December 23, 2007
Six days without Salsa. I guess it could be considered a holiday. I suppose bigger issue was that I didn’t see any Salsa event of overwhelming interest.
Supposedly the best weekly events are Clarendon Grill on Mondays and Barking Dog on Tuesdays. I wasn’t going to go to Barking Dog right after a long flight, and every option thereafter fizzled into oblivion. Timing is unfortunate this year – both Barking Dog and Clarendon Grill are closed for the rest of December.
The event I had pencilled in as worth checking out finally was DC Salsa Meetup Holiday Party at Cecilia’s (salsa.meetup.com/162 and www.ceciliasclub.com). DC Salsa Meetup has nearly 2500 members – the number of active members must be far fewer, but it is impressive nevertheless. There seemed to be quite a high interest in this party – 338 people said yes for their RSVP with another 35 maybes. I think this event set a new record for attendance from this organization.
The venue was quite spacious – larger dance floor compared to SOS wood surface at the Royal Sonesta Hotel (but smaller if carpeted surface at the hotel is included). I’m guessing there were over 300 people – maybe close to 400. The overall level of dancing was slightly below SOS – more or less about the same as the Coventry party. My best guess is that most of the top flight DC dancers were absent (aside from the die-hards).
After getting a little lost and searching for parking, I arrived around 10:30 and stayed until essentially closing time at 2 AM. The music seemed promising early (they were playing Cuando Te Vea (Bobby Valentin – probably from Rey Del Bajo) when I arrived), but not so good for a rather long time thereafter. They ran a contest, which dragged a bit as these things always do. I think they were conscientious about trying to keep it short though. I’m not sure if there was a DJ switch afterwards, but next 15-20 songs were all fused together and were generally uninteresting. Re-start of the Mambo (the DJ announced it) with Muneca (version unknown) coincided with start of large exodus. Songs thereafter included Descarga Cachao (version unknown), Vamonos Pal Monte (Eddie Palmieri – gets real fast towards the end), Ublabadu (Fania All Stars), En El Balcon (Tito Rodriguez), Aguanile (Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe – as the second to last song or the last song before lights were turned on – I thought it was a little insane) and finishing with a Marc Anthony.
I had decided to be a bit more choosy about picking dance partners after the contests based upon my experience up until then. Thus despite ending up dancing with same person for 3 songs or more on a few occasions, I ended up enjoying them anyway. I’m not sure but I might have asked some of them for a second song etc even if there were clear breaks between the songs. Otherwise the dances were just fine – at least as long as my partner has a sense of dancing in time to the music, I can do something. Not everyone was capable of this – even very late into the evening when most people had left. Being a stranger to the scene with a distinct style and some unique moves, I must have come across as being a bit flashy – at least based upon some reactions. This is nothing to make a big deal about considering I did not notice an abundance of performer/teacher types – I learned later that the best follower I had there had been dancing for less than 2 years. Also I had about 4-6 refusals for dance (I have no idea if they saw me dancing) also including one or two cases of choosy-partner syndrome.
SOS with Cyrille and Zern
December 16, 2007
With help from Ali, the headlight bulb was replaced – it only took about 50 minutes. This was important because this made going to SOS a simpler decision. Cyrille decided to come along. Zern would meet us in London. Traffic was unusually light so we got there in record time.
SOS was on time too. I was half expecting to see class still in session, but no – the social was underway by the time we arrived. I was so surprised by this that I ended up not dancing until the third or the fourth song. A part of the indecision was caused by my inability to spot quickly good prospective dance partners.
It was great once I got started though – surprisingly so. Things were great until around 10. Everyone I danced with was at least half decent and even the not-so-good ones were fairly enjoyable for one reason or another. The only exception was a Cha Cha – poor timing issues. My dancing mood tended toward leading more spins and more complicated moves compared to typical recent SOS outings.
Unfortunately it was a performance night. Even worse, there was a raffle, which went on for a rather long time because about half of the winners were not there to collect. The performances were decent. I had a good view too – central and 2-3 rows behind seated on the floor. The first to go were Mauro and Aiste – same routine more or less as the one at Club Salsa couple of months ago. The second was by Leon Rose Project – a new one for me. Some of the finger pointing antics by Leon was pretty funny. There was too much sitting on the floor still.
Even worse, the dances after the shows were considerably worse than ones before. I must have had about four quite unsatisfying dances in a row before having a pretty good Cha Cha followed by a reasonably good Salsa. The last dance was not too good unfortunately, and I wasn’t able to get another for the last song of the evening – maybe I could have but I thought the options were pretty slim generally after the shows.
The drive back (joined by Zern) was dominated by geography quizzes.
With help from Ali, the headlight bulb was replaced – it only took about 50 minutes. This was important because this made going to SOS a simpler decision. Cyrille decided to come along. Zern would meet us in London. Traffic was unusually light so we got there in record time.
SOS was on time too. I was half expecting to see class still in session, but no – the social was underway by the time we arrived. I was so surprised by this that I ended up not dancing until the third or the fourth song. A part of the indecision was caused by my inability to spot quickly good prospective dance partners.
It was great once I got started though – surprisingly so. Things were great until around 10. Everyone I danced with was at least half decent and even the not-so-good ones were fairly enjoyable for one reason or another. The only exception was a Cha Cha – poor timing issues. My dancing mood tended toward leading more spins and more complicated moves compared to typical recent SOS outings.
Unfortunately it was a performance night. Even worse, there was a raffle, which went on for a rather long time because about half of the winners were not there to collect. The performances were decent. I had a good view too – central and 2-3 rows behind seated on the floor. The first to go were Mauro and Aiste – same routine more or less as the one at Club Salsa couple of months ago. The second was by Leon Rose Project – a new one for me. Some of the finger pointing antics by Leon was pretty funny. There was too much sitting on the floor still.
Even worse, the dances after the shows were considerably worse than ones before. I must have had about four quite unsatisfying dances in a row before having a pretty good Cha Cha followed by a reasonably good Salsa. The last dance was not too good unfortunately, and I wasn’t able to get another for the last song of the evening – maybe I could have but I thought the options were pretty slim generally after the shows.
The drive back (joined by Zern) was dominated by geography quizzes.
Run-in with the law
December 14, 2007
No Joe. Danie and Vish were sole instructors. I hear there will be a class on Monday but not Friday next week. Vish had a song queued for the start of the social - it was the exact same song I was going to start with. The only difference was that Vish had the song set to be played slowed down, and I changed it to normal speed.
Playlist
La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe (1)
Yamulemau - Joe Arroyo*
Espiritu Burlon - Santiago Ceron
Que Quiere La Nina - Kako Y Totico
La-La-La - Direct Latin Influence
Asi Son - El Gran Combo*
Nunca Que Quedas - Frankie Ruiz
Cancion - La Sonora Poncena (live)*
Que Bueno Baila Usted - Oscar D'Leon
Son Diez Lagrimas - Lebron Brothers*
El Hueso De Maria - Tito Rodriguez
La Cartera - Orchestra Harlow (Live in Quad)
Apretoncito - Toque D' Keda
Quiero Enamorarte - Marco Ferretti*
--break for 6-8 songs--
Clasiquiendo Con Ruben - Afro Cuban All Stars (2)
Margarito - Bobby Valentin
Rumbera - Willie Chirino*
Baila Que Baila - Jose Alberto "El Canario"
Fuego A La Jicotea - Marvin Santiago
Sin Negro No Hay Guaguanco - Lebron Brothers*
Nadie Como Ella - Marc Anthony
Lejos De Ti - Angel Canales
El Abaniquito - Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers
Calle Luna Calle Sol - Willie Colon*
Conmigo - Eddie Palmieri*
Guaguanco Del Gran Combo - El Gran Combo
Violent's Guaguanco - Johnny Rodriguez & Angel Rene Orquesta*
Abran Paso - Orchestra Harlow
El Que Se Fue - Tito Rodriguez (WSLatino)* (3)
El Titere - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
A La Yumbae - Tommy Olivencia (4)
No Aguanto Mas - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
Musica Ligera - Toque D' Keda
Te Extrano - Extreme (5)*
Hay Craneo - Bobby Valentin
Babarabatiri - Tito Puente (studio)
No Critiques - Eddie Palmieri
Dejame En Paz - Johnny Colon* (6)
No Quiero Na Regala'o - Gilberto Santa Rosa
Rompe - Daddy Yankee* (7)
Se Me Fue - El Gran Combo
Chango Ta Beni - Willie Rosario (8)
Soulsa - Estrellas Caiman
Hace Tiempo - Angel Canales (9)
(1) Vish and me thinking the same way.
(2) The song before this one was some Timba. Vish had it queued. I could have chosen not to play it, but I did anyway. Sergio and Cyrille arrived shortly before I started the Timba song. It took two songs afterwards to build up momentum sufficiently once again.
(3) I meant to play Bilongo. No big problem.
(4) Vish had asked me for the second time whether I had Merengue shortly before this.
(5) Two Merengue, two Bachata… I was thinking a Reggaeton next possibly, but Vish begged me to play Salsa. Who am I to argue? Enough is enough, right?
(6) People are beginning to leave. It is getting late.
(7) Reggaeton (belated?) did not help at all.
(8) A comment received - "I want to go home!" …and there are no women to dance with either. Hehehe.
(9) Vish was going to put on a different disc thinking there was no one left for Salsa until he spotted Cyrille and Sergio still around. He then asked me to play a little more. Cyrille and Sergio were ready to go home, so I told them that this would be my last song.
Total 44 songs. 4 Bachata - 2 new. 2 Merengue. 1 Reggaeton - 1 new. 37 Salsa - 11 new. I wasn't planning on playing that many new songs. It just worked out that way.
It was an interesting night attendance-wise. It looked precarious at start. Second wave (Sergio et al) did not arrive until around 11 with there being very little influx of people between 10 and 11. Influx of people was better after 11 and continued til some time after midnight. I think some of the people might have come over after the end of the Bravo X-mas party, but I'm not sure.
I danced with only one person. Not by design. During the break, I was hoping to ask at least one more except she was either nowhere to be seen or were busy dancing with others. During my second session, I was playing too many short songs (most ranging between 2 3/4 min and 3 3/4 min) between Fuego A La Jicotea and No Critiques (or a span of 19 songs). [note: The exceptions are El Abaniquito and Nadie Como Ella at just under 5 min each and El Que Se Fue at 4 min 20 sec.] Also, Vish decided to send home most of his staff shortly after 11 thinking that the night would be a bust (whereas it became surprisingly busy afterwards).
Drive back was a bit unusual - once again. After dropping of Cyrille and nearing Sergio's place, I was stopped by a police patrol in Chesterton. I stopped and rolled down my window.
"Please turn the engine off."
"Okay."
"Do you know why we stopped you?"
"I have no idea."
"One of your lights is out."
"Really? It must have gone out very recently. I had no idea. Too bad this happened now - especially since I'm going out of country early next week."
"What were you doing tonight?"
"I was at a club. I was deejaying mostly."
"Did you have anything to drink?"
"I had one beer. Around 10-11."
"Please step out of the car"
"Okay."
"We are going to perform a sobriety test. Is this okay with you?"
"Sure. I don't think one beer is going to cause me a problem. The proprietor was trying to get me to drink more. I guess he got me once."
I was led to walk around to the pavement/sidewalk.
"Have you ever used a breathalyzer?"
"No."
"Have you ever blow balloons?"
"Yeah."
"It's just like that. You take a deep breath and blow as hard and long as you can."
"What if I run out of breath? Do I take another breath and blow again?"
They ignored this question. They got ready - getting a disposable unit out of packaging, etc.
"By the way, if you had refused to comply, we would have had to arrest you. Because you said you had a drink, we were legally required to test you."
"Okay. Take a deep breath and blow please."
I take a couple of deep breath and get my fingers on the analyzer to stabilize it.
"Take your hands off the machine please."
I complied and start to blow.
Nothing happened. They talked to each other.
"I don't think it was turned on."
"Please do it again."
I did it again. Nothing happens.
"I think the batteries are dead."
I started to laugh.
"We think you're okay. Please don't drive the car tomorrow even in the daylight. First go to a store and get the light replaced."
"Okay."
That was that. A few things. It's probably a good thing that I did not accept Vishal's offer of beer just before I was leaving the club. I would have been interested to know what my alcohol level would have been with just one beer. How close to the limit would I have been? Replacing the light won't be easy. I have the bulbs already, but I've seen people at Halfords struggling half an hour replacing the bulb in that car. I don't think I could do any better - without any tools no less.
Another amusing point. When I dropped Cyrille off last Thursday, we were followed by a different police patrol. I guess we looked suspicious. They drove off after seeing me drop off Cyrille.
No Joe. Danie and Vish were sole instructors. I hear there will be a class on Monday but not Friday next week. Vish had a song queued for the start of the social - it was the exact same song I was going to start with. The only difference was that Vish had the song set to be played slowed down, and I changed it to normal speed.
Playlist
La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe (1)
Yamulemau - Joe Arroyo*
Espiritu Burlon - Santiago Ceron
Que Quiere La Nina - Kako Y Totico
La-La-La - Direct Latin Influence
Asi Son - El Gran Combo*
Nunca Que Quedas - Frankie Ruiz
Cancion - La Sonora Poncena (live)*
Que Bueno Baila Usted - Oscar D'Leon
Son Diez Lagrimas - Lebron Brothers*
El Hueso De Maria - Tito Rodriguez
La Cartera - Orchestra Harlow (Live in Quad)
Apretoncito - Toque D' Keda
Quiero Enamorarte - Marco Ferretti*
--break for 6-8 songs--
Clasiquiendo Con Ruben - Afro Cuban All Stars (2)
Margarito - Bobby Valentin
Rumbera - Willie Chirino*
Baila Que Baila - Jose Alberto "El Canario"
Fuego A La Jicotea - Marvin Santiago
Sin Negro No Hay Guaguanco - Lebron Brothers*
Nadie Como Ella - Marc Anthony
Lejos De Ti - Angel Canales
El Abaniquito - Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers
Calle Luna Calle Sol - Willie Colon*
Conmigo - Eddie Palmieri*
Guaguanco Del Gran Combo - El Gran Combo
Violent's Guaguanco - Johnny Rodriguez & Angel Rene Orquesta*
Abran Paso - Orchestra Harlow
El Que Se Fue - Tito Rodriguez (WSLatino)* (3)
El Titere - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
A La Yumbae - Tommy Olivencia (4)
No Aguanto Mas - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
Musica Ligera - Toque D' Keda
Te Extrano - Extreme (5)*
Hay Craneo - Bobby Valentin
Babarabatiri - Tito Puente (studio)
No Critiques - Eddie Palmieri
Dejame En Paz - Johnny Colon* (6)
No Quiero Na Regala'o - Gilberto Santa Rosa
Rompe - Daddy Yankee* (7)
Se Me Fue - El Gran Combo
Chango Ta Beni - Willie Rosario (8)
Soulsa - Estrellas Caiman
Hace Tiempo - Angel Canales (9)
(1) Vish and me thinking the same way.
(2) The song before this one was some Timba. Vish had it queued. I could have chosen not to play it, but I did anyway. Sergio and Cyrille arrived shortly before I started the Timba song. It took two songs afterwards to build up momentum sufficiently once again.
(3) I meant to play Bilongo. No big problem.
(4) Vish had asked me for the second time whether I had Merengue shortly before this.
(5) Two Merengue, two Bachata… I was thinking a Reggaeton next possibly, but Vish begged me to play Salsa. Who am I to argue? Enough is enough, right?
(6) People are beginning to leave. It is getting late.
(7) Reggaeton (belated?) did not help at all.
(8) A comment received - "I want to go home!" …and there are no women to dance with either. Hehehe.
(9) Vish was going to put on a different disc thinking there was no one left for Salsa until he spotted Cyrille and Sergio still around. He then asked me to play a little more. Cyrille and Sergio were ready to go home, so I told them that this would be my last song.
Total 44 songs. 4 Bachata - 2 new. 2 Merengue. 1 Reggaeton - 1 new. 37 Salsa - 11 new. I wasn't planning on playing that many new songs. It just worked out that way.
It was an interesting night attendance-wise. It looked precarious at start. Second wave (Sergio et al) did not arrive until around 11 with there being very little influx of people between 10 and 11. Influx of people was better after 11 and continued til some time after midnight. I think some of the people might have come over after the end of the Bravo X-mas party, but I'm not sure.
I danced with only one person. Not by design. During the break, I was hoping to ask at least one more except she was either nowhere to be seen or were busy dancing with others. During my second session, I was playing too many short songs (most ranging between 2 3/4 min and 3 3/4 min) between Fuego A La Jicotea and No Critiques (or a span of 19 songs). [note: The exceptions are El Abaniquito and Nadie Como Ella at just under 5 min each and El Que Se Fue at 4 min 20 sec.] Also, Vish decided to send home most of his staff shortly after 11 thinking that the night would be a bust (whereas it became surprisingly busy afterwards).
