club Salsa shortly before the start of their demonstration (a little after midnight) and headed to St. Ives for Sally’s birthday party feeling quite spent. Standing and sitting was exhausting – possibly more so than when I was dancing. I did wonder for a second whether I should go because of exhaustion.
It probably took me about 10 minutes at LeL to start feeling comfortable and to get some energy back. The biggest relief was lack of crowding and much cooler temperature. The number of people at Sally’s party was far less than at Club Salsa by the time I arrived shortly after 12:30 AM. I seemed to have caught the tail end of the party although I was not the last one to arrive; another half dozen or so people at Vishal’s party arrived shortly after me. Most people were dressed up for the occasion – to the 70’s theme – quite elaborately. I definitely felt underdressed – I suppose I could have worn a wig or something if I knew where to find one. Many of the people at the party were unrecognizable at first – some were dressed as 70’s icons like John Travolta and Farrah Fawcett while others dressed up as a pimp, American Indian while more were dressed in normal partygoing 70’s people with big hair. I apparently missed a huge Afro because I arrived so late.
The music here was all Salsa and therefore no complaints – even when I found myself in uncharted territories with some songs. For example one of my dance could be likened to driving a Ferrari in Martian landscape. The car is fabulous and responsive and needs getting used to (especially the manual transmission) without risking any damage to the car. The surrounding (here I mean primarily the music) is interesting yet unfamiliar and rather scary for the drive. Despite having fought off exhaustion, I still managed to have about 12 dances with 6 people. Watching other people dance (some on-2 including the DJ) was nice and restful. [note: This reminds me that I have yet to watch myself dance and see how much debacle I am making and what kind of things I might want to stop doing (or do it with less emphasis) to look like a complete idiot.]
All in all, it was an interesting and enjoyable evening. Happy birthdays to Vishal and Sally (Friday for Vishal and Saturday for Sally)! I am sure that after all the hubbub and scrambles, they both ended their evening happy.
Newspaper as fashion statement
July 27, 2006
Intermediate with Chris assisted by Jane
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into single clockwise turn into hammerlock (R-L end behind follower’s R waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (L-R in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns 1/2 clockwise with R-L ending in front of follower (first to prevent follower from going forward while leading her into stationary clockwise turn (L-R ends behind leader’s R waist while R-L wraps around follower’s neck and with R-L connection by follower’s R side of neck)
1,2,3,5,6,7 pseudo-Mambo jazz (back step for follower on 1 and forward step for leader on 1) – let go L-R and lead follower into traveling 2 1/2 clockwise turn over and under (starting on 4 – follower’s L hand end behind her R waist) with leader turning full clockwise and reconnect R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (get L-R connection made in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist) again
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into stationary double turn with all connections coming together in the second turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 [mmm… I may need to reconstruct this with a partner to be sure about this part and beyond] leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise with both connections behind leader’s neck – then leader does a further 3/4 counterclockwise walk with L-R doing something like a touch-and-go but around his waist/chest – end with something like reverse CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 [not exactly my fav here] lead follower forward and connections going over her like lasso and bring her back under R-L from the right side
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader walks 3/4 clockwise to get into CBL position and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with big windmill motion (hands together) to allow leader to turn clockwise simultaneously [I also tried a variation in which leader’s turn comes on 7 near the end of follower’s turn and with R-L hat for leader and getting back immediately into closed hold position.]
Sally tried to lead the warm-up at the start of the class and finished looking completely out of breath by the end. She’s obviously not quite recovered yet. After the class, we talked about the LDA, which led me to show her some material from the 3.3 class. I asked one of the students from the class named Emily (mmm…that’s yet another name that keeps popping up lately – she wasn’t the only Emily in class today of course). This demonstration led to Sally making an assessment and going about correcting the amount of tension (and correct frame) Emily should have as a follower. For amusement, I asked Sally if I had appropriate level of tension as a prospective follower. After a quick test, Sally said, “You have potential,” which amused me to no end. It ended with me leading today’s material for Emily (with her focusing more on keeping appropriate level of tension and probably not self-leading) just before she departed – Emily claimed that the routine worked better than it did in class with these adjustments.
Another fun activity (perhaps brought upon by Sally’s comment earlier) during the second class involved having Anastasia lead first part of today’s routine (as well as few other basic material) for me. In retrospect, this might have had some beneficial effect on my spinning today.
Dancing only went to 11:30 PM, but I managed to get over dozen dances. I was spinning exceptionally well – I might be able to joke that I had a better spinning day than Jane; I’m sure this was a big aberration. Probably because of this, I probably danced with more energy (not quite Wayan level though) even when it did not necessarily fit well with the music. I wondered at the end if some of my movements were too big or exaggerated – for better or worse I don’t have good way of judging since I can’t watch myself. Regardless of these caveats, I had quite a bit of fun both when I was being extra energetic and also when I was keeping things more gentle and smooth.
In something of an anomaly, Sally played what I considered two Cuban songs – one was Temba Tumba Timba. In both occasions, I ended up choosing not to dance. It was an interesting day for song and dance – often I felt that I wanted with certain type of person (or one specific person) in the room for a given song; this happened regardless whether I liked the song or not. Vishal took over at the end to play two Merengue songs in a row before I decided to take off – preceded by a sudden and slightly surprising exodus of most Salsa dancers.
I started reading a 7-page manuscript with 72 pages of supplementary information. I think it is a very important paper – I’m not the only one as it has been making some big headlines in newspapers like the New York Times.
Intermediate with Chris assisted by Jane
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into single clockwise turn into hammerlock (R-L end behind follower’s R waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (L-R in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns 1/2 clockwise with R-L ending in front of follower (first to prevent follower from going forward while leading her into stationary clockwise turn (L-R ends behind leader’s R waist while R-L wraps around follower’s neck and with R-L connection by follower’s R side of neck)
1,2,3,5,6,7 pseudo-Mambo jazz (back step for follower on 1 and forward step for leader on 1) – let go L-R and lead follower into traveling 2 1/2 clockwise turn over and under (starting on 4 – follower’s L hand end behind her R waist) with leader turning full clockwise and reconnect R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 reverse CBL start (get L-R connection made in pizza waiter position by 3) and traveling swapsi or 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with L-R going down and R-L going up at the end (end with L-R behind follower’s L waist) again
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into stationary double turn with all connections coming together in the second turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 [mmm… I may need to reconstruct this with a partner to be sure about this part and beyond] leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise with both connections behind leader’s neck – then leader does a further 3/4 counterclockwise walk with L-R doing something like a touch-and-go but around his waist/chest – end with something like reverse CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 [not exactly my fav here] lead follower forward and connections going over her like lasso and bring her back under R-L from the right side
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader walks 3/4 clockwise to get into CBL position and lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn with big windmill motion (hands together) to allow leader to turn clockwise simultaneously [I also tried a variation in which leader’s turn comes on 7 near the end of follower’s turn and with R-L hat for leader and getting back immediately into closed hold position.]
Sally tried to lead the warm-up at the start of the class and finished looking completely out of breath by the end. She’s obviously not quite recovered yet. After the class, we talked about the LDA, which led me to show her some material from the 3.3 class. I asked one of the students from the class named Emily (mmm…that’s yet another name that keeps popping up lately – she wasn’t the only Emily in class today of course). This demonstration led to Sally making an assessment and going about correcting the amount of tension (and correct frame) Emily should have as a follower. For amusement, I asked Sally if I had appropriate level of tension as a prospective follower. After a quick test, Sally said, “You have potential,” which amused me to no end. It ended with me leading today’s material for Emily (with her focusing more on keeping appropriate level of tension and probably not self-leading) just before she departed – Emily claimed that the routine worked better than it did in class with these adjustments.
Another fun activity (perhaps brought upon by Sally’s comment earlier) during the second class involved having Anastasia lead first part of today’s routine (as well as few other basic material) for me. In retrospect, this might have had some beneficial effect on my spinning today.
Dancing only went to 11:30 PM, but I managed to get over dozen dances. I was spinning exceptionally well – I might be able to joke that I had a better spinning day than Jane; I’m sure this was a big aberration. Probably because of this, I probably danced with more energy (not quite Wayan level though) even when it did not necessarily fit well with the music. I wondered at the end if some of my movements were too big or exaggerated – for better or worse I don’t have good way of judging since I can’t watch myself. Regardless of these caveats, I had quite a bit of fun both when I was being extra energetic and also when I was keeping things more gentle and smooth.
In something of an anomaly, Sally played what I considered two Cuban songs – one was Temba Tumba Timba. In both occasions, I ended up choosing not to dance. It was an interesting day for song and dance – often I felt that I wanted with certain type of person (or one specific person) in the room for a given song; this happened regardless whether I liked the song or not. Vishal took over at the end to play two Merengue songs in a row before I decided to take off – preceded by a sudden and slightly surprising exodus of most Salsa dancers.
I started reading a 7-page manuscript with 72 pages of supplementary information. I think it is a very important paper – I’m not the only one as it has been making some big headlines in newspapers like the New York Times.
Don't drink the water
July 25, 2006
LDA 3.3 with Susana & Mario
1,2,3,5,6,7 toss follower’s hands up on 2, hands on waist (could use back of R hand) – lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn – try keeping R hand on waist level to end across follower’s back and step across follower on 7 for…
1,2,3,5,6,7 around the world moving with follower in counterclockwise motion and L hand on follower’s R shoulder to lead 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn for follower with L hand ending behind follower’s back (from her L side) – leader positions himself facing away from follower’s line on her L side
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (more or less) with R hand clearly offered behind leader’s R waist for R-L connection by 3/4 – bring follower forward on 5 and bring R-L back (and switching to L-L) to lead follower into full traveling counterclockwise turn with L-L ending across follower’s waist by her R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower forward (absorb energy) – bring hands back up on 3 and down (this ends up being 2 1/2 stationary turn for follower) and switch to R-L ending behind follower’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and overtake with R-L extended forward (so this is rather like another Copa – back-to-back position) – bring hand slightly towards leader and above with leader turning slightly counterclockwise (not quite 1/4) and toss lightly downwards (slightly towards follower)
Aside from the last bit, which was problematic with some followers (Helen for one thought I was a little off – speaking of names, there has been a lot of Helens in my life recently also), everything else seemed pretty easy including the first two bars, which is as close to being a piece of cake as it gets and works as opportunity to refine and practice at normal speed. Of course, I might be singing a different tune 6 months from now (and saying that much improvement has been made over those 6 months). Susana told me that my lead has improved a great deal in past month (based upon first two or three bars) – nice to hear whether true or not. I suspect that I am more relaxed during the class if nothing else because (1) I am more used to the surroundings and style of teaching, (2) I’m arriving on time and not missing classes intermittently, (3) I have really improved a bit. Between the three classes I’m taking regularly (mostly Joe on Mondays, LDA on Tuesdays and Sally on Thursdays), I am really being challenged and my abilities are stretched a great deal. Occasional material from Sergio also adds spice and precision. My only complaint? I’m probably spending a little too much time doing Salsa.
Practice was pretty good. My primary practice partner after the class today and I exchanged information on some favorite showy moves. She described her style as predominantly Puerto Rican, which she described as less turns compared to New York. It seemed like she was more used to “spectacular” stunts, dips and endless spins as opposed to what she referred to as intricate turn patterns. I had her "lead" me into one of the endless spins, which left me quite wobbly.
On travel front, I was too busy to check for scheduled engineering works and delays caused by accidents before departing for the train station. Thankfully, there were no problems for the inbound train. On the other hand, the train back to Cambridge was stuck in Stevenage for about half an hour because of a freight train blocking our way.
Miscellaneous notes. There will be a LDA social next Friday. Of all upcoming Friday Salsa events outside Club Salsa, this should be the only one that will definitely prevent me from stopping by Club Salsa altogether. The other upcoming Friday events outside Club Salsa include Sally’s Birthday party this Friday and a Cambiando concert at my workplace on the 18th of August. I had a short chat with a fellow student who was also at the SOS couple of days ago. His reaction? "It [the heat] was the worst. I'm never going there [the hotel venue on the South side] again." In the middle of the class, I decided to take a small sip of water. Bad mistake. It only caused me to sweat profusely immmediately and become self-conscious about it. I'm pretty sure I could have gone a little longer without water as I wasn't exactly dying of thirst.
LDA 3.3 with Susana & Mario
1,2,3,5,6,7 toss follower’s hands up on 2, hands on waist (could use back of R hand) – lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn – try keeping R hand on waist level to end across follower’s back and step across follower on 7 for…
1,2,3,5,6,7 around the world moving with follower in counterclockwise motion and L hand on follower’s R shoulder to lead 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn for follower with L hand ending behind follower’s back (from her L side) – leader positions himself facing away from follower’s line on her L side
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (more or less) with R hand clearly offered behind leader’s R waist for R-L connection by 3/4 – bring follower forward on 5 and bring R-L back (and switching to L-L) to lead follower into full traveling counterclockwise turn with L-L ending across follower’s waist by her R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower forward (absorb energy) – bring hands back up on 3 and down (this ends up being 2 1/2 stationary turn for follower) and switch to R-L ending behind follower’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and overtake with R-L extended forward (so this is rather like another Copa – back-to-back position) – bring hand slightly towards leader and above with leader turning slightly counterclockwise (not quite 1/4) and toss lightly downwards (slightly towards follower)
Aside from the last bit, which was problematic with some followers (Helen for one thought I was a little off – speaking of names, there has been a lot of Helens in my life recently also), everything else seemed pretty easy including the first two bars, which is as close to being a piece of cake as it gets and works as opportunity to refine and practice at normal speed. Of course, I might be singing a different tune 6 months from now (and saying that much improvement has been made over those 6 months). Susana told me that my lead has improved a great deal in past month (based upon first two or three bars) – nice to hear whether true or not. I suspect that I am more relaxed during the class if nothing else because (1) I am more used to the surroundings and style of teaching, (2) I’m arriving on time and not missing classes intermittently, (3) I have really improved a bit. Between the three classes I’m taking regularly (mostly Joe on Mondays, LDA on Tuesdays and Sally on Thursdays), I am really being challenged and my abilities are stretched a great deal. Occasional material from Sergio also adds spice and precision. My only complaint? I’m probably spending a little too much time doing Salsa.
Practice was pretty good. My primary practice partner after the class today and I exchanged information on some favorite showy moves. She described her style as predominantly Puerto Rican, which she described as less turns compared to New York. It seemed like she was more used to “spectacular” stunts, dips and endless spins as opposed to what she referred to as intricate turn patterns. I had her "lead" me into one of the endless spins, which left me quite wobbly.
On travel front, I was too busy to check for scheduled engineering works and delays caused by accidents before departing for the train station. Thankfully, there were no problems for the inbound train. On the other hand, the train back to Cambridge was stuck in Stevenage for about half an hour because of a freight train blocking our way.
Miscellaneous notes. There will be a LDA social next Friday. Of all upcoming Friday Salsa events outside Club Salsa, this should be the only one that will definitely prevent me from stopping by Club Salsa altogether. The other upcoming Friday events outside Club Salsa include Sally’s Birthday party this Friday and a Cambiando concert at my workplace on the 18th of August. I had a short chat with a fellow student who was also at the SOS couple of days ago. His reaction? "It [the heat] was the worst. I'm never going there [the hotel venue on the South side] again." In the middle of the class, I decided to take a small sip of water. Bad mistake. It only caused me to sweat profusely immmediately and become self-conscious about it. I'm pretty sure I could have gone a little longer without water as I wasn't exactly dying of thirst.
Making up for a weak SOS session?
July 24, 2006
The lineup of instructors today was Joe at Intermediate, Tiz at Improver and Aiste at Beginner. Russell was a last minute scratch but apparently will be back next week (at Intermediate with a briefing from Joe).
Intermediate with Joe - first hour
Shines included some old material (forward slide and reverse slide??) with shoulder isolations. Timing was covered a bit with description of conga.
