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).