Drive back was a bit unusual - once again. After dropping of Cyrille and nearing Sergio's place, I was stopped by a police patrol in Chesterton. I stopped and rolled down my window.
"Please turn the engine off."
"Okay."
"Do you know why we stopped you?"
"I have no idea."
"One of your lights is out."
"Really? It must have gone out very recently. I had no idea. Too bad this happened now - especially since I'm going out of country early next week."
"What were you doing tonight?"
"I was at a club. I was deejaying mostly."
"Did you have anything to drink?"
"I had one beer. Around 10-11."
"Please step out of the car"
"Okay."
"We are going to perform a sobriety test. Is this okay with you?"
"Sure. I don't think one beer is going to cause me a problem. The proprietor was trying to get me to drink more. I guess he got me once."
I was led to walk around to the pavement/sidewalk.
"Have you ever used a breathalyzer?"
"No."
"Have you ever blow balloons?"
"Yeah."
"It's just like that. You take a deep breath and blow as hard and long as you can."
"What if I run out of breath? Do I take another breath and blow again?"
They ignored this question. They got ready - getting a disposable unit out of packaging, etc.
"By the way, if you had refused to comply, we would have had to arrest you. Because you said you had a drink, we were legally required to test you."
"Okay. Take a deep breath and blow please."
I take a couple of deep breath and get my fingers on the analyzer to stabilize it.
"Take your hands off the machine please."
I complied and start to blow.
Nothing happened. They talked to each other.
"I don't think it was turned on."
"Please do it again."
I did it again. Nothing happens.
"I think the batteries are dead."
I started to laugh.
"We think you're okay. Please don't drive the car tomorrow even in the daylight. First go to a store and get the light replaced."
"Okay."
That was that. A few things. It's probably a good thing that I did not accept Vishal's offer of beer just before I was leaving the club. I would have been interested to know what my alcohol level would have been with just one beer. How close to the limit would I have been? Replacing the light won't be easy. I have the bulbs already, but I've seen people at Halfords struggling half an hour replacing the bulb in that car. I don't think I could do any better - without any tools no less.
Another amusing point. When I dropped Cyrille off last Thursday, we were followed by a different police patrol. I guess we looked suspicious. They drove off after seeing me drop off Cyrille.
Last Thursday of 2007
December 13, 2007
It was very quiet. I didn't know that this was to be the last Thursday of the year for Sally's classes. I guess it's just as well - I wouldn't have been around next week anyway. I have no idea if there'll be much Salsa opportunity over holidays anyway. I feel rusty already.
Andrea was one of few taking part in the class. Polly arrived later - around same time as me. Neither of them stuck around for the social, and Lindsey who was essentially giving a private lesson left very early too. When Ivan complained about this fact and commented that it left Jane only among his regular partners, I took it as a cue to ask Jane and further deprive him.
That left Kate, one of her friends, someone more used to Cuban style, a pair who have been taking lessons for a couple of months but have been shy about venturing into social dancing (and one of whom looks a bit like Megan R), another who make them a trio, and one other girl who have been around for several months, and Sally. I chatted briefly with Ed and Heinz too.
The social ended around 11. There isn't much happening for the rest of the month aside from Sally party and New Year's Party, both of which I will miss. Oh, and Vish asked me to DJ a little tomorrow night.
It was very quiet. I didn't know that this was to be the last Thursday of the year for Sally's classes. I guess it's just as well - I wouldn't have been around next week anyway. I have no idea if there'll be much Salsa opportunity over holidays anyway. I feel rusty already.
Andrea was one of few taking part in the class. Polly arrived later - around same time as me. Neither of them stuck around for the social, and Lindsey who was essentially giving a private lesson left very early too. When Ivan complained about this fact and commented that it left Jane only among his regular partners, I took it as a cue to ask Jane and further deprive him.
That left Kate, one of her friends, someone more used to Cuban style, a pair who have been taking lessons for a couple of months but have been shy about venturing into social dancing (and one of whom looks a bit like Megan R), another who make them a trio, and one other girl who have been around for several months, and Sally. I chatted briefly with Ed and Heinz too.
The social ended around 11. There isn't much happening for the rest of the month aside from Sally party and New Year's Party, both of which I will miss. Oh, and Vish asked me to DJ a little tomorrow night.
Club Salsa X-mas party 2007
December 7, 2007
Lotsa work again. Left work at 8:55. Got home. Prepared and ate a quick meal, then headed to Club Salsa by 9:45. Not bad.
Vishal was at the entrance. Joe was about to start the final run-through for the class. I said a quick hello to Lee and Shelley – established that I live here and that they were here for the first time for Salsa dancing.
Just before the cool-down started, Vishal let me know (and Joe) that I would be the first DJ of the evening. There was going to be five DJs tonight – the others being Joe, Sally, Cristian and Vishal. Here’s my set.
Playlist
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence
La Muy Muy – Roberto Torres
Borinquen – Sonora Poncena (studio version)*
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Anuncio Clasificado – Willie Rosario
Bongo Loco – Lebron Brothers
Mambo Sentimental – Machito*
Bailando – Frankie Ruiz
El Que Se Fue – Roberto Roena
Bilongo – Tito Rodriguez*
El Guaguanco Del Gran Combo – El Gran Combo
Chanchullo – Fania All-Stars
Total 12 songs. 11 Salsa. 1 Cha Cha. 3 new. I guess the number of songs was the highest one I guessed. I like to think I played a good set, and Vishal complimented me on my set three times (once during, once right after and once toward the end of the evening). Who knows if everyone was pleased? There were plenty of people keen on dancing so keeping the floor reasonably busy was not a problem.
It was a big party all right. Rico and Natalie came up from London. Sally, Cristian et al came down from Peterborough. Non-regular Friday people like Lindsey and Nicola were there. Non-regulars like Aurelei, Sam and Liz were present too. Add to them Cyrille, Liam, Mark, Jane, Richard, Polly, Andrea, Kate, Sharon and hundreds more.
Joe was the next DJ. I would say that he played for the common denominator. The floor was packed, but I managed to dance with three or four people (Aurelei, the girl from Mondays from way back, etc). Many of these dances were in pairs – mostly two Salsa and sometimes a Bachata and a Salsa. I guess I was dragged onto the floor for one Merengue too.
Ivan was there too. I don’t remember if I spotted him before the shows were about to start. Some Shakira-themed thing came on before Lee and Shelley. I was not able to see either of the shows – too many people. I told Ivan that he probably saw this one already – it was the one with Indestructible by Ray Barretto. Things were about the same with the same-sex competition. I was able to glimpse the contestants only – Vishal and partner, Jane and Natalie, Sally and Lindsey, Jay and Cristian. Vishal came in last. Jay and Cristian won. Because I managed to get myself into the DJ booth, I was able to get a decent view of the best costume competition – won by Richard and one of the regulars I don’t know the name of (I think of her as a friend of Sharon’s).
Sally was the third to DJ. The floor space situation became a bit more manageable during this time. The music started with fairly standard Thursday material with a brief interlude with maybe two unfamiliar songs. I think I had first of my dances with Shelley during her stint (I thought it might have been one of Cristian’s songs but I think Sally is a better guess). It was one of the most difficult songs in recent memory – I was unsure of timing at several different occasions, and Shelley might have been just as lost and possibly more. I think things were difficult also because she was anticipating for more complicated moves than I was ready for. It was a confidence-breaker in many ways despite nice words from Shelley at the end of the dance.
After a few more dances in order to get used to dancing with more space and with more speed, I decided to ask Lee next. I must say that I was really nervous – I don’t think I ever felt so nervous about asking anyone – not since after the first year. I was exceedingly nervous during the dance too – I relaxed only a little after the first minute or so. Strange. I have danced with other men. Not just in class settings. I’ve done it in Cambridge in social setting (albeit with very few people around very late in the evening). I’ve done it in a Congress type event – in Madrid. In any case Lee was very good follower. I could see why people say that Lee is a better follower than most women. One thing though, Lee still followed like a man rather than a woman – his spins had something of a forced quality to it – self-propelled and rather obviously so. I thought it interesting that Hayden might have been better at disguising self-propelling aspect when spinning. Like Shelley, Lee found time to say nice things about the dance, and I repaid in kind (well … sort of) by telling him that he followed me better than Shelley. Wrong. I danced with Shelley much later in the evening, and based upon second impression I will say that Shelley is better follower (and have higher upside).
Believe it or not, both of my dances with Shelley were a bit depressing. The first one was the worst dance of the evening by far. Second one was much better, but I thought I sucked big time - I was not in sync with the music (despite knowing the song quite well – it was Mambo Mongo). After the first dance, I thought Shelley was not a good follower. During the second dance, that initial impression was shattered because the connection and her following were both impeccable. Instead I simply felt inadequate. Certainly I could have danced better (I already lamented being out of sync with music – here I’m referring to musicality rather than timing), but even at my best (current or foreseeable future) it felt like she was used to having much more interesting dances. By the way, all of this was in my mind (perhaps warped) and none was it was caused by anything Shelley said verbally or otherwise.
Lest anyone think otherwise, I think both Lee and Shelley are great. They are friendly to everyone and will dance with anyone. They seem to be kind to everyone. They seem to be smiling even when the dance is not going so well. They are excellent show dancers, and they are really good and enthusiastic social dancers too. I can’t imagine anyone accusing either of being snotty, unfriendly, cliquey – I’ll even go further and say that I can’t fathom anyone finding a cause to say bad things about them.
Cristian was the fourth DJ. It was an interesting set. The only songs I recognized were Cuando Tu Quieras (Chivirico Davila) and a Merengue (the one starting with the word Wyando). I’m not a big fan of some of his Bachata selections, but his Salsa selections were pretty nifty. As matter of fact, I think it could be said that some of the songs he selected were the most challenging and sophisticated ones played tonight – and difficult to dance to in some cases. I definitely did not think that many of his selections were geared towards the masses or beginners, and frankly I don’t know what to make of it either.
Vishal was the final DJ. Mambo heaven with a few popular Bachata selections thrown in. Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez), La Palomilla (Joe Cuba), Merecumbe (Johnny Colon), Asia Mood (Tito Puente), Mambo Mongo (Mongo Santamaria – from Afro Indio), La Llave (Grupo Latin Vibe), Vamonos Pa’l Monte (version?), a Chivirico Davila tune, La China De Mi Barrio (Javier Vazquez), La Salsa Nunca Se Acaba (Susie Hansen – played twice) and a version of Fragile. The only regret was that it was very late and many people were too tired to dance by near the end of the evening.
When it was all finished – a little after 3:30 AM and with Lee and Shelley staying to the bitter end (Joe and Olga left a little before 1?). It really was the biggest party of year for Club Salsa. The topic on the drive back (I gave ride back for Liam and Cyrille) included music tonight – I got Liam to admit that Vish played some good music tonight (Liam also thought positively of Cristian’s selections too). Liam and especially Cyrille voiced an opinion that they had more fun tonight than at the SOS. For me, I wouldn’t go that far. The last SOS was quite good for me, and tonight gets some demerits for a few not-so-hot dances (Strangely the only other negative incident while dancing I could think also involves Shelley – although I think the fault was the her dance partner. I got stepped on by Shelley first, then her partner also stepped on my foot while somehow ending up between me and my partner – taking too big steps). I think getting something like five declines for a dance (many of whom admittedly were tired and I already had danced with – sometimes more than once) were a definite negative. Also maybe I was disappointed about not seeing some people – one or a set of two or three who I hoped would show up would have made a difference.
Lotsa work again. Left work at 8:55. Got home. Prepared and ate a quick meal, then headed to Club Salsa by 9:45. Not bad.
Vishal was at the entrance. Joe was about to start the final run-through for the class. I said a quick hello to Lee and Shelley – established that I live here and that they were here for the first time for Salsa dancing.
Just before the cool-down started, Vishal let me know (and Joe) that I would be the first DJ of the evening. There was going to be five DJs tonight – the others being Joe, Sally, Cristian and Vishal. Here’s my set.
Playlist
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence
La Muy Muy – Roberto Torres
Borinquen – Sonora Poncena (studio version)*
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Anuncio Clasificado – Willie Rosario
Bongo Loco – Lebron Brothers
Mambo Sentimental – Machito*
Bailando – Frankie Ruiz
El Que Se Fue – Roberto Roena
Bilongo – Tito Rodriguez*
El Guaguanco Del Gran Combo – El Gran Combo
Chanchullo – Fania All-Stars
Total 12 songs. 11 Salsa. 1 Cha Cha. 3 new. I guess the number of songs was the highest one I guessed. I like to think I played a good set, and Vishal complimented me on my set three times (once during, once right after and once toward the end of the evening). Who knows if everyone was pleased? There were plenty of people keen on dancing so keeping the floor reasonably busy was not a problem.
It was a big party all right. Rico and Natalie came up from London. Sally, Cristian et al came down from Peterborough. Non-regular Friday people like Lindsey and Nicola were there. Non-regulars like Aurelei, Sam and Liz were present too. Add to them Cyrille, Liam, Mark, Jane, Richard, Polly, Andrea, Kate, Sharon and hundreds more.
Joe was the next DJ. I would say that he played for the common denominator. The floor was packed, but I managed to dance with three or four people (Aurelei, the girl from Mondays from way back, etc). Many of these dances were in pairs – mostly two Salsa and sometimes a Bachata and a Salsa. I guess I was dragged onto the floor for one Merengue too.
Ivan was there too. I don’t remember if I spotted him before the shows were about to start. Some Shakira-themed thing came on before Lee and Shelley. I was not able to see either of the shows – too many people. I told Ivan that he probably saw this one already – it was the one with Indestructible by Ray Barretto. Things were about the same with the same-sex competition. I was able to glimpse the contestants only – Vishal and partner, Jane and Natalie, Sally and Lindsey, Jay and Cristian. Vishal came in last. Jay and Cristian won. Because I managed to get myself into the DJ booth, I was able to get a decent view of the best costume competition – won by Richard and one of the regulars I don’t know the name of (I think of her as a friend of Sharon’s).
Sally was the third to DJ. The floor space situation became a bit more manageable during this time. The music started with fairly standard Thursday material with a brief interlude with maybe two unfamiliar songs. I think I had first of my dances with Shelley during her stint (I thought it might have been one of Cristian’s songs but I think Sally is a better guess). It was one of the most difficult songs in recent memory – I was unsure of timing at several different occasions, and Shelley might have been just as lost and possibly more. I think things were difficult also because she was anticipating for more complicated moves than I was ready for. It was a confidence-breaker in many ways despite nice words from Shelley at the end of the dance.
After a few more dances in order to get used to dancing with more space and with more speed, I decided to ask Lee next. I must say that I was really nervous – I don’t think I ever felt so nervous about asking anyone – not since after the first year. I was exceedingly nervous during the dance too – I relaxed only a little after the first minute or so. Strange. I have danced with other men. Not just in class settings. I’ve done it in Cambridge in social setting (albeit with very few people around very late in the evening). I’ve done it in a Congress type event – in Madrid. In any case Lee was very good follower. I could see why people say that Lee is a better follower than most women. One thing though, Lee still followed like a man rather than a woman – his spins had something of a forced quality to it – self-propelled and rather obviously so. I thought it interesting that Hayden might have been better at disguising self-propelling aspect when spinning. Like Shelley, Lee found time to say nice things about the dance, and I repaid in kind (well … sort of) by telling him that he followed me better than Shelley. Wrong. I danced with Shelley much later in the evening, and based upon second impression I will say that Shelley is better follower (and have higher upside).
Believe it or not, both of my dances with Shelley were a bit depressing. The first one was the worst dance of the evening by far. Second one was much better, but I thought I sucked big time - I was not in sync with the music (despite knowing the song quite well – it was Mambo Mongo). After the first dance, I thought Shelley was not a good follower. During the second dance, that initial impression was shattered because the connection and her following were both impeccable. Instead I simply felt inadequate. Certainly I could have danced better (I already lamented being out of sync with music – here I’m referring to musicality rather than timing), but even at my best (current or foreseeable future) it felt like she was used to having much more interesting dances. By the way, all of this was in my mind (perhaps warped) and none was it was caused by anything Shelley said verbally or otherwise.
Lest anyone think otherwise, I think both Lee and Shelley are great. They are friendly to everyone and will dance with anyone. They seem to be kind to everyone. They seem to be smiling even when the dance is not going so well. They are excellent show dancers, and they are really good and enthusiastic social dancers too. I can’t imagine anyone accusing either of being snotty, unfriendly, cliquey – I’ll even go further and say that I can’t fathom anyone finding a cause to say bad things about them.