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to a single stationary turn and end with pseudo-sombrero on 7 (R-L over follower’s head and L-R over behind leader’s head) and drop catch with L-R – leader is positioned away from follower’s line
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and L-R is brought up on 3 while R-L is let go – over and under to lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-R ending behind follower’s L waist – leader is positioned to R of and facing follower (I often ended in CBL position, which might be okay too) and offer R hand in front on 7
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL position and lead follower into full clockwise turn (somewhat like swapsi but ending with both connections together high
1,2,3,5,6,7 essentially a Copa start with both connections going over follower’s head and lead follower into full clockwise traveling turn like Copa except stopping it prematurely with all connections intact (R-L by follower’s shoulder and L-R is over follower’s head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to step forward on 1 and bring her back facing leader on 3 – with some followers it should be possible to lead follower into stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn but here we stuck to 1 1/2 clockwise turn with leader also turning clockwise (?) on 7 (?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat for follower on 1 – I’m not sure if we ended with simple CBL or with 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower after CBL start
Intermediate with Joe - second hour
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to a single stationary turn and end with pseudo-sombrero on 7 (R-L over follower’s head and L-R over behind leader’s head) – leader is positioned away from follower’s line
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower forward on 2,3 with leading done with L-R (both connections probably will be lifted and in case or R-L, it is necessary – lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn – again lead forward is done with L-R while turning lead is done with R-L – with leader turning clockwise to face follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat for follower on 1 (need to have kept it high) with leader getting into CBL position with L-R coming up high on 3 – lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn with L-R (R-L let go) with L-R coming down slowly at the end
1,2,3,5,6,7 this is tricky to describe… L-R low and away initially towards 11 or 12 o’clock and bring follower back on 2,3 so that follower ends back in CBL position (in a reverse motion of CBL finish) ending on 5,6,7 either in place, going backwards or rotating as unit counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and finish CBL
The starting move were identical or were variations of material from 2 weeks ago. They were very awkward and difficult first time around but seemed more manageable today (no real surprise there).
As the class was about to start, my foremost thought was that there were many followers I like dancing with and not many leaders to keep them occupied. As the class moved into its second hour and beyond, my alarm only grew. I felt that many of the good leads were disappointed with the pool of followers last week while the reverse was true today. I had already known that Sergio wasn’t going to be here today, but I couldn’t help but think, “Where are the likes of Cyrille and Rajiv?” Some more leads showed up near the end of the class (which led me to breath a sigh of relief), but then I would find that each new lead was matched by another incoming follower thus keeping the balance skewed.
I suppose this is a problem caused by the fact that the pool of technically proficient Salsa dancers in Cambridge is still fairly small; even on the best of days you won’t find much more than about a dozen each. Usually there is excessive crowding problem on days with many good leaders and followers. When crowding is not a problem, one will find that the composition of the people is very top-heavy (well…not as big problem for me personally but…). At other extreme, on some days there might be no more then two or three good followers with many good leads, and on other days there might be only two or three good leaders and many fine followers. I’m all for having plenty of both with plenty of space so that everyone is happy, but this is not guaranteed even in the best of London venues and is exceedingly rare in Cambridge.
I had at least 16 dances with at least 10 women and had an exceptionally good time dancing – I’m fairly sure I had more than that during ~2 hour duration. I could easily have and would have liked to dance with maybe five more in more typical circumstances. I could have danced more with some people who left somewhat early. I probably danced like a maniac or someone possessed. There were so many enjoyable dances…
Of all my dance partners, one was especially noteworthy. Her name is Natalie (hmm…I seem to be running into a lot of Natalies lately), and she was here with her husband Vadim, who dances primarily Cuban style. They are visiting Cambridge because of Vadim’s research. I had noticed these two at Club Salsa over last two weeks or so, and I was really thrilled to have discovered another fun and receptive dance partner with a lot of stamina – they are in such short supply. More I learned about them, more I kept thinking that this couple fit a certain stereotype fabulously. It was rather like watching TV. Alas, tonight will be their last night at Club Salsa; they will be departing Thursday morning. Sigh. I tried to have as many dance as possible (4 tonight?) with Natalie, including the last dance of the night for which I put on Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland live version).
Vishal probably would have been happy to have me DJ for longer part of the evening tonight, but I had to bow out for the most part because there were just too many people I wanted to dance with. Even a fairly heavy blow I sustained on my mouth (by an elbow from one of my partners) did little to dampen my enthusiasm.
Miscellaneous. A very old (over 1 1/2 years) hatchet apparently was buried. I was probably so high that I didn’t even realize it until it happened. Po Na Na reopened Salsa night on Tuesdays with Mauricio (started last week).
The lineup of instructors today was Joe at Intermediate, Tiz at Improver and Aiste at Beginner. Russell was a last minute scratch but apparently will be back next week (at Intermediate with a briefing from Joe).
Intermediate with Joe - first hour
Shines included some old material (forward slide and reverse slide??) with shoulder isolations. Timing was covered a bit with description of conga.
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to a single stationary turn and end with pseudo-sombrero on 7 (R-L over follower’s head and L-R over behind leader’s head) and drop catch with L-R – leader is positioned away from follower’s line
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and L-R is brought up on 3 while R-L is let go – over and under to lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn with L-R ending behind follower’s L waist – leader is positioned to R of and facing follower (I often ended in CBL position, which might be okay too) and offer R hand in front on 7
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL position and lead follower into full clockwise turn (somewhat like swapsi but ending with both connections together high
1,2,3,5,6,7 essentially a Copa start with both connections going over follower’s head and lead follower into full clockwise traveling turn like Copa except stopping it prematurely with all connections intact (R-L by follower’s shoulder and L-R is over follower’s head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to step forward on 1 and bring her back facing leader on 3 – with some followers it should be possible to lead follower into stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn but here we stuck to 1 1/2 clockwise turn with leader also turning clockwise (?) on 7 (?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat for follower on 1 – I’m not sure if we ended with simple CBL or with 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower after CBL start
Intermediate with Joe - second hour
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to a single stationary turn and end with pseudo-sombrero on 7 (R-L over follower’s head and L-R over behind leader’s head) – leader is positioned away from follower’s line
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and lead follower forward on 2,3 with leading done with L-R (both connections probably will be lifted and in case or R-L, it is necessary – lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn – again lead forward is done with L-R while turning lead is done with R-L – with leader turning clockwise to face follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat for follower on 1 (need to have kept it high) with leader getting into CBL position with L-R coming up high on 3 – lead follower into 1 1/2 traveling clockwise turn with L-R (R-L let go) with L-R coming down slowly at the end
1,2,3,5,6,7 this is tricky to describe… L-R low and away initially towards 11 or 12 o’clock and bring follower back on 2,3 so that follower ends back in CBL position (in a reverse motion of CBL finish) ending on 5,6,7 either in place, going backwards or rotating as unit counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and finish CBL
The starting move were identical or were variations of material from 2 weeks ago. They were very awkward and difficult first time around but seemed more manageable today (no real surprise there).
As the class was about to start, my foremost thought was that there were many followers I like dancing with and not many leaders to keep them occupied. As the class moved into its second hour and beyond, my alarm only grew. I felt that many of the good leads were disappointed with the pool of followers last week while the reverse was true today. I had already known that Sergio wasn’t going to be here today, but I couldn’t help but think, “Where are the likes of Cyrille and Rajiv?” Some more leads showed up near the end of the class (which led me to breath a sigh of relief), but then I would find that each new lead was matched by another incoming follower thus keeping the balance skewed.
I suppose this is a problem caused by the fact that the pool of technically proficient Salsa dancers in Cambridge is still fairly small; even on the best of days you won’t find much more than about a dozen each. Usually there is excessive crowding problem on days with many good leaders and followers. When crowding is not a problem, one will find that the composition of the people is very top-heavy (well…not as big problem for me personally but…). At other extreme, on some days there might be no more then two or three good followers with many good leads, and on other days there might be only two or three good leaders and many fine followers. I’m all for having plenty of both with plenty of space so that everyone is happy, but this is not guaranteed even in the best of London venues and is exceedingly rare in Cambridge.
I had at least 16 dances with at least 10 women and had an exceptionally good time dancing – I’m fairly sure I had more than that during ~2 hour duration. I could easily have and would have liked to dance with maybe five more in more typical circumstances. I could have danced more with some people who left somewhat early. I probably danced like a maniac or someone possessed. There were so many enjoyable dances…
Of all my dance partners, one was especially noteworthy. Her name is Natalie (hmm…I seem to be running into a lot of Natalies lately), and she was here with her husband Vadim, who dances primarily Cuban style. They are visiting Cambridge because of Vadim’s research. I had noticed these two at Club Salsa over last two weeks or so, and I was really thrilled to have discovered another fun and receptive dance partner with a lot of stamina – they are in such short supply. More I learned about them, more I kept thinking that this couple fit a certain stereotype fabulously. It was rather like watching TV. Alas, tonight will be their last night at Club Salsa; they will be departing Thursday morning. Sigh. I tried to have as many dance as possible (4 tonight?) with Natalie, including the last dance of the night for which I put on Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland live version).
Vishal probably would have been happy to have me DJ for longer part of the evening tonight, but I had to bow out for the most part because there were just too many people I wanted to dance with. Even a fairly heavy blow I sustained on my mouth (by an elbow from one of my partners) did little to dampen my enthusiasm.
Miscellaneous. A very old (over 1 1/2 years) hatchet apparently was buried. I was probably so high that I didn’t even realize it until it happened. Po Na Na reopened Salsa night on Tuesdays with Mauricio (started last week).
And I thought the Rocket was hot…
July 23, 2006
I groaned as I saw simultaneously the closed door, written notice, and the man standing in front directing us to the alternate venue at the same time. So it’s going to be at the hotel. Which side? Left side. That means the smaller South ballroom. Oh no. I hate that room with passion. I have told myself before that one of these days I would simply turn around and go home if I had to face the South ballroom. It was bad enough that traffic was unkind especially near Kings Cross station, and it was already 8:45 PM. Supposedly they closed the Mary Ward House tonight because of an electrical fire.
As we walked to the hotel, I related to Sergio all the bad things about this alternate venue. It has a small wooden floor (much of the room is carpeted), and I never have a very good time dancing in that room - it’s like a curse for me. I even talked about possibility of heading back or finding something else (but what else is there?).
At the door we were greeted with several familiar faces associated with Cambridge including Vera, who told us that half the Cambridge people were here – including Johnny & Serap, Chris & Sally, and Chris & Lindsey (although it turned out Sally and Lindsey were not here – it would have been surprising if they had indeed shown up given their injuries). In the end, I counted 13 people I recognized from Cambridge Salsa scene including myself – some of them are now based in London but others traveled from further distance than Sergio and me.
It was also very apparent merely from standing by the door that the ballroom was very hot and humid. I turned to Sergio and said something like, “There you have it. That’s what it is. We could go in or leave it. I’m going to leave it up to you.” Sergio might have hesitated, but if so then only for a split second. We went in.
Now this was like a real Sauna. I think this was worse than conditions at the Rocket about 2-3 months ago. Simply standing in the room was enough to get me to start perspiring. Did I mention that I just don’t have good time dancing in this room? Negative vibes were mounting. Perhaps because of these trying conditions, I was not only in a good dancing mood but I also was not in a good socializing mood – the only thing I could think was to complain about was the heat, humidity and string of bad nights in this wretched room.
I think I ended up avoiding asking some people I would have liked to ask for a dance in more normal circumstances. Reasons for this included – (1) I didn’t trust myself to dance well (bad luck factor), (2) I wasn’t sure if people I danced would want to exert themselves (heat factor) thus giving me a dilemma – do I risk boring them or risk getting them too tired and/or sweaty? I didn’t want to leave a bad impression, and I was feeling too tentative and unsure of everything.
After two or three songs following our arrival, I managed venture out and have maybe 4 dances during next hour. Unfortunately, none of these dances eased my mind; in fact I was more worried than ever. I was also dripping wet.
I spent some time thereafter standing around and doing little. Chris stopped by for a short time (this was when I learned for sure that Sally and Lindsey were not here as well as hearing about a Salsa musician whose name has slipped me since). I also had a brief exchange with one of the LDA guys. Liam also popped up commenting about the heat not wanting him to want to dance and going out to get a drink. I followed. It was cooler in the lobby. I bought a bottle of water from the bar, left Liam and Sergio to catch up with each other, and returned to the entrance. I stood around with the LDA people briefly then also with the Cambridge crowd also. Feeling restless, I finally went back in to the ballroom only to stand around. I checked the time – 9:50 PM. I have been here for over an hour. There’s only about an hour left, and I have had only 4-5 dances. I was not sure if I was going to dance again tonight.
I’m not sure which happened first; people started leaving and I started dancing again. Before leaving (around 10:55 PM), I had about 6-8 more dances (so the total for the evening must be 10-13). I had decided to take the approach towards doing less and exerting less energy both for myself and for my partner. Some of the dances in this period was better, especially the first three or four with the third one probably being the most satisfactory (or at least that was the impression I took from my partner).
So in the end, this was not a total disaster; I was fully expecting a total disaster around 10 PM. Again I don’t even want to count these SOS substitutes in the South Ballroom of that hotel as a proper SOS outing – unfortunately, this happens at alarmingly high rate. So do I come again next week? Will they have solved the fire problem by next week?
Does Salsa work better as a winter sport?
In the iPod today in order – Pete Rodriguez, Joe Cuba, Lebron Brothers, Cheo Feliciano, Cachao, Eddie Palmieri. Conversations topics – a beach outing, reading magazines and books, music on at the time notably about references to drugs in couple of Lebron Brothers songs, work, names, family tree, life in the USA, and the usual Cambridge Salsa social stuff.
I groaned as I saw simultaneously the closed door, written notice, and the man standing in front directing us to the alternate venue at the same time. So it’s going to be at the hotel. Which side? Left side. That means the smaller South ballroom. Oh no. I hate that room with passion. I have told myself before that one of these days I would simply turn around and go home if I had to face the South ballroom. It was bad enough that traffic was unkind especially near Kings Cross station, and it was already 8:45 PM. Supposedly they closed the Mary Ward House tonight because of an electrical fire.
As we walked to the hotel, I related to Sergio all the bad things about this alternate venue. It has a small wooden floor (much of the room is carpeted), and I never have a very good time dancing in that room - it’s like a curse for me. I even talked about possibility of heading back or finding something else (but what else is there?).
At the door we were greeted with several familiar faces associated with Cambridge including Vera, who told us that half the Cambridge people were here – including Johnny & Serap, Chris & Sally, and Chris & Lindsey (although it turned out Sally and Lindsey were not here – it would have been surprising if they had indeed shown up given their injuries). In the end, I counted 13 people I recognized from Cambridge Salsa scene including myself – some of them are now based in London but others traveled from further distance than Sergio and me.
It was also very apparent merely from standing by the door that the ballroom was very hot and humid. I turned to Sergio and said something like, “There you have it. That’s what it is. We could go in or leave it. I’m going to leave it up to you.” Sergio might have hesitated, but if so then only for a split second. We went in.
Now this was like a real Sauna. I think this was worse than conditions at the Rocket about 2-3 months ago. Simply standing in the room was enough to get me to start perspiring. Did I mention that I just don’t have good time dancing in this room? Negative vibes were mounting. Perhaps because of these trying conditions, I was not only in a good dancing mood but I also was not in a good socializing mood – the only thing I could think was to complain about was the heat, humidity and string of bad nights in this wretched room.
I think I ended up avoiding asking some people I would have liked to ask for a dance in more normal circumstances. Reasons for this included – (1) I didn’t trust myself to dance well (bad luck factor), (2) I wasn’t sure if people I danced would want to exert themselves (heat factor) thus giving me a dilemma – do I risk boring them or risk getting them too tired and/or sweaty? I didn’t want to leave a bad impression, and I was feeling too tentative and unsure of everything.
After two or three songs following our arrival, I managed venture out and have maybe 4 dances during next hour. Unfortunately, none of these dances eased my mind; in fact I was more worried than ever. I was also dripping wet.
I spent some time thereafter standing around and doing little. Chris stopped by for a short time (this was when I learned for sure that Sally and Lindsey were not here as well as hearing about a Salsa musician whose name has slipped me since). I also had a brief exchange with one of the LDA guys. Liam also popped up commenting about the heat not wanting him to want to dance and going out to get a drink. I followed. It was cooler in the lobby. I bought a bottle of water from the bar, left Liam and Sergio to catch up with each other, and returned to the entrance. I stood around with the LDA people briefly then also with the Cambridge crowd also. Feeling restless, I finally went back in to the ballroom only to stand around. I checked the time – 9:50 PM. I have been here for over an hour. There’s only about an hour left, and I have had only 4-5 dances. I was not sure if I was going to dance again tonight.
I’m not sure which happened first; people started leaving and I started dancing again. Before leaving (around 10:55 PM), I had about 6-8 more dances (so the total for the evening must be 10-13). I had decided to take the approach towards doing less and exerting less energy both for myself and for my partner. Some of the dances in this period was better, especially the first three or four with the third one probably being the most satisfactory (or at least that was the impression I took from my partner).
So in the end, this was not a total disaster; I was fully expecting a total disaster around 10 PM. Again I don’t even want to count these SOS substitutes in the South Ballroom of that hotel as a proper SOS outing – unfortunately, this happens at alarmingly high rate. So do I come again next week? Will they have solved the fire problem by next week?
