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.