May 27, 2007
Rain in the morning. Rain in the afternoon. Rain in the evening. Remarkably the rain only seemed to get heavier as the day went on. Long hours of day was largely negated by darkness resulting from thick clouds and chilly and wet air. Thus it was no surprise when Cyrille phoned me around 7:30 as I was driving home. I told him I would pick him up around 8:45. I learned that Zhenzhi tried at the last moment to get a seat on the coach destined for Scala - apparently there were six people who tried this.
When we arrived at Club Salsa, I found Vishal in a nervous state - perhaps worried about everyone showing up on time. There were less than 10 people there, but I had spotted a rather large number of people gathered at the Sauce next door. I relayed this information to Vishal, and he sounded happy to hear this and went next door to see for himself. Most people followed Vishal back to the Club Salsa. It looked like it would be difficult to ascertain if everyone was there by counting - the coach had 33 seats and supposedly it was full (two people were meeting us in London). The only people I recognized as being absent were Sally, Lindsey and Nicola, but there were also many people I did not even recognize let alone know the names of.
When I led people to the coach parked on Station Road as Vishal requested me to, I found Sally, Lindsey and Nicola already settled at the back of the coach. Vishal had asked me to save him a seat at the back - I reserved a pair of seats third from the rear for him and Danie - just in front of me and Cyrille. The the seat nearest to the rear on the opposite side - right side of the bus - was taken by Jane and Hayden (another case of misspelled name that I am going to keep for consistency).
I thought the pair of giggling Swedish girls in the backseat were amusing, but I found the trio of English girls were even wilder. The antics when described in plain language would read the same - drinking, singing, giggling, photoshoots. Perhaps it would have seemed nuttier because I could understand English but not Swedish. Perhaps I found the scene much more disorientating because of Vishal in front of me was going pretty wild and crazy too. Cyrille, Danie, Hayden and especially Jane were quieter, but they still contributed to sensory overload I felt caused by ruckus surrounding me. It reminded me of the time when I was at an airport - was it Phoenix? - the time I visited Portland/San Franciso/etc just before moving to England. Things seemed to settle down a little after we exited A11 and stopped briefly at a petrol station.
The route the coach driver took (using a sort of GPS navigation system) was quite different from the ones I have used, but it seemed to work just fine. Of course the traffic on Sunday evening on a bank holiday weekend is not a good indicator of their suitability for a drive to SOS. Because I had no knowledge of the route being taken, I was of no use until we arrived at Grays Inn Road and going towards Kings Cross station although I sat in the front when we came close to our destination - next to John and displacing Ashrafi - to keep Vishal calm. Other people I recognized in the coach included Nina, Lorraine, Sharon, Marian, and bunch of other people from Club Salsa and Rueda whose names I never learned.
The coach dropped us off about a block and half away from the Scala entrance - it seemed reasonable given the confusing road layout. Because of the rain people who got off the bus early scrambled to get inside as quickly as possible. I brought up the rear guard - I figured that people ahead of me would surely wait for me. Luckily for me and a few other stragglers, Cyrille stayed behind to let us in as part of the group while Vishal and others went upstairs. Some of the people were surprised to learn that they could not take their own drinks to Scala - I think Vishal's impromptu announcement in the coach about drinks being expensive at Scala without mentioning that they also check to make sure that people are not smuggling in drinks might have caused more confusion than good - I don't know.
It was not 11 yet when we got there. Rajiv was there - Cyrille had phoned him just before we joined Vishal et al in Cambridge. Zern was there too - taking part in the classes. Cyrille had talked Zern into coming to the lessons - saying that we would be there by around 10. Zern had taken a 3-hour Bachata workshop in the afternoon with Inaki so he must have been pretty tired and no doubt would be exhausted by the end of Scala. I heard that Liam might show up later, but he never did - much later in the evening I thought I spotted Liam but it turned out that I mistook Hayden for Liam.
There were four shows - two Salsa from America - I liked the last one best, and two Lambada - after about a minute, I told Cyrille that this wasn't too bad and after another minute I told him I changed my mind. During the second Lambada show, I said to Cyrille, "Ooh. She reminds of me of Izzy." I think Natalie overheard me and cracked a smile.
For the Latinfest amateur dance competition heat, there were three pair of contestants once again. Two of the couples were dancing On2 while I thought the third couple was supposed to be On1 - it was difficult to tell. It was also difficult for me to decide who won the heat - even more so than the last two heats I watched. Cyrille was most impressed by the guy with the glasses, and I was inclined to agree at least in terms of interestingness of their routine despite a major stumble by the girl I saw. The winner turned out to be the other couple who were dancing On2, who I thought was least flashy although quite sound. By the way, I danced with the girl from the winning couple - she was extremely sound and very nice to dance with.
Tonight's dancing was extremely good in terms of consistency possibly best yet at Scala for me. There was never a bad patch although the number of people and dances dropped quite a bit after 4 AM. It was also unusual in that I danced with three different London girls twice in the course of the evening - four if I count the girl I danced Cha Cha with first. I had a dance On1 with the winning visitor from the last CDC Salsa ball - although she remembered that I could dance On2 and tried to get me to dance On2 (the trouble for me was that I had not improved even a little since I last danced with her - at least On2) - I think her name might be Sasha. It seemed like everyone knew everyone - or at least such impression felt truer than ever as I spotted various girls gathering and talking. One of the more memorable incident involved one of the girls opting out of the dance with me because she claimed that it was too crowded. It was indeed very crowded for that particular song, but I was a little surprised because I thought I was leading her really well - I even wondered if she left because she was a little disappointed that I was not dancing On2 (I also started thinking about number of days remaining before Sergio returns so that I might be able to get more instructions on dancing On2). Much later in the evening, she found me and asked me to resume the dance we never finished, which was great except that the song being played was quite uninspiring and the dance did not feel as good as the first time around. I might also have danced with one of the American performers. About the only thing missing was one of those rare mesmerizing dances although there must have been at least six dances where I really enjoyed the connection I had between me and my partner - perhaps if the number of those had been 1 or 2 instead of 6+, I would have considered those 1 or 2 as one of those mesmerizing dances.
The music was okay. Generally much better than last time. Some songs were better than others of course. The best songs were played between 3-4 AM - coinciding with the best stretch of nice amount of space and good quality and quantity of dance partners. Some of the songs I remember include Guaguanco Del Gran Combo (no dance), Los Rumberos (Lindsey), Avisale A Mi Contario (dance, version unknown but it sounded old so maybe it was the original), a Cal Tjader tune I couldn't quite identify but it might have been 'Mambo at the "M"' (dance - my partner was slightly confused about where the end of the song was), Cao Cao Mani Picao (pure instrumental version, no dance), Anacaona (Cheo Feliciano, Martina), Soledad or something by La 33 (Nina), Sonero De Barrio (version? no dance?), Mambo Gallego (modern Tito Puente version or am I completely imagining this one? dance? early in the evening), Para Ochun (last dance before the clock hit 5 AM - Natalia).
Other amusing moments included the time when I was nearly hit by fast-spinning Sally 2-3 times within a course of a minute or two, seeing some unexpected Cambridge people on the stage (I spotted Vishal couple of times - once with Sharon, and the German friend of Johnny at least once), spotting Diana for a single song only (was she there just to have one dance only??? - I now wonder if I imagined the whole thing - she danced with one of the On2 regulars - one of the older guys - I thought he spun her a lot more (almost just for sake of spinning) than he typically does with his other partners rather doing his usual elaborate maneuvers, seeing some of my dance partners get overly excited, and the perfume guy in the men's toilet.
I guess other people including girls have good and bad nights as far as their form is concerned - although in most cases I really haven't noticed this. It's either that or my estimation of various people's abilities is still changing rapidly. It's quite possible that I don't match well with some people sometimes because they are hearing some real interesting elements in the music that I'm missing.
It was light outside by 5 AM. It was still raining - fairly heavy by England standard. I saw several people milling about downstairs. I got them to get to the bus where it had dropped us off rather than waiting for it to get right in front of the entrance - I didn't think it was likely unless the driver was a lot more resourceful than I expected. There were some people still not in the bus including Vishal and the Sally trio as well as Sharon who had gone back upstairs to look for Vishal. I went back and found Sharon, Danie and Vishal coming downstairs. Sally's trio was the last to get down (I went upstairs to look for them while Vishal waited down by the entrance), and we all ran or trotted back to the bus - Vishal waiting to let me get on first so that he would be the last one to board.
The drive back was slightly less nutty although Vishal was still raring to keep the party going a bit longer. It was also a long drive - it took more than an hour and half - I imagine that the bus driver would have went at a slower speed than I typically would have especially given poor weather. Cyrille slept through it all. Sally's trio was considerably quieter. Danie was mostly trying to keep Vishal subdued. I chatted a little bit with Hayden. Aside from a sight of a traffic jam (not a long one going the other way), a car stuck in a ditch at the center of M11 after Stansted, and another short stop on M11, I didn't notice anything major on the road back. It was still raining heavily in Cambridge and Cyrille was shivering in my car when I dropped him off.
It was a long night - arguably dark and stormy - not bad at all though.
Farewell Abid
May 25, 2007
I was surprised to see Rajiv arrive shortly after I got to Club Salsa, and I expressed my astonishment at him being here instead of the dinner & dance event with Sally. I guess he was disinclined to take a longer drive. He asked me if Cyrille came with me, and I answered in negative adding that Cyrille never got in touch with me today. I also thought that given who was there at the time, Cyrille wasn't missing much - it seemed even more dire than last Friday.
My first few dances all felt like borderline disasters; they felt like battles rather than dances - a stark contrast to last night. It's amazing how fast things can change. Time for San Miguel. At least I could think of this as getting a bad night of dancing out of the way before Scala this Sunday. Arguably the biggest source of amusement I got was telling Vishal, "You like this song too much," when he put on Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco) for the second time within 30 minutes.
Rajiv gave up around 11:30 or shortly before. I was thinking about following his example, but then I spotted Cyrille and Mimi coming downstairs - it was around 11:45. Brand new ballgame. I cannot recall if I had more or less okay dances just before they arrived, but the dances after their arrival were markedly better than during the first hour although the followers I danced with around this time were less practiced in cross body (or to paraphrase a girl from Madrid, Salsa Linea).
By the time I finally got around to dancing with Mimi - despite not dancing with her for almost the first half hour or so, I think I got to dance with her before Cyrille somehow. After a slightly rocky start for the first 20 seconds or so, enough adjustments were made (more by Mimi than me - I think it was more the case of me being consistent and insistent on level of tension and letting her adjust - this did not happen last time I saw her and the result was poor from my perspective) and all was beautiful again. Around this time, Vishal played two songs by Chivirico Davila (I'm fairly sure that one was Cuando Tu Quieras) - second time because he thought I was making a request when I was merely trying to confirm that the first one was by Chivirico. Time for second San Miguel.
The crowd picked up as the evening progressed too. Perhaps it had to do with the beer festival. Many Cuban dancers including Peter and Cinzia arrived well after midnight. Other notable late arrival included Lorraine, Mauricio, Luis. The appearance of Cuban dancers prompted Vishal to play some Cuban songs like Ping Pong and a Los Van Van - to chagrin of Cyrille who was forced to dance Cuban style with Mimi. Considering that Peter and Cinzia were there, I thought it made perfect sense that Cuban songs were being played. I had my back towards the DJ booth at this time - waiting for the Cuban phase to end (because it never is sustained). Somehow, Vishal must have thought I was unhappy because he took a sharp turn with his music choice.
First Vishal played La Palomilla (Joe Cuba Sextet). Because Cinzia looked free (somewhat of a surprise), I tried to ask her for a dance. Alas she was committed to starting a big Rueda group. Ouch - I didn't think the Rueda people will not find La Palomilla to be a great track for them. I did not find a dance partner though. Next song was Nina Y Senora (Tito Puente) - another poor choice for Rueda, but I did find someone to dance with - Lorraine maybe? Next song was Merecumbe (Johnny Colon). I got Johnny's new trainee for this one. The Rueda was broken by now and Cinzia was free, but I already started dancing with my new partner. Next song was Un Verano En Nueva York (El Gran Combo), and I finally danced with Cinzia.
I also danced with some other people with whom I had unsatisfactory dances earlier in the evening and did much better. Hmm. There goes the idea about getting a bad night of dancing out of the way before Scala. I believe one of the key was to simplify things first, but there must have been other factors - probably influx of new people to dance with helped more than change in tone of the music because music without suitable people to dance with probably would have been more frustrating than anything else. I can't say that any of the dances were transcendental or revelatory or historic (in personal sense of course), but simply feeling back in control felt great. Few more dances with Mimi including a not fully satisfactory attempt at dancing On2 and more pleasant On1 dancing followed.
A going-away Merengue dance was done for Abid. After 7 years or so in Cambridge, he's moving to Lisbon, Portugal for a new job. Abid had been helping with teaching Salsa with Johnny and Serap for the past year or so.
Mimi was going to Sweden directly after Club Salsa and had brought her suitcase with her to the club. Her coach to the airport was to leave at 2:40, and her flight to Copenhagen at 6:45. Remembering that we had difficulty dragging Cyrille out of dancing last week, we decided to give ourselves some extra time by picking an early departure time - 2:15. It turned out that the precaution was useful but not because of Cyrille but because of mystery of disappearance of Mimi's boots (and socks).