Does Salsa work better as a winter sport?
In the iPod today in order – Pete Rodriguez, Joe Cuba, Lebron Brothers, Cheo Feliciano, Cachao, Eddie Palmieri. Conversations topics – a beach outing, reading magazines and books, music on at the time notably about references to drugs in couple of Lebron Brothers songs, work, names, family tree, life in the USA, and the usual Cambridge Salsa social stuff.
It's raining men
July 21, 2006
It's raining men. Not quite. There has not been a hint of rain although it would be quite welcome in this current bout of exceptionally warm days. I probably remember this song best from the recurring skit "Men on Film" from the TV comedy show "In Living Color." Apparently the original song was done by The Weather Girls, was remade with RuPaul, and remade again with Geri Halliwell. It's hailed as a camp classic and gay anthem - not surprising given "Men on Film" - a highly amusing parody of Siskel & Ebert featuring a pair of extremely effeminate gay men reviewing films based upon their potential for homoerotic content. In any case, the title came to my mind because there was a severe shortage of women to dance with tonight.
I arrived shortly after 10 PM. After saying hello to Vishal, Johnny and Serap, I had ~ 1 1/2 dances with Serap immediately; I think it was something of make-up dance for last week. I also had another dance with Serap later, so even though I only had about 10 dances altogether with ~6 people for the evening, 2 1/2 were with Serap.
As I was beginning to think that this was going to be pretty boring night, Cyrille showed up with his Italian guest. Cyrille had described him as a very good dancer, but he did not dance at all tonight - apparently because the music was not New York enough. What I heard tonight wasn't exactly Cuban (a la the Cuban room at the Rocket earlier this month), and I wonder what kind of music Cyrille's friend would have considered New York (unless he meant musicians based in New York - I don't think there was a single Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Joe Cuba, Lebron Brothers, Larry Harlow, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, Cachao, Africando or Frankie Ruiz played by Cristian tonight ... Vishal played a Willie Colon (Idilio) very early and likes Africando, and Cristian sometimes plays Frankie Ruiz ... also Isidro Infante might qualify as New York even if he's not liked very much by the on-2 people. I think Cristian plays El Gran Combo sometimes but I'm not absolutely positive on this. I thought one song might have been sung by Cheo Feliciano (based upon the voice quality) but I'm not sure (I think it had a series of transitions (or simply dodgy bits) within a very short segment at the beginning). Not sure if there was Grupo Niche. Nothing stood out as Los Van Van. There certainly were some very familiar songs but I don't know what they are. More I think about it, more I am mystified trying to figure out which artists Cristian use. Maybe I should ask to see his CD collection so that I have better idea of what he plays. Perhaps he mainly uses songs by contemporary artists (within last 10 years) I don't know much about (e.g. not Jimmy Bosch, probably not Wayne Gorbea, La 33, probably not Gilberto Santa Rosa either, N'Klabe, probably not Spanish Harlem Orchestra ... I have heard Tabaco Y Ron getting played sometimes in past). Some of the songs I recognized included El Preso (Fruko Y Sus Tesos), Me Voy Pa' Cali and Lloraras (Oscar D'Leon)). In any case, I suspect that it would have been a moot point given that Serap was the only CBL specialist tonight - there were some other pretty good followers but pretty much all of them were rooted more towards Cuban than CBL. Sergio was next to show, and he was joined by a colleague of his from his program (more of hip hop dancer?). Finally, the group was completed by Zern. Until around 1:30 AM, most in the group were just hanging out and goofing around with each other and not dancing very much. Cyrille probably danced the most after me although this includes only one or possibly two Salsa, couple of Merengue, couple of Bachata, and one Reggaeton where he was dancing by himself. Likewise, I think I saw Sergio dance maybe 3 or 4 times. I think Serap was the only person who had CBL style Salsa dance in double digits for the evening tonight.
I decided to have one beer (for the second week in a row), which elicited surprised comments from a few people including Sergio, Cyrille and Vishal. Alcohol sales seemed present if not brisk - I recall seeing some people drinking shots. A woman approached me shortly after one of my dances with Serap asking me to teach her some shines. It was doubly curious because I don't recall doing shines tonight. For some reason she thought I was a Salsa teacher, and I had to explain that I am not and point towards some others in the crowd who are more qualified. Also many of shines, which might be fine for leads would not look very good for followers. There was some talk of going to London - Saturday for Cyrille and his friend and maybe Zern and Sunday for me and Sergio. It's been a while since my last SOS, and it would be nice to catch up with some people (if they show up) there. Hopefully the weather will cool down a little too.
It's raining men. Not quite. There has not been a hint of rain although it would be quite welcome in this current bout of exceptionally warm days. I probably remember this song best from the recurring skit "Men on Film" from the TV comedy show "In Living Color." Apparently the original song was done by The Weather Girls, was remade with RuPaul, and remade again with Geri Halliwell. It's hailed as a camp classic and gay anthem - not surprising given "Men on Film" - a highly amusing parody of Siskel & Ebert featuring a pair of extremely effeminate gay men reviewing films based upon their potential for homoerotic content. In any case, the title came to my mind because there was a severe shortage of women to dance with tonight.
I arrived shortly after 10 PM. After saying hello to Vishal, Johnny and Serap, I had ~ 1 1/2 dances with Serap immediately; I think it was something of make-up dance for last week. I also had another dance with Serap later, so even though I only had about 10 dances altogether with ~6 people for the evening, 2 1/2 were with Serap.
As I was beginning to think that this was going to be pretty boring night, Cyrille showed up with his Italian guest. Cyrille had described him as a very good dancer, but he did not dance at all tonight - apparently because the music was not New York enough. What I heard tonight wasn't exactly Cuban (a la the Cuban room at the Rocket earlier this month), and I wonder what kind of music Cyrille's friend would have considered New York (unless he meant musicians based in New York - I don't think there was a single Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Joe Cuba, Lebron Brothers, Larry Harlow, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, Cachao, Africando or Frankie Ruiz played by Cristian tonight ... Vishal played a Willie Colon (Idilio) very early and likes Africando, and Cristian sometimes plays Frankie Ruiz ... also Isidro Infante might qualify as New York even if he's not liked very much by the on-2 people. I think Cristian plays El Gran Combo sometimes but I'm not absolutely positive on this. I thought one song might have been sung by Cheo Feliciano (based upon the voice quality) but I'm not sure (I think it had a series of transitions (or simply dodgy bits) within a very short segment at the beginning). Not sure if there was Grupo Niche. Nothing stood out as Los Van Van. There certainly were some very familiar songs but I don't know what they are. More I think about it, more I am mystified trying to figure out which artists Cristian use. Maybe I should ask to see his CD collection so that I have better idea of what he plays. Perhaps he mainly uses songs by contemporary artists (within last 10 years) I don't know much about (e.g. not Jimmy Bosch, probably not Wayne Gorbea, La 33, probably not Gilberto Santa Rosa either, N'Klabe, probably not Spanish Harlem Orchestra ... I have heard Tabaco Y Ron getting played sometimes in past). Some of the songs I recognized included El Preso (Fruko Y Sus Tesos), Me Voy Pa' Cali and Lloraras (Oscar D'Leon)). In any case, I suspect that it would have been a moot point given that Serap was the only CBL specialist tonight - there were some other pretty good followers but pretty much all of them were rooted more towards Cuban than CBL. Sergio was next to show, and he was joined by a colleague of his from his program (more of hip hop dancer?). Finally, the group was completed by Zern. Until around 1:30 AM, most in the group were just hanging out and goofing around with each other and not dancing very much. Cyrille probably danced the most after me although this includes only one or possibly two Salsa, couple of Merengue, couple of Bachata, and one Reggaeton where he was dancing by himself. Likewise, I think I saw Sergio dance maybe 3 or 4 times. I think Serap was the only person who had CBL style Salsa dance in double digits for the evening tonight.
I decided to have one beer (for the second week in a row), which elicited surprised comments from a few people including Sergio, Cyrille and Vishal. Alcohol sales seemed present if not brisk - I recall seeing some people drinking shots. A woman approached me shortly after one of my dances with Serap asking me to teach her some shines. It was doubly curious because I don't recall doing shines tonight. For some reason she thought I was a Salsa teacher, and I had to explain that I am not and point towards some others in the crowd who are more qualified. Also many of shines, which might be fine for leads would not look very good for followers. There was some talk of going to London - Saturday for Cyrille and his friend and maybe Zern and Sunday for me and Sergio. It's been a while since my last SOS, and it would be nice to catch up with some people (if they show up) there. Hopefully the weather will cool down a little too.
In the heat of Thursday night
July 20, 2006
Intermediate/Advanced with Chris assisted by Charlotte
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to double turn “touch-and-go” to end in double crossed hold and end with pseudo-sombrero (leader’s R hand towards follower and L hand to leader’s head) and finish with drop catch for L-R behind leader's back
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward leading with L-R ending back-to-back keeping connections intact (R-L does no lead throughout but is there to prevent follower from turning) – cross over still keeping connections intact (leading follower to cross over as well … the couple is walking around each other clockwise) and lead follower back with L-R again – now all connections can and need to be disconnected as both are walking backwards to get back to open position [note: While this move is probably leadable based upon Chris’s explanation after the class, it was working as choreography mostly in today’s class for me – I certainly never felt that I ever came close to leading it today and probably will need tons of practice to be able to lead it.] – end with L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL start and full counterclockwise traveling turn for follower with L-L and R hand ending on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 in place or prepare and lead follower to 1 1/2 (2 1/2 would be difficult although not impossible) stationary clockwise turn with leader turning full clockwise with L-L low
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect R-R and prepare (would need to be pretty quick here) and lead touch-and-go (L-L connection would need to be made of course)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa start with all connections intact (L-L going over) but end with fake and bring follower backwards on 5,6,7 (probably best to bring R hand on follower’s R shoulder rather than keeping in contact)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and block follower from going forward on 5 and leader turns clockwise with L-L low
1,2,3,5,6,7 break L-L with R hand to get to closed hold and place R hand on follower’s R shoulder and lead follower into full traveling counterclockwise turn with R hand helping to stop follower’s turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare, R foot cross over in front and lead follower to stationary clockwise turn on 6 (with lead coming just before 6… not sure if this would make follower’s turn more difficult) with leader turning counterclockwise (during the class I was probably cheating by crossing over with R foot on 4 and leading follower to turn on 5 rather than on 6)
It was very warm during the class, but it seemed to get more comfortable as night wore on. Tomak thought it was crazy for us to dance on a hot humid day like this. Some of the students in the class seemed to be on verge of collapsing.
There were two hen parties during the second class. I did not realize men were allowed in hen parties.
Lindsey and Sally were both present today. I thought they were moving deliberately and gingerly. However, had I not known that they were involved in car accident less than a week ago and were still a bit shook up, I might not have noticed anything. I suppose this may be a hopeful sign that they will recover fully in relatively short amount of time.
Dancing started off a little slow but picked up its pace eventually (at least 16 dances altogether) until a little after 11:30 PM. It was interesting to see how much I like certain dance partners taking swings up, down, up, down, etc. This seemingly is caused more by changes in what I want to try leading (especially because of LDA recently) rather than by any changes in my dance partner’s style or abilities (although some of my dance partners have shown dramatic improvements or changes in their approaches).
Probably the most amusing set of banter I had tonight was with Sam, who said (among other things) during our dance to Contigo (by Cache) something like, “Your lead is becoming more and more like Sergio’s. Please don’t become like Sergio’s or I might have to stop dancing with you.” Indeed I had just tried to attempt a lead I took from Sergio with Sam. I offered to explain what was being led after the dance. Even after my explanation, Sam was still doubtful and told me it was difficult to follow. I decided that this was probably because my lead was not precise enough, so I signaled Sergio to my side and asked him to lead the move for Sam. Not surprisingly, Sam decided that the way Sergio led the move was indeed much better. (An aside – I recall a very similar situation with Sam, Rajiv and me few months ago. I showed Rajiv a move I learned and he led it more satisfactorily for Sam.) In any case, I worked on refining my lead for this move afterwards with further guidance from Sergio. I later went back to Sam and said, “I knew that you’d find Sergio’s leads better.” I suppose that this in some ways is a Pyrrhic victory, but then again, it is the truth so there’s nothing really wrong with it – I just need to get better. Finally (and I suspect Sam might be peeved to hear this), I took Sam’s initial comment more as a compliment rather than complaint.
Just before I left, I decided to hijack the DJ booth to play one song “Descarga Lebron” mostly to get a certain specific dance happen. It worked.
On a completely unrelated topic, today’s Tour de France stage was one of the most amazing ever. Epic. I could easily imagine that some people have already started writing a screenplay for a movie.
Some of the other songs played tonight by Sally included La Pantera Mambo, La 33 (both by La 33), Hacha Y Machete (Hector Lavoe), El Pito (Isidro Infante), Micaela (Sonora Carruseles) plus quite a number of songs I am less familiar with. All Salsa except for one Cha Cha Cha.
Intermediate/Advanced with Chris assisted by Charlotte
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold prepare and lead follower to double turn “touch-and-go” to end in double crossed hold and end with pseudo-sombrero (leader’s R hand towards follower and L hand to leader’s head) and finish with drop catch for L-R behind leader's back
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward leading with L-R ending back-to-back keeping connections intact (R-L does no lead throughout but is there to prevent follower from turning) – cross over still keeping connections intact (leading follower to cross over as well … the couple is walking around each other clockwise) and lead follower back with L-R again – now all connections can and need to be disconnected as both are walking backwards to get back to open position [note: While this move is probably leadable based upon Chris’s explanation after the class, it was working as choreography mostly in today’s class for me – I certainly never felt that I ever came close to leading it today and probably will need tons of practice to be able to lead it.] – end with L-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL start and full counterclockwise traveling turn for follower with L-L and R hand ending on follower’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 in place or prepare and lead follower to 1 1/2 (2 1/2 would be difficult although not impossible) stationary clockwise turn with leader turning full clockwise with L-L low
1,2,3,5,6,7 connect R-R and prepare (would need to be pretty quick here) and lead touch-and-go (L-L connection would need to be made of course)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa start with all connections intact (L-L going over) but end with fake and bring follower backwards on 5,6,7 (probably best to bring R hand on follower’s R shoulder rather than keeping in contact)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and block follower from going forward on 5 and leader turns clockwise with L-L low
1,2,3,5,6,7 break L-L with R hand to get to closed hold and place R hand on follower’s R shoulder and lead follower into full traveling counterclockwise turn with R hand helping to stop follower’s turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare, R foot cross over in front and lead follower to stationary clockwise turn on 6 (with lead coming just before 6… not sure if this would make follower’s turn more difficult) with leader turning counterclockwise (during the class I was probably cheating by crossing over with R foot on 4 and leading follower to turn on 5 rather than on 6)
It was very warm during the class, but it seemed to get more comfortable as night wore on. Tomak thought it was crazy for us to dance on a hot humid day like this. Some of the students in the class seemed to be on verge of collapsing.
There were two hen parties during the second class. I did not realize men were allowed in hen parties.
Lindsey and Sally were both present today. I thought they were moving deliberately and gingerly. However, had I not known that they were involved in car accident less than a week ago and were still a bit shook up, I might not have noticed anything. I suppose this may be a hopeful sign that they will recover fully in relatively short amount of time.
Dancing started off a little slow but picked up its pace eventually (at least 16 dances altogether) until a little after 11:30 PM. It was interesting to see how much I like certain dance partners taking swings up, down, up, down, etc. This seemingly is caused more by changes in what I want to try leading (especially because of LDA recently) rather than by any changes in my dance partner’s style or abilities (although some of my dance partners have shown dramatic improvements or changes in their approaches).
Probably the most amusing set of banter I had tonight was with Sam, who said (among other things) during our dance to Contigo (by Cache) something like, “Your lead is becoming more and more like Sergio’s. Please don’t become like Sergio’s or I might have to stop dancing with you.” Indeed I had just tried to attempt a lead I took from Sergio with Sam. I offered to explain what was being led after the dance. Even after my explanation, Sam was still doubtful and told me it was difficult to follow. I decided that this was probably because my lead was not precise enough, so I signaled Sergio to my side and asked him to lead the move for Sam. Not surprisingly, Sam decided that the way Sergio led the move was indeed much better. (An aside – I recall a very similar situation with Sam, Rajiv and me few months ago. I showed Rajiv a move I learned and he led it more satisfactorily for Sam.) In any case, I worked on refining my lead for this move afterwards with further guidance from Sergio. I later went back to Sam and said, “I knew that you’d find Sergio’s leads better.” I suppose that this in some ways is a Pyrrhic victory, but then again, it is the truth so there’s nothing really wrong with it – I just need to get better. Finally (and I suspect Sam might be peeved to hear this), I took Sam’s initial comment more as a compliment rather than complaint.