Cristian was the fourth DJ. It was an interesting set. The only songs I recognized were Cuando Tu Quieras (Chivirico Davila) and a Merengue (the one starting with the word Wyando). I’m not a big fan of some of his Bachata selections, but his Salsa selections were pretty nifty. As matter of fact, I think it could be said that some of the songs he selected were the most challenging and sophisticated ones played tonight – and difficult to dance to in some cases. I definitely did not think that many of his selections were geared towards the masses or beginners, and frankly I don’t know what to make of it either.
Vishal was the final DJ. Mambo heaven with a few popular Bachata selections thrown in. Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez), La Palomilla (Joe Cuba), Merecumbe (Johnny Colon), Asia Mood (Tito Puente), Mambo Mongo (Mongo Santamaria – from Afro Indio), La Llave (Grupo Latin Vibe), Vamonos Pa’l Monte (version?), a Chivirico Davila tune, La China De Mi Barrio (Javier Vazquez), La Salsa Nunca Se Acaba (Susie Hansen – played twice) and a version of Fragile. The only regret was that it was very late and many people were too tired to dance by near the end of the evening.
When it was all finished – a little after 3:30 AM and with Lee and Shelley staying to the bitter end (Joe and Olga left a little before 1?). It really was the biggest party of year for Club Salsa. The topic on the drive back (I gave ride back for Liam and Cyrille) included music tonight – I got Liam to admit that Vish played some good music tonight (Liam also thought positively of Cristian’s selections too). Liam and especially Cyrille voiced an opinion that they had more fun tonight than at the SOS. For me, I wouldn’t go that far. The last SOS was quite good for me, and tonight gets some demerits for a few not-so-hot dances (Strangely the only other negative incident while dancing I could think also involves Shelley – although I think the fault was the her dance partner. I got stepped on by Shelley first, then her partner also stepped on my foot while somehow ending up between me and my partner – taking too big steps). I think getting something like five declines for a dance (many of whom admittedly were tired and I already had danced with – sometimes more than once) were a definite negative. Also maybe I was disappointed about not seeing some people – one or a set of two or three who I hoped would show up would have made a difference.
Brooms and mops
December 6, 2007
It was an unusually busy week at work - at least by my UK standard. After picking up Cyrille, it was past 10 by the time I got to Club Salsa. There were many cars, but not very many people. Supposedly a lot of people left because of the floor - although that happens regardless of floor or of music or of people (ummm - let me correct that - I think people do make a difference). It was really bad - very slippery and very sticky interspersed. After some useless struggling, we decided to sweep and mop the floor. Then we waited until the floor dried sufficiently. The floor seemed okay by the end, but then the music wasn't so hot by then - too many fast songs. Indestructible at normal speed. Barrunto - I simply don't like this song - especially for something that gets played nearly every week. Another fast one followed. La Pelota - I think it is insane to include this song in a pre-programmed disc to be used extensively (although I would object to reusing same set of discs (meaning predictable sequence of same songs) as standard practice). I was there til 11:45, but I think it was because of inertia.
It was an unusually busy week at work - at least by my UK standard. After picking up Cyrille, it was past 10 by the time I got to Club Salsa. There were many cars, but not very many people. Supposedly a lot of people left because of the floor - although that happens regardless of floor or of music or of people (ummm - let me correct that - I think people do make a difference). It was really bad - very slippery and very sticky interspersed. After some useless struggling, we decided to sweep and mop the floor. Then we waited until the floor dried sufficiently. The floor seemed okay by the end, but then the music wasn't so hot by then - too many fast songs. Indestructible at normal speed. Barrunto - I simply don't like this song - especially for something that gets played nearly every week. Another fast one followed. La Pelota - I think it is insane to include this song in a pre-programmed disc to be used extensively (although I would object to reusing same set of discs (meaning predictable sequence of same songs) as standard practice). I was there til 11:45, but I think it was because of inertia.
Advertising for Vish
December 5, 2007
Club Salsa X-Mas Party is this Friday at Dec 7th from 9:30 PM to 3 AM. It should be their biggest party of the year - it's always packed. Club entry is £6 in advance or £8 at the door so it probably would be good idea to RSVP in advance if not buy tickets in advance.
Showcases including Lee & Shelley - 2007 UK Champions.
Whopping five DJs - Vish, Joe, Sally, Cristian and me. Maybe someone else will jump in too. Hmm. I guess it means I should have plenty of time for dancing - I'll plan on playing anywhere from zero to six (best guess) to twelve songs.
Optional dress up (70's theme). Prizes for best costume. Same sex competitions, etc.
Club Salsa X-Mas Party is this Friday at Dec 7th from 9:30 PM to 3 AM. It should be their biggest party of the year - it's always packed. Club entry is £6 in advance or £8 at the door so it probably would be good idea to RSVP in advance if not buy tickets in advance.
Showcases including Lee & Shelley - 2007 UK Champions.
Whopping five DJs - Vish, Joe, Sally, Cristian and me. Maybe someone else will jump in too. Hmm. I guess it means I should have plenty of time for dancing - I'll plan on playing anywhere from zero to six (best guess) to twelve songs.
Optional dress up (70's theme). Prizes for best costume. Same sex competitions, etc.
SOS with Cyrille, Liam and other characters
After trying to decide between four so-so looking options for Saturday, we opt
After arriv
It was an invasion of
Liam thought the music was very good. I thought it was pretty good too – more because there were fewer bad songs rather than there being a lot of re
For the first hour or so, Liam look
The shena
The drive back was uneventful except for a crazy swerving car on M11 between Stanst
Time for hibernation?
"What in the world…?" I wonder
I was playing songs from the Bachata CD I obtain
The idea was to go out for a drink before heading to Club S
The food at Mai Thai was good in qu
By the time we arriv
I lik
Perhaps because of my poor experience with San Miguel last time, I found myself drinking
Around
On the drive back, there was a t
Dead? No. There's a pulse.
November 29, 2007
At the outset, it looked like it was going to be an unusually dead night. And then Zern and Euvian showed up followed by Liam and Steph. One might have thought Euvian would be a bit rusty after a fairly long break – not so – at least not during the first two dances I had or saw. A few others like Nicola and a large group possibly associated with Shiraz showed up, and there also was the pair of Haihan protégés, who I found highly amusing - I was reminded of a comment about acting confident no matter what. What about the German pair (actually I don’t know that for sure except in the case of Natalie and I originally thought she was of Hispanic origin)? The party did go on until midnight as usual. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that Cyrille is back – he got there before me. No Ivan – huh?
Song selections were mostly back to familiar with likes of Se Formo Rumbantelo, Mambo Mongo, Barrunto, Vamos A Reir Un Poco (this one’s an unusual choice), Delta Mambo, La Fiesta De Pilito, Esta Cobardia (or some other Frankie Ruiz), Fuego A La Jicotea, Muneca (Palmieri), Alabanciosa, Mentirosa, Fragile, a Bachata (Debo Pensar?) with a sprinkle (maybe a quarter to third of the selections) of unfamiliar. There were some nice dances, good dances, fun dances, etc yet it was all a little oddly unsatisfying.
Cyrille mentioned about a party on Saturday but did not seem to know much detail about it. Also on the drive back, Liam talked about not having enough alcohol for good dancing. Yeah - maybe that's the problem - not enough alcohol. Let's not even get into trying out new cool patterns.
At the outset, it looked like it was going to be an unusually dead night. And then Zern and Euvian showed up followed by Liam and Steph. One might have thought Euvian would be a bit rusty after a fairly long break – not so – at least not during the first two dances I had or saw. A few others like Nicola and a large group possibly associated with Shiraz showed up, and there also was the pair of Haihan protégés, who I found highly amusing - I was reminded of a comment about acting confident no matter what. What about the German pair (actually I don’t know that for sure except in the case of Natalie and I originally thought she was of Hispanic origin)? The party did go on until midnight as usual. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that Cyrille is back – he got there before me. No Ivan – huh?
Song selections were mostly back to familiar with likes of Se Formo Rumbantelo, Mambo Mongo, Barrunto, Vamos A Reir Un Poco (this one’s an unusual choice), Delta Mambo, La Fiesta De Pilito, Esta Cobardia (or some other Frankie Ruiz), Fuego A La Jicotea, Muneca (Palmieri), Alabanciosa, Mentirosa, Fragile, a Bachata (Debo Pensar?) with a sprinkle (maybe a quarter to third of the selections) of unfamiliar. There were some nice dances, good dances, fun dances, etc yet it was all a little oddly unsatisfying.
Cyrille mentioned about a party on Saturday but did not seem to know much detail about it. Also on the drive back, Liam talked about not having enough alcohol for good dancing. Yeah - maybe that's the problem - not enough alcohol. Let's not even get into trying out new cool patterns.
Ballroom Improver 8
November 28, 2007
I was about fifteen minutes late. I might as well have been fifty minutes late to save myself some torture.
Rumba
Start with that same old stupid sequence of moves. Then basic followed by back spot turn (clockwise together) and continue into next 1/2 measure (continuing clockwise) followed by leading follower to 12 o’clock or 3 o’clock turn.
It’s a slow dance with heavy emphasis on sound technique. It works best if both partners have a vague idea about what is meant by competence.
Jive
I’m not competent enough with Jive to compensate for really bad partners. Heck, I would struggle even with half decent partners. Don’t get me started on people who don’t know the definition of the word following – it does not mean being able to replicate choreography and it does not mean backleading. I’m not even going to bother with the description of the long new routine. It won’t have enough description to properly practice it later, and I really don’t have any desire to dance Jive.
Samba
Whisk. Walk. Bota Fogos. Volta. Whatever. I don’t feel there’s a big need to add to previous descriptions.
Cha Cha
Nothing new here either. Same old sequence. I might be able to improve it if I were to get a private lesson and/or have tons of practice.
Some party dance
The only reason to be interested in this is if I were to go to a Ballroom party and one particular song is being played. I’m not going.
Waltz
Same old again. At least I got my favorite Waltz partner in the class for it - She understands the concept of following. I don’t need perfection – knowing what it means to try to follow is rare enough.
One new material I gathered happened because of a private question. It was about the Whisk. At the end of Whisk, if the feet ends apart, lead would start with R foot to the outside of follower (to left). If feet ends close together, lead would start with L foot inside.
So there was no Foxtrot after all. I learned that CDC or at least Paul does not teach much Foxtrot in the beginner or improver classes. Good to know. It means there’s zero chance I’ll repeat this class – not that there was any chance of that to begin with. Looking at future Ballroom options, I realize that I have little interest in most of the Latin dances. I don’t care about Ballroom Cha Cha or Rumba. I dislike Jive. I’m only mildly interested in Samba. If I want some real exposure to Foxtrot, the way to go might be Dancesport Intermediate A for Modern dances only. It would seem Foxtrot would be a new dance for everyone in that class anyway. I like Waltz. I could deal with Tango not being Argentine for the moment. I’m not a big fan of Quickstep, but it’s better than Jive and I thought I disliked it less at the end of the term compared to the start of the term (I also think it might have been that I disliked dancing Quickstep with any of the people in the class). Or I could simply abandon the whole thing again – give it a rest for another couple of years. Who knows?
I was about fifteen minutes late. I might as well have been fifty minutes late to save myself some torture.
Rumba
Start with that same old stupid sequence of moves. Then basic followed by back spot turn (clockwise together) and continue into next 1/2 measure (continuing clockwise) followed by leading follower to 12 o’clock or 3 o’clock turn.
It’s a slow dance with heavy emphasis on sound technique. It works best if both partners have a vague idea about what is meant by competence.
Jive
I’m not competent enough with Jive to compensate for really bad partners. Heck, I would struggle even with half decent partners. Don’t get me started on people who don’t know the definition of the word following – it does not mean being able to replicate choreography and it does not mean backleading. I’m not even going to bother with the description of the long new routine. It won’t have enough description to properly practice it later, and I really don’t have any desire to dance Jive.
Samba
Whisk. Walk. Bota Fogos. Volta. Whatever. I don’t feel there’s a big need to add to previous descriptions.
Cha Cha
Nothing new here either. Same old sequence. I might be able to improve it if I were to get a private lesson and/or have tons of practice.
Some party dance
The only reason to be interested in this is if I were to go to a Ballroom party and one particular song is being played. I’m not going.
Waltz
Same old again. At least I got my favorite Waltz partner in the class for it - She understands the concept of following. I don’t need perfection – knowing what it means to try to follow is rare enough.
One new material I gathered happened because of a private question. It was about the Whisk. At the end of Whisk, if the feet ends apart, lead would start with R foot to the outside of follower (to left). If feet ends close together, lead would start with L foot inside.
So there was no Foxtrot after all. I learned that CDC or at least Paul does not teach much Foxtrot in the beginner or improver classes. Good to know. It means there’s zero chance I’ll repeat this class – not that there was any chance of that to begin with. Looking at future Ballroom options, I realize that I have little interest in most of the Latin dances. I don’t care about Ballroom Cha Cha or Rumba. I dislike Jive. I’m only mildly interested in Samba. If I want some real exposure to Foxtrot, the way to go might be Dancesport Intermediate A for Modern dances only. It would seem Foxtrot would be a new dance for everyone in that class anyway. I like Waltz. I could deal with Tango not being Argentine for the moment. I’m not a big fan of Quickstep, but it’s better than Jive and I thought I disliked it less at the end of the term compared to the start of the term (I also think it might have been that I disliked dancing Quickstep with any of the people in the class). Or I could simply abandon the whole thing again – give it a rest for another couple of years. Who knows?
Tony Lara number 6
November 27, 2007
I arrived around 7:35 – about ten minutes before the classes were scheduled to begin and barely enough time to greet people like Raj, Andrea, Louise, Richard and Jane as well as Vish, Daniella and Tony. I obtained a Bachata and a Reggaeton CD from Daniella and Tony before the classes started. I wasn’t sure how many people would turn up for the class, and it looked a little worrying when I got there. However, plenty of people showed up by the time the classes were underway – definitely not a loss for Vish.
The Bachata class was in a small part choreographed to Playa Fa Sho (Toby Love), but everything was essentially easily leadable – things just need to be broken down and reassembled to fit music.
Sway (Intro)
Hip movement (sharp bit)
Sway (repeat)
Slap simulation (sharp bit)
Basic
…
5,6,7,8 both connections made and lead follower to short quick 1/2 counterclockwise turn with only L-R going over follower’s head – hold follower in double wrap between 6 and 7 with follower’s arms crossed in front of follower
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 get L-R over follower and leave follower’s R on leader’s head on 1,2,3 do the same with R-L on 5,6,7 – leader’s R hand ends across follower’s stomach while L-L connection can be made to L side
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side on leader’s timing (can be done indefinitely)
…
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side basic with follower in front of leader both facing same way (really works only with “close” hold) on 1,2,3,4 then prep follower for travelling clockwise turn on 5,6,7,8 getting L-L over leader’s head for a hat while R hand goes to follower’s back in something like a CBL position
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side dip (follower supporting her weight) and into tight embrace on 1,2,3,4 and in place basic on 5,6,7,8
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic
…
This next bit is useful mainly because it makes transition for leader going from leader’s footwork timing to follower’s footwork timing very smooth.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on 1,2,3,4 then R pointing R on 5, L toe together with R keeping weight on R foot on 6, L forward and turn further 1/4 clockwise on 7, finish Bachata basic with R toe together on 8 keeping weight on L (switch from L-R hold to R-R hold somewhere during the turn)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on follower’s timing (indefinite – with options of going stationary, then sway or body roll or whatever) … to get back to normal position
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on 1,2,3,4 still on follower’s timing then L pointing L on 5, R toe together with L keeping weight on L foot on 6, forward and turn further 1/4 counterclockwise to face follower keeping only L-L hold and end with a hat for leader at the end to get back to closed hold
I was going to skip the Reggaeton part of the class altogether, but Tony had the idea of videotaping the warm-up for youtube. When I got my camera out, he decided to tape it himself and nudged me into participating in the warm-up. I weaselled myself out after the warm-up to retrieve my camera and videotaped other parts of the Reggaeton class. I considered joining the beginner Bachata class, but I was not needed. [note: There are or will be youtube clip(s) available but not via this blog.]
The social afterwards was a bit on the weak side – a far cry from last time. I ran into someone who knew a colleague (Colin) from work – I think his name was Richard “from Brixton” and the apparent connection is mountain biking. Another “new” acquaintance made was Katy – it was actually my third meeting with her – very nice. A Salsa dance with Daniella was quite interesting in that she took charge for large chunks of the dance – much more so than any other times I danced with her. Otherwise, many of the dances were a bit jarring and were something of a shocking transition from recent memory.