Fragiledad (version unknown) played for second time tonight was the last song of the evening.
I was surprised to see Rajiv arrive shortly after I got to Club Salsa, and I expressed my astonishment at him being here instead of the dinner & dance event with Sally. I guess he was disinclined to take a longer drive. He asked me if Cyrille came with me, and I answered in negative adding that Cyrille never got in touch with me today. I also thought that given who was there at the time, Cyrille wasn't missing much - it seemed even more dire than last Friday.
My first few dances all felt like borderline disasters; they felt like battles rather than dances - a stark contrast to last night. It's amazing how fast things can change. Time for San Miguel. At least I could think of this as getting a bad night of dancing out of the way before Scala this Sunday. Arguably the biggest source of amusement I got was telling Vishal, "You like this song too much," when he put on Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco) for the second time within 30 minutes.
Rajiv gave up around 11:30 or shortly before. I was thinking about following his example, but then I spotted Cyrille and Mimi coming downstairs - it was around 11:45. Brand new ballgame. I cannot recall if I had more or less okay dances just before they arrived, but the dances after their arrival were markedly better than during the first hour although the followers I danced with around this time were less practiced in cross body (or to paraphrase a girl from Madrid, Salsa Linea).
By the time I finally got around to dancing with Mimi - despite not dancing with her for almost the first half hour or so, I think I got to dance with her before Cyrille somehow. After a slightly rocky start for the first 20 seconds or so, enough adjustments were made (more by Mimi than me - I think it was more the case of me being consistent and insistent on level of tension and letting her adjust - this did not happen last time I saw her and the result was poor from my perspective) and all was beautiful again. Around this time, Vishal played two songs by Chivirico Davila (I'm fairly sure that one was Cuando Tu Quieras) - second time because he thought I was making a request when I was merely trying to confirm that the first one was by Chivirico. Time for second San Miguel.
The crowd picked up as the evening progressed too. Perhaps it had to do with the beer festival. Many Cuban dancers including Peter and Cinzia arrived well after midnight. Other notable late arrival included Lorraine, Mauricio, Luis. The appearance of Cuban dancers prompted Vishal to play some Cuban songs like Ping Pong and a Los Van Van - to chagrin of Cyrille who was forced to dance Cuban style with Mimi. Considering that Peter and Cinzia were there, I thought it made perfect sense that Cuban songs were being played. I had my back towards the DJ booth at this time - waiting for the Cuban phase to end (because it never is sustained). Somehow, Vishal must have thought I was unhappy because he took a sharp turn with his music choice.
First Vishal played La Palomilla (Joe Cuba Sextet). Because Cinzia looked free (somewhat of a surprise), I tried to ask her for a dance. Alas she was committed to starting a big Rueda group. Ouch - I didn't think the Rueda people will not find La Palomilla to be a great track for them. I did not find a dance partner though. Next song was Nina Y Senora (Tito Puente) - another poor choice for Rueda, but I did find someone to dance with - Lorraine maybe? Next song was Merecumbe (Johnny Colon). I got Johnny's new trainee for this one. The Rueda was broken by now and Cinzia was free, but I already started dancing with my new partner. Next song was Un Verano En Nueva York (El Gran Combo), and I finally danced with Cinzia.
I also danced with some other people with whom I had unsatisfactory dances earlier in the evening and did much better. Hmm. There goes the idea about getting a bad night of dancing out of the way before Scala. I believe one of the key was to simplify things first, but there must have been other factors - probably influx of new people to dance with helped more than change in tone of the music because music without suitable people to dance with probably would have been more frustrating than anything else. I can't say that any of the dances were transcendental or revelatory or historic (in personal sense of course), but simply feeling back in control felt great. Few more dances with Mimi including a not fully satisfactory attempt at dancing On2 and more pleasant On1 dancing followed.
A going-away Merengue dance was done for Abid. After 7 years or so in Cambridge, he's moving to Lisbon, Portugal for a new job. Abid had been helping with teaching Salsa with Johnny and Serap for the past year or so.
Mimi was going to Sweden directly after Club Salsa and had brought her suitcase with her to the club. Her coach to the airport was to leave at 2:40, and her flight to Copenhagen at 6:45. Remembering that we had difficulty dragging Cyrille out of dancing last week, we decided to give ourselves some extra time by picking an early departure time - 2:15. It turned out that the precaution was useful but not because of Cyrille but because of mystery of disappearance of Mimi's boots (and socks).
Fragiledad (version unknown) played for second time tonight was the last song of the evening.
Por fin
May 24, 2007
Chris was back; I hadn't seen him in a while.
Intermediate/Advanced with Sally and Chris
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold CBL lead follower into traveling full clockwise turn with R-L low and L-R high into wrap
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower back and to left on 1,2,3 getting L-R high and R-L low - position here is open CBL - then lead follower forward on 5 and into full counterclockwise turn on 6,7 with leader turning almost half counterclockwise to be nearly back-to-back
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L slightly down on 1 to allow follower to step on her R foot then get R-L up again on 2 and get follower to have turned 1/2 clockwise by 3 - then lead follower forward using both R-L (with R-L going behind leader's head) and L-R on 5 then lead follower to turn full clockwise on 6,7 (it would be good to have leader's R arm pointing upwards at the end of the turn for R-L hat without release by 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat without release and L-R still connected - Copa keeping R-L by follower's neck and lead follower into Copa turn (1 1/2 counterclockwise) with L-R getting behind follower's neck
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (very small) and lead follower to turn clockwise on 2,3 landing on her R foot forward on 3 - face-to-face with follower with both facing the line - frame lead (rather than using arms) to lead follower to step forward on 5 then back on 6 and back to original position on 7
A shiny new laptop made me a happy boy. I can update my iPod with new music I purchased without giving considerations for their usefulness in my DJing gig, and I can write at home. I'm hoping it will make a lot of things more efficient. [note: one thing it did was to delay posting of this entry.]
I decided to stop by home during the second hour of classes. Zhenzhi honked at me as I walked to my car. Cyrille, Zern, Rajiv et al arrived after the end of the lessons.
It was an odd night as far as people who were there. Exam period showed its effect. Wow. I had five unusual dances! Two were highly satisfactory, and one of them, my second dance of the evening, was enough to make me decide instantly that I was going to be happy with tonight regardless of what would happen for the rest of the evening. I might call them "I can see light at the end of the tunnel type of dances." They took over 2 years to get to. Third one was pretty good. Fourth one would have been okay but for olfactare issues. Fifth one was a bit discouraging though. Other dances were generally alright, and overall it was "exceeds expectations" evening.
The other day I talked about risks of giving criticism (constructive or not) while addressing the so-called unlikely salsero's blog. I wonder if same could be said about giving compliments. Is it possible that too much compliments could cause some people to stop trying to get better? Maybe I could avoid it by not giving names - I think it's quite possible that the best lead for next year's Salsa team will be someone new to the team. This assumes that the rate of people improving will stay steady for next 12 months or so - something of a big assumption.
One of the funniest moment came at the end when I stayed behind to ask Sally a question. When she saw me standing and waiting to talk to her, she asked, "Did I do something wrong?" I never envisioned such question being addressed me in the Cambridge Salsa scene - certainly not by Sally. Most of the time such question is being asked around me, I would have expected that it would be me who would be saying it - it happened often enough. I was further amused by the fact that I was able to say something like, "I wouldn't exactly say you did something wrong. Nothing serious anyway." No more details except that it was about booking for the UK Salsa Congress 2007.
La Loma Del Tamarindo? I think it probably works at least as well as Cha Cha as well as Salsa.
Chris was back; I hadn't seen him in a while.
Intermediate/Advanced with Sally and Chris
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold CBL lead follower into traveling full clockwise turn with R-L low and L-R high into wrap
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower back and to left on 1,2,3 getting L-R high and R-L low - position here is open CBL - then lead follower forward on 5 and into full counterclockwise turn on 6,7 with leader turning almost half counterclockwise to be nearly back-to-back
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L slightly down on 1 to allow follower to step on her R foot then get R-L up again on 2 and get follower to have turned 1/2 clockwise by 3 - then lead follower forward using both R-L (with R-L going behind leader's head) and L-R on 5 then lead follower to turn full clockwise on 6,7 (it would be good to have leader's R arm pointing upwards at the end of the turn for R-L hat without release by 8)
1,2,3,5,6,7 R-L hat without release and L-R still connected - Copa keeping R-L by follower's neck and lead follower into Copa turn (1 1/2 counterclockwise) with L-R getting behind follower's neck
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (very small) and lead follower to turn clockwise on 2,3 landing on her R foot forward on 3 - face-to-face with follower with both facing the line - frame lead (rather than using arms) to lead follower to step forward on 5 then back on 6 and back to original position on 7
A shiny new laptop made me a happy boy. I can update my iPod with new music I purchased without giving considerations for their usefulness in my DJing gig, and I can write at home. I'm hoping it will make a lot of things more efficient. [note: one thing it did was to delay posting of this entry.]
I decided to stop by home during the second hour of classes. Zhenzhi honked at me as I walked to my car. Cyrille, Zern, Rajiv et al arrived after the end of the lessons.
It was an odd night as far as people who were there. Exam period showed its effect. Wow. I had five unusual dances! Two were highly satisfactory, and one of them, my second dance of the evening, was enough to make me decide instantly that I was going to be happy with tonight regardless of what would happen for the rest of the evening. I might call them "I can see light at the end of the tunnel type of dances." They took over 2 years to get to. Third one was pretty good. Fourth one would have been okay but for olfactare issues. Fifth one was a bit discouraging though. Other dances were generally alright, and overall it was "exceeds expectations" evening.
The other day I talked about risks of giving criticism (constructive or not) while addressing the so-called unlikely salsero's blog. I wonder if same could be said about giving compliments. Is it possible that too much compliments could cause some people to stop trying to get better? Maybe I could avoid it by not giving names - I think it's quite possible that the best lead for next year's Salsa team will be someone new to the team. This assumes that the rate of people improving will stay steady for next 12 months or so - something of a big assumption.
One of the funniest moment came at the end when I stayed behind to ask Sally a question. When she saw me standing and waiting to talk to her, she asked, "Did I do something wrong?" I never envisioned such question being addressed me in the Cambridge Salsa scene - certainly not by Sally. Most of the time such question is being asked around me, I would have expected that it would be me who would be saying it - it happened often enough. I was further amused by the fact that I was able to say something like, "I wouldn't exactly say you did something wrong. Nothing serious anyway." No more details except that it was about booking for the UK Salsa Congress 2007.
La Loma Del Tamarindo? I think it probably works at least as well as Cha Cha as well as Salsa.
Breaking the rules
May 21, 2007
I was undecided and perhaps leaning towards not going when Cyrille asked me if I was going. Long story cut short we were there at 10. Initially we did not see a lot of people to dance with, but it wasn't so bad. Andrea was there with improved posture - something I first noted last night. So was the new light follow - I wondered before if she was too light, but too light is probably preferable to too heavy if nothing else because they are rarer. In any case, it's nice to dance with people and see them improve over time - certainly better than seeing people get worse and/or develop poor or annoying habits for whatever reason. Vishal's favorite practice partner was there too - arguably the best of the mature ladies in the scene and still getting better all the time. Lovely Jane was there with Richard too. Danie and Olga were there too of course, but Danie was still not recovered and Olga changed her shoes before I got a chance to ask her for a dance. Cyrille and I talked about staying for maybe half an hour or an hour; we ended up staying a bit longer.
The music was not as great as last Monday, which is just as well. It would have been a shame to listen to the same CD two weeks in a row even if it's good. It also gave Vishal an opportunity to test out songs from the past - even if most of the golden oldies from 5 years ago were not any good by Cyrille or my standard. I was probably most pleasantly surprised by Puerto Rico (Eddie Palmieri). Cyrille found the song becoming a bit fast for his dance as well as being long - I think it's about 7 minutes long and probably is not suitable for playing every week (but I think it would be perfectly alright to play it once in a while - once 2 or 3 months perhaps). Another decent oldie not heard recently was Yamulemau (Joe Arroyo version I think). There was a song (reminded me of Marc Anthony songs such as Ahora Quien) which Cyrille liked but I found difficult - I found the breaks in the song a bit unpredictable and too many (even though the song sounded familiar, I struggled with it - Cyrille later said that you probably need to know the song pretty well to know when the breaks occur, etc).
I was undecided and perhaps leaning towards not going when Cyrille asked me if I was going. Long story cut short we were there at 10. Initially we did not see a lot of people to dance with, but it wasn't so bad. Andrea was there with improved posture - something I first noted last night. So was the new light follow - I wondered before if she was too light, but too light is probably preferable to too heavy if nothing else because they are rarer. In any case, it's nice to dance with people and see them improve over time - certainly better than seeing people get worse and/or develop poor or annoying habits for whatever reason. Vishal's favorite practice partner was there too - arguably the best of the mature ladies in the scene and still getting better all the time. Lovely Jane was there with Richard too. Danie and Olga were there too of course, but Danie was still not recovered and Olga changed her shoes before I got a chance to ask her for a dance. Cyrille and I talked about staying for maybe half an hour or an hour; we ended up staying a bit longer.