Just before I left, I decided to hijack the DJ booth to play one song “Descarga Lebron” mostly to get a certain specific dance happen. It worked.
On a completely unrelated topic, today’s Tour de France stage was one of the most amazing ever. Epic. I could easily imagine that some people have already started writing a screenplay for a movie.
Some of the other songs played tonight by Sally included La Pantera Mambo, La 33 (both by La 33), Hacha Y Machete (Hector Lavoe), El Pito (Isidro Infante), Micaela (Sonora Carruseles) plus quite a number of songs I am less familiar with. All Salsa except for one Cha Cha Cha.
LDA 3.3 Redux part 1
July 18, 2006
LDA 3.3 with Susana and Mario (week 1 of 6 - second course)
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top, prepare and lead follower a double stationary clockwise turn (touch-and-go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 standard Copa start with L-L going over follower’s head and free R hand on follower’s leading hip – lead follower to full Copa counterclockwise turn decelerating her turn with free R hand on follower’s R shoulder (into next 1)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn (one-up and one-down) letting go L-L while leader turns full clockwise (actually 3/4 is preferable here) to end with R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and stiff arm towards follower’s origin (end back-to-back as follower is turned around counterclockwise pointing down – it’s better if leader overtakes follower a little on 3 … this is very much like Copa start) – keeping follower’s arm straight bring R-L up and around in counterclockwise motion and down … here follower ends up doing 1 3/4 counterclockwise stationary turn (starting from 3) while leader is turning 1 1/4 counterclockwise – R-L is brought down as follower’s turn is completed and a switch to L-L is done as leader’s turn is being completed - leader ends facing away from follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader walks around 3/4 counterclockwise to get into CBL (open?) position with change in L-L hold – lead follower forward and into traveling full counterclockwise turn with L-L low for a wrap with a switch to R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 decelerate, prepare and lead follower into 2 1/2 clockwise stationary turn with R-L pointing up after the first turn (something of a scooping motion but minimize or without downward movement of hand initially) to allow leader’s clockwise turn
Cool. This was not overwhelming second time around. I felt I was under control most of the time and was able to stay in time comfortably although not effortlessly. I had a really nice evening of practice (although I might have gone slightly overboard sometimes with practicing moves from outside the class).
I (along with some other leaders in the class) was invited to partake Inaki’s Bachata class free of charge, but I had to decline for an obvious reason – too much travel. Too bad I don’t live in London. Then again, it is possible that I might never have taken up Salsa if I lived in London.
About half of the people were returning students from the last cycle – I would say that the most of the best ones have all stayed.
I think I might have managed to get Mario to refer to me by my first name as opposed to my last name. Probably for most people, I stick out as the guy from Cambridge. I had an amusing conversation with the resident on-2 guy (whom I will keep nameless for now and whom I suppose is there to try to steer most promising followers to taking up on-2 full time) about on-2 in general and in Cambridge.
LDA 3.3 with Susana and Mario (week 1 of 6 - second course)
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top, prepare and lead follower a double stationary clockwise turn (touch-and-go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 standard Copa start with L-L going over follower’s head and free R hand on follower’s leading hip – lead follower to full Copa counterclockwise turn decelerating her turn with free R hand on follower’s R shoulder (into next 1)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to stationary 2 1/2 clockwise turn (one-up and one-down) letting go L-L while leader turns full clockwise (actually 3/4 is preferable here) to end with R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and stiff arm towards follower’s origin (end back-to-back as follower is turned around counterclockwise pointing down – it’s better if leader overtakes follower a little on 3 … this is very much like Copa start) – keeping follower’s arm straight bring R-L up and around in counterclockwise motion and down … here follower ends up doing 1 3/4 counterclockwise stationary turn (starting from 3) while leader is turning 1 1/4 counterclockwise – R-L is brought down as follower’s turn is completed and a switch to L-L is done as leader’s turn is being completed - leader ends facing away from follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader walks around 3/4 counterclockwise to get into CBL (open?) position with change in L-L hold – lead follower forward and into traveling full counterclockwise turn with L-L low for a wrap with a switch to R-L
1,2,3,5,6,7 decelerate, prepare and lead follower into 2 1/2 clockwise stationary turn with R-L pointing up after the first turn (something of a scooping motion but minimize or without downward movement of hand initially) to allow leader’s clockwise turn
Cool. This was not overwhelming second time around. I felt I was under control most of the time and was able to stay in time comfortably although not effortlessly. I had a really nice evening of practice (although I might have gone slightly overboard sometimes with practicing moves from outside the class).
I (along with some other leaders in the class) was invited to partake Inaki’s Bachata class free of charge, but I had to decline for an obvious reason – too much travel. Too bad I don’t live in London. Then again, it is possible that I might never have taken up Salsa if I lived in London.
About half of the people were returning students from the last cycle – I would say that the most of the best ones have all stayed.
I think I might have managed to get Mario to refer to me by my first name as opposed to my last name. Probably for most people, I stick out as the guy from Cambridge. I had an amusing conversation with the resident on-2 guy (whom I will keep nameless for now and whom I suppose is there to try to steer most promising followers to taking up on-2 full time) about on-2 in general and in Cambridge.
Sally & Lindsey in a car accident last week
July 18, 2006
Okay. The big news is that Sally and Lindsey were involved in a head-on collision Friday afternoon/evening. I learned of this news late Monday afternoon/evening. They were on their way to Norwich to rendezvous with Serap and Jane for their four women dance performance when this accident occurred. I was told that the rescue team had to cut up the car to free Sally and/or Lindsey trapped inside the car. I don’t know the extent of their injury, but the fact that Sally was expressing that she was thankful to be alive would indicate that it was an extremely scary situation. Sally will not be able to teach the advanced Salsa class for as yet undetermined amount of time.
I normally would leave this post as is except for the fact that it makes me see my post last Friday in a different light. In particular I had referred to Lindsey and Sally missing their performance. At the time, I had no idea what had happened. I thought that it was strange but assumed that there must have been a very reasonable explanation. In particular I recall Serap saying, “I hope they didn’t have an accident and that they are okay.” At the time I didn’t think it was appropriate or useful to speculate or make any snap judgments, and I think not everyone will find serious fault with what I had written – although I must admit that I am a bit chagrined and I have to admit that it represents something far from my finest moment in this blog.
I also later learned of explanation for something else that happened and mystified me Friday night. Apparently Richard interrupted my dance with Serap to inform her that Sally was involved in a car accident. Another mystery solved – and another episode leaving me feel like an idiot because I had several other theories based upon some things I overheard or misheard earlier or borne of unrelated apprehensions and insecurities.
In any case, I wish speedy recovery physically, mentally, financially, etc. for both Sally and Lindsey. For those who do not have Sally’s contact information already, you should be able to use info@salsa-allegra.co.uk to wish her well.
Okay. The big news is that Sally and Lindsey were involved in a head-on collision Friday afternoon/evening. I learned of this news late Monday afternoon/evening. They were on their way to Norwich to rendezvous with Serap and Jane for their four women dance performance when this accident occurred. I was told that the rescue team had to cut up the car to free Sally and/or Lindsey trapped inside the car. I don’t know the extent of their injury, but the fact that Sally was expressing that she was thankful to be alive would indicate that it was an extremely scary situation. Sally will not be able to teach the advanced Salsa class for as yet undetermined amount of time.
I normally would leave this post as is except for the fact that it makes me see my post last Friday in a different light. In particular I had referred to Lindsey and Sally missing their performance. At the time, I had no idea what had happened. I thought that it was strange but assumed that there must have been a very reasonable explanation. In particular I recall Serap saying, “I hope they didn’t have an accident and that they are okay.” At the time I didn’t think it was appropriate or useful to speculate or make any snap judgments, and I think not everyone will find serious fault with what I had written – although I must admit that I am a bit chagrined and I have to admit that it represents something far from my finest moment in this blog.
I also later learned of explanation for something else that happened and mystified me Friday night. Apparently Richard interrupted my dance with Serap to inform her that Sally was involved in a car accident. Another mystery solved – and another episode leaving me feel like an idiot because I had several other theories based upon some things I overheard or misheard earlier or borne of unrelated apprehensions and insecurities.
In any case, I wish speedy recovery physically, mentally, financially, etc. for both Sally and Lindsey. For those who do not have Sally’s contact information already, you should be able to use info@salsa-allegra.co.uk to wish her well.
Just another manic Monday
July 17, 2006
Intermediate with Russell of Latin Collective (first hour)
shine
1,2,3 basic
5 R foot cross in front of L foot
6 R foot slide to R
7& R foot together while L foot slide to L
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 L foot slide to L
1 L foot slide to cross behind R foot
2 R foot slide to R
3 R foot slide to cross behind L foot
4 L foot slide to L
5 L foot slide to cross in front of R foot
6 R foot slide to R
7 R foot slide to cross in front of L foot
1 basic
1 basic
2 hop
3 land to get L foot cross behind R foot
5 R foot slightly back (behind L foot)
6 L foot slide long forward
7 with R foot slide following L closely
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top – lead follower to stationary clockwise turn and end with R-R/L hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL and lead 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower staying with R-R/L hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot clockwise turn into CBL position and hat for follower into closed hold preferably with head and body roll for full effect – finish with simple CBL
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into double clockwise turn ending in hammerlock (R-L high and L-R low)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Cuban exchange of places and R-L toss of a hat
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL and switch to R-R – lead follower to 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn continuous into next 1,2,3 with R-R ending behind follower’s neck
1,2,3,5,6,7 from previous bar, finish 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower as leader gets into CBL position again – lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 clockwise traveling turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-R hat (keeping R-R behind follower’s head) for follower while getting into CBL position – block on 5 to lead follower backwards
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with L-L high (and R-R let go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL position and with hands on follower’s hips – lead follower to full traveling counterclockwise turn with R hand ending on follower’s R hip/waist and L hand ending on follower’s back (have fingers pointing to R)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower forward (or twist) and lead follower into free stationary 1 1/2 clockwise turn (but what was the timing?)
The intermediate class was fairly short on leader this week. I had an inkling that Russell might have been slightly surprised by some people finding the first hour’s lesson being a piece of cake and was compelled to add more and more material at the end to keep people challenged. Aside from the very last part (which for me was more dubious than difficult because of confusion over whether the lead for follower’s turn should come on 3 or on 5), the first hour was very easy for me. Cyrille too found it very easy and he was talking about not taking part in the second hour of classes. He changed his tune though and stayed for second hour probably because of Mimi.
Intermediate with Russell of Latin Collective (second hour)
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top – prepare and lead follower into double (or triple with some followers) clockwise turn touch-and-go to end with L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into LA style Copa position with arms outstretched – block move to R on 3 and block move to L on 5 and lead follower straight back (to R) on 6
1,2,3,5,6,7 double right (clockwise turn) for leader (bring L-L to leader’s L waist during the first turn) finish with normal open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL with L-R high and lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn to bring follower into hammerlock position (R-L behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into back-to-back Copa position – lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise Copa turn with R-L across front of follower’s waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower around on 1,2 1/2 clockwise with stiff R-L pointing forward into follower’s line – lead follower into free traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader stepping across follower in preparation for around the world during next 1,2,3
1,2,3,5,6,7 around the world and finish with simple CBL
And then again, a couple of leaders were completely unfamiliar with leading touch-and-go during second hour. Russell was apologetic over the second hour’s material being a bit too spin heavy for followers. My best estimation is that it was mildly challenging at most for some followers, challenging but perfectly appropriate for some others, and arguably overly challenging for some.
It should be interesting how Russell will plan his next intermediate class given what he saw this week. Three teachers from the Latin Collective have been far from monolithic in their approach to teaching the intermediate class; I wondered how much discussion they had before the instructor switches. Both Joe and Tiz had been claiming to follow a syllabus while this was not at all clear with Russell. Joe’s classes have been the most compact and with greatest punch and most demanding for the leaders – especially recently. Tiz’s classes compared to Joe’s have been simpler in particular during the first hour while incorporating more number of variations.
Vishal seemed very keen on getting me to help him out with DJing possibly on Mondays and/or Thursdays. I was quite reluctant because I consider both evenings my best dance and practice nights at Club Salsa. In my mind, I also wonder if I would indeed be of more help for him by DJing as opposed to dancing and keeping some of the better followers occupied. In any case, I agreed to bring my music collections on those evenings so that I would be able to pop in if need arises. I am guessing that this involves DJing for perhaps half an hour and almost certainly no more than an hour on a given day, which would not give me much opportunity to experiment and thus probably would be less interesting – unless I were to take an approach of not playing any song more than once a month (I’m not sure if anyone’s going to like THAT).
A quote from Joe – “This young man will organize the trip to the London Latinfest so you should talk to him if you are interested.”
Huh? What? It’s amusing at multiple levels (including spats we had at londonsalsa.co.uk forum). For whatever it’s worth, a couple of people have approached me about it between last week and this week. As I said last week, I have little interest in workshops, but I would be open to the idea of coordinating a trip for the party on Saturday and/or Sunday. Some people are considering going to the workshop and one of the parties with no help or input from me.
Dancing was pretty good if not exceptional – about 12 dances in course of slightly under one and half hour. I was able to get some feedback and suggestions by Danie on the way I was leading some moves I took from Sergio.
Vishal had to vacate the DJ booth for about half an hour so he left a CD. He had suggested that I could use his music for DJing but I declined because I figured that it would be difficult without knowing the songs he had in his collection. I would have hated to limit myself to things both he and I have (which would have severely limited possible song choices). As it happened, I thought the songs in the compilation CD were decent enough.
Intermediate with Russell of Latin Collective (first hour)
shine
1,2,3 basic
5 R foot cross in front of L foot
6 R foot slide to R
7& R foot together while L foot slide to L
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 L foot slide to L
1 L foot slide to cross behind R foot
2 R foot slide to R
3 R foot slide to cross behind L foot
4 L foot slide to L
5 L foot slide to cross in front of R foot
6 R foot slide to R
7 R foot slide to cross in front of L foot
1 basic
1 basic
2 hop
3 land to get L foot cross behind R foot
5 R foot slightly back (behind L foot)
6 L foot slide long forward
7 with R foot slide following L closely
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top – lead follower to stationary clockwise turn and end with R-R/L hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL and lead 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn for follower staying with R-R/L hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s pivot clockwise turn into CBL position and hat for follower into closed hold preferably with head and body roll for full effect – finish with simple CBL
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower into double clockwise turn ending in hammerlock (R-L high and L-R low)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Cuban exchange of places and R-L toss of a hat
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL and switch to R-R – lead follower to 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn continuous into next 1,2,3 with R-R ending behind follower’s neck
1,2,3,5,6,7 from previous bar, finish 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower as leader gets into CBL position again – lead follower forward and into 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 clockwise traveling turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-R hat (keeping R-R behind follower’s head) for follower while getting into CBL position – block on 5 to lead follower backwards
1,2,3,5,6,7 Mambo jazz and lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with L-L high (and R-R let go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL position and with hands on follower’s hips – lead follower to full traveling counterclockwise turn with R hand ending on follower’s R hip/waist and L hand ending on follower’s back (have fingers pointing to R)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower forward (or twist) and lead follower into free stationary 1 1/2 clockwise turn (but what was the timing?)
The intermediate class was fairly short on leader this week. I had an inkling that Russell might have been slightly surprised by some people finding the first hour’s lesson being a piece of cake and was compelled to add more and more material at the end to keep people challenged. Aside from the very last part (which for me was more dubious than difficult because of confusion over whether the lead for follower’s turn should come on 3 or on 5), the first hour was very easy for me. Cyrille too found it very easy and he was talking about not taking part in the second hour of classes. He changed his tune though and stayed for second hour probably because of Mimi.