Other happenings included a raffle for charity, and the evening ended with long chats first with Daniella and then with Tony, Vishal, Danie and Gordon lasting until past 12:30.
I arrived around 7:35 – about ten minutes before the classes were scheduled to begin and barely enough time to greet people like Raj, Andrea, Louise, Richard and Jane as well as Vish, Daniella and Tony. I obtained a Bachata and a Reggaeton CD from Daniella and Tony before the classes started. I wasn’t sure how many people would turn up for the class, and it looked a little worrying when I got there. However, plenty of people showed up by the time the classes were underway – definitely not a loss for Vish.
The Bachata class was in a small part choreographed to Playa Fa Sho (Toby Love), but everything was essentially easily leadable – things just need to be broken down and reassembled to fit music.
Sway (Intro)
Hip movement (sharp bit)
Sway (repeat)
Slap simulation (sharp bit)
Basic
…
5,6,7,8 both connections made and lead follower to short quick 1/2 counterclockwise turn with only L-R going over follower’s head – hold follower in double wrap between 6 and 7 with follower’s arms crossed in front of follower
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 get L-R over follower and leave follower’s R on leader’s head on 1,2,3 do the same with R-L on 5,6,7 – leader’s R hand ends across follower’s stomach while L-L connection can be made to L side
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side on leader’s timing (can be done indefinitely)
…
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic side-to-side basic with follower in front of leader both facing same way (really works only with “close” hold) on 1,2,3,4 then prep follower for travelling clockwise turn on 5,6,7,8 getting L-L over leader’s head for a hat while R hand goes to follower’s back in something like a CBL position
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side dip (follower supporting her weight) and into tight embrace on 1,2,3,4 and in place basic on 5,6,7,8
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 basic
…
This next bit is useful mainly because it makes transition for leader going from leader’s footwork timing to follower’s footwork timing very smooth.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on 1,2,3,4 then R pointing R on 5, L toe together with R keeping weight on R foot on 6, L forward and turn further 1/4 clockwise on 7, finish Bachata basic with R toe together on 8 keeping weight on L (switch from L-R hold to R-R hold somewhere during the turn)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on follower’s timing (indefinite – with options of going stationary, then sway or body roll or whatever) … to get back to normal position
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 side basic on 1,2,3,4 still on follower’s timing then L pointing L on 5, R toe together with L keeping weight on L foot on 6, forward and turn further 1/4 counterclockwise to face follower keeping only L-L hold and end with a hat for leader at the end to get back to closed hold
I was going to skip the Reggaeton part of the class altogether, but Tony had the idea of videotaping the warm-up for youtube. When I got my camera out, he decided to tape it himself and nudged me into participating in the warm-up. I weaselled myself out after the warm-up to retrieve my camera and videotaped other parts of the Reggaeton class. I considered joining the beginner Bachata class, but I was not needed. [note: There are or will be youtube clip(s) available but not via this blog.]
The social afterwards was a bit on the weak side – a far cry from last time. I ran into someone who knew a colleague (Colin) from work – I think his name was Richard “from Brixton” and the apparent connection is mountain biking. Another “new” acquaintance made was Katy – it was actually my third meeting with her – very nice. A Salsa dance with Daniella was quite interesting in that she took charge for large chunks of the dance – much more so than any other times I danced with her. Otherwise, many of the dances were a bit jarring and were something of a shocking transition from recent memory.
Other happenings included a raffle for charity, and the evening ended with long chats first with Daniella and then with Tony, Vishal, Danie and Gordon lasting until past 12:30.
SOS and Nina
November 25, 2007
Originally SOS was not in my plans because of seemingly too full Salsa calendar of late. However I changed my mind because of combination of unexpected lessening of workload for the weekend and all-too-disappointing Friday.
I thought I would be the only one from Cambridge. I was wrong. Johnny and Serap were there for the first time in a very long time. Sebastian decided to use his last weekend here to check out SOS for the first time with Kate. Vera was there too. The biggest surprise by far was Nina – here for a long Salsa weekend (Scala-SOS-Bar Salsa). It was super nice to catch up with her, and we ended up chatting through most of one Salsa song (El Verdadero Son) and one Bachata before dancing to a very slow Cuban-ie song (at least according to Nina).
Amir was the DJ. The music was really good, and I think I recognized about a third of the songs. They included Anuncio Clasificado (Willie Rosario), Dejame Sonar (Tito Puente & Tony Vega - surprisingly tricky), Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez - Helen), Ya No Puede Ser (Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Adalberto Santiago), La La La (Direct Latin Influence - or did I imagine this one?), Avisale A Mi Contrario (Roberto Roena), Sofrito (Mongo Santamaria), El Verdadero Son (Javier Vazquez), Paz (Frankie Dante), Ahora De Me Pana (Henry Fiol), Sun Sun Babae (version unknown).
Least favorite scene for me this evening was a crowd watching Leon Rose dance with some visitor. Things he was trying seemed rather experimental and nutty and absolute did not fit the music. They were watching a freak show and seemed to think that they were watching something great – it really wasn’t. I have no real objection to Leon trying something crazy and experimenting on social dance floor. However, I think that if it were some no name couple tried what they were doing, most bystanders would have looked down upon it rather than admiring it. But maybe I'm the clueless one here.
There were some good dances tonight. Also there were surprisingly many substandard dances. Probably the dance I had most fun with was to Paz (Frankie Dante) – a surprise because I didn’t think it was a particularly good song and a non-surprise because Sergio mentioned it as a good one (I guess I should have trusted Sergio). Other notable dances were to Ahora De Me Pena (Henry Fiol) – it was the next to last dance of the evening. Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez) was also interesting because of Helen, who seemingly was dying to show off as a spinning machine.
On the whole it was a good SOS evening. Music was well above average. Dancing was about average. Social factor was well above avearage. Everything else was average by SOS standard. It was better than I expected, and I'm glad I went.
Originally SOS was not in my plans because of seemingly too full Salsa calendar of late. However I changed my mind because of combination of unexpected lessening of workload for the weekend and all-too-disappointing Friday.
I thought I would be the only one from Cambridge. I was wrong. Johnny and Serap were there for the first time in a very long time. Sebastian decided to use his last weekend here to check out SOS for the first time with Kate. Vera was there too. The biggest surprise by far was Nina – here for a long Salsa weekend (Scala-SOS-Bar Salsa). It was super nice to catch up with her, and we ended up chatting through most of one Salsa song (El Verdadero Son) and one Bachata before dancing to a very slow Cuban-ie song (at least according to Nina).
Amir was the DJ. The music was really good, and I think I recognized about a third of the songs. They included Anuncio Clasificado (Willie Rosario), Dejame Sonar (Tito Puente & Tony Vega - surprisingly tricky), Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez - Helen), Ya No Puede Ser (Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Adalberto Santiago), La La La (Direct Latin Influence - or did I imagine this one?), Avisale A Mi Contrario (Roberto Roena), Sofrito (Mongo Santamaria), El Verdadero Son (Javier Vazquez), Paz (Frankie Dante), Ahora De Me Pana (Henry Fiol), Sun Sun Babae (version unknown).
Least favorite scene for me this evening was a crowd watching Leon Rose dance with some visitor. Things he was trying seemed rather experimental and nutty and absolute did not fit the music. They were watching a freak show and seemed to think that they were watching something great – it really wasn’t. I have no real objection to Leon trying something crazy and experimenting on social dance floor. However, I think that if it were some no name couple tried what they were doing, most bystanders would have looked down upon it rather than admiring it. But maybe I'm the clueless one here.
There were some good dances tonight. Also there were surprisingly many substandard dances. Probably the dance I had most fun with was to Paz (Frankie Dante) – a surprise because I didn’t think it was a particularly good song and a non-surprise because Sergio mentioned it as a good one (I guess I should have trusted Sergio). Other notable dances were to Ahora De Me Pena (Henry Fiol) – it was the next to last dance of the evening. Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez) was also interesting because of Helen, who seemingly was dying to show off as a spinning machine.
On the whole it was a good SOS evening. Music was well above average. Dancing was about average. Social factor was well above avearage. Everything else was average by SOS standard. It was better than I expected, and I'm glad I went.
Even San Miguel failed to deliver
November 23, 2007
Randomness of the crowd continues to astonish me. The only ones among the usual group were Rajiv, Sebastian, Ed, Sharon and Kate (showing up later after St. Paul’s presumably closed). Mauricio and Lorraine was there also – possibly the first time they ran into each other in a very long time. Still it was far from empty – in fact, it was surprisingly crowded even towards the end of the evening.
I think a part of the explanation could be that a lot of people were playing a game of expectations. Many people decided to come because they expected that there will be many people while many others decided to skip it tonight because they expected exactly the same thing and wasn’t excited about overcrowding. The added attraction of having the London gang – Andrea Stewart, Aiste and Joe Davids – was not enough for many.
Cyrille has been AWOL since Coventry. I’m guessing he’s out of country all week – spending his birthday elsewhere. Both Vish and Steph had his birthday on their calendar. I did not – although once reminded of it, I was able to confirm it using the blog.
Dancing early was … blah.
The show was by Duende – meaning Andrea Stewart and Aiste Kalabuchova. I guess Alex was a no-show. I had the best spot for seeing and saw none of it because I was struggling to videotape it. Videotaping was difficult. Lighting was surprisingly low – I don’t think all the lights were on. The dancers were in too close range to the videocamera so I couldn’t get both of them on the screen at the same time half the time. I decided to take an executive decision to keep Andrea on the screen on the edge whenever they were too far apart and hope that Aiste would move closer. The screen angle was poor for my own viewing so all I saw 90% of the time was the outline of the dancers. I think the music used was the same one as the one from Scala, but I wasn’t able to make any assessment of the dancing.
The music was strictly a hit parade up until well after midnight – all classics and many of them slowed down - nothing to complain about really. Pancho Cristal, Se Me Fue, Se Formo Rumbantelo, Quitate La Mascara, La Palomilla, Asia Mood, Merecumbe, Swing La Moderna, Todo Tiene Su Final, Ahora Quien, etc.
Probably the most annoying song was a new Africando one I got stuck with for my first dance with Andrea Stewart. The music wasn’t particularly exciting but it was confusing and tricky – and it was difficult to mask my confusion. I tried for a mulligan and asked her for Ahora Quien couple of songs later, but even that dance was a bit unsatisfying – arguably more so than the first one. I thought the connection was good but not superb – and at this point anything less than good would be preposterous so merely good is not particularly good – albeit making it better than merely good could depend a bit more on chemistry, music or factors beyond one’s control. I thought while we seemed to have common understanding of how to dance to the song but different interpretations of accents here and there resulted in some miscues. Also the environment (different type of floor, mixed crowd with many unpredictable people) probably added difficulty and resulted in hesitation. A few mistakes always happen in pretty much all of my dances, but this one had 2-3 more than I really would have liked. I guess that at least on my part I wasn’t particularly warmed up for heavy-duty social dancing at that time (or any point this evening). Also my best dances almost never are with the performer types anyway – even though my dances with Andrea will have to qualify as the high point on an evening like this. [note: I might have had a dance with Andrea one other time – at Scala. If so my impression/memory is that the Scala dance felt better - perhaps due to lower expectations back then.]
I suppose I could have danced with Aiste, but I didn’t because I decided that Andrea was the rarer opportunity considering how often I see Aiste in both London and Cambridge. Also I would venture to guess that Aiste would get more attention anyway for whatever reason – intimidation factor or attractiveness factor or whatever. I think both of them ended up with three dance partners in any case. Andrea grabbed Rajiv in between my dances with her, and Raj goaded Ed into asking Andrea afterwards (or so I heard from Ed afterwards. Ed thought Andrea seemed used to stronger leads although such thought did not occur to me at any time). I think Sebastian had a nice dance with Aiste.
Vish tried to get me to DJ shortly after the show, but I decided to hold off as much as possible in order to get an opportunity at asking Andrea and possibly Aiste. After Ed’s dance with Andrea (and Sebastian with Aiste at the same time), Vish turned to Reggaeton at Andrea’s request. I deejayed for a short time only after the London gang departed.
Playlist
Decia Que Me Queria – Cachaco
Cuando Se Canta Bonita – Willie Rosario*
La Paella – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence
I don’t think there was much of a Salsa crowd left by then so it all fell quite flat. Vishal came on relief with Merengue, etc. Among his Salsa later, La Vida... was a hit, but not Cali Pachanguero. I tried one Cuban.
Very weird night. Even San Miguel wasn’t very good. The two bottles I had – second one courtesy of Vish – had some nasty tasting bit in the bottom. I think the term used by some to describe it is “skunked.”
Randomness of the crowd continues to astonish me. The only ones among the usual group were Rajiv, Sebastian, Ed, Sharon and Kate (showing up later after St. Paul’s presumably closed). Mauricio and Lorraine was there also – possibly the first time they ran into each other in a very long time. Still it was far from empty – in fact, it was surprisingly crowded even towards the end of the evening.
I think a part of the explanation could be that a lot of people were playing a game of expectations. Many people decided to come because they expected that there will be many people while many others decided to skip it tonight because they expected exactly the same thing and wasn’t excited about overcrowding. The added attraction of having the London gang – Andrea Stewart, Aiste and Joe Davids – was not enough for many.
Cyrille has been AWOL since Coventry. I’m guessing he’s out of country all week – spending his birthday elsewhere. Both Vish and Steph had his birthday on their calendar. I did not – although once reminded of it, I was able to confirm it using the blog.
Dancing early was … blah.
The show was by Duende – meaning Andrea Stewart and Aiste Kalabuchova. I guess Alex was a no-show. I had the best spot for seeing and saw none of it because I was struggling to videotape it. Videotaping was difficult. Lighting was surprisingly low – I don’t think all the lights were on. The dancers were in too close range to the videocamera so I couldn’t get both of them on the screen at the same time half the time. I decided to take an executive decision to keep Andrea on the screen on the edge whenever they were too far apart and hope that Aiste would move closer. The screen angle was poor for my own viewing so all I saw 90% of the time was the outline of the dancers. I think the music used was the same one as the one from Scala, but I wasn’t able to make any assessment of the dancing.
The music was strictly a hit parade up until well after midnight – all classics and many of them slowed down - nothing to complain about really. Pancho Cristal, Se Me Fue, Se Formo Rumbantelo, Quitate La Mascara, La Palomilla, Asia Mood, Merecumbe, Swing La Moderna, Todo Tiene Su Final, Ahora Quien, etc.
Probably the most annoying song was a new Africando one I got stuck with for my first dance with Andrea Stewart. The music wasn’t particularly exciting but it was confusing and tricky – and it was difficult to mask my confusion. I tried for a mulligan and asked her for Ahora Quien couple of songs later, but even that dance was a bit unsatisfying – arguably more so than the first one. I thought the connection was good but not superb – and at this point anything less than good would be preposterous so merely good is not particularly good – albeit making it better than merely good could depend a bit more on chemistry, music or factors beyond one’s control. I thought while we seemed to have common understanding of how to dance to the song but different interpretations of accents here and there resulted in some miscues. Also the environment (different type of floor, mixed crowd with many unpredictable people) probably added difficulty and resulted in hesitation. A few mistakes always happen in pretty much all of my dances, but this one had 2-3 more than I really would have liked. I guess that at least on my part I wasn’t particularly warmed up for heavy-duty social dancing at that time (or any point this evening). Also my best dances almost never are with the performer types anyway – even though my dances with Andrea will have to qualify as the high point on an evening like this. [note: I might have had a dance with Andrea one other time – at Scala. If so my impression/memory is that the Scala dance felt better - perhaps due to lower expectations back then.]
I suppose I could have danced with Aiste, but I didn’t because I decided that Andrea was the rarer opportunity considering how often I see Aiste in both London and Cambridge. Also I would venture to guess that Aiste would get more attention anyway for whatever reason – intimidation factor or attractiveness factor or whatever. I think both of them ended up with three dance partners in any case. Andrea grabbed Rajiv in between my dances with her, and Raj goaded Ed into asking Andrea afterwards (or so I heard from Ed afterwards. Ed thought Andrea seemed used to stronger leads although such thought did not occur to me at any time). I think Sebastian had a nice dance with Aiste.
Vish tried to get me to DJ shortly after the show, but I decided to hold off as much as possible in order to get an opportunity at asking Andrea and possibly Aiste. After Ed’s dance with Andrea (and Sebastian with Aiste at the same time), Vish turned to Reggaeton at Andrea’s request. I deejayed for a short time only after the London gang departed.