The music was not as great as last Monday, which is just as well. It would have been a shame to listen to the same CD two weeks in a row even if it's good. It also gave Vishal an opportunity to test out songs from the past - even if most of the golden oldies from 5 years ago were not any good by Cyrille or my standard. I was probably most pleasantly surprised by Puerto Rico (Eddie Palmieri). Cyrille found the song becoming a bit fast for his dance as well as being long - I think it's about 7 minutes long and probably is not suitable for playing every week (but I think it would be perfectly alright to play it once in a while - once 2 or 3 months perhaps). Another decent oldie not heard recently was Yamulemau (Joe Arroyo version I think). There was a song (reminded me of Marc Anthony songs such as Ahora Quien) which Cyrille liked but I found difficult - I found the breaks in the song a bit unpredictable and too many (even though the song sounded familiar, I struggled with it - Cyrille later said that you probably need to know the song pretty well to know when the breaks occur, etc).
Cambridge heat of Latinfest dance competition
May 20, 2007
I suppose I could start the story on May 4 (Fix that face of yours). That was when Cyrille, Natalie and I started talking seriously about the Cambridge heat of the Latinfest Salsa dance competition. That was when we started trying to talk each other into entering the competition and we talked about possible dance partners for entering the competition. The latter topic directly or indirectly came up many times thereafter including during the SOS trip and during the dinner last Friday.
Another line of thought originate as early as March 30 (Mark this on your calendar), when I first noted that this competition is being organized and that Club Salsa will host one of the heats. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was that there may very well be an invasion from London and elsewhere for the Cambridge heat. I was certainly not alone in thinking this - I definitely recall Rajiv vocalizing the same thought at one of the Sauce outings.
I could start from this Friday at Club Salsa immediately after dinner. Cyrille and I were chilling on one of the couches. I saw Vishal and motioned him over. I asked him about the heat and who was supposed to have entered. Vishal said there were two couples, whom he knew nothing about.
Vishal started talking about being rather unimpressed with the Scala heat earlier this month on May 6 (I danced with a porn star) and said that he thought some Cambridge people are "way better" than those people. My thought was that the Scala competitors were alright but that "there are 'amateur' people associated with Cambridge who would have looked respectable." Could a Cambridge couple have won the Scala heat? I didn't think it was a slam dunk but certainly not out of the question.
Vishal also tried to talk us into entering the competition - especially Cyrille. In fact, by the end of the evening, Cyrille had verbally committed to entering and had a ready partner in Danie. Vishal and Cyrille tried to talk me and Mimi into entering, but we declined for a variety of reasons.
By Saturday, however, Cyrille was getting cold feet and tried to talk me into going SOS instead. I told him that it would be nice to have people from Cambridge representing Cambridge.
Come Sunday, Cyrille said he will enter the competition - but with Stephanie not Danie. Apparently Danie was not feeling well enough for the competition. Cyrille also asked me what my status was.
Stephanie… Now she would have been on top of my list. I didn't think she was going to be around in August for the semi-finals or finals, however. :p
I had made one phone call prior on Saturday. No luck. Not available neither tonight nor August. I think there might be another complicating factors too (I had considered it before the call and felt even less sure about if after the call).
Well. It's not like I have a long list of candidates on my phone. I made two more calls. One was available neither tonight nor August. I never got hold of the other.
So I was not able to join Cyrille in the competition. Too bad. Call me delusional or whatever, but my goal would have been to make it past the semi-finals because working on a choreography for a <4 min show for a couple dancing would have been a fascinating challenge.
I arrived at 7:15 to cheer Cyrille and Stephanie on. The workshop had not ended yet. I was slightly surprised to see Rico and Natalie there. Apparently they were thinking about entering the heat too. Nice. They no longer live in Cambridge, but they definitely have Cambridge connection. I think Rico has won every Salsa dance competitions I have seen in him enter in Cambridge. I suppose I would have to support them to come in second.
Not a small number of people came to watch the heat. Ivan, Haihan, William and Pauline for example came only to watch the competition and check out the social afterwards. There were good number of out-of-towners too - some looked like they might have considered entering the competition.
Not many people danced between the end of the workshop and the start of the competition. Cyrille danced with Stephanie only while Rico danced only with Natalie - seemed normal especially given that the break was pretty short (15 min or so?). I danced pretty much non-stop keeping the dance at as high level reasonable with each new partner - build up expectations maybe or just being a general nuisance (I suppose not all that different than I usually I dance).
Like at Scala, there were three couples competing. Cyrille and Stephanie. Rico and Natalie. The third couple included a girl I recognized from London (Scala? SOS?) and a guy I didn't recognize (I suppose I don't look at them very much). Two songs. Two minutes each. I don't know if anyone will remember the glitch they had with the second song.
After it ended, Ivan asked me who I thought was going to win. I replied, "I'm a little biased, but I think Cyrille and Stephanie will win." I have no idea what he thought. I suppose he would have to support his former pupils Rico and Natalie. (By the way I told Ivan that he should qualify as an amateur by the rules of this competition.)
More detailed analysis - hopefully I won't get into trouble for this. I thought Cyrille had a few too many moments of "sabor." I think they had something like 4 of them in each of the two minute segments. The music was flexible enough and they perhaps were not out of place, but there were too many - it should have been cut down in half. The octople (?) turn was debatable. It was not executed very cleanly (although the fact that it did not look practiced may not have hurt tonight) and I thought it was a bit gratuitous. My preference would have to keep it to no more than triple or maybe quadruple - anything more than triple should be done just once unless music allows it. So in that regard, I was happy to see that it wasn't repeated. Cyrille asking Stephanie for a solo shine was also not a good idea. There was nothing prepared! Unless it's going to look like something, it is not good to put your partner on the spot. Again, Cyrille stopped it after just one measure. Having both people do shine at the same time was a better idea and it worked much better. Among other things, it showed that they were just doing turn patterns after turn patterns. It was still a little nerve-wrecking - I was thinking that they were doing okay but they could do better. Maybe I am too familiar with vagaries and tendencies of Cyrille. Also it was not me out there. But I also thought that Cyrille had a golden opportunity here with Stephanie as his partner and that he better not mess it up. I relaxed a little bit when I turned my attention more to the other two couples. My impression was that they were not doing any better - more obvious stumbles and generally conservative and less interesting.
OK. Stephanie and Cyrille won. It took very long for me to say it, no? The judges were Joe, Tiz and Olga.
The social afterwards was pretty good - it lasted til 9. I tried to dance with as many people as possible - only partly successful. I danced with Natalie early, but not Stephanie (I just waited too long) and not the third female participant (she left quite early).
The only other noteworthy item was an amusing wardrobe glitch. No details except to say that I felt the danger a few times before it actually happened.
Finally a thread from way back in the past - December 16, 2005 (Ringers from Cambridge). Here's an excerpt.
I told Johnny my earlier thought about the four of us from Cambridge raising the standard of dancing tonight, and Johnny replied, "Maybe Cambridge will get a revenge on London. London Salsa dancers used to travel to provincial cities to compete in and win Salsa contests. Maybe people in Cambridge will start traveling to London to win the contests in London."
Cyrille and Stephanie are no longer available, but I would say that there are amateurs (not earning more than £5500 per year on Salsa) who could win heats elsewhere.
I suppose I could start the story on May 4 (Fix that face of yours). That was when Cyrille, Natalie and I started talking seriously about the Cambridge heat of the Latinfest Salsa dance competition. That was when we started trying to talk each other into entering the competition and we talked about possible dance partners for entering the competition. The latter topic directly or indirectly came up many times thereafter including during the SOS trip and during the dinner last Friday.
Another line of thought originate as early as March 30 (Mark this on your calendar), when I first noted that this competition is being organized and that Club Salsa will host one of the heats. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was that there may very well be an invasion from London and elsewhere for the Cambridge heat. I was certainly not alone in thinking this - I definitely recall Rajiv vocalizing the same thought at one of the Sauce outings.
I could start from this Friday at Club Salsa immediately after dinner. Cyrille and I were chilling on one of the couches. I saw Vishal and motioned him over. I asked him about the heat and who was supposed to have entered. Vishal said there were two couples, whom he knew nothing about.
Vishal started talking about being rather unimpressed with the Scala heat earlier this month on May 6 (I danced with a porn star) and said that he thought some Cambridge people are "way better" than those people. My thought was that the Scala competitors were alright but that "there are 'amateur' people associated with Cambridge who would have looked respectable." Could a Cambridge couple have won the Scala heat? I didn't think it was a slam dunk but certainly not out of the question.
Vishal also tried to talk us into entering the competition - especially Cyrille. In fact, by the end of the evening, Cyrille had verbally committed to entering and had a ready partner in Danie. Vishal and Cyrille tried to talk me and Mimi into entering, but we declined for a variety of reasons.
By Saturday, however, Cyrille was getting cold feet and tried to talk me into going SOS instead. I told him that it would be nice to have people from Cambridge representing Cambridge.
Come Sunday, Cyrille said he will enter the competition - but with Stephanie not Danie. Apparently Danie was not feeling well enough for the competition. Cyrille also asked me what my status was.
Stephanie… Now she would have been on top of my list. I didn't think she was going to be around in August for the semi-finals or finals, however. :p
I had made one phone call prior on Saturday. No luck. Not available neither tonight nor August. I think there might be another complicating factors too (I had considered it before the call and felt even less sure about if after the call).
Well. It's not like I have a long list of candidates on my phone. I made two more calls. One was available neither tonight nor August. I never got hold of the other.
So I was not able to join Cyrille in the competition. Too bad. Call me delusional or whatever, but my goal would have been to make it past the semi-finals because working on a choreography for a <4 min show for a couple dancing would have been a fascinating challenge.
I arrived at 7:15 to cheer Cyrille and Stephanie on. The workshop had not ended yet. I was slightly surprised to see Rico and Natalie there. Apparently they were thinking about entering the heat too. Nice. They no longer live in Cambridge, but they definitely have Cambridge connection. I think Rico has won every Salsa dance competitions I have seen in him enter in Cambridge. I suppose I would have to support them to come in second.
Not a small number of people came to watch the heat. Ivan, Haihan, William and Pauline for example came only to watch the competition and check out the social afterwards. There were good number of out-of-towners too - some looked like they might have considered entering the competition.
Not many people danced between the end of the workshop and the start of the competition. Cyrille danced with Stephanie only while Rico danced only with Natalie - seemed normal especially given that the break was pretty short (15 min or so?). I danced pretty much non-stop keeping the dance at as high level reasonable with each new partner - build up expectations maybe or just being a general nuisance (I suppose not all that different than I usually I dance).
Like at Scala, there were three couples competing. Cyrille and Stephanie. Rico and Natalie. The third couple included a girl I recognized from London (Scala? SOS?) and a guy I didn't recognize (I suppose I don't look at them very much). Two songs. Two minutes each. I don't know if anyone will remember the glitch they had with the second song.
After it ended, Ivan asked me who I thought was going to win. I replied, "I'm a little biased, but I think Cyrille and Stephanie will win." I have no idea what he thought. I suppose he would have to support his former pupils Rico and Natalie. (By the way I told Ivan that he should qualify as an amateur by the rules of this competition.)
More detailed analysis - hopefully I won't get into trouble for this. I thought Cyrille had a few too many moments of "sabor." I think they had something like 4 of them in each of the two minute segments. The music was flexible enough and they perhaps were not out of place, but there were too many - it should have been cut down in half. The octople (?) turn was debatable. It was not executed very cleanly (although the fact that it did not look practiced may not have hurt tonight) and I thought it was a bit gratuitous. My preference would have to keep it to no more than triple or maybe quadruple - anything more than triple should be done just once unless music allows it. So in that regard, I was happy to see that it wasn't repeated. Cyrille asking Stephanie for a solo shine was also not a good idea. There was nothing prepared! Unless it's going to look like something, it is not good to put your partner on the spot. Again, Cyrille stopped it after just one measure. Having both people do shine at the same time was a better idea and it worked much better. Among other things, it showed that they were just doing turn patterns after turn patterns. It was still a little nerve-wrecking - I was thinking that they were doing okay but they could do better. Maybe I am too familiar with vagaries and tendencies of Cyrille. Also it was not me out there. But I also thought that Cyrille had a golden opportunity here with Stephanie as his partner and that he better not mess it up. I relaxed a little bit when I turned my attention more to the other two couples. My impression was that they were not doing any better - more obvious stumbles and generally conservative and less interesting.
OK. Stephanie and Cyrille won. It took very long for me to say it, no? The judges were Joe, Tiz and Olga.
The social afterwards was pretty good - it lasted til 9. I tried to dance with as many people as possible - only partly successful. I danced with Natalie early, but not Stephanie (I just waited too long) and not the third female participant (she left quite early).
The only other noteworthy item was an amusing wardrobe glitch. No details except to say that I felt the danger a few times before it actually happened.
Finally a thread from way back in the past - December 16, 2005 (Ringers from Cambridge). Here's an excerpt.
I told Johnny my earlier thought about the four of us from Cambridge raising the standard of dancing tonight, and Johnny replied, "Maybe Cambridge will get a revenge on London. London Salsa dancers used to travel to provincial cities to compete in and win Salsa contests. Maybe people in Cambridge will start traveling to London to win the contests in London."