Intermediate with Russell of Latin Collective (second hour)
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top – prepare and lead follower into double (or triple with some followers) clockwise turn touch-and-go to end with L-L on top
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into LA style Copa position with arms outstretched – block move to R on 3 and block move to L on 5 and lead follower straight back (to R) on 6
1,2,3,5,6,7 double right (clockwise turn) for leader (bring L-L to leader’s L waist during the first turn) finish with normal open hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 into CBL with L-R high and lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 clockwise turn to bring follower into hammerlock position (R-L behind follower’s L waist)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into back-to-back Copa position – lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise Copa turn with R-L across front of follower’s waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower around on 1,2 1/2 clockwise with stiff R-L pointing forward into follower’s line – lead follower into free traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader stepping across follower in preparation for around the world during next 1,2,3
1,2,3,5,6,7 around the world and finish with simple CBL
And then again, a couple of leaders were completely unfamiliar with leading touch-and-go during second hour. Russell was apologetic over the second hour’s material being a bit too spin heavy for followers. My best estimation is that it was mildly challenging at most for some followers, challenging but perfectly appropriate for some others, and arguably overly challenging for some.
It should be interesting how Russell will plan his next intermediate class given what he saw this week. Three teachers from the Latin Collective have been far from monolithic in their approach to teaching the intermediate class; I wondered how much discussion they had before the instructor switches. Both Joe and Tiz had been claiming to follow a syllabus while this was not at all clear with Russell. Joe’s classes have been the most compact and with greatest punch and most demanding for the leaders – especially recently. Tiz’s classes compared to Joe’s have been simpler in particular during the first hour while incorporating more number of variations.
Vishal seemed very keen on getting me to help him out with DJing possibly on Mondays and/or Thursdays. I was quite reluctant because I consider both evenings my best dance and practice nights at Club Salsa. In my mind, I also wonder if I would indeed be of more help for him by DJing as opposed to dancing and keeping some of the better followers occupied. In any case, I agreed to bring my music collections on those evenings so that I would be able to pop in if need arises. I am guessing that this involves DJing for perhaps half an hour and almost certainly no more than an hour on a given day, which would not give me much opportunity to experiment and thus probably would be less interesting – unless I were to take an approach of not playing any song more than once a month (I’m not sure if anyone’s going to like THAT).
A quote from Joe – “This young man will organize the trip to the London Latinfest so you should talk to him if you are interested.”
Huh? What? It’s amusing at multiple levels (including spats we had at londonsalsa.co.uk forum). For whatever it’s worth, a couple of people have approached me about it between last week and this week. As I said last week, I have little interest in workshops, but I would be open to the idea of coordinating a trip for the party on Saturday and/or Sunday. Some people are considering going to the workshop and one of the parties with no help or input from me.
Dancing was pretty good if not exceptional – about 12 dances in course of slightly under one and half hour. I was able to get some feedback and suggestions by Danie on the way I was leading some moves I took from Sergio.
Vishal had to vacate the DJ booth for about half an hour so he left a CD. He had suggested that I could use his music for DJing but I declined because I figured that it would be difficult without knowing the songs he had in his collection. I would have hated to limit myself to things both he and I have (which would have severely limited possible song choices). As it happened, I thought the songs in the compilation CD were decent enough.
Afro Cuban All Stars and Cellar 8 Bar
July 16, 2006
At first I thought I would go to SOS. Then I thought maybe I would take the train this time instead of driving. And then I read about the Afro Cuban All Stars and came to conclusion that they might be worth seeing in live. Then I kept coming up with more reasons – some concrete and some farfetched.
I found myself at Parkers Piece shortly before 6 PM. The place was swarming with people I recognized from Club Salsa. Some people referred to it as Club Salsa on the road or on a tour. I recall seeing at least 42 familiar faces during my walkabout although I only knew the names of 28 of them – 29 now with one correction (alas I forgot two or three names I was told by third party). I suppose I should know more names but it gets awkward to ask for someone’s name when you have seen them around for a very long time whether I knew their name at one point or not. Hmm. I should ask them anyway, especially if I had not asked before.
There wasn’t much intense dancing at Parker’s Piece as I expected. I only saw one attempt at dancing CBL – grass is not particularly suited for spins. Cuban style dancing was more common. I took part in couple of simple Rueda – the calls used were Dame, Enchufe, Evelyn, Pimienta, Sientala, Enchufe doble, Sombrero, Dame dos, Kentucky. There were some more Rueda done with more complex moves, but I wasn’t involved in them.
The band was okay if not spectacular in my opinion – of course I suspect that it would have taken something really special to knock my socks off. For one thing, I would have needed a better floor for dancing as well as many good dance partners. I could say that they were the best Salsa band I have heard live in my life, but this would be saying so little considering that I have heard only three live bands. I didn’t hear du-dum of conga on 4 and 8 very often or a clear 2-3 or 3-2 clave. I wondered if some of the music they played would have been considered Timba, but no one around me was able to confirm or deny this. Finding beat one wasn’t difficult except during the times when there was only 3 or 1 percussionist(s) playing alone. The audience as whole seemed more or less receptive but not overwhelmingly enthusiastic to the music. I didn’t think the musicians were particularly impressed with the audience – I’m sure they were at very least professional about their performance but at no time did I feel that the audience raised level the bar for the musicians.
Couple of people suggested going to Cellar Bar 8 afterwards. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see the place with my eyes for the first time. When I finally arrived at Cellar Bar 8 around 9:20 PM (I walked around for some time looking for it because I didn’t know its precise location – it is very close (<50 meters) to and to north of Grafton Center and is on Napier Street off Maids Causeway/Newmarket Road.
The first thing I noticed about Cellar Bar 8 was that it is considerably smaller than Nelson’s old venue at Greens. Cellar Bar 8 had four columns placed about one third of the way from the entrance to the far wall. Total floor space was similar to Club Salsa, and the wooden floor was of decent quality.
Music played was all Salsa – at least during the time I was there (for a little under 1 hour). Some of the music was suitable for CBL style although the last song played as I was leaving was almost certainly pure Cuban. Nelson was nowhere to be seen today, and someone named Cynthia (whom I don’t know very well) was the DJ. I don’t know if the music selection was typical – I wasn’t the only person dancing exclusively CBL.
It wasn’t very busy there tonight compared to the times when I visited Nelson’s old venue couple of times last year. I have no idea if tonight was typical or unusual. I did not know if I was going to stay until I spotted few familiar faces here and there including both people I had talked to about coming to Cellar Bar 8 earlier at the concert. For a little while, I was merely talking and looking at photographs and videos taken at the concert earlier in the day. Thinking about it more, I wonder if many people including Nelson went to the after-party for today’s concert instead.
I ended up dancing with three people there for total of 4 dances. I had danced with two of the followers previously at Club Salsa. I had not expected to have many dances because this is the heart of Cuban Salsa in Cambridge. It was good – although it would have been nice to have one more dance (there will be other opportunities of course).
Being able to dance on time to the music was a small recurring topic today. As I was watching a video of people dancing at the concert, a comment was made – “At least you could tell they’re dancing to the same music.” However, by the time I started paying attention and examine what the dancers in the video were doing, the two couples were no longer synchronized. I also observed some people tonight completely out of time – in this case almost certainly because of the lead. It reminded me of an incident several months ago when J stormed off the dance floor in frustration. Also the subject of timing came up for my first dance at Cellar 8 tonight (I had suggested to my partner that she should try to work on listening to the music and to try to stay in time to the music – I don’t remember if I said she should be able to find the beat 1 consistently. In any case, she claimed that she had been working on this, and she indeed was much better despite double dose of difficulty I probably posed to her by dancing CBL at a Cuban venue and by leading more spins and plethora of unfamiliar moves than she probably is used to. She was nice to dance with and probably would be able to pick up most of my moves with little practice – at least ones not involving more than 1 1/2 spins. It also was gratifying and mildly surprising to learn that my suggestion was taken constructively and even found helpful.).
At first I thought I would go to SOS. Then I thought maybe I would take the train this time instead of driving. And then I read about the Afro Cuban All Stars and came to conclusion that they might be worth seeing in live. Then I kept coming up with more reasons – some concrete and some farfetched.
I found myself at Parkers Piece shortly before 6 PM. The place was swarming with people I recognized from Club Salsa. Some people referred to it as Club Salsa on the road or on a tour. I recall seeing at least 42 familiar faces during my walkabout although I only knew the names of 28 of them – 29 now with one correction (alas I forgot two or three names I was told by third party). I suppose I should know more names but it gets awkward to ask for someone’s name when you have seen them around for a very long time whether I knew their name at one point or not. Hmm. I should ask them anyway, especially if I had not asked before.
There wasn’t much intense dancing at Parker’s Piece as I expected. I only saw one attempt at dancing CBL – grass is not particularly suited for spins. Cuban style dancing was more common. I took part in couple of simple Rueda – the calls used were Dame, Enchufe, Evelyn, Pimienta, Sientala, Enchufe doble, Sombrero, Dame dos, Kentucky. There were some more Rueda done with more complex moves, but I wasn’t involved in them.
The band was okay if not spectacular in my opinion – of course I suspect that it would have taken something really special to knock my socks off. For one thing, I would have needed a better floor for dancing as well as many good dance partners. I could say that they were the best Salsa band I have heard live in my life, but this would be saying so little considering that I have heard only three live bands. I didn’t hear du-dum of conga on 4 and 8 very often or a clear 2-3 or 3-2 clave. I wondered if some of the music they played would have been considered Timba, but no one around me was able to confirm or deny this. Finding beat one wasn’t difficult except during the times when there was only 3 or 1 percussionist(s) playing alone. The audience as whole seemed more or less receptive but not overwhelmingly enthusiastic to the music. I didn’t think the musicians were particularly impressed with the audience – I’m sure they were at very least professional about their performance but at no time did I feel that the audience raised level the bar for the musicians.
Couple of people suggested going to Cellar Bar 8 afterwards. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see the place with my eyes for the first time. When I finally arrived at Cellar Bar 8 around 9:20 PM (I walked around for some time looking for it because I didn’t know its precise location – it is very close (<50 meters) to and to north of Grafton Center and is on Napier Street off Maids Causeway/Newmarket Road.
The first thing I noticed about Cellar Bar 8 was that it is considerably smaller than Nelson’s old venue at Greens. Cellar Bar 8 had four columns placed about one third of the way from the entrance to the far wall. Total floor space was similar to Club Salsa, and the wooden floor was of decent quality.
Music played was all Salsa – at least during the time I was there (for a little under 1 hour). Some of the music was suitable for CBL style although the last song played as I was leaving was almost certainly pure Cuban. Nelson was nowhere to be seen today, and someone named Cynthia (whom I don’t know very well) was the DJ. I don’t know if the music selection was typical – I wasn’t the only person dancing exclusively CBL.
It wasn’t very busy there tonight compared to the times when I visited Nelson’s old venue couple of times last year. I have no idea if tonight was typical or unusual. I did not know if I was going to stay until I spotted few familiar faces here and there including both people I had talked to about coming to Cellar Bar 8 earlier at the concert. For a little while, I was merely talking and looking at photographs and videos taken at the concert earlier in the day. Thinking about it more, I wonder if many people including Nelson went to the after-party for today’s concert instead.
I ended up dancing with three people there for total of 4 dances. I had danced with two of the followers previously at Club Salsa. I had not expected to have many dances because this is the heart of Cuban Salsa in Cambridge. It was good – although it would have been nice to have one more dance (there will be other opportunities of course).
Being able to dance on time to the music was a small recurring topic today. As I was watching a video of people dancing at the concert, a comment was made – “At least you could tell they’re dancing to the same music.” However, by the time I started paying attention and examine what the dancers in the video were doing, the two couples were no longer synchronized. I also observed some people tonight completely out of time – in this case almost certainly because of the lead. It reminded me of an incident several months ago when J stormed off the dance floor in frustration. Also the subject of timing came up for my first dance at Cellar 8 tonight (I had suggested to my partner that she should try to work on listening to the music and to try to stay in time to the music – I don’t remember if I said she should be able to find the beat 1 consistently. In any case, she claimed that she had been working on this, and she indeed was much better despite double dose of difficulty I probably posed to her by dancing CBL at a Cuban venue and by leading more spins and plethora of unfamiliar moves than she probably is used to. She was nice to dance with and probably would be able to pick up most of my moves with little practice – at least ones not involving more than 1 1/2 spins. It also was gratifying and mildly surprising to learn that my suggestion was taken constructively and even found helpful.).
Where in the world is Serap Bravo?
July 14, 2006
The lessons were still unfinished when I arrived at 10 PM. One of the first thought I had was, “Where’s Serap?” I had forgotten about her four women dance show – apparently in Norwich (not Birmingham as I originally thought). I had thought that I would get at least one or two dances with her if all else fails, so my already low expectations were seemingly getting crushed to bits.
Through the first few songs, I simply sat around next to Rajiv and Zhenzhi drifting in and out of their conversation if any – I think they must have been talking now and then at least because I recall hearing the word Singapore. Vishal started with maybe 6 Salsa songs including El Pito (Isidro Infante version) and Me Libere (El Gran Combo). This slumber was broken finally when Gordon came around to ask Zhenzhi for a dance. When I finally got up, I realized that I had been leaning on my left arm awkwardly, and I had to shake it off to ease the pain and to loosen up.
I finally started dancing as I tried to warm up and make best of the evening. I was about to try for my second or third dance of the evening, but at that point Cristian took over as DJ and promptly started with a Merengue and a Bachata. Some of the people I considered asking for dance left shortly thereafter.
After another dance or two and coming to thinking that this night could be a lost cause, some more familiar faces started showing up – first Cyrille followed by Sergio. Unfortunately neither is among my favorite dance partners even though I do enjoy their company. Sergio asked me if I would like a drink (beer in this case), and I accepted the offer while telling him that I had half expected to resort to drinking alcohol tonight even before arriving (despite my recent rant about alcohol and dancing).
I brightened up a little when Serap walked into our group somewhat later (around 11 PM?). Apparently her dance show had to be rearranged at last minute because only half of the troupe showed up – only Serap and Jane. The show apparently went well enough otherwise. Jane showed up even later (near midnight?), which led to Serap and Jane dancing together in what may have been a repeat of their performance in Norwich.
Arguably the biggest highlight of the evening occurred when Laura surprised Sergio by asking him for a dance when Cristian put on another Merengue. The reaction from everyone in the group (which included Rajiv) was priceless. I would bet that Laura had fun inciting reaction from all of us (perhaps more so than by actually dancing Merengue with Sergio – who knows for sure?). During the same song, Johnny and Serap danced Merengue with each other – I don’t recall seeing them dance Merengue together for a very long time – at least a year if not longer.
As for the rest of the evening, it never got going for me. I stayed until 1 AM but only managed to have eight dances altogether. I am not counting the 30 seconds or so of my dancing with Serap before Richard interrupted us because he ostensibly had to talk to Serap at that moment. Incidentally the song being played at that moment was El Pito (Isidro Infante version) again. Some other Salsa songs I recall Cristian playing included La Rueda – Frankie Ruiz, El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Sonea Mi Son – Tabaco Y Ron. Just before I left (along with Sergio and Cyrille), Vishal had briefly taken over and played likes of Playa No More – Crystal Sierra, Me Libere – El Gran Combo (for the second time), and Contigo – Cache. Over the course of the evening, Sergio made comment “This is a good song” two or three times (I recognized the songs but I don’t know their names), which made me look around in vain looking for potential dance partners. It looked like there was going to be another DJ switch and presumably more Merengue, Reggaeton and/or Bachata shortly after my departure. Getting back to my original strand of topic, I also am not counting about a minute or so when I had Serap lead me among my eight dances (inspired by Serap and Jane’s dance where they alternated lead and follow position). I repeat – none of the eight dances were with Serap. Hmm. I guess I must be quite annoyed about not having a dance with Serap tonight. Oh well. As my old friend Noodles might say, “Sometimes that’s the way cookie crumbles.”
Exceptional dancing on a Friday night seem to have become something like an endangered species for me - this is not a knock on anyone but merely my perception of Fridays in general over the past several months including times when I was DJing as well as final few months of Enrique as DJ. In fact, I was so willing to DJ on Fridays because it was becoming increasingly clear that I wasn't having as good night of dancing on Fridays compared to other weeknights at Club Salsa. I think it is difficult to string together good dances for me unless I am dancing at least half of the time. Also unless I am dancing with followers with whom I have very good connection or am in exceptionally good form, I usually need to have at least 2-3 dances in a row to get warmed up and get into a good mindset. I suspect that I must have gotten too accustomed to hearing Salsa with few if any interruptions on other nights.
I learned that a Salsa night is going to be held at my workplace on Friday the 18th of August. Because I had heard no follow-up after the initial announcement in May, I had imagined that this event was cancelled. I guess it could be interesting except I suspect that there may be very few people there to dance with.
Some people were talking about going to a show at Parker’s Piece this Sunday. Apparently Afro-Cuban All Stars is to play at 6 PM or so. I don’t think serious dancing will be in the cards at Parker’s Piece.
Quote of the day – “It was all I expected and more.”