Playlist
Decia Que Me Queria – Cachaco
Cuando Se Canta Bonita – Willie Rosario*
La Paella – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence
I don’t think there was much of a Salsa crowd left by then so it all fell quite flat. Vishal came on relief with Merengue, etc. Among his Salsa later, La Vida... was a hit, but not Cali Pachanguero. I tried one Cuban.
Very weird night. Even San Miguel wasn’t very good. The two bottles I had – second one courtesy of Vish – had some nasty tasting bit in the bottom. I think the term used by some to describe it is “skunked.”
Is Michaelmas nearly over?
November 22, 2007
I felt sorry for Liam and Cyrille – a little more for Liam because he was here last two Thursdays in a row, both of which were of a less than prime-time variety. Steph, Agnes, Lindsey, Nicola, Jane, Charlotte, Polly, Kate and more. I think I also had at least four other unnamed dance partners, and they were all pretty good too. Perhaps the luckiest beneficiary was Sebastian, who had the strongest line-up of partners I can recall in Cambridge for a farewell or birthday dance – Steph, Kate, Agnes, Jane, Polly, Sally, Nicola (?) and at least one more high-calibre follower.
And the music was quite outrageous. Sally was playing some new stuff – No Critiques (Eddie Palmieri) was one of very few I recognized before Haihan took over and played even more nutty stuff – no less adventurous than things one would hear at SOS. I didn’t recognize many of the songs – rather unusual experience for me at Club Salsa – and many of the songs were of rather fast and intense variety. One unusual song I did recognize was Mi Montuno (Eddie Palmieri & Cal Tjader). Things became more familiar very late – after midnight – with likes of Push Push Push (Joe Cuba), Clave Mambo (Joe Cuba), La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence).
I was pretty much ready to go home around midnight except the music continued on for another half hour. I think it happened mostly because it was the last Thursday this year for some like Haihan. I even changed my shoes and was forced to dance with my heavy rubber soled shoes when Steph decided to get me on the floor for La-La-La. Fortunately, the floor was extra slippery and the song a slow-paced one so it worked out okay. It reminds me that the floor was very sticky at the start of the night so that I started out and ended the evening dancing while stepping on every beat and walking my turns rather than spinning.
By the time I did manage to leave, Vish had returned from his other gig. He said he wanted to have fun tomorrow night and asked me to bring my music in case I’m needed as a backup DJ.
Quote of the day – “You make me fertile.” OMG. LMAO.
I felt sorry for Liam and Cyrille – a little more for Liam because he was here last two Thursdays in a row, both of which were of a less than prime-time variety. Steph, Agnes, Lindsey, Nicola, Jane, Charlotte, Polly, Kate and more. I think I also had at least four other unnamed dance partners, and they were all pretty good too. Perhaps the luckiest beneficiary was Sebastian, who had the strongest line-up of partners I can recall in Cambridge for a farewell or birthday dance – Steph, Kate, Agnes, Jane, Polly, Sally, Nicola (?) and at least one more high-calibre follower.
And the music was quite outrageous. Sally was playing some new stuff – No Critiques (Eddie Palmieri) was one of very few I recognized before Haihan took over and played even more nutty stuff – no less adventurous than things one would hear at SOS. I didn’t recognize many of the songs – rather unusual experience for me at Club Salsa – and many of the songs were of rather fast and intense variety. One unusual song I did recognize was Mi Montuno (Eddie Palmieri & Cal Tjader). Things became more familiar very late – after midnight – with likes of Push Push Push (Joe Cuba), Clave Mambo (Joe Cuba), La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence).
I was pretty much ready to go home around midnight except the music continued on for another half hour. I think it happened mostly because it was the last Thursday this year for some like Haihan. I even changed my shoes and was forced to dance with my heavy rubber soled shoes when Steph decided to get me on the floor for La-La-La. Fortunately, the floor was extra slippery and the song a slow-paced one so it worked out okay. It reminds me that the floor was very sticky at the start of the night so that I started out and ended the evening dancing while stepping on every beat and walking my turns rather than spinning.
By the time I did manage to leave, Vish had returned from his other gig. He said he wanted to have fun tomorrow night and asked me to bring my music in case I’m needed as a backup DJ.
Quote of the day – “You make me fertile.” OMG. LMAO.
Ballroom Improver 7
November 21, 2007
No Paul once again. The substitute announced himself as Paul’s substitute. I decided to poke around – I think his name is Ben. He has taught the class 3 out of 7 times to date. I’m guessing he did not have complete control of the material being taught. Teaching was fine – I just didn’t like the material. Quickstep… again! Jive… again! Samba… fine. But where is Foxtrot? I’ve been waiting ever since week 1 of Ballroom Beginner over 2 years ago. Considering that next week is the last one, even if they finally turn to Foxtrot it will be perfunctory (and there won't be an opportunity to review it the week after). Foxtrot was among the top 3 dances I was interested in 2 years ago and since has become top 2 after realizing differences between Ballroom Cha Cha and street Cha Cha so this is highly frustrating. Instead, we got my bottom 2 – Quickstep and Jive. It could have been worse – it could have been Tango instead of Samba.
Quickstep
Another thing. We did two fairly similar long moves with Quickstep. It took me a while to get the first one, and I cannot remember how it ended after the second one. I don’t understand the ending for the second one either. I’m sure my negative attitude did not help with remembering the steps.
In both cases, it started with
R forw and turn clockwise and chassis to side for 2 quick and last slow chassis backwards with L – or at least I think this is how the timing compares to Quickstep basic and I think the turn is about 1/3
R back and turn clockwise about 2/3 (or 1/2?) to end facing the same way and chassis?
R back? and turn 1/4 (or 1/3?) counterclockwise and chassis??
The other one was something like…
R forw and turn clockwise and chassis to side for 2 quick and last slow chassis backwards with L
R back and chassis backwards lockstep (L inside-R-L inside or maybe L inside-R-L outside)
R back and chassis backwards L outside turn clockwise ? and finish chassis?
or perhaps it was chassis(lockstep)-chassis(normal)-and-turn-and-chassis
Samba
Better. What were the moves? Volta and Bota Fogos. Also Volta with a turn.
Either of these could be started after Whisk or after Government Walk (after R in front of L)
Bota Fogos
L across, turn and R syncopated quick back step followed by L in place (from Whisk turned 1/2 counterclockwise and from Walk turned 1/4 counterclockwise – while follower turns clockwise – lead behind follower)
R across, turn and L syncopated quick back step followed by R in place (1/2 turn clockwise for lead and 1/2 turn counterclockwise for follower with lead behind follower – involves exchange of places)
repeat
With Volta, simplest seems to be to do 4 syncopated steps (L in front of R and moving to R) first moving counterclockwise for lead followed by 4 syncopated steps moving clockwise for lead – overall movement (displacement from beginning) is somewhat like Government walk. It seemed to make timing work better than last week.
To add a turn to it, lead follower to turn 1 1/2 counterclockwise during the final 4 syncopated steps after the second exchange. It's a walking turn not a spin.
Jive
I think it involved a move called Chicken Walk...
L step behind R, chassis to L while leading follower further forward/side than usual, turn hand to lead follower counterclockwise and chassis forward following follower (chassis done here with R in front of L) - this part I get...
turn hand to lead follower to face you again (she turns clockwise) while stepping back with R, then L - followed by chicken walk I think (going backwards R,L,R,L) - timing is somewhat mysterious to me here
chassis to L ?? while leading follower further forward/side than usual, turn hand to lead follower counterclockwise and chassis forward following follower (chassis done here with R in front of L)
then back to basic... This obviously is very unsatisfying description to me. Oh well.
No Paul once again. The substitute announced himself as Paul’s substitute. I decided to poke around – I think his name is Ben. He has taught the class 3 out of 7 times to date. I’m guessing he did not have complete control of the material being taught. Teaching was fine – I just didn’t like the material. Quickstep… again! Jive… again! Samba… fine. But where is Foxtrot? I’ve been waiting ever since week 1 of Ballroom Beginner over 2 years ago. Considering that next week is the last one, even if they finally turn to Foxtrot it will be perfunctory (and there won't be an opportunity to review it the week after). Foxtrot was among the top 3 dances I was interested in 2 years ago and since has become top 2 after realizing differences between Ballroom Cha Cha and street Cha Cha so this is highly frustrating. Instead, we got my bottom 2 – Quickstep and Jive. It could have been worse – it could have been Tango instead of Samba.
Quickstep
Another thing. We did two fairly similar long moves with Quickstep. It took me a while to get the first one, and I cannot remember how it ended after the second one. I don’t understand the ending for the second one either. I’m sure my negative attitude did not help with remembering the steps.
In both cases, it started with
R forw and turn clockwise and chassis to side for 2 quick and last slow chassis backwards with L – or at least I think this is how the timing compares to Quickstep basic and I think the turn is about 1/3
R back and turn clockwise about 2/3 (or 1/2?) to end facing the same way and chassis?
R back? and turn 1/4 (or 1/3?) counterclockwise and chassis??
The other one was something like…
R forw and turn clockwise and chassis to side for 2 quick and last slow chassis backwards with L
R back and chassis backwards lockstep (L inside-R-L inside or maybe L inside-R-L outside)
R back and chassis backwards L outside turn clockwise ? and finish chassis?
or perhaps it was chassis(lockstep)-chassis(normal)-and-turn-and-chassis
Samba
Better. What were the moves? Volta and Bota Fogos. Also Volta with a turn.
Either of these could be started after Whisk or after Government Walk (after R in front of L)
Bota Fogos
L across, turn and R syncopated quick back step followed by L in place (from Whisk turned 1/2 counterclockwise and from Walk turned 1/4 counterclockwise – while follower turns clockwise – lead behind follower)
R across, turn and L syncopated quick back step followed by R in place (1/2 turn clockwise for lead and 1/2 turn counterclockwise for follower with lead behind follower – involves exchange of places)
repeat
With Volta, simplest seems to be to do 4 syncopated steps (L in front of R and moving to R) first moving counterclockwise for lead followed by 4 syncopated steps moving clockwise for lead – overall movement (displacement from beginning) is somewhat like Government walk. It seemed to make timing work better than last week.
To add a turn to it, lead follower to turn 1 1/2 counterclockwise during the final 4 syncopated steps after the second exchange. It's a walking turn not a spin.
Jive
I think it involved a move called Chicken Walk...
L step behind R, chassis to L while leading follower further forward/side than usual, turn hand to lead follower counterclockwise and chassis forward following follower (chassis done here with R in front of L) - this part I get...
turn hand to lead follower to face you again (she turns clockwise) while stepping back with R, then L - followed by chicken walk I think (going backwards R,L,R,L) - timing is somewhat mysterious to me here
chassis to L ?? while leading follower further forward/side than usual, turn hand to lead follower counterclockwise and chassis forward following follower (chassis done here with R in front of L)
then back to basic... This obviously is very unsatisfying description to me. Oh well.
Raised eyebrows
November 20, 2007
I think this is quite remarkable - official out-of-town (from another country in first two cases technically speaking) guests visiting Club Salsa for three consecutive weeks for teaching, performance, etc.
November 23th Friday - Andrea Stewart & Alex Baroni
November 27th Tuesday - Tony Lara & Daniella DeFrancisco
December 7th Friday - Lee Wright & Shelley Cook
I think this is quite remarkable - official out-of-town (from another country in first two cases technically speaking) guests visiting Club Salsa for three consecutive weeks for teaching, performance, etc.
November 23th Friday - Andrea Stewart & Alex Baroni
November 27th Tuesday - Tony Lara & Daniella DeFrancisco
December 7th Friday - Lee Wright & Shelley Cook
Coventry - Collier's Club
November 17, 2007
Flood of texts and phone calls continued. I had to rush to get work related stuff wrapped up and deal with dinner quickly to meet everyone on time. Final line-up in my car was Zern, Steph and Liam - Zern's friend Katie dropping out at the last minute. We also made rendezvous with Sebastian and the occupants in his car - Kate, Cyrille and Rajiv at Fitzwilliam College with the idea of caravanning together (although this idea was abandoned). Other than getting lost at the very end - Google Map led me astray - the drive was uneventful. The chatter on the other hand was a bit colorful - dominated early by Liam dealing with his credit card and bank card passkey fiasco and later by Lori's center of mass.
Still we were in the Colliery Club by around 9:40 - not much over an hour after a brief stop at Bar Hill for petrol, food for some and memory loss for others. It looked like a veritable army had descended upon Coventry from Cambridge. I think there were well over 20 names on the list - although not everyone from the list made it (notably Ivan and Katie). Among others arriving separately were Sally, Charlotte, Nicola, Annette, Jane, Mark, Ed and at least two others whose names I did not know (or for that matter their face). There certainly were more but not necessary from the same list. I think Steph mentioned later that she danced with someone from Cambridge for the first time tonight.
The dance floor of Colliery Club was comparable in size to Mary Ward House. It was quite busy - presumably the event attracts people from Birmingham in addition to Coventry. The number of non-beginners at the event was significantly larger than at Chilford. Coventry has population of ~300,000 and Birmingham nearly 1,000,000 while West Midlands Met County has 2,555,000 people according to 2001 census (by comparison, Cambridge has ~100,000 and Cambridgeshire ~550,000) so I suppose this is not surprising. My thought was that it was a very middle-brow event compared to events I have seen elsewhere. If I had seen it two years ago, I would have thought it great. Now it seemed alright although nothing spectacular and not especially compelling compared to London - with caveat that I don't find London all that exciting anymore also.
Music too was fairly middle-brow - Se Formo Rumbantelo (Javier Vazquez - played twice?), Esa Mujer (Tony Vega), Fragile, Todo Tiene Su Final (Willie Colon), El Menu (Gran Combo). There was nothing particularly memorable. I tried to see if I could get Mauricio to guess the song Liam asked me about last night. No luck. Liam later mentioned that Juan Matos likes the song, and I was able to identify it later as Rumbon Melon (Joey Pastrana) - I actually had a copy of the song because someone had sent it to me a while ago [note added later: I talked about this song a number of times this summer on this blog. I guess the problem is that I don't own an album with the song.]. Surprisingly high number of Bachata was played. One Cha Cha was played apparently because Liam requested it. They also played a Los Van Van - not a heavy-duty Timba though.
Dancing was fine. Nothing spectacular, but there was one stretch where I had a string of more than five very nice dances including the one with the showcase performer of the day and including a pair of dances with two Black women no one else from Cambridge likely noticed. Sometimes seeing someone I just danced with get picked up by the one of the highest profile dancers next can be quite gratifying, and another such instance was seeing the latter of the Black woman dancing with the showcase lead Miguel next. The lead she danced with before me seemed nice too, so I'd say she got her money's worth. Pretty much all of the dances were singletons with a two cases of Salsa plus Bachata (someone asked me) or Cha Cha and two more cases of multiple Salsa.
The party ended at 2:30 - no real effort to make it go longer, but they did give you plenty of warnings - 30 minutes to go, 3 more songs, 2 more songs, last song. I had left my car unlocked with valuables inside, but no one ventured to break in cold dark windy evening in the boondocks of Coventry. I think a hole formed in the muffler while the car cooled down, so it was a bit noisy on the way back. Topics for the drive back included common dancing partners throughout the evening, nearly getting my fingers broken while dancing, counter terrorist unit, impressions and microanalysis of Natalia (they're real!), comparing fingers with nipples, badmouthing London, etc. before people started falling asleep. It was also interesting to hear about Liam asking a stranger about how I danced and the response he received.
Flood of texts and phone calls continued. I had to rush to get work related stuff wrapped up and deal with dinner quickly to meet everyone on time. Final line-up in my car was Zern, Steph and Liam - Zern's friend Katie dropping out at the last minute. We also made rendezvous with Sebastian and the occupants in his car - Kate, Cyrille and Rajiv at Fitzwilliam College with the idea of caravanning together (although this idea was abandoned). Other than getting lost at the very end - Google Map led me astray - the drive was uneventful. The chatter on the other hand was a bit colorful - dominated early by Liam dealing with his credit card and bank card passkey fiasco and later by Lori's center of mass.
Still we were in the Colliery Club by around 9:40 - not much over an hour after a brief stop at Bar Hill for petrol, food for some and memory loss for others. It looked like a veritable army had descended upon Coventry from Cambridge. I think there were well over 20 names on the list - although not everyone from the list made it (notably Ivan and Katie). Among others arriving separately were Sally, Charlotte, Nicola, Annette, Jane, Mark, Ed and at least two others whose names I did not know (or for that matter their face). There certainly were more but not necessary from the same list. I think Steph mentioned later that she danced with someone from Cambridge for the first time tonight.