Cyrille and Stephanie are no longer available, but I would say that there are amateurs (not earning more than £5500 per year on Salsa) who could win heats elsewhere.
An unlikely salsero
May 19, 2007
I found another Salsa blog - this is pretty good one. His opinions and advice seem pretty sound - common sense stuff really and repeated over and over by many quality instructors yet ignored by many.
Of his 18 posts thus far, some advices I would have given to many Cambridge Salsa dancers are under following headings:
Lead Adjusting 101 - Patterns
Lead Adjusting 101 - Physical
Friends Don't Let Friends Dance Big
Ignore Beginners At Your Peril
This one is debatable but might be worthwhile.
Blacklisted!
I might add that it is probably not a good idea to get into giving advice business unless you are pretty sure that he or she won't mind constructive criticism.
I wasn't too impressed with what I sampled (only a few) among his favorite videos though. Not bad but nothing earthshaking. Of course, the point might be to show accessible things.
I found another Salsa blog - this is pretty good one. His opinions and advice seem pretty sound - common sense stuff really and repeated over and over by many quality instructors yet ignored by many.
Of his 18 posts thus far, some advices I would have given to many Cambridge Salsa dancers are under following headings:
Lead Adjusting 101 - Patterns
Lead Adjusting 101 - Physical
Friends Don't Let Friends Dance Big
Ignore Beginners At Your Peril
This one is debatable but might be worthwhile.
Blacklisted!
I might add that it is probably not a good idea to get into giving advice business unless you are pretty sure that he or she won't mind constructive criticism.
I wasn't too impressed with what I sampled (only a few) among his favorite videos though. Not bad but nothing earthshaking. Of course, the point might be to show accessible things.
High and low
May 18, 2007
Another last minute decision on dinner - pretty standard now. It came down to just me and Cyrille with no firm decision on the restaurant - not even after I picked up Cyrille and started driving towards the town center. Just before reaching the Catholic Church, we settled on curry - Mill Road - Golden Curry - a decent, cheap and convenient option. In the western hemisphere, England must have the best and cheapest selection of Indian restaurants. Conversation topic rarely strayed from Salsa - Bournemouth, Hamburg and Benidorm, etc. Dancing to the music was another big topic.
As for dancing afterwards, I felt like I was never very good to begin with and seemed to just get worse as evening progressed. It's still difficult to believe that things go from pretty good to disappointingly poor so quickly even though it happens all the time.
Music was okay for the first hour or so before turning into a predictable lowest common denominator mass crowd pleasers just in time for Mimi's arrival before moving onto a mostly similar sounding energetic happy Colombian material. I don't know about others, but I would have liked more slow songs - it might have enabled me to dance more.
Even when the song should have been okay in some other circumstances (e.g. I could imagine having nice dances to Nina Y Senora (classic) or Alabanciosa (decent) or Dame Cinco (okay depending on the mood and partner)), things did not come together. It was rather frustrating and discouraging and made me wonder if I'm regressing rather than progressing.
The end of the evening dragged a bit. Mimi would have liked to leave earlier rather than later in part because of her aching feet. Cyrille on the other hand was unstoppable - perhaps those shots of tequila on top of copious amount of beer had an effect. We ended up staying until closing time. Vishal tried to talk me and Mimi into entering Sunday's dance competition - a bit awkward.
I have a mixed feeling about entering dance competitions. Under right circumstances, it could be used for comprehensive self-evaluation and feedback and consequently could lead to significant improvements. This would be possible only with shared commitment and philosophy among all involved. However, this could be done without using a dance competition as the main impetus. In many ways I like remaining a pure social dancer - staying away from performing or teaching. It might be fun still.
I also have a silly idea that it's good for the community to have quality dancers not involved in teaching, performing or competing. It would be unfortunate to get back into a situation where anyone feel like they should consider start teaching after several months of experience (Disclosure: I had such delusional thoughts as early as 6-9 months after starting Salsa after taking a look at some of the people who were teaching Salsa at the time). One of the things I like to think the existence of San Miguel Gang seemingly in combination with a pretty good set of established teaching teams in Cambridge has done is to help squash any notion of starting new Salsa classes by people with dubious abilities.
I recall one of my first long conversations with Cyrille. It was after one of classes with Sally. I think we got together because of Mimi. At one point, Cyrille half-jokingly said that three of us should start a Salsa school together somewhere, and we stayed on this topic for a few minutes. And then Sergio showed up, and I introduced Cyrille to Sergio and said that Sergio is one of the best leads in Cambridge. Shortly thereafter Ivan showed up, and I did the same again saying that Ivan is another one of the best leads in Cambridge. Neither Sergio nor Ivan was involved in teaching Salsa at that time (at least not to the general public). I don't think this Salsa school will start anytime soon.
Another last minute decision on dinner - pretty standard now. It came down to just me and Cyrille with no firm decision on the restaurant - not even after I picked up Cyrille and started driving towards the town center. Just before reaching the Catholic Church, we settled on curry - Mill Road - Golden Curry - a decent, cheap and convenient option. In the western hemisphere, England must have the best and cheapest selection of Indian restaurants. Conversation topic rarely strayed from Salsa - Bournemouth, Hamburg and Benidorm, etc. Dancing to the music was another big topic.
As for dancing afterwards, I felt like I was never very good to begin with and seemed to just get worse as evening progressed. It's still difficult to believe that things go from pretty good to disappointingly poor so quickly even though it happens all the time.
Music was okay for the first hour or so before turning into a predictable lowest common denominator mass crowd pleasers just in time for Mimi's arrival before moving onto a mostly similar sounding energetic happy Colombian material. I don't know about others, but I would have liked more slow songs - it might have enabled me to dance more.
Even when the song should have been okay in some other circumstances (e.g. I could imagine having nice dances to Nina Y Senora (classic) or Alabanciosa (decent) or Dame Cinco (okay depending on the mood and partner)), things did not come together. It was rather frustrating and discouraging and made me wonder if I'm regressing rather than progressing.
The end of the evening dragged a bit. Mimi would have liked to leave earlier rather than later in part because of her aching feet. Cyrille on the other hand was unstoppable - perhaps those shots of tequila on top of copious amount of beer had an effect. We ended up staying until closing time. Vishal tried to talk me and Mimi into entering Sunday's dance competition - a bit awkward.
I have a mixed feeling about entering dance competitions. Under right circumstances, it could be used for comprehensive self-evaluation and feedback and consequently could lead to significant improvements. This would be possible only with shared commitment and philosophy among all involved. However, this could be done without using a dance competition as the main impetus. In many ways I like remaining a pure social dancer - staying away from performing or teaching. It might be fun still.
I also have a silly idea that it's good for the community to have quality dancers not involved in teaching, performing or competing. It would be unfortunate to get back into a situation where anyone feel like they should consider start teaching after several months of experience (Disclosure: I had such delusional thoughts as early as 6-9 months after starting Salsa after taking a look at some of the people who were teaching Salsa at the time). One of the things I like to think the existence of San Miguel Gang seemingly in combination with a pretty good set of established teaching teams in Cambridge has done is to help squash any notion of starting new Salsa classes by people with dubious abilities.
I recall one of my first long conversations with Cyrille. It was after one of classes with Sally. I think we got together because of Mimi. At one point, Cyrille half-jokingly said that three of us should start a Salsa school together somewhere, and we stayed on this topic for a few minutes. And then Sergio showed up, and I introduced Cyrille to Sergio and said that Sergio is one of the best leads in Cambridge. Shortly thereafter Ivan showed up, and I did the same again saying that Ivan is another one of the best leads in Cambridge. Neither Sergio nor Ivan was involved in teaching Salsa at that time (at least not to the general public). I don't think this Salsa school will start anytime soon.
Where are the alphas?
May 18, 2007
Another day. Work. Salsa. Sleep.
What else is out there? Sports. Games. Reading. Watching. Oh - I suppose interacting with other people - kin, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc.
I didn't make Sally's class again - I couldn't finish early enough.
I made it to Sauce around 9:20. Many tables of people again. Sewell, Clara, Rajiv and William occupied a big table with a couple of free seats.
At Club Salsa, there were some surprise shows. Surprise absences outnumbered them though.
Some of it is due to studying - undergraduates in particular are preparing for exams, etc - it explains Haihan. Apparently Ivan is out with cold. I have no idea what happened to Cyrille. Sergio is not expected until early-mid June. They left a void.
Then again, it still felt like men outnumbered women by a fair margin all night. Euvian was there but changed her shoes fairly early. Some other people also left fairly early - never resulting in rectifying the imbalance.
I felt that I was leading moves better than last week - it doesn't necessarily mean more controlled dances because I would try more and different things when standard moves work well.
I can't decide for sure if La Loma Del Tamarindo (El Gran Combo) should be danced as Salsa or Cha-Cha. Perhaps either is fine.
Tonight's approach - warm-up and watch for first several songs then dance through much of the middle part of the evening and sometimes looking for an inner-marchant then finishing with shines, isolations and more watching.
Vishal asked me if I knew anyone who is interested in Scala next Sunday (with coach ride and all) who haven't signed up. Is anyone interested but have not signed up yet? People studying for exams are exempt - as well as people who are allowed to go out only once a week. ;p
Another day. Work. Salsa. Sleep.
What else is out there? Sports. Games. Reading. Watching. Oh - I suppose interacting with other people - kin, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc.
I didn't make Sally's class again - I couldn't finish early enough.
I made it to Sauce around 9:20. Many tables of people again. Sewell, Clara, Rajiv and William occupied a big table with a couple of free seats.
At Club Salsa, there were some surprise shows. Surprise absences outnumbered them though.
Some of it is due to studying - undergraduates in particular are preparing for exams, etc - it explains Haihan. Apparently Ivan is out with cold. I have no idea what happened to Cyrille. Sergio is not expected until early-mid June. They left a void.
Then again, it still felt like men outnumbered women by a fair margin all night. Euvian was there but changed her shoes fairly early. Some other people also left fairly early - never resulting in rectifying the imbalance.
I felt that I was leading moves better than last week - it doesn't necessarily mean more controlled dances because I would try more and different things when standard moves work well.
I can't decide for sure if La Loma Del Tamarindo (El Gran Combo) should be danced as Salsa or Cha-Cha. Perhaps either is fine.
Tonight's approach - warm-up and watch for first several songs then dance through much of the middle part of the evening and sometimes looking for an inner-marchant then finishing with shines, isolations and more watching.
Vishal asked me if I knew anyone who is interested in Scala next Sunday (with coach ride and all) who haven't signed up. Is anyone interested but have not signed up yet? People studying for exams are exempt - as well as people who are allowed to go out only once a week. ;p
Welcome to the party
May 14, 2007
Considering the fact that I thought about attending Joe's class tonight, I arrived rather late - around 10:20 - directly from work. Joe was long gone, but I was a little surprised to find Rajiv talking to Danie as well as Jane and Richard a little further away closer to the DJ booth. Otherwise the dance floor was as about as full as I would have expected it to be.
I said hello to others who were dancing when I came in - like Ed and Heinz. Ed and I talked in some length about SOS last night, which was finally back to its normal glory after a series of subpar weeks in April. Ed had been accustomed to what I thought of as junior varsity version of SOS all April so he was surprised and perhaps a little intimidated by higher standard.
I don't have a crystal clear idea of how I coped when I was new to SOS - I think I must have asked women who were not being asked as often while trying to dance as much as possible (nearly non-stop) and doing my best. I was probably using the same move with everyone and disguising it by essentially not dancing with anyone more than once per evening. The habit of dancing only once per evening per person at SOS has stuck though - except for rare exceptions. I suppose I do the same in Cambridge although I break this rule quite frequently with rather large number of people.
Vishal debuted a new CD full of nice and sometimes very surprising songs. I think I recognized a little over half of the songs although I don't know the song titles of all. Thus my listing of songs here does not fully show the quality. I think it included Trompeta Y Trombone (Ray Barretto), My Favorite Things (New Swing Sextet - I danced with Jane). The biggest surprise of sort was Welcome To The Party (Har You Percussion Group) - Vishal thought about skipping the song and I had to tell him to keep it on and see what happens.
Here's Frankie Martinez to Welcome To The Party - some of you must have seen this already.
Anyhow, it gave Richard and Jane as well as Rajiv and Danie to try dancing to this track. I tried doing some shines and see what happened.
I probably liked the song that came on after Welcome To The Party even more. It reminded me a little bit of Cairo. Call it Mambo or Latin Jazz - I bet Haihan, Agnes, Steph et al would have liked it a great deal.
Vishal did skip the next song (Happy Birthday). The song after that was nice too - I had my last dance of the evening with someone I had never seen before prior to tonight. It was my second with her tonight - she seemed nice although light to being almost a wisp.
I left the club as Vishal turned down the volume for Vacilon (Lebron Brothers). I think Vishal was trying to make a statement that he could out-Mambo Sally and me if he wanted. Of course, I think I could push the boundary even more - even if I can't say I would have dared to play Welcome To The Party on Fridays anytime soon.
MacBooks are updated today. Yay. I might be getting a new laptop sooner rather than later. The middle model update includes 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (up from 2.0 GHz), 120 GB hard drive (up from 80 GB), and 8x SuperDrive (up from 6x) as standard.