[Note added July 18, 2006 - Many odd incidents are recorded here. Many of these were caused because of a car accident suffered by Sally and Lindsey. More details here.]
The lessons were still unfinished when I arrived at 10 PM. One of the first thought I had was, “Where’s Serap?” I had forgotten about her four women dance show – apparently in Norwich (not Birmingham as I originally thought). I had thought that I would get at least one or two dances with her if all else fails, so my already low expectations were seemingly getting crushed to bits.
Through the first few songs, I simply sat around next to Rajiv and Zhenzhi drifting in and out of their conversation if any – I think they must have been talking now and then at least because I recall hearing the word Singapore. Vishal started with maybe 6 Salsa songs including El Pito (Isidro Infante version) and Me Libere (El Gran Combo). This slumber was broken finally when Gordon came around to ask Zhenzhi for a dance. When I finally got up, I realized that I had been leaning on my left arm awkwardly, and I had to shake it off to ease the pain and to loosen up.
I finally started dancing as I tried to warm up and make best of the evening. I was about to try for my second or third dance of the evening, but at that point Cristian took over as DJ and promptly started with a Merengue and a Bachata. Some of the people I considered asking for dance left shortly thereafter.
After another dance or two and coming to thinking that this night could be a lost cause, some more familiar faces started showing up – first Cyrille followed by Sergio. Unfortunately neither is among my favorite dance partners even though I do enjoy their company. Sergio asked me if I would like a drink (beer in this case), and I accepted the offer while telling him that I had half expected to resort to drinking alcohol tonight even before arriving (despite my recent rant about alcohol and dancing).
I brightened up a little when Serap walked into our group somewhat later (around 11 PM?). Apparently her dance show had to be rearranged at last minute because only half of the troupe showed up – only Serap and Jane. The show apparently went well enough otherwise. Jane showed up even later (near midnight?), which led to Serap and Jane dancing together in what may have been a repeat of their performance in Norwich.
Arguably the biggest highlight of the evening occurred when Laura surprised Sergio by asking him for a dance when Cristian put on another Merengue. The reaction from everyone in the group (which included Rajiv) was priceless. I would bet that Laura had fun inciting reaction from all of us (perhaps more so than by actually dancing Merengue with Sergio – who knows for sure?). During the same song, Johnny and Serap danced Merengue with each other – I don’t recall seeing them dance Merengue together for a very long time – at least a year if not longer.
As for the rest of the evening, it never got going for me. I stayed until 1 AM but only managed to have eight dances altogether. I am not counting the 30 seconds or so of my dancing with Serap before Richard interrupted us because he ostensibly had to talk to Serap at that moment. Incidentally the song being played at that moment was El Pito (Isidro Infante version) again. Some other Salsa songs I recall Cristian playing included La Rueda – Frankie Ruiz, El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Sonea Mi Son – Tabaco Y Ron. Just before I left (along with Sergio and Cyrille), Vishal had briefly taken over and played likes of Playa No More – Crystal Sierra, Me Libere – El Gran Combo (for the second time), and Contigo – Cache. Over the course of the evening, Sergio made comment “This is a good song” two or three times (I recognized the songs but I don’t know their names), which made me look around in vain looking for potential dance partners. It looked like there was going to be another DJ switch and presumably more Merengue, Reggaeton and/or Bachata shortly after my departure. Getting back to my original strand of topic, I also am not counting about a minute or so when I had Serap lead me among my eight dances (inspired by Serap and Jane’s dance where they alternated lead and follow position). I repeat – none of the eight dances were with Serap. Hmm. I guess I must be quite annoyed about not having a dance with Serap tonight. Oh well. As my old friend Noodles might say, “Sometimes that’s the way cookie crumbles.”
Exceptional dancing on a Friday night seem to have become something like an endangered species for me - this is not a knock on anyone but merely my perception of Fridays in general over the past several months including times when I was DJing as well as final few months of Enrique as DJ. In fact, I was so willing to DJ on Fridays because it was becoming increasingly clear that I wasn't having as good night of dancing on Fridays compared to other weeknights at Club Salsa. I think it is difficult to string together good dances for me unless I am dancing at least half of the time. Also unless I am dancing with followers with whom I have very good connection or am in exceptionally good form, I usually need to have at least 2-3 dances in a row to get warmed up and get into a good mindset. I suspect that I must have gotten too accustomed to hearing Salsa with few if any interruptions on other nights.
I learned that a Salsa night is going to be held at my workplace on Friday the 18th of August. Because I had heard no follow-up after the initial announcement in May, I had imagined that this event was cancelled. I guess it could be interesting except I suspect that there may be very few people there to dance with.
Some people were talking about going to a show at Parker’s Piece this Sunday. Apparently Afro-Cuban All Stars is to play at 6 PM or so. I don’t think serious dancing will be in the cards at Parker’s Piece.
Quote of the day – “It was all I expected and more.”
[Note added July 18, 2006 - Many odd incidents are recorded here. Many of these were caused because of a car accident suffered by Sally and Lindsey. More details here.]
Good night, and good luck
July 13, 2006
Because there were twice as many men compared to women for the advanced class, I volunteered to join the intermediate class, which had more women than men. With 2 1/2 turn used for the third bar, the difference between the two seemingly were minimal – just one extra move for the advanced class. This type of situation has come up before, and I have volunteered to join the intermediate class before as well. However, this was the first time when it came down to it. As I said to Sally in previous occasion(s), it really doesn’t bother me one bit. I find that things could be learned or relearned from lower level classes all the way down to absolute beginners.
Intermediate - Chris assisted by Charlotte
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold open break and bring follower forward on L side with her L arm stretched to side (into which leader’s waist lands) and leader does 1 1/2 free clockwise turn on spot around follower’s L arm/hand (while follower finishes with 1/2 counterclockwise turn like CBL) [note afterwards: I think this is potentially very awkward turn for leader. Given that it’s a clockwise turn, leader would want to pivot on his R foot for this turn. I think the easiest way to make this work is to do a hook turn footwork on 5 and the only way to make this work is for the leader to have already turned 1/2 clockwise by 4 meaning that the leader may want to start turning clockwise on 3 or very soon after 3]
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top and prepare and lead follower to a double turn (no touch and go) with R-R pushed inwards after the first turn to get R-R positioned arm-to-arm pointing upwards for both
1,2,3,5,6,7 (open break?) let go L-L and bring follower inwards and into traveling 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R coming down for the final turn to get R-R behind follower’s L waist – in this case leader travels along with follower to end up shoulder to shoulder facing the same direction [note: It is possible to end facing follower here and still end up with the position on 8 on next bar as I observed in last week’s LDA class. I talked about some similarities between LDA and Sally’s class, and Sally commented (quote here may be not exactly accurate), “Well. They are the ones from whom I learned from so that’s not surprising.” I also gave her a short demonstration of this week’s material partly in response to her query about how I liked their class while commenting that opportunities for practicing them are rare – I think I only tried it (unsuccessfully) with only one or two people (Jane and maybe Charlotte) tonight.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 start with Mambo jazz with free L hand on follower’s L shoulder and use the same L hand to lead follower forward on 5 and switch from R-R to L-R and bring L-R up to end behind follower’s neck (follower is positioned to L of leader with both facing same direction on 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to do back basic on 1,2,3 with both hands positioned on her shoulder and lead follower to her R on 5 (thus forcing follower to step across on her L foot) and lead follower to step back on 6,7 (follower is positioned to R of leader with both facing same direction on 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to do back basic on 1,2,3 while moving in front of follower – lead follower to free 1 1/2 clockwise turn while leader also does a turn [note: Another possibility is a move suggested to me by Sergio recently involving bringing follower back to leader’s L side followed by Copa.]
Speaking of Sergio, he and Natalie showed up fairly early tonight – I spotted them at the start of second hour. I joined their party, which also included Cyrille, for a meandering conversation lasting about an hour – after cleaning up a mess I created by breaking an ashtray. Topic of conversations ranged from World Cup to many things regarding Salsa (old histories, videos and video clips, music) and Cha Cha. It was particularly amusing to hear about what I perceived to be differences in opinions between Sergio and Natalie about Salsa music and dancing) being brought up in an amusing and deliberate manner. To satisfy my reader via satellite, yes we did talk about you too, Ivan. Of course, we talked about many others too – at least when people were able to remember everyone’s names (or pronounce each other’s names properly). By the way, our conversation was briefly interrupted by a query from an adjacent party about Cyrille’s name, which was followed by the requisite joke comment, “Okay. Now we can talk about you behind your back.”
I stayed until nearly midnight. I think I had about 16 dances or maybe more. I enjoyed many of the dances – in particular one with Natalie - probably my best dance with her to date and notable in large part because I thought she might have liked it more than usual.
Miscellaneous (mostly nonsense). Enrique is probably not DJing tomorrow – next week is more likely. Belated announcement – there will be rotation of teachers for Monday next week. August? Wrong. Peterborough versus Cambridge times two or three. Biggest criminals in Cambridge? Vishal shaken not stirred. I mused at one point that I had not even bothered to get one of my new Los Van Van CD out of its packaging (and thus have had no chance to listen to Temba Tumba Timba in private).
Because there were twice as many men compared to women for the advanced class, I volunteered to join the intermediate class, which had more women than men. With 2 1/2 turn used for the third bar, the difference between the two seemingly were minimal – just one extra move for the advanced class. This type of situation has come up before, and I have volunteered to join the intermediate class before as well. However, this was the first time when it came down to it. As I said to Sally in previous occasion(s), it really doesn’t bother me one bit. I find that things could be learned or relearned from lower level classes all the way down to absolute beginners.
Intermediate - Chris assisted by Charlotte
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold open break and bring follower forward on L side with her L arm stretched to side (into which leader’s waist lands) and leader does 1 1/2 free clockwise turn on spot around follower’s L arm/hand (while follower finishes with 1/2 counterclockwise turn like CBL) [note afterwards: I think this is potentially very awkward turn for leader. Given that it’s a clockwise turn, leader would want to pivot on his R foot for this turn. I think the easiest way to make this work is to do a hook turn footwork on 5 and the only way to make this work is for the leader to have already turned 1/2 clockwise by 4 meaning that the leader may want to start turning clockwise on 3 or very soon after 3]
1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top and prepare and lead follower to a double turn (no touch and go) with R-R pushed inwards after the first turn to get R-R positioned arm-to-arm pointing upwards for both
1,2,3,5,6,7 (open break?) let go L-L and bring follower inwards and into traveling 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn with R-R coming down for the final turn to get R-R behind follower’s L waist – in this case leader travels along with follower to end up shoulder to shoulder facing the same direction [note: It is possible to end facing follower here and still end up with the position on 8 on next bar as I observed in last week’s LDA class. I talked about some similarities between LDA and Sally’s class, and Sally commented (quote here may be not exactly accurate), “Well. They are the ones from whom I learned from so that’s not surprising.” I also gave her a short demonstration of this week’s material partly in response to her query about how I liked their class while commenting that opportunities for practicing them are rare – I think I only tried it (unsuccessfully) with only one or two people (Jane and maybe Charlotte) tonight.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 start with Mambo jazz with free L hand on follower’s L shoulder and use the same L hand to lead follower forward on 5 and switch from R-R to L-R and bring L-R up to end behind follower’s neck (follower is positioned to L of leader with both facing same direction on 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to do back basic on 1,2,3 with both hands positioned on her shoulder and lead follower to her R on 5 (thus forcing follower to step across on her L foot) and lead follower to step back on 6,7 (follower is positioned to R of leader with both facing same direction on 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to do back basic on 1,2,3 while moving in front of follower – lead follower to free 1 1/2 clockwise turn while leader also does a turn [note: Another possibility is a move suggested to me by Sergio recently involving bringing follower back to leader’s L side followed by Copa.]
Speaking of Sergio, he and Natalie showed up fairly early tonight – I spotted them at the start of second hour. I joined their party, which also included Cyrille, for a meandering conversation lasting about an hour – after cleaning up a mess I created by breaking an ashtray. Topic of conversations ranged from World Cup to many things regarding Salsa (old histories, videos and video clips, music) and Cha Cha. It was particularly amusing to hear about what I perceived to be differences in opinions between Sergio and Natalie about Salsa music and dancing) being brought up in an amusing and deliberate manner. To satisfy my reader via satellite, yes we did talk about you too, Ivan. Of course, we talked about many others too – at least when people were able to remember everyone’s names (or pronounce each other’s names properly). By the way, our conversation was briefly interrupted by a query from an adjacent party about Cyrille’s name, which was followed by the requisite joke comment, “Okay. Now we can talk about you behind your back.”
I stayed until nearly midnight. I think I had about 16 dances or maybe more. I enjoyed many of the dances – in particular one with Natalie - probably my best dance with her to date and notable in large part because I thought she might have liked it more than usual.
Miscellaneous (mostly nonsense). Enrique is probably not DJing tomorrow – next week is more likely. Belated announcement – there will be rotation of teachers for Monday next week. August? Wrong. Peterborough versus Cambridge times two or three. Biggest criminals in Cambridge? Vishal shaken not stirred. I mused at one point that I had not even bothered to get one of my new Los Van Van CD out of its packaging (and thus have had no chance to listen to Temba Tumba Timba in private).
Week 6 at LDA
July 11, 2006
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL followed by touch-and-go double turn for follower
Okay. That was the instruction. Implicit in this instruction was that after CBL, the hold changes crossed hold (R-R first and L-L underneath) to be followed by preparation and leading of double stationary clockwise turn for follower with touch-and-go so to end with crossed hold with L-L on top. I did not realize that I should be switching to crossed hold and thus was completely baffled by the next move with three partners. After this (and continuing of instruction half-way into next bar and half), Helen (not the assistant) became my partner. With her help, I was able to sort out my initial mistake and catch up with the rest of the material (while she kindly stayed with me for couple of partner switches). Thanks a million to Helen – you were a godsend – if she ever comes across this blog entry.
1,2,3,5,6,7 from crossed hold L-L on top, into CBL position and lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with L-L going over follower’s head initially and ending behind follower’s R waist and leaning against R-R (which is raised slightly?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 twist (?) and lead follower into full stationary clockwise turn keeping all connection low (and leading only with R-R) during 1,2,3 so that now R-R is behind follower’s L waist while L-L is kept in front of follower while leader moves toward follower’s left and getting ready to get out of her way – lead follower forward into traveling counterclockwise 1/2 (I don’t think it’s 1 1/2 here) turn with leader doing a clockwise walking turn (not a hook) with L-L drop catch (ending in front with leader in CBL position) and with R-R connection high with palms facing follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 (follower does back basic on 1,2,3 – do not lead follower forward here) starting on 4, lead follower into fast stationary turn with R-R (and L-L) starting high and R-R ending low by follower’s L waist (follower’s R arm is across her front waist) and L-L at about chest level – lead follower backwards on 6,7 (follower would step forward slightly on 5) and leader does counterclockwise walking turn with L-L high (and R-R let go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower to stationary triple turn with L-L leading
Just as I was beginning to get some handle of the first three bars, the fourth bar came to confuse me briefly. This was sorted out eventually and with less confusion (compared to earlier in the evening).
There was a scheduled engineering works, which required me to take a bus from Stevenage to Royston to catch the train to Cambridge. I learned of this only few minutes before my departure, but I decided to take the train anyway. Train allows me to read and write (and also to listen to music).
LDA is not starting level 4 Salsa class during the next 6-week session. My best guess is that maybe 1 or 2 leader and 1 follower among people who showed up regularly may have been considered locks for moving up if level 4 were offered.
1,2,3,5,6,7,1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL followed by touch-and-go double turn for follower
Okay. That was the instruction. Implicit in this instruction was that after CBL, the hold changes crossed hold (R-R first and L-L underneath) to be followed by preparation and leading of double stationary clockwise turn for follower with touch-and-go so to end with crossed hold with L-L on top. I did not realize that I should be switching to crossed hold and thus was completely baffled by the next move with three partners. After this (and continuing of instruction half-way into next bar and half), Helen (not the assistant) became my partner. With her help, I was able to sort out my initial mistake and catch up with the rest of the material (while she kindly stayed with me for couple of partner switches). Thanks a million to Helen – you were a godsend – if she ever comes across this blog entry.
1,2,3,5,6,7 from crossed hold L-L on top, into CBL position and lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn with L-L going over follower’s head initially and ending behind follower’s R waist and leaning against R-R (which is raised slightly?)
