November 14, 2006
After the last time, I knew better than to arrive early and to wait for the lessons to end. Thus it was almost 10 PM when I walked up the University Centre for the second free CDC Salsa social. By then the social part of the evening had started. The number of people present seemed smaller than last time – not surprising given the late change of schedule.
I spotted Susie near the DJ station and approached her for a little chitchat and later my first dance of the evening. A topic among a few was about an upcoming flying examination. Cyrille and Euvian arrived shortly thereafter. Neither Cyrille nor I had talked to Sergio about tonight’s CDC party. Cyrille apparently made an effort – maybe. I didn’t think it was worth the effort – I wasn’t in position to chauffer him around anyway. I have been letting other people drive me around lately, and it’s nice and relaxing.
After passing on a few songs, I had my first dance. All the dances were fairly relaxing and low key– or at least they felt that way. I mean this is the best sense – nothing forced, not strained, not trying too hard… effortless or seemingly so. Other possible descriptive words include lighthearted and playful. The overall approach was the same whether I was doing the usual improvisationathon with Stephanie, eliciting oohs out of Sam, replicating and practicing recently learned moves with Euvian or doing more shines than turn patterns with Agnes. The dance with Agnes warrants a special mention because I don’t ever recall doing shines with anyone for more than half the song in Cambridge. Then again, I don’t do shines so much in London either – a small number of dances with Diane being more memorable exceptions. In Cambridge, some dances with Serap and with Stephanie came closest in being so shine happy. Less than six months ago, Agnes was not very keen on shines. How times change – it seemed like Agnes might have been perfectly content to do nothing but shine for the entire song tonight. I feel that there seems to be more of it in Cambridge nowadays – and not just by the cross-body dancers either.
Caroline was trying to get everyone to buy tickets for the Pasion de Invierno CDC special Salsa event. According to her, I should have been the first in line to get a ticket – I am practically required to be there (and write about it of course). I suppose she’s right. It’s pretty much a given that I’ll buy a ticket. It is highly unlikely that I will miss it. I might even talk some co-workers into checking out the band.
Leading (strong, soft, rough, etc) once again was a topic of discussion. Dancing style (good-looking, lousy-looking, gay-looking, etc) and dance timing (on-1, on-2, on-5, on-6, on-4.5, on-1.5, etc) too. I doubt anyone in the UK let alone Cambridge dance on the clave.
It was a very low-key relaxed affair. If it were any more relaxed, words like catatonic or calming could have been used instead of restful, relaxing, soothing or calming. In a good way of course.
Perhaps one of the bigger highlights was the bicycle ride back with Agnes, Stephanie and Mark – relaxing by the way also seems like an appropriate word to describe the ride.
Quote of the day – “Squeals? Memories of them all kind of blend together these days.”
Quote of the day 2 – “I don’t wanna be like Godzilla.”
Trick of the day – Making people invisible (by standing in front of them)
Nickname of the day – Zoom? I could hear the Mazda jingle Zoom Zoom Zoom. There really should not be a zed sound. Better would be to pronounce it like the month June except a little softer and shorter. The young part is fine as is. Say it quickly and without a pause young-june. There ya go. Easy enough, no?
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