Considering the fact that I thought about attending Joe's class tonight, I arrived rather late - around 10:20 - directly from work. Joe was long gone, but I was a little surprised to find Rajiv talking to Danie as well as Jane and Richard a little further away closer to the DJ booth. Otherwise the dance floor was as about as full as I would have expected it to be.
I said hello to others who were dancing when I came in - like Ed and Heinz. Ed and I talked in some length about SOS last night, which was finally back to its normal glory after a series of subpar weeks in April. Ed had been accustomed to what I thought of as junior varsity version of SOS all April so he was surprised and perhaps a little intimidated by higher standard.
I don't have a crystal clear idea of how I coped when I was new to SOS - I think I must have asked women who were not being asked as often while trying to dance as much as possible (nearly non-stop) and doing my best. I was probably using the same move with everyone and disguising it by essentially not dancing with anyone more than once per evening. The habit of dancing only once per evening per person at SOS has stuck though - except for rare exceptions. I suppose I do the same in Cambridge although I break this rule quite frequently with rather large number of people.
Vishal debuted a new CD full of nice and sometimes very surprising songs. I think I recognized a little over half of the songs although I don't know the song titles of all. Thus my listing of songs here does not fully show the quality. I think it included Trompeta Y Trombone (Ray Barretto), My Favorite Things (New Swing Sextet - I danced with Jane). The biggest surprise of sort was Welcome To The Party (Har You Percussion Group) - Vishal thought about skipping the song and I had to tell him to keep it on and see what happens.
Here's Frankie Martinez to Welcome To The Party - some of you must have seen this already.
Anyhow, it gave Richard and Jane as well as Rajiv and Danie to try dancing to this track. I tried doing some shines and see what happened.
I probably liked the song that came on after Welcome To The Party even more. It reminded me a little bit of Cairo. Call it Mambo or Latin Jazz - I bet Haihan, Agnes, Steph et al would have liked it a great deal.
Vishal did skip the next song (Happy Birthday). The song after that was nice too - I had my last dance of the evening with someone I had never seen before prior to tonight. It was my second with her tonight - she seemed nice although light to being almost a wisp.
I left the club as Vishal turned down the volume for Vacilon (Lebron Brothers). I think Vishal was trying to make a statement that he could out-Mambo Sally and me if he wanted. Of course, I think I could push the boundary even more - even if I can't say I would have dared to play Welcome To The Party on Fridays anytime soon.
MacBooks are updated today. Yay. I might be getting a new laptop sooner rather than later. The middle model update includes 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (up from 2.0 GHz), 120 GB hard drive (up from 80 GB), and 8x SuperDrive (up from 6x) as standard.
Why dance with SWAGs when you can...?
May 13, 2007
I think I am still going through a somewhat rough patch as far as Salsa dancing is concerned - feeling less than at top form and perhaps overmatched and outclassed. It may be because I haven't had a lot of practice aside from a bunch of uneven social dancing lately. Whatever the cause, it's pretty normal and it's not too bad alternating between feeling overexuberant and inadequate.
The weather was cold and rainy. I did not feel like driving. I took the 6:28 train, which got me to Mary Ward Hall with more than 10 minutes left for the class. I had a chance to watch the level 4 class for the first time in a very long time - it did not make me want to be in the class. It seemed a little too much - contrived to pack in whole lot of things into a small space of time for people who would never use the material for social dancing. The final practice music was apparently Tito On Timbales (Cha Cha - similar to Ti Mon Bo).
I was relieved to see Amir manning the DJ booth. He's great. I definitely have him pegged as my favorite SOS DJ. I went and said hello - first of many occasions tonight I chatted with him.
I saw Johnny in level 4. I saw Ed in level 3. No other people from Cambridge were seen - unless I count the Scandinavian au pair, who may or may no longer be based in Cambridge.
I skipped the first four songs. I must have felt like observing rather than dancing. I am doubtful that this is the way to inspire myself to dance. I certainly did not feel extra motivated to dance because of the extra rest or watching other people dance - good, bad or anywhere in between.
The first song I danced to was Salsa Y Control by Lebron Brothers.
Unlike last three times I have been to SOS, it was a full packed night. The back half became sparser towards the end of the evening. I would venture to say that the level of dancing was somewhat higher than any of the evening I have been to last month.
As I said, I did not feel that I was in top form - in every way. In particular I thought my lead was somewhat less smooth than usual.
After a few Salsa dances, I had an opportunity to dance Cha Cha. Another On2 practice. I ate it up.
A really good stretch of songs deserves an elaboration.
The first song was Cuando Te Vea by Tito Puente. I danced to it of course. It might have come up right after the Cha Cha.
Next came Mambo Diablo by Tito Puente (Concord Picante recording). Uh Oh. Three dances in a row! I looked around - I was next to the stage. I was thinking - I have to dance to this one. I spotted a stunning-looking girl on the stage. I had not seen her up until that moment so I had no idea if she was a good dancer. It really didn't matter - I was like "I have to dance with her." Perhaps I should have considered a possibility that she would have declined the dance, but the possibility never occurred to me then. In any case she said yes.
Right away I realized that she was good. Hmm. She's really good. Wow. She's a completely different level compared to what I am used to. I thought I danced only so-so and my lead, and connection between us felt merely adequate. She was an unusual combination - youthful and very good-looking, very good follower - making everything I threw at her seem like cakewalk, very stylish - mostly using her body rather than her hand/arms and never making it difficult to lead any moves by overstyling, and seemingly treating the dance with me as something ordinary but pleasant.
Usually someone young and attractive fall into three categories: they really like you and want to dance with you because you're way better than most people around or they treat you as just another guy (worthy of little interest and of mere tolerance) or they don't notice you at all if you are not very good-looking and would be considered well below their level in dancing.
I had been thinking that I should try to be more social with people I dance with - especially the ones I liked dancing with. I did not follow my advice; she was a little too good.
Next song was Swing La Moderna by Ray Barretto. For some moment - less than a minute, I thought I might want to dance again. I decided not to. I turned to Amir and said to him, "You're playing too many good songs in a row." He replied, "Don't get too used to it."
Next song was Sun Sun Babae (by Tito Rodriguez Sr. - I learned this at the end of the evening). Nice song. Sound quality was no more than adequate. I didn't dance though - still recovering.
Amir also played Mi Ritmo Es Bueno (Bobby Valentin?) again. I used the song to dance with one of the most complete followers in London I have come to dance with at fairly regular intervals. Pretty much every time I see her nowadays. I think the first song I danced with her was Alonzo by Cal Tjader at the Scala (the same evening I danced to Viva Cepeda for the first time). Usually I choose her for more old-time Mambo (I think we have danced to Cairo definitely and maybe Cuando Te Vea and other similar songs). As I mentioned, I did not feel that I was in top form. Maybe she noticed. I don't know. I found Mi Ritmo Es Bueno to be a little too long and not quite interesting enough to dance with her at consistently high level.
Some of the songs played a bit later included Que Se Sepa (Javier Vazquez - possibly under a different title) and El Verdadero Son (also by Javier Vazquez). I know the songs by versions done by Roberto Roena (from his 6th album rather than his 5th album) and Estrellas Caiman. I see that Javier Vazquez also has a song called Mi Ritmo Esta Bueno - any relations to Mi Ritmo Es Bueno? I'll have to be on the lookout for his CDs.
Either Tres Dias De Carnaval or Un Sopa En Botella (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco) was played also. There was a Bachata, which I mistook for Cha Cha - I referred to it as Bacha-chata to Amir and Helen. A second Cha Cha was another welcome On2 practice opportunity.
The last song (interrupting a rather fast song I was dancing with someone who asked me) was Otra Oportunidad by Jimmy Bosch. I never found a partner for this one, and when I finished circling the room, I saw that Amir was dancing - with the girl I danced with earlier to Mambo Diablo.
Instead of leaving right away, I decided to wait until the end of the song. When the song ended, I said to Amir, "So that was your one dance of the evening?" It was. I said, "That's a good one. I would not mind having that as the only dance of the evening."
As I was saying these, Tracy waltzed in and started talking with the girl and complimenting her on how well she danced, etc. Tracy also expressed regret at not dancing with me tonight - I did ask her earlier although the song turned out to have some really fast passages, which kinda killed the idea by the time she came back from a swig of water. I had hung around, but she opted to dance with someone else next. Anyhow, this put in me in the middle of conversation between Tracy and the girl. I too complimented her saying things like she was great and that I had thoughts like "What did I get myself into?" while I danced with her. She was very nice about it saying that I had a very "precise" lead (note: this seemed apt - I did think my lead tonight was merely adequate… I recall some people use the word precise as a mostly positive statement although it could mask some deficiencies in terms of things like the lead being too strong and even unforgiving and also possibly lacking panache or flair or being super smooth). Tracy was very talkative so I came to learn more about her. In summary, she's from Poland. Her name is Ania. She's dance partner of Neeraj Maskara. So I have seen her before - e.g at SOS not long ago. Haha. I guess I didn’t recognize her because she came without Neeraj this time. I suppose it's partly that she is good-looking in a plain sort of way (I could see my old friend Ben describing her as plain-looking) rather than having some exotic or distinctive features. She'll be at Benidorm and Bournemouth but not Hamburg. She asked Tracy and me whether we teach Salsa, etc - both of us replied that we were just social dancers. I think Tracy was slightly surprised when Ania said she remember seeing her before. I chimed in saying that Tracy stands out in the crowd. For whatever it's worth she learned both our names - doing a double take on mine - no surprise. Tracy was like "I'm talking with a superstar!" I think I might have said something like, "That's another thing I like about SOS. I might ask some random person for a dance and she might turn out to be a celebrity in the Salsa world." In any case, Ania seemed really nice - certainly no Salsa princess nor heaven forbid ... a SWAG.
By the way, here's a link to a Neeraj & Ania performance, which I labelled as alright to Liam when I saw it at SOS.
Before departing for good, I stopped by in a conversation between Amir, Tracy and Sean (and later joined by one of the On2 dancer who apparently once partnered with Anna for some competition at SOS in December). Amir was talking about possibly taking over londonsalsa.co.uk from Phil and adding some music stuff to it. It could be interesting.
Quentin was there again! Apparently he has visa issues.
Train reading of the day - The power and the glory (Graham Greene)
I think I am still going through a somewhat rough patch as far as Salsa dancing is concerned - feeling less than at top form and perhaps overmatched and outclassed. It may be because I haven't had a lot of practice aside from a bunch of uneven social dancing lately. Whatever the cause, it's pretty normal and it's not too bad alternating between feeling overexuberant and inadequate.
The weather was cold and rainy. I did not feel like driving. I took the 6:28 train, which got me to Mary Ward Hall with more than 10 minutes left for the class. I had a chance to watch the level 4 class for the first time in a very long time - it did not make me want to be in the class. It seemed a little too much - contrived to pack in whole lot of things into a small space of time for people who would never use the material for social dancing. The final practice music was apparently Tito On Timbales (Cha Cha - similar to Ti Mon Bo).
I was relieved to see Amir manning the DJ booth. He's great. I definitely have him pegged as my favorite SOS DJ. I went and said hello - first of many occasions tonight I chatted with him.
I saw Johnny in level 4. I saw Ed in level 3. No other people from Cambridge were seen - unless I count the Scandinavian au pair, who may or may no longer be based in Cambridge.
I skipped the first four songs. I must have felt like observing rather than dancing. I am doubtful that this is the way to inspire myself to dance. I certainly did not feel extra motivated to dance because of the extra rest or watching other people dance - good, bad or anywhere in between.
The first song I danced to was Salsa Y Control by Lebron Brothers.
Unlike last three times I have been to SOS, it was a full packed night. The back half became sparser towards the end of the evening. I would venture to say that the level of dancing was somewhat higher than any of the evening I have been to last month.
As I said, I did not feel that I was in top form - in every way. In particular I thought my lead was somewhat less smooth than usual.
After a few Salsa dances, I had an opportunity to dance Cha Cha. Another On2 practice. I ate it up.
A really good stretch of songs deserves an elaboration.
The first song was Cuando Te Vea by Tito Puente. I danced to it of course. It might have come up right after the Cha Cha.
Next came Mambo Diablo by Tito Puente (Concord Picante recording). Uh Oh. Three dances in a row! I looked around - I was next to the stage. I was thinking - I have to dance to this one. I spotted a stunning-looking girl on the stage. I had not seen her up until that moment so I had no idea if she was a good dancer. It really didn't matter - I was like "I have to dance with her." Perhaps I should have considered a possibility that she would have declined the dance, but the possibility never occurred to me then. In any case she said yes.
Right away I realized that she was good. Hmm. She's really good. Wow. She's a completely different level compared to what I am used to. I thought I danced only so-so and my lead, and connection between us felt merely adequate. She was an unusual combination - youthful and very good-looking, very good follower - making everything I threw at her seem like cakewalk, very stylish - mostly using her body rather than her hand/arms and never making it difficult to lead any moves by overstyling, and seemingly treating the dance with me as something ordinary but pleasant.
Usually someone young and attractive fall into three categories: they really like you and want to dance with you because you're way better than most people around or they treat you as just another guy (worthy of little interest and of mere tolerance) or they don't notice you at all if you are not very good-looking and would be considered well below their level in dancing.