1,2,3,5,6,7 twist (?) and lead follower into full stationary clockwise turn keeping all connection low (and leading only with R-R) during 1,2,3 so that now R-R is behind follower’s L waist while L-L is kept in front of follower while leader moves toward follower’s left and getting ready to get out of her way – lead follower forward into traveling counterclockwise 1/2 (I don’t think it’s 1 1/2 here) turn with leader doing a clockwise walking turn (not a hook) with L-L drop catch (ending in front with leader in CBL position) and with R-R connection high with palms facing follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 (follower does back basic on 1,2,3 – do not lead follower forward here) starting on 4, lead follower into fast stationary turn with R-R (and L-L) starting high and R-R ending low by follower’s L waist (follower’s R arm is across her front waist) and L-L at about chest level – lead follower backwards on 6,7 (follower would step forward slightly on 5) and leader does counterclockwise walking turn with L-L high (and R-R let go)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower to stationary triple turn with L-L leading
Just as I was beginning to get some handle of the first three bars, the fourth bar came to confuse me briefly. This was sorted out eventually and with less confusion (compared to earlier in the evening).
There was a scheduled engineering works, which required me to take a bus from Stevenage to Royston to catch the train to Cambridge. I learned of this only few minutes before my departure, but I decided to take the train anyway. Train allows me to read and write (and also to listen to music).
LDA is not starting level 4 Salsa class during the next 6-week session. My best guess is that maybe 1 or 2 leader and 1 follower among people who showed up regularly may have been considered locks for moving up if level 4 were offered.
Rested is not energetic
July 10, 2006
I was feeling fairly rested at the beginning of the evening after having a fairly relaxing weekend. Not a lot of work. No Salsa. Some reading – I finished a book and started another; the first book (Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King) was laborious and boring while the second book (Enduring Love – Ian McEwen) has been a jaw dropping intense and fascinating read thus far.
Intermediate/Advanced with Joe
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to a single stationary clockwise turn with both connections intact ending with R-L going over follower’s head and L-R going over leader’s head for drop catch down to waist level (leader is facing away from follower’s line)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and Copa with L-R going over follower’s head while letting go R-L and leader turning half counterclockwise on 2,3 and R hand on follower’s leading hip/waist and lead follower to 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise Copa turn keeping R hand on follower’s waist level to end with tight closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 around and around the world throughout with the couple moving counterclockwise as unit (leader is walking backwards while follower is walking forwards in circular motion on 5,6,7 after the initial turn as unit)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Dile que no
1,2,3,5,6,7 New Yorker ending with both doing free turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL
There was a big shortage of leaders tonight for the intermediate/advanced class. Some key regulars were missing - some probably still out of country and some too tired after other activities like karate.
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to a single stationary clockwise turn with both connections intact ending with R-L going over follower’s head and L-R going over leader’s head for drop catch down to waist level (leader is facing away from follower’s line)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and R-L going back over follower’s head (on 2?) while leader move behind follower from her L side and with L-R going over follower’s head – bring follower straight back while getting R-L over follower’s head once again (follower’s steps here are completely linear throughout this bar – back on 1, forward on 3, and back on 5,6,7)
1,2,3,5,6,7 keeping all connections intact throughout, leader does double stationary clockwise turn (end with L-R behind leader’s back – disconnect and reconnect in front)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa-like start but more of a fake with L-R lead and lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 New Yorker ending with both doing free turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns clockwise into CBL and finish normal CBL
The most difficult part is the second bar of the second hour. It would have been difficult enough with very experienced followers. At times I felt that a more modest aim was to get out of the class without getting injured or injuring my partners. The first bar (same for both the first and second hour) is tricky too. I felt that everything else was relatively straightforward.
During his promotional gabfest, Joe suggested that people talk to me about going to some of his London events. Thanks Joe. I really wasn't looking to become an official or de facto social chair. I was feeling somewhat out of it when the announcement was made, and I somehow imagined that these parties, workshops, etc. were happening this weekend. Wrong. They don't happen until mid-late August (although there is some discount for people interested in doing the whole shebang and willing to buy the tickets in advance (before July 15). See links here (general info) and here (pricing). As for me, I'm most likely to attend either one or two parties only and skip the workshops.
Dancing afterwards was okay – generally more improvisational and exploratory yet limited and perhaps even tentative. I thought I was keeping things easy for my partners, but I am unsure if all of them would agree with my definition of easy. I would have like to have tried more shines but no one else seemed to be in the mood. There were a lot of people dancing but the scene seemed to lack a little oomph - it probably was just me of course.
On other news front, July 28th is going to be - interesting. There will be two competing birthday parties. One is for Sally at the LeL (70's theme - Salsa and other funky stuff with DJ Norman "Sizzla" from Birmingham). The other is for Vishal, who was handing out invitation cards for free entrance & champagne and dance show by Body Work Girls. It's a little unfortunate that these two could not have their birthdays further apart.
I was feeling fairly rested at the beginning of the evening after having a fairly relaxing weekend. Not a lot of work. No Salsa. Some reading – I finished a book and started another; the first book (Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King) was laborious and boring while the second book (Enduring Love – Ian McEwen) has been a jaw dropping intense and fascinating read thus far.
Intermediate/Advanced with Joe
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to a single stationary clockwise turn with both connections intact ending with R-L going over follower’s head and L-R going over leader’s head for drop catch down to waist level (leader is facing away from follower’s line)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and Copa with L-R going over follower’s head while letting go R-L and leader turning half counterclockwise on 2,3 and R hand on follower’s leading hip/waist and lead follower to 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise Copa turn keeping R hand on follower’s waist level to end with tight closed hold
1,2,3,5,6,7 around and around the world throughout with the couple moving counterclockwise as unit (leader is walking backwards while follower is walking forwards in circular motion on 5,6,7 after the initial turn as unit)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Dile que no
1,2,3,5,6,7 New Yorker ending with both doing free turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL
There was a big shortage of leaders tonight for the intermediate/advanced class. Some key regulars were missing - some probably still out of country and some too tired after other activities like karate.
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead follower to a single stationary clockwise turn with both connections intact ending with R-L going over follower’s head and L-R going over leader’s head for drop catch down to waist level (leader is facing away from follower’s line)
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and R-L going back over follower’s head (on 2?) while leader move behind follower from her L side and with L-R going over follower’s head – bring follower straight back while getting R-L over follower’s head once again (follower’s steps here are completely linear throughout this bar – back on 1, forward on 3, and back on 5,6,7)
1,2,3,5,6,7 keeping all connections intact throughout, leader does double stationary clockwise turn (end with L-R behind leader’s back – disconnect and reconnect in front)
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa-like start but more of a fake with L-R lead and lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 counterclockwise turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 New Yorker ending with both doing free turn
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns clockwise into CBL and finish normal CBL
The most difficult part is the second bar of the second hour. It would have been difficult enough with very experienced followers. At times I felt that a more modest aim was to get out of the class without getting injured or injuring my partners. The first bar (same for both the first and second hour) is tricky too. I felt that everything else was relatively straightforward.
During his promotional gabfest, Joe suggested that people talk to me about going to some of his London events. Thanks Joe. I really wasn't looking to become an official or de facto social chair. I was feeling somewhat out of it when the announcement was made, and I somehow imagined that these parties, workshops, etc. were happening this weekend. Wrong. They don't happen until mid-late August (although there is some discount for people interested in doing the whole shebang and willing to buy the tickets in advance (before July 15). See links here (general info) and here (pricing). As for me, I'm most likely to attend either one or two parties only and skip the workshops.
Dancing afterwards was okay – generally more improvisational and exploratory yet limited and perhaps even tentative. I thought I was keeping things easy for my partners, but I am unsure if all of them would agree with my definition of easy. I would have like to have tried more shines but no one else seemed to be in the mood. There were a lot of people dancing but the scene seemed to lack a little oomph - it probably was just me of course.
On other news front, July 28th is going to be - interesting. There will be two competing birthday parties. One is for Sally at the LeL (70's theme - Salsa and other funky stuff with DJ Norman "Sizzla" from Birmingham). The other is for Vishal, who was handing out invitation cards for free entrance & champagne and dance show by Body Work Girls. It's a little unfortunate that these two could not have their birthdays further apart.
Free as a bird
July 7, 2006
As I walked the last 50 meters to Club Salsa, I spotted bunch of friendly faces including Sam, Rajiv, Euvian, Zhenzi and a colleague of Zhenzi having a drink at the Sauce. I decided that classes were not likely to have ended yet, so I walked into Sauce to join this party (one of at least three there tonight). They were not yet aware of the new DJ arrangement and some of them sounded a little disappointed when I told them I would not be DJing tonight. I drifted in and out of their conversation while they finished their drinks. At one point, Sam told me not to put something that was said on this blog. For better or worse, I wasn’t paying attention at the time so I don’t even know what I was suppose to not write about. After about 10 minutes or so, we made the final few meters down to Club Salsa.
I was feeling quite lighthearted about having no responsibilities tonight – more dancing and socializing for me. In particular, I had more opportunity to interact with Johnny and Serap for extended amount of time unlike past several weeks. Johnny and I had a good laugh over me being labeled a bully at the londonsalsa.co.uk forum. I also had couple of fun dances with Serap – this has to be considered one of the main highlights of tonight because I had maybe one dance with her in last 6 weeks or so thanks to DJing responsibilities occupying too much of my time on Fridays. In fact this alone was worth the price of admission. I also showed Serap some recent material I learned from various sources including the LDA. Serap mentioned that she’s working in concert with Sally, Jane and Lindsey for a show they will be doing for an event in Birmingham.
Until Cristian arrived shortly after 10 PM, Serap played few songs. Vishal took over as DJ around midnight. The pattern for music was about 6 songs that could qualify as Salsa (more on this later) followed by 2 or 3 non-Salsa. For me it’s not enough Salsa given that not all Salsa songs appeal to me. Also taking into considerations such as need for a break now and then, difficulty in finding suitable dance partner, and especially popular songs or the first Salsa song after a long break consisting of Merengue/Bachata/etc causing excessive crowding, it’s very easy to end up having only a couple of dances during a 10 song set with 70% Salsa. Assuming that the average song length is 4 minutes, this could equate to 15 songs per hour and 3 dances per hour. Ouch. That sounds poor. By comparison, I typically would average at least one dance per two songs if not more at places like SOS or Club Salsa on Mondays or Thursdays.
In all, I think I had around 10 dances with seven people at varying levels of difficulty. Relatively low number of dances, limited space and somewhat of a sedate mindset stopped me from pushing the boundaries strongly tonight. I arrived around 10 AM and left shortly before 1 AM. Yikes. My estimate of 3 dances per hour in the previous paragraph seems quite apt for tonight. Oh well. At least all of the dances were decent – many were quite delightful.
At one point, I got a decline for a dance supposedly because the song being played was Cumbia as opposed to Salsa. I would have counted Cumbia as Salsa in my reckoning above. I am unsure where Cumbia lies in the large spectrum of musical category of Salsa. Is it closer to Salsa music preferred by Cuban style dancers or is it further removed? The person involved this happenstance was a stranger, and I wonder if person with such discriminating taste would have enjoyed a club night like tonight. The answer could depend upon expectations (a la the Rocket on July 1st).
Fusing and mixing of songs has become the norm for Cristian – I don’t think this was commonplace last year, but I am not completely certain about this. I usually think of fusion songs as something to avoid altogether although I saw Vishal fusing two songs yesterday in a manner that I thought was more or less okay. This fusion job yesterday involved a song or song segment lasting about one minute and another song lasting slightly under two minutes, and the transition between the two felt quite seamless. I also may have felt less affronted by his fusion job yesterday because the songs in question might not have been strictly Salsa. There may have been less fusion job later in the evening – it requires matching of two songs and takes an effort to do it competently. Perhaps it is a passing phase that DJs go through – Vishal used to fuse songs all the time, but he does not do it as often any more.
Miscellaneous. Sam mentioned that I played some weird songs in the past. I am curious which songs she is referring to. Would these be the newfangled fusion stuff or ancient descargas or songs liked mostly by aficionados like Sergio or nondescript stuff by bands I don’t care very much about but have played anyway with (possibly mistaken) assumption that other people like them or yet something else? Maybe I’ll find out one of these days. It would appear that there is quite a number of Salsa remixes that I was unaware of – Sam pointed out that one of familiar tunes played tonight was a Salsa remix of a song by 50 cent. Maria asked me if I am going to the UK Salsa Congress. The answer is probably no, but I may want to think about it a little more. Rajiv and I talked about the LDA and Bachata. We both agreed that going to London for a one hour lesson is a major commitment. Some people have done this in the past and are still doing it (mostly the on-2 crowd). The subject of Tony and when he may do another tour came up. My best guess is that this won’t happen until after the UK congress. I suspect tonight was good for Vishal’s bottom line (I wasn’t the only one to note this), but the big question is whether it will be sustainable. Will many discriminating Salsa dancers continue to show up for Salsa offerings like tonight’s? They used to when Friday night was the only night for Club Salsa, but things are different now with Club Salsa being open 5 days a week. Also there is the question of whether people will tire of hearing the same DJ twice a week – this of course would be less of an issue if the DJ can and is willing to draw from a very large number of songs, which would help in surprising and entertaining people. If not, how will lesser dancers and non-dancers respond? How well is Club Salsa Saturday holding up, and can there be two consecutive successful nights in mold of Saturday for Club Salsa? I am guessing that there’s no point in trying London this weekend given the World Cup Finals – the Rocket last weekend suffered quite a bit because of a pair of quarterfinals match. Also most of my potential posse are out of town/country or otherwise unavailable this weekend.
Lastly I ran into DJ Enrique’s wife Nancy. Apparently they are about to move to Manchester in less than a month, and Enrique is interested in doing one or two last-hurrah DJing stint in next couple of weekends. I relayed the information to Vishal, who seemed very receptive to the idea of Enrique doing a farewell show so I suspect that something will happen to mark the occasion. I often enjoyed Enrique’s DJing and never felt particularly good about “stealing” his perch so I am really looking forward to seeing him back in action – even if it’s just for one last time. I especially look forward to his late night Hong Kong Mambo followed by Ran Kan Kan (or two) song sequence he used to play all the time. Of course I would not mind if he decides be less predictable and play other goodies instead.
As I walked the last 50 meters to Club Salsa, I spotted bunch of friendly faces including Sam, Rajiv, Euvian, Zhenzi and a colleague of Zhenzi having a drink at the Sauce. I decided that classes were not likely to have ended yet, so I walked into Sauce to join this party (one of at least three there tonight). They were not yet aware of the new DJ arrangement and some of them sounded a little disappointed when I told them I would not be DJing tonight. I drifted in and out of their conversation while they finished their drinks. At one point, Sam told me not to put something that was said on this blog. For better or worse, I wasn’t paying attention at the time so I don’t even know what I was suppose to not write about. After about 10 minutes or so, we made the final few meters down to Club Salsa.
I was feeling quite lighthearted about having no responsibilities tonight – more dancing and socializing for me. In particular, I had more opportunity to interact with Johnny and Serap for extended amount of time unlike past several weeks. Johnny and I had a good laugh over me being labeled a bully at the londonsalsa.co.uk forum. I also had couple of fun dances with Serap – this has to be considered one of the main highlights of tonight because I had maybe one dance with her in last 6 weeks or so thanks to DJing responsibilities occupying too much of my time on Fridays. In fact this alone was worth the price of admission. I also showed Serap some recent material I learned from various sources including the LDA. Serap mentioned that she’s working in concert with Sally, Jane and Lindsey for a show they will be doing for an event in Birmingham.
Until Cristian arrived shortly after 10 PM, Serap played few songs. Vishal took over as DJ around midnight. The pattern for music was about 6 songs that could qualify as Salsa (more on this later) followed by 2 or 3 non-Salsa. For me it’s not enough Salsa given that not all Salsa songs appeal to me. Also taking into considerations such as need for a break now and then, difficulty in finding suitable dance partner, and especially popular songs or the first Salsa song after a long break consisting of Merengue/Bachata/etc causing excessive crowding, it’s very easy to end up having only a couple of dances during a 10 song set with 70% Salsa. Assuming that the average song length is 4 minutes, this could equate to 15 songs per hour and 3 dances per hour. Ouch. That sounds poor. By comparison, I typically would average at least one dance per two songs if not more at places like SOS or Club Salsa on Mondays or Thursdays.
In all, I think I had around 10 dances with seven people at varying levels of difficulty. Relatively low number of dances, limited space and somewhat of a sedate mindset stopped me from pushing the boundaries strongly tonight. I arrived around 10 AM and left shortly before 1 AM. Yikes. My estimate of 3 dances per hour in the previous paragraph seems quite apt for tonight. Oh well. At least all of the dances were decent – many were quite delightful.
