Salsa night at work

August 18, 2006

There wasn't much to lose. Tickets only cost me £5, which covered dinner as well as a live Salsa band. I didn't expect many great dance partners to be there, but I suspected that Cinzia would be there at very least (and she didn't disappoint). Also the venue is less than 100 meters away from my desk.

After finishing off some minor work, I stepped onto Murray's Restaurant, where the event was being held. I joined my colleagues for dinner, which turned out to be considerably better than their usual fare for lunch. Thus I felt like I had already gotten pretty good value with food alone. I probably would have stuffed myself with multiple helpings and desserts except I didn't think it wise to dance with too much food in me.

In addition to Pete and Cinzia, several core members of the Cambridge Rueda group headed by Helen showed up. I learned that the Rueda group would be doing a demonstration between two sets Cambiando was to play. I hadn't seen many of them for quite some time so it was nice to see them and say hello.

Pete told me that he couldn't find my blog using google. I guess that's good - it means it is not super easy to find. I also found it funny because to date I have told less than 10 people directly, and Pete was one of the first person to learn of this blog (probably third person overall). Meanwhile, I would estimate that over 300 people in Cambridge or in the UK Salsa scene learned of it by word of mouth - mostly via people I never told directly. Even now, I find someone new checking the site now and then - hopefully with no ill results.

[note added in correction: When I said I told less than 10 people about this blog, what I meant was that I gave the web address for this blog to less than 10 people. I had talked to whole lot of people about the blog, especially in October last year. Of course even then approximately half of the people already knew about it before I talked to them about it. After October, I have talked about it to very small number of new people, usually because they found it first and decided to talk to me about it. More often than not, I don't know who reads this blog. When I say 300 people, I mean that 300 people checked the site at least once - the number of regular readers (those who check the blog at least once a week or two) is no more than 30-40 people.]

Pete and Cinzia led a beginner class - attended by perhaps 100 people. They were able to teach forward basic step, enchufla/enchufe, and Kentucky. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The band sounded good - I liked the first set more than the second set.

The floor was pretty bad. I found the main floor very sticky - I think this was more because the floor was dirty rather than being naturally sticky. I found the adjacent kitchen floor (as opposed to dining area) to be considerably better so I stuck mainly to this area. It also meant I was more hidden from most of the people in attendance.

There was no CBL specialist as expected, but there were some nice dances nevertheless - including with Cinzia of course. Dancing with novice colleagues and one other colleague more familiar with Cuban style had it charm too. In all 8 dances - 3 consistently on time.