The dance floor of Colliery Club was comparable in size to Mary Ward House. It was quite busy - presumably the event attracts people from Birmingham in addition to Coventry. The number of non-beginners at the event was significantly larger than at Chilford. Coventry has population of ~300,000 and Birmingham nearly 1,000,000 while West Midlands Met County has 2,555,000 people according to 2001 census (by comparison, Cambridge has ~100,000 and Cambridgeshire ~550,000) so I suppose this is not surprising. My thought was that it was a very middle-brow event compared to events I have seen elsewhere. If I had seen it two years ago, I would have thought it great. Now it seemed alright although nothing spectacular and not especially compelling compared to London - with caveat that I don't find London all that exciting anymore also.
Music too was fairly middle-brow - Se Formo Rumbantelo (Javier Vazquez - played twice?), Esa Mujer (Tony Vega), Fragile, Todo Tiene Su Final (Willie Colon), El Menu (Gran Combo). There was nothing particularly memorable. I tried to see if I could get Mauricio to guess the song Liam asked me about last night. No luck. Liam later mentioned that Juan Matos likes the song, and I was able to identify it later as Rumbon Melon (Joey Pastrana) - I actually had a copy of the song because someone had sent it to me a while ago [note added later: I talked about this song a number of times this summer on this blog. I guess the problem is that I don't own an album with the song.]. Surprisingly high number of Bachata was played. One Cha Cha was played apparently because Liam requested it. They also played a Los Van Van - not a heavy-duty Timba though.
Dancing was fine. Nothing spectacular, but there was one stretch where I had a string of more than five very nice dances including the one with the showcase performer of the day and including a pair of dances with two Black women no one else from Cambridge likely noticed. Sometimes seeing someone I just danced with get picked up by the one of the highest profile dancers next can be quite gratifying, and another such instance was seeing the latter of the Black woman dancing with the showcase lead Miguel next. The lead she danced with before me seemed nice too, so I'd say she got her money's worth. Pretty much all of the dances were singletons with a two cases of Salsa plus Bachata (someone asked me) or Cha Cha and two more cases of multiple Salsa.
The party ended at 2:30 - no real effort to make it go longer, but they did give you plenty of warnings - 30 minutes to go, 3 more songs, 2 more songs, last song. I had left my car unlocked with valuables inside, but no one ventured to break in cold dark windy evening in the boondocks of Coventry. I think a hole formed in the muffler while the car cooled down, so it was a bit noisy on the way back. Topics for the drive back included common dancing partners throughout the evening, nearly getting my fingers broken while dancing, counter terrorist unit, impressions and microanalysis of Natalia (they're real!), comparing fingers with nipples, badmouthing London, etc. before people started falling asleep. It was also interesting to hear about Liam asking a stranger about how I danced and the response he received.
Box of chocolates
November 16, 2007
Trying to guess what will happen is hazardous. More experience you gain, better you get. Yet there are always surprises. If I could predict future accurately I suppose I could become very rich – if I were to get around to act on correct guesses.
I received over ten calls and texts from five different people. Pretty unusual. Pretty scary – when my phone beeped four times in rapid succession as I was finishing my drive home. I suppose it happened because my phone gets little reception at work. By the way, there will be a veritable army going to Coventry tomorrow night. Frightening.
The composition of people at Club Salsa was very unusual as well. When was the last time these four – Ivan (no Helen), Pete (no Cinzia), Jay (I’m guessing he was substituting once again – alone in any case), Mauricio (also solo) – showed up at the same time? Also present were Cyrille, Liam, Rajiv, Mark, Sebastian, Joon, Draco, Gordon, John, Charlie, Luis. Maybe one or two Friday regular among men were missing. On the other side, the only women I knew by name were Steph, Polly, Andrea, Kate (late arrival), Sharon, Anastasia, Michelle and that’s it period! That’s more than 2 to 1 ratio, and like most others I tend to interact mostly with and learn names of people of opposite sex. There were two other women who I dance with regularly and whose names I never learned – more than balanced by larger number of men who I recognize by face only. It was a sausage-fest – no doubt about it.
The song selection by Vishal was quite unusual. Vishal tends to play many faster-paced songs compared to Sally or others on the DJ booth on Thursdays – Ivan’s reaction to this statement was “Very tiring.” In any case things sounded fairly typical for a while – not bad really as there were good songs like the one Liam asked me about and I couldn’t answer. A hint that things might go a little different came about when La Palomilla (Joe Cuba) came on and shortly thereafter Guaguanco Margarito (Tito Puente – played for the first time to my knowledge in Cambridge). The biggest two surprises for me came after 1 AM with a version of Tanga (originally by Machito – first time I’ve heard this in Cambridge as well) and En El Balcon (Tito Rodriguez – first time by Vish). Other classics included Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez), Sun Sun Babae (Tito Rodriguez Jr?), Asia Mood (Tito Puente – I think first time by Vish), La Pantera Mambo (La 33), Merecumbe (2 versions), Cuando Tu Quieras (Chivirico Davila), A Man’s World (Ray Santiago), Valio La Pena (Marc Anthony) as well as a 2-3 highbrow New York type music I did not recognize. The club was tilted toward slot style more than usual for Fridays – with apologies to the smoothest Cuban lead I’ve ever seen in Cambridge. No Merengue – until the very end of the evening because of a request. 6-8 Bachata. One Latin pop? One Ballroom Cha Cha – not sure about others but Liam definitely disliked the Ballroom element and I tend to agree on that account. In many ways, tonight reminded me of the Friday before Chilford although it was really very different too.
My dancing was okay. I think I drank too much - I think I was a bit out of control some of the times. It was okay and interesting (like for Asia Mood) but sometimes a little hairy and dubious. I suppose it's okay if I were think of it as experimenting and pushing boundaries, etc.
Trying to guess what will happen is hazardous. More experience you gain, better you get. Yet there are always surprises. If I could predict future accurately I suppose I could become very rich – if I were to get around to act on correct guesses.
I received over ten calls and texts from five different people. Pretty unusual. Pretty scary – when my phone beeped four times in rapid succession as I was finishing my drive home. I suppose it happened because my phone gets little reception at work. By the way, there will be a veritable army going to Coventry tomorrow night. Frightening.
The composition of people at Club Salsa was very unusual as well. When was the last time these four – Ivan (no Helen), Pete (no Cinzia), Jay (I’m guessing he was substituting once again – alone in any case), Mauricio (also solo) – showed up at the same time? Also present were Cyrille, Liam, Rajiv, Mark, Sebastian, Joon, Draco, Gordon, John, Charlie, Luis. Maybe one or two Friday regular among men were missing. On the other side, the only women I knew by name were Steph, Polly, Andrea, Kate (late arrival), Sharon, Anastasia, Michelle and that’s it period! That’s more than 2 to 1 ratio, and like most others I tend to interact mostly with and learn names of people of opposite sex. There were two other women who I dance with regularly and whose names I never learned – more than balanced by larger number of men who I recognize by face only. It was a sausage-fest – no doubt about it.
The song selection by Vishal was quite unusual. Vishal tends to play many faster-paced songs compared to Sally or others on the DJ booth on Thursdays – Ivan’s reaction to this statement was “Very tiring.” In any case things sounded fairly typical for a while – not bad really as there were good songs like the one Liam asked me about and I couldn’t answer. A hint that things might go a little different came about when La Palomilla (Joe Cuba) came on and shortly thereafter Guaguanco Margarito (Tito Puente – played for the first time to my knowledge in Cambridge). The biggest two surprises for me came after 1 AM with a version of Tanga (originally by Machito – first time I’ve heard this in Cambridge as well) and En El Balcon (Tito Rodriguez – first time by Vish). Other classics included Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez), Sun Sun Babae (Tito Rodriguez Jr?), Asia Mood (Tito Puente – I think first time by Vish), La Pantera Mambo (La 33), Merecumbe (2 versions), Cuando Tu Quieras (Chivirico Davila), A Man’s World (Ray Santiago), Valio La Pena (Marc Anthony) as well as a 2-3 highbrow New York type music I did not recognize. The club was tilted toward slot style more than usual for Fridays – with apologies to the smoothest Cuban lead I’ve ever seen in Cambridge. No Merengue – until the very end of the evening because of a request. 6-8 Bachata. One Latin pop? One Ballroom Cha Cha – not sure about others but Liam definitely disliked the Ballroom element and I tend to agree on that account. In many ways, tonight reminded me of the Friday before Chilford although it was really very different too.
My dancing was okay. I think I drank too much - I think I was a bit out of control some of the times. It was okay and interesting (like for Asia Mood) but sometimes a little hairy and dubious. I suppose it's okay if I were think of it as experimenting and pushing boundaries, etc.
Script gone awry
November 15, 2007
It was another strange Thursday. No Southeast Mafia. No Cyrille. Ivan was back from his vacation. Liam showed up again. Among the usual suspects, present were Sebastian, Mark, Rajiv, Polly and Kate. Nicola apparently substituted for Jane and Charlotte – although Jane showed up later for the social. No idea if there’s any underlying reason for absences other than people simply being busy. I joked that people decided to stay away because they could not handle both Ivan and Liam being there at the same time.
The social still went til midnight – I left around 11:50. Despite missing large number of usual people, it was no less busy than usual. Some other people stayed longer to fill the vacuum. Life went on. I danced with at least seven people for at least 11 dances including with Maya from the Ballroom class. It was more like a Friday type dancing day rather than a typical Thursday. Then again what is typical? Things change all the time.
I think Sally probably used 2 or 3 CDs for almost all of the evening. She opted to switch one CD when Gloria Estefan came on, but she was nowhere to be seen when a Bachata came on. Maybe she was hiding. There weren’t a lot of surprises – Malaguena Salerosa, La China De Mi Barrio, Mujer Erotica, La 33 & Soledad, Ojos Chinos, My Favorite Things, Trucutu, Lady, Merecumbe (Los Titanes), Arinanara or Caravan. Aside from first few songs, everything sounded familiar. No complaints though.
It was another strange Thursday. No Southeast Mafia. No Cyrille. Ivan was back from his vacation. Liam showed up again. Among the usual suspects, present were Sebastian, Mark, Rajiv, Polly and Kate. Nicola apparently substituted for Jane and Charlotte – although Jane showed up later for the social. No idea if there’s any underlying reason for absences other than people simply being busy. I joked that people decided to stay away because they could not handle both Ivan and Liam being there at the same time.
The social still went til midnight – I left around 11:50. Despite missing large number of usual people, it was no less busy than usual. Some other people stayed longer to fill the vacuum. Life went on. I danced with at least seven people for at least 11 dances including with Maya from the Ballroom class. It was more like a Friday type dancing day rather than a typical Thursday. Then again what is typical? Things change all the time.
I think Sally probably used 2 or 3 CDs for almost all of the evening. She opted to switch one CD when Gloria Estefan came on, but she was nowhere to be seen when a Bachata came on. Maybe she was hiding. There weren’t a lot of surprises – Malaguena Salerosa, La China De Mi Barrio, Mujer Erotica, La 33 & Soledad, Ojos Chinos, My Favorite Things, Trucutu, Lady, Merecumbe (Los Titanes), Arinanara or Caravan. Aside from first few songs, everything sounded familiar. No complaints though.
Ballroom Improver 6
November 14, 2007
Big class – bigger than ever for reasons unknown to me. I quite enjoyed it or at least had the dances I enjoyed the most this term.
Cha Cha
The only new thing was a faster paced New Yorker.
2 L feet to R New York keep weight off it
3 L back to normal
4 R feet to L New York keep weight off it
5 R back to normal
6 L feet to R New York keep weight off it
7 L back to normal and lead follower to a stationary clockwise turn
Although I suppose a true Cross Body Lead could be considered new-ish too.
Samba
Whisk and Government Walk was revisited. A modification was that the timing for Government walk is not quite syncopated as Whisk is.
New move was something called Volta.
From the end of Whisk (L crossed behind R)
L forward and exchange places with follower (follower turns 1/2 clockwise while leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise – leader is behind follower during this exchange) and chassis twice with R behind L
R forward and exchange places with follower (follower turns 1/2 counterclockwise while leader turns 1/2 clockwise – leader is behind follower during this exchange) and chassis three times with L behind R
followed by another Whisk
Waltz
The same old move from last few weeks was covered again before something new was added.
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise, R together
L back, R together and turn, L forw (but lift the follower – not quite sure what is meant by lift)
…
the same old move would be promenade with R forw across L
the new move involves R crossed behind L, L to side, then R together – I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to get follower to do here…
Possibly what needs to be done is that instead of going into promenade position with L forw (second line), end face-to-face?
No wonder why I liked this class. No Quickstep. No Jive. No Ballroom Tango.
Big class – bigger than ever for reasons unknown to me. I quite enjoyed it or at least had the dances I enjoyed the most this term.
Cha Cha
The only new thing was a faster paced New Yorker.
2 L feet to R New York keep weight off it
3 L back to normal
4 R feet to L New York keep weight off it
5 R back to normal
6 L feet to R New York keep weight off it
7 L back to normal and lead follower to a stationary clockwise turn
Although I suppose a true Cross Body Lead could be considered new-ish too.
Samba
Whisk and Government Walk was revisited. A modification was that the timing for Government walk is not quite syncopated as Whisk is.
New move was something called Volta.
From the end of Whisk (L crossed behind R)
L forward and exchange places with follower (follower turns 1/2 clockwise while leader turns 1/2 counterclockwise – leader is behind follower during this exchange) and chassis twice with R behind L
R forward and exchange places with follower (follower turns 1/2 counterclockwise while leader turns 1/2 clockwise – leader is behind follower during this exchange) and chassis three times with L behind R
followed by another Whisk
Waltz
The same old move from last few weeks was covered again before something new was added.
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise, R together
L back, R together and turn, L forw (but lift the follower – not quite sure what is meant by lift)
…
the same old move would be promenade with R forw across L
the new move involves R crossed behind L, L to side, then R together – I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to get follower to do here…
Possibly what needs to be done is that instead of going into promenade position with L forw (second line), end face-to-face?
No wonder why I liked this class. No Quickstep. No Jive. No Ballroom Tango.
St. Paul's on Friday
November 9, 2007
Things were beyond my control – not that I want or need things to be under my control. The drive to bring the core group of prominent cross body stylists to Johnny and Serap’s event managed enough momentum so resistance seemed futile. If nothing else, the thirst to try something new and different will sometimes triumph over continuing comforts of following the familiar routine even if it offers no significant improvement. An excellent example for near future may be this talk of visiting Coventry next weekend. It’ll probably be okay but not great yet novelty of dancing in a new place for the first time probably will win out – at least this time around now that enough people have indicated interest to get the ball rolling. Heck, it might end up being the same crowd except in a different city if the movement gets big enough.
St. Paul’s church hall was fairly large – the dance space was a little bigger than total floor space at Club Salsa. Nice wood floor – in better shape than Guildhall or the other church hall Johnny and Serap used last year near the bus station. Liam thought the floor was very slippery – he says the same of Club Salsa. Sam mentioned the place reminded her of school balls where boys and girls segregate at opposite corners of the room - maybe it was the presence of a basketball setup over the entrance or the high ceiling or the arch. Similar things had been said of many other events held outside Club Salsa. There was plenty of seats on the edge, and the volume of music suitable for making conversation led to a lot of lounging around and relaxing rather than looking for a dance after a dance.
Predictably the balance was in favor of the girls – typical when venturing to a new venue is involved. The group arriving around 10 included me, Liam, Raj, Haihan, Per, Steph, Sam and Polly. We were joined by Mark, Sally, Richard, Jane, Cyrille, Sebastian and Ed. Agnes showed up later and Zhenzhi much later near closing time. Isabelle also was here visiting from London and getting a Cambridge version of her birthday dance. It felt as if the party grew double in size as soon as we arrived, and as the evening went on this group came to more or less dominate the scene. As another commented, it was like a private party. This feeling was reinforced when within half hour of arrival, Haihan replaced Theodore as the DJ. It really was like the old Thursday crowd transplanted to a different spot.
The party at St. Paul’s lasted until past 1 AM – much later than it would have ended without the group - and ending with three Bachata in a row. I only had seven dances altogether – meaning I did not even get around to ask everyone in the group. Fairly large contingent of people felt they had not gotten enough dancing, so we headed to Club Salsa hoping for another half hour of dancing. Alas Club Salsa was closed by then. It really goes to show small delicate nature of the scene here in Cambridge. On a normal Friday night I would expect 6-8 people from the group to attend Club Salsa. Outside the group, maybe another 6-8 people would have gone to Club Salsa after St. Paul’s closed early (probably no later than midnight). Those seemingly are not big numbers, but perhaps some people have disproportionate influence because of trickle-down effect their presence generates.