At one point, I got a decline for a dance supposedly because the song being played was Cumbia as opposed to Salsa. I would have counted Cumbia as Salsa in my reckoning above. I am unsure where Cumbia lies in the large spectrum of musical category of Salsa. Is it closer to Salsa music preferred by Cuban style dancers or is it further removed? The person involved this happenstance was a stranger, and I wonder if person with such discriminating taste would have enjoyed a club night like tonight. The answer could depend upon expectations (a la the Rocket on July 1st).
Fusing and mixing of songs has become the norm for Cristian – I don’t think this was commonplace last year, but I am not completely certain about this. I usually think of fusion songs as something to avoid altogether although I saw Vishal fusing two songs yesterday in a manner that I thought was more or less okay. This fusion job yesterday involved a song or song segment lasting about one minute and another song lasting slightly under two minutes, and the transition between the two felt quite seamless. I also may have felt less affronted by his fusion job yesterday because the songs in question might not have been strictly Salsa. There may have been less fusion job later in the evening – it requires matching of two songs and takes an effort to do it competently. Perhaps it is a passing phase that DJs go through – Vishal used to fuse songs all the time, but he does not do it as often any more.
Miscellaneous. Sam mentioned that I played some weird songs in the past. I am curious which songs she is referring to. Would these be the newfangled fusion stuff or ancient descargas or songs liked mostly by aficionados like Sergio or nondescript stuff by bands I don’t care very much about but have played anyway with (possibly mistaken) assumption that other people like them or yet something else? Maybe I’ll find out one of these days. It would appear that there is quite a number of Salsa remixes that I was unaware of – Sam pointed out that one of familiar tunes played tonight was a Salsa remix of a song by 50 cent. Maria asked me if I am going to the UK Salsa Congress. The answer is probably no, but I may want to think about it a little more. Rajiv and I talked about the LDA and Bachata. We both agreed that going to London for a one hour lesson is a major commitment. Some people have done this in the past and are still doing it (mostly the on-2 crowd). The subject of Tony and when he may do another tour came up. My best guess is that this won’t happen until after the UK congress. I suspect tonight was good for Vishal’s bottom line (I wasn’t the only one to note this), but the big question is whether it will be sustainable. Will many discriminating Salsa dancers continue to show up for Salsa offerings like tonight’s? They used to when Friday night was the only night for Club Salsa, but things are different now with Club Salsa being open 5 days a week. Also there is the question of whether people will tire of hearing the same DJ twice a week – this of course would be less of an issue if the DJ can and is willing to draw from a very large number of songs, which would help in surprising and entertaining people. If not, how will lesser dancers and non-dancers respond? How well is Club Salsa Saturday holding up, and can there be two consecutive successful nights in mold of Saturday for Club Salsa? I am guessing that there’s no point in trying London this weekend given the World Cup Finals – the Rocket last weekend suffered quite a bit because of a pair of quarterfinals match. Also most of my potential posse are out of town/country or otherwise unavailable this weekend.
Lastly I ran into DJ Enrique’s wife Nancy. Apparently they are about to move to Manchester in less than a month, and Enrique is interested in doing one or two last-hurrah DJing stint in next couple of weekends. I relayed the information to Vishal, who seemed very receptive to the idea of Enrique doing a farewell show so I suspect that something will happen to mark the occasion. I often enjoyed Enrique’s DJing and never felt particularly good about “stealing” his perch so I am really looking forward to seeing him back in action – even if it’s just for one last time. I especially look forward to his late night Hong Kong Mambo followed by Ran Kan Kan (or two) song sequence he used to play all the time. Of course I would not mind if he decides be less predictable and play other goodies instead.
Bring in 'da noise, bring in 'da funk
July 6, 2006
Intermediate/Advanced combined with Sally assisted by Lindsey
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL ending with leader doing hook turn ending with leader facing follower with L-R behind leader’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward while leader goes around follower from her R side – the method here used more (optional) touches than I have seen done any other time. In this version, R hand touches follower’s R arm first then goes to follower’s R waist while L hand goes first to follower’s L shoulder then makes L-R connection – follower is led to walk backwards on 5,6,7 while leader gets into CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead Mambo jazz for 1,2,3 then lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader turning 1/2 clockwise keeping L-R high
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward on leader’s L side – L-R down and switch to R-R which is brought up again for leading follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader does pivot clockwise full turn switching to L-R ending behind leader’s R waist – make R-L connection and soon afterwards L-R connection and lead follower into multiple stationary turn with R-L lead initially with L-R also going high and second (and third) turn led with R-L toss low across leader’s body
Sally had sent an e-mail earlier to her e-mail list informing people that the intermediate and advanced class will be combined. This was supposedly because Chris was ill and thus unavailable to teach. It was a nice gesture although it really didn’t matter too much to me one way or another today.
Thanks in part to the fact that the numbers were even for the second hour’s class, I was able to have a practice of some recent material from the LDA and the Joe's Monday class with Charlotte. As I expected, the LDA material provided a nice workout even though I suspect I am still fair bit more practice away from using the moves except in most ideal situations. I also had an opportunity to give a short demonstration of the LDA move to Sergio and Cyrille with help from Isabel.
There were quite a number of unexpected people tonight including Sam. If I were to believe things that were said, a good number of people who showed up will start their vacation in earnest and thus will be gone for significant amount of time for much of the summer.
I was feeling a bit funky and ended up doing some unusual stuff during social dancing. Sometimes I seemed to baffle my partners quite a bit. Some other times, I had very unusual and interesting dances. Overall, it was one of the most interesting nights in Cambridge in recent memory in terms of technique.
Sergio was doing some work to get others to join him on some body isolation exercises (primarily involving Cyrille, Rajiv and me at various times) when he wasn’t dancing. I cannot take all the credit but I thought I might have prodded him to dance more than he usually does. I suggested to him that he should dance with people more often so that they can get more accustomed to his leads and moves. Sergio replied that this would not work because once they get used to some of his moves, he would move onto doing other moves. Of course, this would depend upon whether the follower needs to get accustomed to Sergio’s style of leads rather than to various specific moves. I have very little experience as a follower but I would guess that the former is more important. I would also think that 2-3 miscommunications during a single dance would not be a big problem – I say this because having 2-3 miscommunications during a single dance is a rule rather than an exception for me. If everyone were perfectionist and were unhappy with any dance without mistakes, I suspect I would be I lot less popular than I perceive myself to be. A caveat here is that I am aware that not everyone enjoys dancing with me – at least not all the time.
I won’t be DJing tomorrow. It’ll be all Cristian and Vishal tomorrow – I’m not sure what long-term arrangement will be but it’ll probably all come down to what’s best financially for Vishal. I’m perfectly okay about it all because it means I can relax and concentrate on dancing and socializing. Heck, it also means I don’t have to be at Club Salsa every Friday if Cristian/Vishal combo continues for a while (Mmmm… maybe I’ll succeed in cutting down finally?). I am guessing that I will be at Club Salsa on Fridays more often than not for foreseeable future though, and I already told people I will be there tomorrow. Perhaps the most regrettable outcome is that Cambridge may have lost Enrique as one of the regular DJ because of me. In any case, I suspect I probably will act as DJ again in future in special occasions.
Intermediate/Advanced combined with Sally assisted by Lindsey
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL ending with leader doing hook turn ending with leader facing follower with L-R behind leader’s R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward while leader goes around follower from her R side – the method here used more (optional) touches than I have seen done any other time. In this version, R hand touches follower’s R arm first then goes to follower’s R waist while L hand goes first to follower’s L shoulder then makes L-R connection – follower is led to walk backwards on 5,6,7 while leader gets into CBL position
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead Mambo jazz for 1,2,3 then lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn with leader turning 1/2 clockwise keeping L-R high
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and bring follower forward on leader’s L side – L-R down and switch to R-R which is brought up again for leading follower into 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader does pivot clockwise full turn switching to L-R ending behind leader’s R waist – make R-L connection and soon afterwards L-R connection and lead follower into multiple stationary turn with R-L lead initially with L-R also going high and second (and third) turn led with R-L toss low across leader’s body
Sally had sent an e-mail earlier to her e-mail list informing people that the intermediate and advanced class will be combined. This was supposedly because Chris was ill and thus unavailable to teach. It was a nice gesture although it really didn’t matter too much to me one way or another today.
Thanks in part to the fact that the numbers were even for the second hour’s class, I was able to have a practice of some recent material from the LDA and the Joe's Monday class with Charlotte. As I expected, the LDA material provided a nice workout even though I suspect I am still fair bit more practice away from using the moves except in most ideal situations. I also had an opportunity to give a short demonstration of the LDA move to Sergio and Cyrille with help from Isabel.
There were quite a number of unexpected people tonight including Sam. If I were to believe things that were said, a good number of people who showed up will start their vacation in earnest and thus will be gone for significant amount of time for much of the summer.
I was feeling a bit funky and ended up doing some unusual stuff during social dancing. Sometimes I seemed to baffle my partners quite a bit. Some other times, I had very unusual and interesting dances. Overall, it was one of the most interesting nights in Cambridge in recent memory in terms of technique.
Sergio was doing some work to get others to join him on some body isolation exercises (primarily involving Cyrille, Rajiv and me at various times) when he wasn’t dancing. I cannot take all the credit but I thought I might have prodded him to dance more than he usually does. I suggested to him that he should dance with people more often so that they can get more accustomed to his leads and moves. Sergio replied that this would not work because once they get used to some of his moves, he would move onto doing other moves. Of course, this would depend upon whether the follower needs to get accustomed to Sergio’s style of leads rather than to various specific moves. I have very little experience as a follower but I would guess that the former is more important. I would also think that 2-3 miscommunications during a single dance would not be a big problem – I say this because having 2-3 miscommunications during a single dance is a rule rather than an exception for me. If everyone were perfectionist and were unhappy with any dance without mistakes, I suspect I would be I lot less popular than I perceive myself to be. A caveat here is that I am aware that not everyone enjoys dancing with me – at least not all the time.
I won’t be DJing tomorrow. It’ll be all Cristian and Vishal tomorrow – I’m not sure what long-term arrangement will be but it’ll probably all come down to what’s best financially for Vishal. I’m perfectly okay about it all because it means I can relax and concentrate on dancing and socializing. Heck, it also means I don’t have to be at Club Salsa every Friday if Cristian/Vishal combo continues for a while (Mmmm… maybe I’ll succeed in cutting down finally?). I am guessing that I will be at Club Salsa on Fridays more often than not for foreseeable future though, and I already told people I will be there tomorrow. Perhaps the most regrettable outcome is that Cambridge may have lost Enrique as one of the regular DJ because of me. In any case, I suspect I probably will act as DJ again in future in special occasions.
Hot and sweaty session at the LDA
July 4, 2006
Mario said, “This week’s class is going to be like last week except more complicated. Everyone was here last week, right?”
Uh oh.
I wasn’t here last week of course. I explained the situation about fire at Kings Cross station last week. Some of the students were able to confirm my story. In any case, I was probably extra nervous and self-conscious about being behind everyone else.
More than couple of times, Mario repeated, “We did something similar last week,” and proceeded to demonstrate the move very quickly. I had to ask him to repeat the move one more time on at least two different occasions.
During the warm-up, I thought I impressed my dance partners with recently learned moves from Joe Davids. It felt like all this work was undone mostly by my lack of confidence stemming from feeling behind the class after missing last week’s class.
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn ending with leader ending positioned to R side of follower with L-R slightly extended and free R hand on follower’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to step forward on 1 and bring her back using R hand with L-R ending on follower’s neck and stay close – do not look at follower at this point but look forward instead and lead follower to turn (double turn) in spot stationary counterclockwise (lead comes on 4 I believe) with L-R staying in same position (do not readjust hold!) with a scooping up motion on 6 ending with drop catch ending with R-R with leader positioned facing away from follower and slightly to L of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break – slight dip downward (as opposed to a big one) on 5 and bring R-R straight up and straight down (rather than bringing it backwards) to lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise over and under turn (I'm not sure if it was referred to as windmill - one of my partner thought this was 2 1/2 but now I'm thinking it's really 1 1/2) with R-R ending behind follower’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to recover (no open break) and bring follower forward (as if this is going to end in a free traveling turn for follower – keep L hand out of sight to start with) and switch to L-R bringing it straight up to have it end behind follower’s neck – offer R hand in front
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower 1/2 counterclockwise (similar to Copa but leader moves into space to block Copa – I think the lead is with L-R on 2) and lead follower into stationary double clockwise turn with leader turning full counterclockwise at the end
It was one of the more nerve-wrecking classes I have attended. I found myself requiring a lot of adjustments. Some of the students like Helen (not one of the assistants) were especially helpful – so much so that she made me a little envious of her boyfriend because I could easily imagine her being very helpful for improving his dancing.
Quote of the day – Mario to the class as a whole – “If you were to end up teaching Salsa, look at the reaction of the ladies first instead of [or perhaps before] looking at what the guy is doing.”
Well… Some of the students are pretty darn good and may very well end up as teachers some day.
After the class, I was briefly involved in a conversation with one of the student and Susana about Frankie Martinez. Susana thinks Frankie is marvelous both with his body isolations and his choreography. In fact she said she was a little annoyed (?) with Frankie because she can never think of anything better than what Frankie uses for his choreographies to any part of the music he uses for his performances. Susana named Eddie Torres, Nelson Flores and Frankie Martinez as the must-see instructors in New York – the conversation started because one of the students was going to be in New York and wanted opinion on instructors to check out. I was mostly nodding my head and made comments about his seemingly impossible body movements and some people I know going to New York to see his performances, etc.
Mario said, “This week’s class is going to be like last week except more complicated. Everyone was here last week, right?”
Uh oh.
I wasn’t here last week of course. I explained the situation about fire at Kings Cross station last week. Some of the students were able to confirm my story. In any case, I was probably extra nervous and self-conscious about being behind everyone else.
More than couple of times, Mario repeated, “We did something similar last week,” and proceeded to demonstrate the move very quickly. I had to ask him to repeat the move one more time on at least two different occasions.
During the warm-up, I thought I impressed my dance partners with recently learned moves from Joe Davids. It felt like all this work was undone mostly by my lack of confidence stemming from feeling behind the class after missing last week’s class.
1,2,3,5,6,7 CBL with 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn ending with leader ending positioned to R side of follower with L-R slightly extended and free R hand on follower’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to step forward on 1 and bring her back using R hand with L-R ending on follower’s neck and stay close – do not look at follower at this point but look forward instead and lead follower to turn (double turn) in spot stationary counterclockwise (lead comes on 4 I believe) with L-R staying in same position (do not readjust hold!) with a scooping up motion on 6 ending with drop catch ending with R-R with leader positioned facing away from follower and slightly to L of follower
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break – slight dip downward (as opposed to a big one) on 5 and bring R-R straight up and straight down (rather than bringing it backwards) to lead follower into traveling 1 1/2 counterclockwise over and under turn (I'm not sure if it was referred to as windmill - one of my partner thought this was 2 1/2 but now I'm thinking it's really 1 1/2) with R-R ending behind follower’s L waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 allow follower to recover (no open break) and bring follower forward (as if this is going to end in a free traveling turn for follower – keep L hand out of sight to start with) and switch to L-R bringing it straight up to have it end behind follower’s neck – offer R hand in front
1,2,3,5,6,7 turn follower 1/2 counterclockwise (similar to Copa but leader moves into space to block Copa – I think the lead is with L-R on 2) and lead follower into stationary double clockwise turn with leader turning full counterclockwise at the end
It was one of the more nerve-wrecking classes I have attended. I found myself requiring a lot of adjustments. Some of the students like Helen (not one of the assistants) were especially helpful – so much so that she made me a little envious of her boyfriend because I could easily imagine her being very helpful for improving his dancing.
Quote of the day – Mario to the class as a whole – “If you were to end up teaching Salsa, look at the reaction of the ladies first instead of [or perhaps before] looking at what the guy is doing.”
Well… Some of the students are pretty darn good and may very well end up as teachers some day.
After the class, I was briefly involved in a conversation with one of the student and Susana about Frankie Martinez. Susana thinks Frankie is marvelous both with his body isolations and his choreography. In fact she said she was a little annoyed (?) with Frankie because she can never think of anything better than what Frankie uses for his choreographies to any part of the music he uses for his performances. Susana named Eddie Torres, Nelson Flores and Frankie Martinez as the must-see instructors in New York – the conversation started because one of the students was going to be in New York and wanted opinion on instructors to check out. I was mostly nodding my head and made comments about his seemingly impossible body movements and some people I know going to New York to see his performances, etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)