I had been thinking that I should try to be more social with people I dance with - especially the ones I liked dancing with. I did not follow my advice; she was a little too good.
Next song was Swing La Moderna by Ray Barretto. For some moment - less than a minute, I thought I might want to dance again. I decided not to. I turned to Amir and said to him, "You're playing too many good songs in a row." He replied, "Don't get too used to it."
Next song was Sun Sun Babae (by Tito Rodriguez Sr. - I learned this at the end of the evening). Nice song. Sound quality was no more than adequate. I didn't dance though - still recovering.
Amir also played Mi Ritmo Es Bueno (Bobby Valentin?) again. I used the song to dance with one of the most complete followers in London I have come to dance with at fairly regular intervals. Pretty much every time I see her nowadays. I think the first song I danced with her was Alonzo by Cal Tjader at the Scala (the same evening I danced to Viva Cepeda for the first time). Usually I choose her for more old-time Mambo (I think we have danced to Cairo definitely and maybe Cuando Te Vea and other similar songs). As I mentioned, I did not feel that I was in top form. Maybe she noticed. I don't know. I found Mi Ritmo Es Bueno to be a little too long and not quite interesting enough to dance with her at consistently high level.
Some of the songs played a bit later included Que Se Sepa (Javier Vazquez - possibly under a different title) and El Verdadero Son (also by Javier Vazquez). I know the songs by versions done by Roberto Roena (from his 6th album rather than his 5th album) and Estrellas Caiman. I see that Javier Vazquez also has a song called Mi Ritmo Esta Bueno - any relations to Mi Ritmo Es Bueno? I'll have to be on the lookout for his CDs.
Either Tres Dias De Carnaval or Un Sopa En Botella (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco) was played also. There was a Bachata, which I mistook for Cha Cha - I referred to it as Bacha-chata to Amir and Helen. A second Cha Cha was another welcome On2 practice opportunity.
The last song (interrupting a rather fast song I was dancing with someone who asked me) was Otra Oportunidad by Jimmy Bosch. I never found a partner for this one, and when I finished circling the room, I saw that Amir was dancing - with the girl I danced with earlier to Mambo Diablo.
Instead of leaving right away, I decided to wait until the end of the song. When the song ended, I said to Amir, "So that was your one dance of the evening?" It was. I said, "That's a good one. I would not mind having that as the only dance of the evening."
As I was saying these, Tracy waltzed in and started talking with the girl and complimenting her on how well she danced, etc. Tracy also expressed regret at not dancing with me tonight - I did ask her earlier although the song turned out to have some really fast passages, which kinda killed the idea by the time she came back from a swig of water. I had hung around, but she opted to dance with someone else next. Anyhow, this put in me in the middle of conversation between Tracy and the girl. I too complimented her saying things like she was great and that I had thoughts like "What did I get myself into?" while I danced with her. She was very nice about it saying that I had a very "precise" lead (note: this seemed apt - I did think my lead tonight was merely adequate… I recall some people use the word precise as a mostly positive statement although it could mask some deficiencies in terms of things like the lead being too strong and even unforgiving and also possibly lacking panache or flair or being super smooth). Tracy was very talkative so I came to learn more about her. In summary, she's from Poland. Her name is Ania. She's dance partner of Neeraj Maskara. So I have seen her before - e.g at SOS not long ago. Haha. I guess I didn’t recognize her because she came without Neeraj this time. I suppose it's partly that she is good-looking in a plain sort of way (I could see my old friend Ben describing her as plain-looking) rather than having some exotic or distinctive features. She'll be at Benidorm and Bournemouth but not Hamburg. She asked Tracy and me whether we teach Salsa, etc - both of us replied that we were just social dancers. I think Tracy was slightly surprised when Ania said she remember seeing her before. I chimed in saying that Tracy stands out in the crowd. For whatever it's worth she learned both our names - doing a double take on mine - no surprise. Tracy was like "I'm talking with a superstar!" I think I might have said something like, "That's another thing I like about SOS. I might ask some random person for a dance and she might turn out to be a celebrity in the Salsa world." In any case, Ania seemed really nice - certainly no Salsa princess nor heaven forbid ... a SWAG.
By the way, here's a link to a Neeraj & Ania performance, which I labelled as alright to Liam when I saw it at SOS.
Before departing for good, I stopped by in a conversation between Amir, Tracy and Sean (and later joined by one of the On2 dancer who apparently once partnered with Anna for some competition at SOS in December). Amir was talking about possibly taking over londonsalsa.co.uk from Phil and adding some music stuff to it. It could be interesting.
Quentin was there again! Apparently he has visa issues.
Train reading of the day - The power and the glory (Graham Greene)
Second Friday without DJing and...
May 11, 2007
Yikes. What is wrong with me? I am next to useless.
Work is funny. I feel rather useless and fairly unmotivated. But people must think I am doing great and not being rewarded enough. I suppose I need not complain about that. Getting surprise notices twice in a course of two weeks after a more typical adjustment five months ago seemed silly though. Maybe I should complain and see if that changes things.
Cyrille writing to meet him at Wagamama with less than 2 hours warning - I suppose that's no real source of complaint either - even if it meant dropping a couple of things I wanted to do at work. I was five minutes late at 8:35 and was the first to get there. Sebastian, Euvian, Zern, Zhenzhi and Cyrille arrived over course of next 30 minutes or so. We were seated around 9:10.
As is the case at Teri-Aki, Euvian apparently sticks to one dish at Wagamama - chicken katsu curry. Cyrille and I took after her example - I think she made the right choice at Teri-Aki. Zhenzhi had Wagamama Ramen - my dish from last week. Sebastian had Ebi Raisukaree and was surprised by hot chillies. I don't remember what Zern had - aside from Kirin (500 ml bottle also taken up by me and Cyrille). Cyrille did not give a convincing reason why he chose Wagamama again when he found it to be merely okay - I thought my explanation (that Cyrille finds pretty much every eatery in Cambridge to be average at best) also was not satisfying.
The topic turned to Cambridge spots with good food. Euvian apparently liked a Thai place - I did not get the name … apparently across the bridge (and up the hill?). Zern mentioned Kingston Arms - a place I used to frequent with my work colleagues until one of them was banned for disorderly conduct. Cyrille likes Mai Thai - we talked about this before.
Everyone except Zhenzhi ended up at Club Salsa. Who was the instigator?
When Vishal saw us, he went from the pre-recorded CD blaring Noche De Salsa to La Palomilla and thus surprising Cyrille. Other songs heard during the course of the evening included Alabanciosa (Manny Oquendo), Vasos De Colores (Marvin Santiago), La Llave, Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Pancho Cristal, Un Verano En Nueva York (El Gran Combo), Me Libere. Songs not heard included Playa No More, Micaela, La Vida Es Un Carnaval (wow!).
It was a nondescript night for me though. Despite having all evening to dance, I didn't feel particularly inspired. I don't think I was any good either. Mimi showed up later so I had three dances with her (first one On1, second one On2 and third one Bachata) in a row. The only one I felt okay about was the On2 dance and only because the number of times we went off time was a record low number - maybe two? Bachata on the other hand was rather awful - I think it was the first time I danced Bachata in many months - definitely not after having been to Spain. I can't believe how bad I had become - even having Mimi cheerful throughout did not help.
Whether I was dancing with complete beginners (there were a number of those) or familiar faces like Euvian, Mimi or Natalia or everyone in between, I had difficulty staying engaged or trying anything interesting or whatever. I came away thinking that I was useless and that I could have done a much better job after pretty much every dance. Whatever it is, I didn't have it tonight.
After a while, I was thinking that I can't wait for Vishal to start playing Reggaeton so that I would not have to face my Salsa funk any more. By then, the group had dwindled down to Mimi, Cyrille, Euvian, Zern and me. Silliness was cathartic to a degree.
Is it worthwhile? I don't think I could be considered completely impartial. After all, it's not like I have an one-hour drive to gain entrance on Fridays. I did buy Cyrille (and me) a drink - to make it easy for him to wake up tomorrow morning (on two hour sleep he said on the way out).
Another topic. Congresses. Bournemouth. Hamburg. Benidorm. Everyone trying to talk everyone else into any number of those things. Scala too especially in light of the coach deal. What? Is Cambridge not enough?
Yikes. What is wrong with me? I am next to useless.
Work is funny. I feel rather useless and fairly unmotivated. But people must think I am doing great and not being rewarded enough. I suppose I need not complain about that. Getting surprise notices twice in a course of two weeks after a more typical adjustment five months ago seemed silly though. Maybe I should complain and see if that changes things.
Cyrille writing to meet him at Wagamama with less than 2 hours warning - I suppose that's no real source of complaint either - even if it meant dropping a couple of things I wanted to do at work. I was five minutes late at 8:35 and was the first to get there. Sebastian, Euvian, Zern, Zhenzhi and Cyrille arrived over course of next 30 minutes or so. We were seated around 9:10.
As is the case at Teri-Aki, Euvian apparently sticks to one dish at Wagamama - chicken katsu curry. Cyrille and I took after her example - I think she made the right choice at Teri-Aki. Zhenzhi had Wagamama Ramen - my dish from last week. Sebastian had Ebi Raisukaree and was surprised by hot chillies. I don't remember what Zern had - aside from Kirin (500 ml bottle also taken up by me and Cyrille). Cyrille did not give a convincing reason why he chose Wagamama again when he found it to be merely okay - I thought my explanation (that Cyrille finds pretty much every eatery in Cambridge to be average at best) also was not satisfying.
The topic turned to Cambridge spots with good food. Euvian apparently liked a Thai place - I did not get the name … apparently across the bridge (and up the hill?). Zern mentioned Kingston Arms - a place I used to frequent with my work colleagues until one of them was banned for disorderly conduct. Cyrille likes Mai Thai - we talked about this before.
Everyone except Zhenzhi ended up at Club Salsa. Who was the instigator?
When Vishal saw us, he went from the pre-recorded CD blaring Noche De Salsa to La Palomilla and thus surprising Cyrille. Other songs heard during the course of the evening included Alabanciosa (Manny Oquendo), Vasos De Colores (Marvin Santiago), La Llave, Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Pancho Cristal, Un Verano En Nueva York (El Gran Combo), Me Libere. Songs not heard included Playa No More, Micaela, La Vida Es Un Carnaval (wow!).
It was a nondescript night for me though. Despite having all evening to dance, I didn't feel particularly inspired. I don't think I was any good either. Mimi showed up later so I had three dances with her (first one On1, second one On2 and third one Bachata) in a row. The only one I felt okay about was the On2 dance and only because the number of times we went off time was a record low number - maybe two? Bachata on the other hand was rather awful - I think it was the first time I danced Bachata in many months - definitely not after having been to Spain. I can't believe how bad I had become - even having Mimi cheerful throughout did not help.
Whether I was dancing with complete beginners (there were a number of those) or familiar faces like Euvian, Mimi or Natalia or everyone in between, I had difficulty staying engaged or trying anything interesting or whatever. I came away thinking that I was useless and that I could have done a much better job after pretty much every dance. Whatever it is, I didn't have it tonight.
After a while, I was thinking that I can't wait for Vishal to start playing Reggaeton so that I would not have to face my Salsa funk any more. By then, the group had dwindled down to Mimi, Cyrille, Euvian, Zern and me. Silliness was cathartic to a degree.
Is it worthwhile? I don't think I could be considered completely impartial. After all, it's not like I have an one-hour drive to gain entrance on Fridays. I did buy Cyrille (and me) a drink - to make it easy for him to wake up tomorrow morning (on two hour sleep he said on the way out).
Another topic. Congresses. Bournemouth. Hamburg. Benidorm. Everyone trying to talk everyone else into any number of those things. Scala too especially in light of the coach deal. What? Is Cambridge not enough?
It's still possible...
May 10, 2007
Instead of going to Sally's class, I decided to do get a little more work done and then give a colleague a ride home. Since I was already pretty late, I decided to stop by home for a quick bite to eat. I saw a whole bunch of people hanging out at the Sauce so I joined them. Perhaps not surprisingly someone (Zern?) asked, "Where were you?"
This is what I meant by whole bunch. My table had Sebastian, Zern, Rajiv, William, Cyrille, and Andrea. Another table had Alison, Clare and two or three others. Third table had four more people from Salsa. Fourth table had another three or four including Clara and Steve. In addition, there was another big non-Salsa table with at least three people from work.
The most amusing remark came from William. He wanted standardization of Salsa - everyone to dance the same way - even if it is On2. The topic also moved onto something that reminded me of my musing from about 1 1/2 year ago and a ridicule it elicited.
People arriving later included Euvian, Zhenzhi, Stephanie, Haihan, Ivan, Nina as well as Diana, Jay and their family and friends. Other people present included Brendan, Phyllis, Jane, Lindsey and Nicola. Another person I recognized from work was there with whole bunch of her friends I did not recognize.
The evening did not start off well for me. It seemed like I wasn't on the same page with everyone I danced with for the first hour or so. In some cases, I tried to simplify my moves but it seemed like once my partners were confused they stayed confused no matter what. It went bad enough for so long that I began to wonder if my leading had gone to hell.