A question is what will happen next week and thereafter? Is it likely that a concerted effort to keep the same group going together to one or another venue every week? If not, how would a smaller group choose? Which venue is more likely to entice newcomers (to Cambridge or to Salsa or to both)? Who has better teachers? Better music? Better people? Better atmosphere? Other intangibles? Does any of it matter? Can Cambridge support two or more Salsa venues on a same night? Someone commented to me some time ago that people who would go to St. Paul’s is not the same as the ones who would attend Club Salsa. How true is that? If there is some truth to it, would the people who would prefer St. Paul’s not welcome people who would prefer Club Salsa attending their event? Or vice versa?
Things were beyond my control – not that I want or need things to be under my control. The drive to bring the core group of prominent cross body stylists to Johnny and Serap’s event managed enough momentum so resistance seemed futile. If nothing else, the thirst to try something new and different will sometimes triumph over continuing comforts of following the familiar routine even if it offers no significant improvement. An excellent example for near future may be this talk of visiting Coventry next weekend. It’ll probably be okay but not great yet novelty of dancing in a new place for the first time probably will win out – at least this time around now that enough people have indicated interest to get the ball rolling. Heck, it might end up being the same crowd except in a different city if the movement gets big enough.
St. Paul’s church hall was fairly large – the dance space was a little bigger than total floor space at Club Salsa. Nice wood floor – in better shape than Guildhall or the other church hall Johnny and Serap used last year near the bus station. Liam thought the floor was very slippery – he says the same of Club Salsa. Sam mentioned the place reminded her of school balls where boys and girls segregate at opposite corners of the room - maybe it was the presence of a basketball setup over the entrance or the high ceiling or the arch. Similar things had been said of many other events held outside Club Salsa. There was plenty of seats on the edge, and the volume of music suitable for making conversation led to a lot of lounging around and relaxing rather than looking for a dance after a dance.
Predictably the balance was in favor of the girls – typical when venturing to a new venue is involved. The group arriving around 10 included me, Liam, Raj, Haihan, Per, Steph, Sam and Polly. We were joined by Mark, Sally, Richard, Jane, Cyrille, Sebastian and Ed. Agnes showed up later and Zhenzhi much later near closing time. Isabelle also was here visiting from London and getting a Cambridge version of her birthday dance. It felt as if the party grew double in size as soon as we arrived, and as the evening went on this group came to more or less dominate the scene. As another commented, it was like a private party. This feeling was reinforced when within half hour of arrival, Haihan replaced Theodore as the DJ. It really was like the old Thursday crowd transplanted to a different spot.
The party at St. Paul’s lasted until past 1 AM – much later than it would have ended without the group - and ending with three Bachata in a row. I only had seven dances altogether – meaning I did not even get around to ask everyone in the group. Fairly large contingent of people felt they had not gotten enough dancing, so we headed to Club Salsa hoping for another half hour of dancing. Alas Club Salsa was closed by then. It really goes to show small delicate nature of the scene here in Cambridge. On a normal Friday night I would expect 6-8 people from the group to attend Club Salsa. Outside the group, maybe another 6-8 people would have gone to Club Salsa after St. Paul’s closed early (probably no later than midnight). Those seemingly are not big numbers, but perhaps some people have disproportionate influence because of trickle-down effect their presence generates.
A question is what will happen next week and thereafter? Is it likely that a concerted effort to keep the same group going together to one or another venue every week? If not, how would a smaller group choose? Which venue is more likely to entice newcomers (to Cambridge or to Salsa or to both)? Who has better teachers? Better music? Better people? Better atmosphere? Other intangibles? Does any of it matter? Can Cambridge support two or more Salsa venues on a same night? Someone commented to me some time ago that people who would go to St. Paul’s is not the same as the ones who would attend Club Salsa. How true is that? If there is some truth to it, would the people who would prefer St. Paul’s not welcome people who would prefer Club Salsa attending their event? Or vice versa?
Once a week for most people?
November 8, 2007
I was a bit early and ran into Mauricio, who's supposedly been hiding in the countryside. The classes were quite full - the arrangement was a little weird considering crowding. I considered asking some unfamiliar people in the classes for a dance but found myself crossing off almost everyone because of poor basic footwork. One person I did end up dancing with turned out to be someone I danced with at Chilford. Pretty natural follow with nice posture and great attitude - need to work on developing impeccable timing - could become devastatingly good and cause onlooker's legs to wobble. It could be interesting to see Chilford leaves lasting effects on the scene.
Unlike the classes, the social was devoid of many of the usual suspects. Sergio's across the pond. No Ivan, Cyrille, Raj, Haihan, Zern, Steph, Agnes, Euvian, Zhenzhi, Nicola. Maybe they are saving themselves. Mark showed up only for the last few minutes. Another good follow (associated with Shiraz? - not here tonight) also only showed up late and did not dance much. I ended up dancing mostly with Channel, who'll be away until Februrary, and thrusting her at likes of Sebastian and Liam when I wasn't. It wasn't anything near exclusive - I also danced with Polly, Charlotte, Kate, Lindsey, Annette. Possibly because of it being somewhat sparse, Sally stuck mostly with very popular easy songs (or possibly songs she thought people like Liam and I would like).
At one point I thought I was going to leave shortly after 11. Somehow it ended up being at closing near midnight. Maybe the blame could go partly to Liam, who decided to have a couple more dances after I thought he was done. He also received at least one version of the latest gossip and intrigue in Cambridge while delivering a vintage put-down of the London scene. It was also interesting to be reminded of the fact that we started this essentially at same time - no more than a few weeks apart and moving via mostly different paths (for one thing I think I still have seen him in London more often than in Cambridge).
I was a bit early and ran into Mauricio, who's supposedly been hiding in the countryside. The classes were quite full - the arrangement was a little weird considering crowding. I considered asking some unfamiliar people in the classes for a dance but found myself crossing off almost everyone because of poor basic footwork. One person I did end up dancing with turned out to be someone I danced with at Chilford. Pretty natural follow with nice posture and great attitude - need to work on developing impeccable timing - could become devastatingly good and cause onlooker's legs to wobble. It could be interesting to see Chilford leaves lasting effects on the scene.
Unlike the classes, the social was devoid of many of the usual suspects. Sergio's across the pond. No Ivan, Cyrille, Raj, Haihan, Zern, Steph, Agnes, Euvian, Zhenzhi, Nicola. Maybe they are saving themselves. Mark showed up only for the last few minutes. Another good follow (associated with Shiraz? - not here tonight) also only showed up late and did not dance much. I ended up dancing mostly with Channel, who'll be away until Februrary, and thrusting her at likes of Sebastian and Liam when I wasn't. It wasn't anything near exclusive - I also danced with Polly, Charlotte, Kate, Lindsey, Annette. Possibly because of it being somewhat sparse, Sally stuck mostly with very popular easy songs (or possibly songs she thought people like Liam and I would like).
At one point I thought I was going to leave shortly after 11. Somehow it ended up being at closing near midnight. Maybe the blame could go partly to Liam, who decided to have a couple more dances after I thought he was done. He also received at least one version of the latest gossip and intrigue in Cambridge while delivering a vintage put-down of the London scene. It was also interesting to be reminded of the fact that we started this essentially at same time - no more than a few weeks apart and moving via mostly different paths (for one thing I think I still have seen him in London more often than in Cambridge).
Ballroom Improver 5
November 7, 2007
No Paul. Substitute was the guy from 2 weeks ago. There were two excess leads.
Tango
It was review of the three moves tried all term long. Tango is considered Modern rather than Latin.
L forw, R forw, L forw, R side R into promenade
L forw promenade, R forw promenade, L forw and turn face to face, R together
L forw, R forw, L forw, R forw and turn as unit 1/4 counterclockwise
L cross behind R, R slight back and turn 1/2 counterclockwise, L to L, R together
(moving same direction throughout)
L forw, R forw, L forw, R side R into promenade
L forw promenade, R forw promenade, L overtake follower turning 1/4 clockwise, weight on R
rock back on L, rock forw on R, rock back on L
R back, L side L, R together
Waltz
Repeat of last week once again.
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise as unit, R together
L back, R together and turn as unit 1/2 clockwise, L forw in promenade
R forw, L forw, R forw and turning 1/4 counterclockwise
L back, R cross behind L turning 1/2 counterclockwise as unit, L together
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise as unit, R together
Whisk was not a part of the class. I tried practicing it by myself.
Jive
Same thing as last week except I understand it better now.
Basic footwork = L cross behind R, chassis to L, chassis to R (and repeat)
Lead for follower to go under happens at the end of the first part of the chassis
L cross behind R, chassis to L and start to lead follower under L-R and chassis to R
For stop-and-go
L cross behind R, start to bring follower back under L-R as chassis to L, stop follower with R on follower’s back (possibly all the way to her side) while stepping across with R foot, chassis to R as follower goes back
American turn (better with R-R)
L cross behind, chassis to L with R-R turned around (both fingers pointing upwards), turn (optional for lead) is follower immediately by chassis to R
Samba
basic
L forw, syncopated R together and L in place
R back, syncopated L together and R in place
whisk
L side L, syncopated R cross behind L and L in place
R side L, syncopated L cross behind R and R in place
promenade (Government walk?)
L forw in promenade, syncopated R with slight backwards movement (but overall forw from the start) and L in place
R forw in promenade, syncopated L with slight backwards movement (as above) and R in place
One thing I noticed is that these CDC classes seem to be considerably less popular than they were two years ago, which apparently was an unusually popular year for CDC. Tonight’s beginner class before my improver class was smaller than my class – I think the lack of popularity was mainly due to lack of interest from the new crop of students. Not sure if this is a general trend for all CDC classes.
No Paul. Substitute was the guy from 2 weeks ago. There were two excess leads.
Tango
It was review of the three moves tried all term long. Tango is considered Modern rather than Latin.
L forw, R forw, L forw, R side R into promenade
L forw promenade, R forw promenade, L forw and turn face to face, R together
L forw, R forw, L forw, R forw and turn as unit 1/4 counterclockwise
L cross behind R, R slight back and turn 1/2 counterclockwise, L to L, R together
(moving same direction throughout)
L forw, R forw, L forw, R side R into promenade
L forw promenade, R forw promenade, L overtake follower turning 1/4 clockwise, weight on R
rock back on L, rock forw on R, rock back on L
R back, L side L, R together
Waltz
Repeat of last week once again.
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise as unit, R together
L back, R together and turn as unit 1/2 clockwise, L forw in promenade
R forw, L forw, R forw and turning 1/4 counterclockwise
L back, R cross behind L turning 1/2 counterclockwise as unit, L together
R forw, L forw and turn clockwise as unit, R together
Whisk was not a part of the class. I tried practicing it by myself.
Jive
Same thing as last week except I understand it better now.
Basic footwork = L cross behind R, chassis to L, chassis to R (and repeat)
Lead for follower to go under happens at the end of the first part of the chassis
L cross behind R, chassis to L and start to lead follower under L-R and chassis to R
For stop-and-go
L cross behind R, start to bring follower back under L-R as chassis to L, stop follower with R on follower’s back (possibly all the way to her side) while stepping across with R foot, chassis to R as follower goes back
American turn (better with R-R)
L cross behind, chassis to L with R-R turned around (both fingers pointing upwards), turn (optional for lead) is follower immediately by chassis to R
Samba
basic
L forw, syncopated R together and L in place
R back, syncopated L together and R in place
whisk
L side L, syncopated R cross behind L and L in place
R side L, syncopated L cross behind R and R in place
promenade (Government walk?)
L forw in promenade, syncopated R with slight backwards movement (but overall forw from the start) and L in place
R forw in promenade, syncopated L with slight backwards movement (as above) and R in place
One thing I noticed is that these CDC classes seem to be considerably less popular than they were two years ago, which apparently was an unusually popular year for CDC. Tonight’s beginner class before my improver class was smaller than my class – I think the lack of popularity was mainly due to lack of interest from the new crop of students. Not sure if this is a general trend for all CDC classes.
24 - 20
November 5, 2007
On many levels it was a night to miss. I was not in top shape. I would miss the game of the century (Patriots versus Colts – Patriots won) even if I will have caught it only by internet. The overall quality of the people there was probably below average. It really was about doing a favor.
One thing it did was for me to experiment further with the route. On paper and on Google map, the new route should have been a better one than the one I was used to. In practice, because of bad traffic, it was probably a little worse. And to top it off, I missed a turn (I should have taken my first instinct in this case) so I lost another 10 minutes or so.
After parking etc, I was at SOS by around 7:30. I really could not be bothered with the class so I just watched. I liked a small part in the level 4 class. It might be worth practicing at some time. It went like this.
Start from position of wrap R-L over follower’s shoulder and L-R across follower’s stomach and leader in CBL position – one way to enter this position would be to lead a cross body lead with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower with all connections intact
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s footwork could be L behind R, R in place and L forward and across follower’s line (her initial line that is) while turning follower 1/2 clockwise on 3 – the position at 4/5 is like CBL position again except in opposite direction – lead follower to travelling (clockwise?) turn – leader can turn counterclockwise at the same time, which would lead to open position
The DJ tonight was Julian the Duke. The only song I knew by heart was Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez). There was also another version of Fragile (Fragilidad maybe?). The selections were not horrible but not great either.
I think I had about two, three maybe four partners I really enjoyed dancing with. Most others were pretty good too. There were two people who seemed to have no idea about where the music was – an unusually high number. I was asked for a dance four or five times, which is pretty high too. My guess was that all this happened because the general standard of people tonight was subpar. Usually I would notice one or two new people who I think would be good to dance with – not tonight. In any case, I wasn’t thrilled enough with tonight so leaving early at 10:30 was no disappointment.
I still have fond memories of SOS. Two years ago, it was my refuge. It’s still a great place – better than any Cambridge nights despite all the improvements in Cambridge. However, Cambridge has gotten good enough that the difference is no longer stark. Meanwhile long commute makes SOS less enticing especially as an every week destination. If I were to go every week, I probably could use it to improve fairly quickly. If I go every month, it’s more like a candy rather than a hearty meal.
I also tried to find a new route on the way back too. After three wrong turns, I decided not to insist on going by the way I planned – reviewing what I did at home indicated to me that I came very close to the way I wanted to go (I was actually at the right spot without realizing it). No big deal – I only lost about 5 minutes. I think I could do it right next time around. I think the return route might be more of a sure improvement unlike the route I tried to take on the way into London.
On many levels it was a night to miss. I was not in top shape. I would miss the game of the century (Patriots versus Colts – Patriots won) even if I will have caught it only by internet. The overall quality of the people there was probably below average. It really was about doing a favor.
One thing it did was for me to experiment further with the route. On paper and on Google map, the new route should have been a better one than the one I was used to. In practice, because of bad traffic, it was probably a little worse. And to top it off, I missed a turn (I should have taken my first instinct in this case) so I lost another 10 minutes or so.
After parking etc, I was at SOS by around 7:30. I really could not be bothered with the class so I just watched. I liked a small part in the level 4 class. It might be worth practicing at some time. It went like this.
Start from position of wrap R-L over follower’s shoulder and L-R across follower’s stomach and leader in CBL position – one way to enter this position would be to lead a cross body lead with 1 1/2 counterclockwise turn for follower with all connections intact
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader’s footwork could be L behind R, R in place and L forward and across follower’s line (her initial line that is) while turning follower 1/2 clockwise on 3 – the position at 4/5 is like CBL position again except in opposite direction – lead follower to travelling (clockwise?) turn – leader can turn counterclockwise at the same time, which would lead to open position
The DJ tonight was Julian the Duke. The only song I knew by heart was Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez). There was also another version of Fragile (Fragilidad maybe?). The selections were not horrible but not great either.
I think I had about two, three maybe four partners I really enjoyed dancing with. Most others were pretty good too. There were two people who seemed to have no idea about where the music was – an unusually high number. I was asked for a dance four or five times, which is pretty high too. My guess was that all this happened because the general standard of people tonight was subpar. Usually I would notice one or two new people who I think would be good to dance with – not tonight. In any case, I wasn’t thrilled enough with tonight so leaving early at 10:30 was no disappointment.
I still have fond memories of SOS. Two years ago, it was my refuge. It’s still a great place – better than any Cambridge nights despite all the improvements in Cambridge. However, Cambridge has gotten good enough that the difference is no longer stark. Meanwhile long commute makes SOS less enticing especially as an every week destination. If I were to go every week, I probably could use it to improve fairly quickly. If I go every month, it’s more like a candy rather than a hearty meal.
I also tried to find a new route on the way back too. After three wrong turns, I decided not to insist on going by the way I planned – reviewing what I did at home indicated to me that I came very close to the way I wanted to go (I was actually at the right spot without realizing it). No big deal – I only lost about 5 minutes. I think I could do it right next time around. I think the return route might be more of a sure improvement unlike the route I tried to take on the way into London.