I felt a little better after dancing to Ritmo Pa Borinquen (Grupo Latin Vibe). I was less certain after another song (unknown to me but it had some long bits reminding me of Si La Ves (Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe), which left me wondering what the heck do I do with this bit? It doesn't make me want to do anything) - a little annoying because it was a rare opportunity. Sally also played a quite nice sounding Cha Cha (apparently called Tumba Palo Cucuye done by Wayne Gorbea) with small number of people left over. Aside from having to scramble and wait to get a partner (Nicola was my victim) and the song being a bit overlong given I don't have a great deal of moves for On2 or Cha Cha, it was nice.
It's still possible that my lead was crap for the first hour.
Anyhow with pretty much everyone gone, it looked like it was going to be a somewhat underwhelming and arguably disappointing evening for me. The only ones left dancing was Rajiv and Stephanie. Stephanie motioned to me that I was her next victim - apparently she danced non-stop tonight - I think that would be for about 2 hours to enable her to deal with no more dancing opportunities til June.
I had three dances with her in a row. It worked that way because the first dance went really well - to a song I didn't hear before (Pedregal by Justo Betancourt according to Sally), and then the next two songs were liked by either Stephanie (Picadillo by Cal Tjader and Eddie Palmieri - I like it too but not as much as Stephanie or some others like Haihan and Agnes) or by both of us (Mambo Gallego - apparently an early Tito Puente - it was only the second time I have heard this song - according to Stephanie, Mauro and Eva used a part of this song for one of their routines). All three of these dances were quite good fun - with the whole floor to ourselves and a small number of spectators.
It's still possible that my lead was crap for the first hour.
Earlier in the evening, I had a pretty weak dance with Stephanie to Merecumbe (Johnny Colon). I wonder what was the deal with the first hour? I don't think it can be blamed on there being couple of so-so Cuban people amidst. The last time I went directly from London to Cambridge Thursday wasn't very good either. Maybe I need a buffer between the two. I don't know.
I need to get a new laptop. Dealing with this blog is getting difficult to manage without one. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Apple is going to do me any favor with their updates.
Instead of going to Sally's class, I decided to do get a little more work done and then give a colleague a ride home. Since I was already pretty late, I decided to stop by home for a quick bite to eat. I saw a whole bunch of people hanging out at the Sauce so I joined them. Perhaps not surprisingly someone (Zern?) asked, "Where were you?"
This is what I meant by whole bunch. My table had Sebastian, Zern, Rajiv, William, Cyrille, and Andrea. Another table had Alison, Clare and two or three others. Third table had four more people from Salsa. Fourth table had another three or four including Clara and Steve. In addition, there was another big non-Salsa table with at least three people from work.
The most amusing remark came from William. He wanted standardization of Salsa - everyone to dance the same way - even if it is On2. The topic also moved onto something that reminded me of my musing from about 1 1/2 year ago and a ridicule it elicited.
People arriving later included Euvian, Zhenzhi, Stephanie, Haihan, Ivan, Nina as well as Diana, Jay and their family and friends. Other people present included Brendan, Phyllis, Jane, Lindsey and Nicola. Another person I recognized from work was there with whole bunch of her friends I did not recognize.
The evening did not start off well for me. It seemed like I wasn't on the same page with everyone I danced with for the first hour or so. In some cases, I tried to simplify my moves but it seemed like once my partners were confused they stayed confused no matter what. It went bad enough for so long that I began to wonder if my leading had gone to hell.
I felt a little better after dancing to Ritmo Pa Borinquen (Grupo Latin Vibe). I was less certain after another song (unknown to me but it had some long bits reminding me of Si La Ves (Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe), which left me wondering what the heck do I do with this bit? It doesn't make me want to do anything) - a little annoying because it was a rare opportunity. Sally also played a quite nice sounding Cha Cha (apparently called Tumba Palo Cucuye done by Wayne Gorbea) with small number of people left over. Aside from having to scramble and wait to get a partner (Nicola was my victim) and the song being a bit overlong given I don't have a great deal of moves for On2 or Cha Cha, it was nice.
It's still possible that my lead was crap for the first hour.
Anyhow with pretty much everyone gone, it looked like it was going to be a somewhat underwhelming and arguably disappointing evening for me. The only ones left dancing was Rajiv and Stephanie. Stephanie motioned to me that I was her next victim - apparently she danced non-stop tonight - I think that would be for about 2 hours to enable her to deal with no more dancing opportunities til June.
I had three dances with her in a row. It worked that way because the first dance went really well - to a song I didn't hear before (Pedregal by Justo Betancourt according to Sally), and then the next two songs were liked by either Stephanie (Picadillo by Cal Tjader and Eddie Palmieri - I like it too but not as much as Stephanie or some others like Haihan and Agnes) or by both of us (Mambo Gallego - apparently an early Tito Puente - it was only the second time I have heard this song - according to Stephanie, Mauro and Eva used a part of this song for one of their routines). All three of these dances were quite good fun - with the whole floor to ourselves and a small number of spectators.
It's still possible that my lead was crap for the first hour.
Earlier in the evening, I had a pretty weak dance with Stephanie to Merecumbe (Johnny Colon). I wonder what was the deal with the first hour? I don't think it can be blamed on there being couple of so-so Cuban people amidst. The last time I went directly from London to Cambridge Thursday wasn't very good either. Maybe I need a buffer between the two. I don't know.
I need to get a new laptop. Dealing with this blog is getting difficult to manage without one. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Apple is going to do me any favor with their updates.
I danced with a porn star
May 6, 2007
A downside to having danced with many people - I'm guessing well over 1000 people by now - is that you develop ability to nitpick how well your partner dances with you. This could be about your partner's abilities - timing, musicality, following, spinning, styling, maintaining good position and posture - or about the way your partner connects with you - tension and chemistry in general. After dancing with the best in the local scene, national scene and also with some international stars, you start finding blemishes in everyone including international superstars.
A downside to having a seemingly excellent dance with superstars - local, national or international - is that you develop an overinflated ego. Chances are those seemingly superb dances were merely decent dances for the superstars, who themselves might have danced with 1000 or 10,000 or more people. You don't even have to dance with the superstars. You could just watch those superstars dance and see and admire how they move. Afterwards, people approximately at about your level or below start to look trite. Heck, even people who might be better than you might look unimpressive too.
After seeing great many superb dancers, your threshold for becoming impressed by something gets higher and higher. Something that seemed amazing yesterday becomes commonplace and dull. After hearing hundreds of classic songs, new discoveries become increasingly rare. You start to think that the DJ is playing mostly crap songs while yesterday's great songs become tired and overplayed.
The evening started off nicely - I didn't drive to Scala for the first time. This was because I was in Vishal's car. I picked up Stephanie first and met Vishal. We departed around 8:40 PM and arrived at Scala before the classes ended. I learned Vishal's age as well as amount of money he pays to rent Club Salsa (surprisingly high!). It gave us opportunity to hang around in the DJ booth, messing about with Joe's camera, chatting with Russell, reassuring Scala virgins like Pauline and Andrea.
Vishal was the DJ in the main room for first 6-10 songs. He played some familiar songs like Es La Musica (Massimo Scalici), Pancho Cristal (Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz), La Palomilla (Joe Cuba Sextet - I was surprised that it was played so early), as well as some not-so-great Vishal classics and some surprising new and decent songs I don't recall hearing before. It wasn't bad. I started off with a couple of dances with Stephanie and moved from there. I liked the slick floor.
The next DJ started off pretty good too. For about an hour or so, I enjoyed many of the songs and dances generally and was looking forward to arrival of more and better dancers - many of the better dancers don't show up until later in the evening.
More and better dancers did show up later, but nowhere near in quantities or in qualities I expected. Meanwhile the music started going downhill. Space started becoming premium too. Last couple of nice and/or fun dances were with Cambridge-associated people like Vera and Natalia with some decent dances with strangers sprinkled in.
I can't pinpoint where things started going wrong.
Maybe it started with the start of the performances. Laith Sami's student performance group performed like bunch of students. Joe said some of the people had been dancing for as little as 3 months - it showed (I might add that I know many of the people have been dancing for much longer). Other performers included Lee and Shelly, Laith Sami Diablo Dance Company in Mortal Combat outfits, and Duende Dance Company (farewell for Andrea Stewart).
There was also a heat for the Latinfest amateur dance competition. Three couples entered - I recognized Roger in one and Martina in another. The third couple won. They were alright, but my feeling was that there are "amateur" people associated with Cambridge who would have looked respectable in tonight's heat.
In any case, my dance right after the announcement of the heat winners marked a definite point of having entered a bad zone. Sergio might have called it an onion of a dance. I had by mistake danced with someone I had danced with earlier in the evening because I thought she was someone else. I think the first dance must have been alright, but the second one was pretty bad. I was pretty bummed out and lost will to dance for a while afterwards.
From about 12:30 to 2, music was mostly awful - the only song I knew well was Ahora Quien. For maybe about 3 songs starting around 2 AM (starting with Para Ochun), things started looking up again before petering out again. There was a not-so-great version of Descarga Cachao, which made me do nothing but shines throughout the song. Awkward.
The low point came with the only Cha Cha of the evening. Tracy was going to ask me for a dance initially before realizing that it was Cha Cha. I asked a girl I recognized from SOS - except we stopped in the middle because we couldn't agree on the timing. I decided to ask another person I remember seeing at SOS the other week. This was bad too. She was dancing On1 while I was dancing On2. Awful. Tracy found me for the next song except she couldn't hear the beats for the next song - this seemed like a common problem for a large part of the night.
For next hour and half or so, I had total of three dances - all in last 30-40 minutes. I only danced to songs I recognized.
The first one was Soledad (La 33). I'm not sure if this was the best dance of the evening - it felt especially good because previous 3 hours had been like a nightmare. She wasn't the most accomplished dancer but we seemed to have great chemistry (or at least she seemed quite enthusiastic and happy and afterwards said something like "That was so fun!") Incidentally, these great chemistry dances with complete strangers happen only once in a blue moon, and I really should try to make more out of such lucky happenstances right away. Make more conversation at least - I don't know - I think part of the problem might be that I have danced with too many people, but it's mostly my personality/style perhaps beyond repair. I wouldn't go far as to use the word used to describe someone we know in the conversation on the way to London - player - but at least avoid being antithesis of it outside dancesphere.
The second one was La Lucha (La Excelencia). Another good one - with Lindsey - a known quantity.
The third one was La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence). This was danced with someone Stephanie referred to as a porn-star lookalike (I better not get into gory details). It was obvious that she was quite experienced dancer, and the dance was okay even though the connection between two of us left much to be desired; I think she also was only mildly engaged in the dance. Apparently my partner for this song is very used to dancing with someone with a very strong lead.
I was hoping for one more, but it never happened. I had my eyes on Shelly, whom I never danced with before. Vishal and Stephanie were both pressing to go. In any case by the time we left (4:20 AM), pretty much everyone I might have considered asking had packed their bags.
I was unimpressed with Scala tonight. I had described to my Madrid Salsa Simposium parties as being similar to being at Scala four nights in a row to some people. I think Scala tonight was definitely inferior to each of the Madrid nights in the music and space department (notwithstanding all the trash on the floor first night).
Quentin was there - a very long one week vacation for him after moving to New York for less than a month! I also saw Andrew, Sean, Simon, Imi, Chris, Nicola, Ed and Steve. Stephanie spent much of her time in the Glass Bar and danced less than 10 times all night - apparently still scared of dancing in London.
A brief stop was made at a Petrol station for the other three to get some snacks. It started raining when we got on M11. Stephanie and I talked more about the Hamburg (famous for its red light district) Congress. Half asleep Stephanie also babbled something about crystal structure too. Very random. Other topics included driving to Blackpool, Varsity match, and learning Salsa moves from videotape (I get pretty none from it - these days I tend to "discover" moves during social dancing to add to my repertoire rather than learning them directly from classes - with Sergio's On2 classes being a exception). Exams start soon and will last for the rest of the month for the undergraduates.
I hate not having my laptop for writing.
A downside to having danced with many people - I'm guessing well over 1000 people by now - is that you develop ability to nitpick how well your partner dances with you. This could be about your partner's abilities - timing, musicality, following, spinning, styling, maintaining good position and posture - or about the way your partner connects with you - tension and chemistry in general. After dancing with the best in the local scene, national scene and also with some international stars, you start finding blemishes in everyone including international superstars.
A downside to having a seemingly excellent dance with superstars - local, national or international - is that you develop an overinflated ego. Chances are those seemingly superb dances were merely decent dances for the superstars, who themselves might have danced with 1000 or 10,000 or more people. You don't even have to dance with the superstars. You could just watch those superstars dance and see and admire how they move. Afterwards, people approximately at about your level or below start to look trite. Heck, even people who might be better than you might look unimpressive too.
After seeing great many superb dancers, your threshold for becoming impressed by something gets higher and higher. Something that seemed amazing yesterday becomes commonplace and dull. After hearing hundreds of classic songs, new discoveries become increasingly rare. You start to think that the DJ is playing mostly crap songs while yesterday's great songs become tired and overplayed.