Four plus hours of deejaying
November 2, 2007
I arrived early – before 9. When I saw the crowd for the class, I decided that I could be in for a tough night. Joe apparently could not make the class so it was a smaller crowd than I expected and geared towards beginners. I had planned to start with a lot of slow songs, but it looked like even this was going to be a big bump in speed when I saw that Vish started the last practice song with a Cha Cha slowed down by more than 4% (eventually it was moved to normal speed). Substituting for Joe and Olga were Jay and Vish.
Playlist
La Muy Muy – Roberto Roena
Que Quiere La Nina – Kako Y Totico
Pachito Eche – Tito Puente & Celia Cruz
Mi Desengano – Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound (1)
La Ley Del Guaguanco – Tito Rodriguez
Espiritu Burlon – Santiago Ceron
Quitate La Mascara – Ray Barretto (2)
Oye Como Va – Tito Puente (Concord recording) (3)*
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
El Pito – Isidro Infante
Lirica Boriquena – El Gran Combo*
Montuno Street – Azabache* (3)
Mujeres De Mayari – Cubanoson (4)
A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia* (5)
Pobre Mendigo – Toque D’ Keda*
Don Lengua – Santiago Ceron*
El Pio Pio – Sonora Poncena*
Decia Que Me Queria – Cachaco*
El Titere – Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
Yambu – Tito Rodriguez* (6)
La Paella – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
Avisale A Mi Contrario – Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound
Nadie Como Ella – Marc Anthony (7)
Lejos De Ti – Angel Canales* (8)
No Quiero Na Regala’o – Gilberto Santa Rosa
Mambo – Cachao
Descarga La Moderna – Ray Barretto (-6%) (9)
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
La Quiero – Domenic Marte
Ahora De Mi Pena – Henry Fiol
Ublabadu – Fania All Stars (voc. Hector Lavoe)* (10)
Margarito – Bobby Valentin* (11)
Ingratitudes – Bobby Valentin* (12) – birthday song
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars (voc. Celia Cruz)
Salsa Caliente Del Japon – Orquesta De La Luz* (13)
Night In Tunisia – Sonora Poncena* (14)
Llego El Sabor – Oscar D’Leon & Jose Alberto “El Canario”*
Salchicha Con Huevos – Jimmy Sabater con Son Boricua* (15)
Buenas Noches Che Che – Tito Rodriguez
El Verdadero Son – Javier Vazquez (16)
Yo No Tengo Amigo – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante* (17)
Merengue track no. 5 from Vishal’s CD (18)
Musica Ligera – Toque D’ Keda
No Critiques – Manny Oquendo (19)
Disco Azucar – Los Van Van (20)
Mambo Mongo – Mongo Santamaria (Chesky recording)* (-6%)
Chanchullo – Fania All Stars
Se Me Fue – El Gran Combo
Fuego A La Jicotea – Marvin Santiago
Clasiquiendo Con Ruben – Afro Cuban All Stars* (21)
Swinging The Mambo – Tito Puente*
Caballero Y Dama – Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Que Bueno Baila Usted – Oscar D’Leon
Agua Del Clavelito – Johnny Pacheco*
Luna Negra – Rey Ruiz
Gotas De Lluvia – El Gran Combo (22)
(1) The first 4 songs have bpm of low 170s or lower. Well-known songs of comparable speed would include Thinking Of You (Lenny Kravitz remix) and Chan Chan (from Buena Vista Social Club CD).
(2) This was the first song to break the 180 bpm mark – barely. Micaela (Sonora Carruselse) is about the same speed. It was still mainly the crowd from the class so I felt that I had to proceed even more cautiously than I originally thought – and I had never been more cautious.
(3) In the crowd was a group of ~6 young men I had never seen before. One of them asked me if I was going to play any R & B. Uh Oh. I said no. Was it going to be all Salsa? No, there will be some Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha and maybe Reggaeton much later after midnight. Did you say Raeggae? Urr… No. He asked me few minutes later if I could play Cha Cha. I said sure. He asked if I had any Santana. No. The only Santana Cha Cha I’m aware of is Oye Como Va, so here it went. It was a lot earlier than I imagined, but given the state of things I decided that it would be safest to play this. While this song was being played, another person stopped by to ask me to play more peppy songs. A merengue maybe? Ay Caramba.
(3) This was the first song to break the 190 bpm threshold – or the first one to medium-fast level. I thought I was seeing a lot of people struggle with timing, which made me wonder if it would be okay to play anything fast tonight. I was not exactly right about my assessment – which goes to show how tricky Fridays are. Raj, Zern, Euvian and Haihan arrived around here. Andrea and Polly arrived a few songs later.
(4) Only one couple was dancing to this song by the time I cued next song. Oh well. I decided to dance to this song except I was delayed for almost a minute retying my shoes.
(5) A new Merengue. Vish had left me with CD full of popular Merengue, but I was determined to avoid using it as much as possible. I think this song worked pretty well.
(6) Wow. I did not realize it at the time but that was 10 “new” songs in a row for me with caveat that some songs (most notably Montuno Street) are well known here. [correction added later. I apparently played Mujeres De Mayari (twice!) before so it's not 10 songs in a row.]
(7) There were two separate requests for Valio De La Pena (Marc Anthony) before and after I played this song. Both times I had to tell them it was on my list of things to buy but that I hadn’t bought it yet. I have no problem with such requests – million times better than “Could you play La Bamba?” True story tonight.
(8) I am pretty sure I heard Mohammed singing along to this song while dancing. Woo hoo! Liam and Steph walked in around here.
(9) This was the first song I artificially slowed down tonight – more than I had in previous occasions with this song.
(10) A technical glitch near the start of the song.
(11) I was going to do the birthday song here, but decided to play this one first to make sure the floor was a bit busier to start with.
(12) Birthday song for Andrea. Haihan caught the key lyrics. Others did not or presumably had seen it coming right from the start. Liam called it the most boring song, but a fairly bland song works best with many changes of partners – or so I think. Also Liam is known to exaggerate. Would you want tons of breaks and nutty passages if you want to get decent participation? It is one of several reasons why this song gets used all the time for birthdays and only for birthdays in some London venues.
(13) Luis was one of the later shows. He liked the return of this song, which had not been played here since Enrique's departure.
(14) I convinced Zern to stay a little longer for this and other songs. Liam called this one another boring one.
(15) At Haihan’s request – it was good for Liam too.
(16) As this song was starting another guy stopped by to ask me to play more Cuban songs – adding that this one was good. Right afterwards, Steph stopped by to relay that Liam wants to me to play songs he like – whatever that means. You see! This was a very tricky night!
(17) I had wondered for a long time when this song will be unleashed here. It was that kind of night. Cuban people seemed okay with it - at least until the really manic bit came on - my thought was that they were taking cover. Liam's take - it's a great song, but I don't know what to do with the beginning part. My take (having danced to it twice in Madrid) - go out there with a partner and see what happens. Before Madrid, I did not have an especially high opinion of this song. After Madrid, different story altogether.
(18) I resisted for the longest time, but it seemed appropriate and necessary. Thanks to Vish for making the option available.
(19) Every time I play this song, Mohammed asks me if I’m mixing songs towards the end. It does get pretty busy and chaotic towards the end. Also there was a request for Merengue or Bachata in the middle of this song, which prompted to exclaim in exasperation, "But the last song was a Bachata. And the one before that was a Merengue!" Admittedly she had a valid excuse more or less.
(20) Instead of trying to please both crowds by choosing compromise songs all the time, I’m alternating between extremes of both types for the moment.
(21) Finally a compliment from someone outside the usual suspects. Great music. Too bad there are not enough girls. But that’s not your fault.
(22) At 2 AM, my second dance of the evening.
Total 56 songs. 3 Cha Cha (2 new). 3 Bachata. 3 Merengue (1 new + 1 Vish). 47 Salsa (18 new). I had to play more popular songs than I would like to have because of a relatively thin and fussy crowd (I say this because I don’t want to overuse any songs – I’m speaking as if I DJ regularly here).
Afterwards Haihan for some reason decided to apologize for two songs last night. I completely misunderstood him at the time - I thought he was talking about some songs I didn't know much about. No worries! Those songs don't "belong" to me, and I greatly enjoyed dancing to it. Haihan also had some Bachata on after closing - stopped by Vish upon his return.
Gave a lift back for Steph and Liam. Topic on the way back. Miles Davis. Ray Charles. Bad breath and passing gas while dancing. No wonder some people are obsessed with chewing gums.
I arrived early – before 9. When I saw the crowd for the class, I decided that I could be in for a tough night. Joe apparently could not make the class so it was a smaller crowd than I expected and geared towards beginners. I had planned to start with a lot of slow songs, but it looked like even this was going to be a big bump in speed when I saw that Vish started the last practice song with a Cha Cha slowed down by more than 4% (eventually it was moved to normal speed). Substituting for Joe and Olga were Jay and Vish.
Playlist
La Muy Muy – Roberto Roena
Que Quiere La Nina – Kako Y Totico
Pachito Eche – Tito Puente & Celia Cruz
Mi Desengano – Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound (1)
La Ley Del Guaguanco – Tito Rodriguez
Espiritu Burlon – Santiago Ceron
Quitate La Mascara – Ray Barretto (2)
Oye Como Va – Tito Puente (Concord recording) (3)*
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
El Pito – Isidro Infante
Lirica Boriquena – El Gran Combo*
Montuno Street – Azabache* (3)
Mujeres De Mayari – Cubanoson (4)
A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia* (5)
Pobre Mendigo – Toque D’ Keda*
Don Lengua – Santiago Ceron*
El Pio Pio – Sonora Poncena*
Decia Que Me Queria – Cachaco*
El Titere – Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
Yambu – Tito Rodriguez* (6)
La Paella – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
Avisale A Mi Contrario – Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound
Nadie Como Ella – Marc Anthony (7)
Lejos De Ti – Angel Canales* (8)
No Quiero Na Regala’o – Gilberto Santa Rosa
Mambo – Cachao
Descarga La Moderna – Ray Barretto (-6%) (9)
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
La Quiero – Domenic Marte
Ahora De Mi Pena – Henry Fiol
Ublabadu – Fania All Stars (voc. Hector Lavoe)* (10)
Margarito – Bobby Valentin* (11)
Ingratitudes – Bobby Valentin* (12) – birthday song
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars (voc. Celia Cruz)
Salsa Caliente Del Japon – Orquesta De La Luz* (13)
Night In Tunisia – Sonora Poncena* (14)
Llego El Sabor – Oscar D’Leon & Jose Alberto “El Canario”*
Salchicha Con Huevos – Jimmy Sabater con Son Boricua* (15)
Buenas Noches Che Che – Tito Rodriguez
El Verdadero Son – Javier Vazquez (16)
Yo No Tengo Amigo – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante* (17)
Merengue track no. 5 from Vishal’s CD (18)
Musica Ligera – Toque D’ Keda
No Critiques – Manny Oquendo (19)
Disco Azucar – Los Van Van (20)
Mambo Mongo – Mongo Santamaria (Chesky recording)* (-6%)
Chanchullo – Fania All Stars
Se Me Fue – El Gran Combo
Fuego A La Jicotea – Marvin Santiago
Clasiquiendo Con Ruben – Afro Cuban All Stars* (21)
Swinging The Mambo – Tito Puente*
Caballero Y Dama – Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Que Bueno Baila Usted – Oscar D’Leon
Agua Del Clavelito – Johnny Pacheco*
Luna Negra – Rey Ruiz
Gotas De Lluvia – El Gran Combo (22)
(1) The first 4 songs have bpm of low 170s or lower. Well-known songs of comparable speed would include Thinking Of You (Lenny Kravitz remix) and Chan Chan (from Buena Vista Social Club CD).
(2) This was the first song to break the 180 bpm mark – barely. Micaela (Sonora Carruselse) is about the same speed. It was still mainly the crowd from the class so I felt that I had to proceed even more cautiously than I originally thought – and I had never been more cautious.
(3) In the crowd was a group of ~6 young men I had never seen before. One of them asked me if I was going to play any R & B. Uh Oh. I said no. Was it going to be all Salsa? No, there will be some Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha and maybe Reggaeton much later after midnight. Did you say Raeggae? Urr… No. He asked me few minutes later if I could play Cha Cha. I said sure. He asked if I had any Santana. No. The only Santana Cha Cha I’m aware of is Oye Como Va, so here it went. It was a lot earlier than I imagined, but given the state of things I decided that it would be safest to play this. While this song was being played, another person stopped by to ask me to play more peppy songs. A merengue maybe? Ay Caramba.
(3) This was the first song to break the 190 bpm threshold – or the first one to medium-fast level. I thought I was seeing a lot of people struggle with timing, which made me wonder if it would be okay to play anything fast tonight. I was not exactly right about my assessment – which goes to show how tricky Fridays are. Raj, Zern, Euvian and Haihan arrived around here. Andrea and Polly arrived a few songs later.
(4) Only one couple was dancing to this song by the time I cued next song. Oh well. I decided to dance to this song except I was delayed for almost a minute retying my shoes.
(5) A new Merengue. Vish had left me with CD full of popular Merengue, but I was determined to avoid using it as much as possible. I think this song worked pretty well.
(6) Wow. I did not realize it at the time but that was 10 “new” songs in a row for me with caveat that some songs (most notably Montuno Street) are well known here. [correction added later. I apparently played Mujeres De Mayari (twice!) before so it's not 10 songs in a row.]
(7) There were two separate requests for Valio De La Pena (Marc Anthony) before and after I played this song. Both times I had to tell them it was on my list of things to buy but that I hadn’t bought it yet. I have no problem with such requests – million times better than “Could you play La Bamba?” True story tonight.
(8) I am pretty sure I heard Mohammed singing along to this song while dancing. Woo hoo! Liam and Steph walked in around here.
(9) This was the first song I artificially slowed down tonight – more than I had in previous occasions with this song.
(10) A technical glitch near the start of the song.
(11) I was going to do the birthday song here, but decided to play this one first to make sure the floor was a bit busier to start with.
(12) Birthday song for Andrea. Haihan caught the key lyrics. Others did not or presumably had seen it coming right from the start. Liam called it the most boring song, but a fairly bland song works best with many changes of partners – or so I think. Also Liam is known to exaggerate. Would you want tons of breaks and nutty passages if you want to get decent participation? It is one of several reasons why this song gets used all the time for birthdays and only for birthdays in some London venues.
(13) Luis was one of the later shows. He liked the return of this song, which had not been played here since Enrique's departure.
(14) I convinced Zern to stay a little longer for this and other songs. Liam called this one another boring one.
(15) At Haihan’s request – it was good for Liam too.
(16) As this song was starting another guy stopped by to ask me to play more Cuban songs – adding that this one was good. Right afterwards, Steph stopped by to relay that Liam wants to me to play songs he like – whatever that means. You see! This was a very tricky night!
(17) I had wondered for a long time when this song will be unleashed here. It was that kind of night. Cuban people seemed okay with it - at least until the really manic bit came on - my thought was that they were taking cover. Liam's take - it's a great song, but I don't know what to do with the beginning part. My take (having danced to it twice in Madrid) - go out there with a partner and see what happens. Before Madrid, I did not have an especially high opinion of this song. After Madrid, different story altogether.
(18) I resisted for the longest time, but it seemed appropriate and necessary. Thanks to Vish for making the option available.
(19) Every time I play this song, Mohammed asks me if I’m mixing songs towards the end. It does get pretty busy and chaotic towards the end. Also there was a request for Merengue or Bachata in the middle of this song, which prompted to exclaim in exasperation, "But the last song was a Bachata. And the one before that was a Merengue!" Admittedly she had a valid excuse more or less.
(20) Instead of trying to please both crowds by choosing compromise songs all the time, I’m alternating between extremes of both types for the moment.
(21) Finally a compliment from someone outside the usual suspects. Great music. Too bad there are not enough girls. But that’s not your fault.
(22) At 2 AM, my second dance of the evening.
Total 56 songs. 3 Cha Cha (2 new). 3 Bachata. 3 Merengue (1 new + 1 Vish). 47 Salsa (18 new). I had to play more popular songs than I would like to have because of a relatively thin and fussy crowd (I say this because I don’t want to overuse any songs – I’m speaking as if I DJ regularly here).
Afterwards Haihan for some reason decided to apologize for two songs last night. I completely misunderstood him at the time - I thought he was talking about some songs I didn't know much about. No worries! Those songs don't "belong" to me, and I greatly enjoyed dancing to it. Haihan also had some Bachata on after closing - stopped by Vish upon his return.
Gave a lift back for Steph and Liam. Topic on the way back. Miles Davis. Ray Charles. Bad breath and passing gas while dancing. No wonder some people are obsessed with chewing gums.
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