The evening started off nicely - I didn't drive to Scala for the first time. This was because I was in Vishal's car. I picked up Stephanie first and met Vishal. We departed around 8:40 PM and arrived at Scala before the classes ended. I learned Vishal's age as well as amount of money he pays to rent Club Salsa (surprisingly high!). It gave us opportunity to hang around in the DJ booth, messing about with Joe's camera, chatting with Russell, reassuring Scala virgins like Pauline and Andrea.
Vishal was the DJ in the main room for first 6-10 songs. He played some familiar songs like Es La Musica (Massimo Scalici), Pancho Cristal (Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz), La Palomilla (Joe Cuba Sextet - I was surprised that it was played so early), as well as some not-so-great Vishal classics and some surprising new and decent songs I don't recall hearing before. It wasn't bad. I started off with a couple of dances with Stephanie and moved from there. I liked the slick floor.
The next DJ started off pretty good too. For about an hour or so, I enjoyed many of the songs and dances generally and was looking forward to arrival of more and better dancers - many of the better dancers don't show up until later in the evening.
More and better dancers did show up later, but nowhere near in quantities or in qualities I expected. Meanwhile the music started going downhill. Space started becoming premium too. Last couple of nice and/or fun dances were with Cambridge-associated people like Vera and Natalia with some decent dances with strangers sprinkled in.
I can't pinpoint where things started going wrong.
Maybe it started with the start of the performances. Laith Sami's student performance group performed like bunch of students. Joe said some of the people had been dancing for as little as 3 months - it showed (I might add that I know many of the people have been dancing for much longer). Other performers included Lee and Shelly, Laith Sami Diablo Dance Company in Mortal Combat outfits, and Duende Dance Company (farewell for Andrea Stewart).
There was also a heat for the Latinfest amateur dance competition. Three couples entered - I recognized Roger in one and Martina in another. The third couple won. They were alright, but my feeling was that there are "amateur" people associated with Cambridge who would have looked respectable in tonight's heat.
In any case, my dance right after the announcement of the heat winners marked a definite point of having entered a bad zone. Sergio might have called it an onion of a dance. I had by mistake danced with someone I had danced with earlier in the evening because I thought she was someone else. I think the first dance must have been alright, but the second one was pretty bad. I was pretty bummed out and lost will to dance for a while afterwards.
From about 12:30 to 2, music was mostly awful - the only song I knew well was Ahora Quien. For maybe about 3 songs starting around 2 AM (starting with Para Ochun), things started looking up again before petering out again. There was a not-so-great version of Descarga Cachao, which made me do nothing but shines throughout the song. Awkward.
The low point came with the only Cha Cha of the evening. Tracy was going to ask me for a dance initially before realizing that it was Cha Cha. I asked a girl I recognized from SOS - except we stopped in the middle because we couldn't agree on the timing. I decided to ask another person I remember seeing at SOS the other week. This was bad too. She was dancing On1 while I was dancing On2. Awful. Tracy found me for the next song except she couldn't hear the beats for the next song - this seemed like a common problem for a large part of the night.
For next hour and half or so, I had total of three dances - all in last 30-40 minutes. I only danced to songs I recognized.
The first one was Soledad (La 33). I'm not sure if this was the best dance of the evening - it felt especially good because previous 3 hours had been like a nightmare. She wasn't the most accomplished dancer but we seemed to have great chemistry (or at least she seemed quite enthusiastic and happy and afterwards said something like "That was so fun!") Incidentally, these great chemistry dances with complete strangers happen only once in a blue moon, and I really should try to make more out of such lucky happenstances right away. Make more conversation at least - I don't know - I think part of the problem might be that I have danced with too many people, but it's mostly my personality/style perhaps beyond repair. I wouldn't go far as to use the word used to describe someone we know in the conversation on the way to London - player - but at least avoid being antithesis of it outside dancesphere.
The second one was La Lucha (La Excelencia). Another good one - with Lindsey - a known quantity.
The third one was La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence). This was danced with someone Stephanie referred to as a porn-star lookalike (I better not get into gory details). It was obvious that she was quite experienced dancer, and the dance was okay even though the connection between two of us left much to be desired; I think she also was only mildly engaged in the dance. Apparently my partner for this song is very used to dancing with someone with a very strong lead.
I was hoping for one more, but it never happened. I had my eyes on Shelly, whom I never danced with before. Vishal and Stephanie were both pressing to go. In any case by the time we left (4:20 AM), pretty much everyone I might have considered asking had packed their bags.
I was unimpressed with Scala tonight. I had described to my Madrid Salsa Simposium parties as being similar to being at Scala four nights in a row to some people. I think Scala tonight was definitely inferior to each of the Madrid nights in the music and space department (notwithstanding all the trash on the floor first night).
Quentin was there - a very long one week vacation for him after moving to New York for less than a month! I also saw Andrew, Sean, Simon, Imi, Chris, Nicola, Ed and Steve. Stephanie spent much of her time in the Glass Bar and danced less than 10 times all night - apparently still scared of dancing in London.
A brief stop was made at a Petrol station for the other three to get some snacks. It started raining when we got on M11. Stephanie and I talked more about the Hamburg (famous for its red light district) Congress. Half asleep Stephanie also babbled something about crystal structure too. Very random. Other topics included driving to Blackpool, Varsity match, and learning Salsa moves from videotape (I get pretty none from it - these days I tend to "discover" moves during social dancing to add to my repertoire rather than learning them directly from classes - with Sergio's On2 classes being a exception). Exams start soon and will last for the rest of the month for the undergraduates.
I hate not having my laptop for writing.
Fix that face of yours
May 4, 2007
A factoid that interests only me. Wagamama opened a branch in downtown Boston (USA) a week before they opened their first Cambridge (UK) branch at the end of April. A second branch of Wagamama in USA will open in Cambridge (USA) at Harvard Square this summer.
A question is whether I would have spent a lot of time at Wagamama if I were in Boston. I suppose it is possible albeit Harvard Square already has an excellent noodle Asian restaurant called Pho Pasteur. Cambridge (USA) already has authentic ramen in places like Little Japan in Porter Square Galleria one subway stop from Harvard Square.
I arrived at Wagamama around 8:20. Cyrille was 5-10 minutes ahead of me and already in the middle of the queue that went to the bottom of the stairwell. Natalie arrived more or less on time at 8:30. We were seated by around 8:45. Natalie had already eaten here once - last Sunday, but it was supposedly busy but not completely full and noisy and was without a queue.
Cyrille was the only one amongst us who had never eaten at Wagamama before. He thought it was alright - average was what he called it. He thinks pretty much every restaurant in Cambridge is average or worse. The one he said he liked the most was Mai Thai - for dine-in rather than take-away. Natalie was the most enthusiastic between three of us, and I was probably somewhere between Cyrille and Natalie. If I were living in the USA, I would never pay £7-10 pounds (or $12-19) for ramen of this quality given that I probably could get similar fare for $5-8. Of course, one can also get more and better sushi for about half the price in the USA compared to the UK.
Talk was for the most part away from Salsa although the talk of the upcoming Salsa dance competitions came up and led to a few topics branching off from it. Cyrille and I both tried to talk the other into entering and giving suggestions about prospective partner in crime. Another branching off point involved Natalie being in a competition some years ago and coming in something like 5th or 6th dancing with Ivan. This led to talk about other participants in the local heat - Natalie could remember only Pete and Mimi - and general gossip about Ivan and other old-timers in the Salsa scene.
Because Wagamama was so efficient with their service, we were done eating before 10. There was absolutely no need to be at Club Salsa early, but there wasn't any better idea. Natalie did not join us (normal for Fridays), but Cyrille braved the cold weather and not being in top shape to enjoy couple of San Miguel, etc.
The guy who likes Cha Cha and friendly with me and many of people I know well showed up tonight with a metal guiro - I should learn his name. Steve showed up with Natalia. Nina was there for a very short time presumably not able to sate the need for Salsa fix. Zern showed up well after midnight after spending much of his evening at a jazz bar. Johnny and Serap stayed until closing time - for the first time ever?
Some random snippets…
"Where's your sister?"
Cyrille to Andrea.
"It's a terrible mix." "I don't mind. It's a crap song anyway."
This was in reaction to Vishal's pre-mixed CD containing Playa No More mixed with some other song. I dislike both songs.
"She's great. I wanna marry her."
Sorry. I won't give any context - except that she wasn't here tonight.
"She'll say no anyway."
I said this to Gordon after a silent exchange after Vishal put on a somewhat lame Cha Cha. She didn't say no, but I am half convinced that this happened because she was amused by what I said.
"You've got a red card."
Shila to me laughing. Funny. I don't feel penalized.
"Nooooooo!"
Me and Cyrille in unison after Vishal stopped Arinanara (Eddie Torres Mambo Kings Orchestra) 3 seconds into it.
"He's got a great deal for £2."
Cyrille - said many times regarding Zern.
Other Salsa songs played tonight included Esa Mujer, Noche De Salsa (played twice), Alabanciosa, Ahora Quien, Mandali, Avisale A Mi Contrario (artist? maybe Tito Rodriguez?), La Vida Es Un Carnaval, Me Libere, La Salsa Nunca Se Acabo, Merecumbe (for birthday dance), La 33, Etnia, Otra Oportunidad, Caballo Viejo.
Johnny's long private lessons continued. If nothing else it gave me and Cyrille ample opportunity to dance with Serap. One of Cyrille's dances with Serap elicited a pretty big reaction from Luis et al. Cyrille and Serap liked one of my dances with Serap - Serap thought it was really good with suggestions for improvement for facial expression and more consistent footwork.
After seeing me dance with Serap (the song was Dame Cinco), Cyrille commented that he never saw me dance like I did then. I replied that I dance according to the conditions - four major ones being the song, my partner, amount of space available and how I feel about dancing in general at the moment. For example, I tend not to do a lot of shines unless my partner feels comfortable doing shines. I also usually don't do much in terms of movements unless my partner can handle it.
Next up. Scala. I think the Cambridge contingent will be very small.
A factoid that interests only me. Wagamama opened a branch in downtown Boston (USA) a week before they opened their first Cambridge (UK) branch at the end of April. A second branch of Wagamama in USA will open in Cambridge (USA) at Harvard Square this summer.
A question is whether I would have spent a lot of time at Wagamama if I were in Boston. I suppose it is possible albeit Harvard Square already has an excellent noodle Asian restaurant called Pho Pasteur. Cambridge (USA) already has authentic ramen in places like Little Japan in Porter Square Galleria one subway stop from Harvard Square.
I arrived at Wagamama around 8:20. Cyrille was 5-10 minutes ahead of me and already in the middle of the queue that went to the bottom of the stairwell. Natalie arrived more or less on time at 8:30. We were seated by around 8:45. Natalie had already eaten here once - last Sunday, but it was supposedly busy but not completely full and noisy and was without a queue.
Cyrille was the only one amongst us who had never eaten at Wagamama before. He thought it was alright - average was what he called it. He thinks pretty much every restaurant in Cambridge is average or worse. The one he said he liked the most was Mai Thai - for dine-in rather than take-away. Natalie was the most enthusiastic between three of us, and I was probably somewhere between Cyrille and Natalie. If I were living in the USA, I would never pay £7-10 pounds (or $12-19) for ramen of this quality given that I probably could get similar fare for $5-8. Of course, one can also get more and better sushi for about half the price in the USA compared to the UK.
Talk was for the most part away from Salsa although the talk of the upcoming Salsa dance competitions came up and led to a few topics branching off from it. Cyrille and I both tried to talk the other into entering and giving suggestions about prospective partner in crime. Another branching off point involved Natalie being in a competition some years ago and coming in something like 5th or 6th dancing with Ivan. This led to talk about other participants in the local heat - Natalie could remember only Pete and Mimi - and general gossip about Ivan and other old-timers in the Salsa scene.
Because Wagamama was so efficient with their service, we were done eating before 10. There was absolutely no need to be at Club Salsa early, but there wasn't any better idea. Natalie did not join us (normal for Fridays), but Cyrille braved the cold weather and not being in top shape to enjoy couple of San Miguel, etc.
The guy who likes Cha Cha and friendly with me and many of people I know well showed up tonight with a metal guiro - I should learn his name. Steve showed up with Natalia. Nina was there for a very short time presumably not able to sate the need for Salsa fix. Zern showed up well after midnight after spending much of his evening at a jazz bar. Johnny and Serap stayed until closing time - for the first time ever?
Some random snippets…
"Where's your sister?"
Cyrille to Andrea.
"It's a terrible mix." "I don't mind. It's a crap song anyway."
This was in reaction to Vishal's pre-mixed CD containing Playa No More mixed with some other song. I dislike both songs.
"She's great. I wanna marry her."
Sorry. I won't give any context - except that she wasn't here tonight.
"She'll say no anyway."
I said this to Gordon after a silent exchange after Vishal put on a somewhat lame Cha Cha. She didn't say no, but I am half convinced that this happened because she was amused by what I said.
"You've got a red card."
Shila to me laughing. Funny. I don't feel penalized.
"Nooooooo!"
Me and Cyrille in unison after Vishal stopped Arinanara (Eddie Torres Mambo Kings Orchestra) 3 seconds into it.
"He's got a great deal for £2."
Cyrille - said many times regarding Zern.
Other Salsa songs played tonight included Esa Mujer, Noche De Salsa (played twice), Alabanciosa, Ahora Quien, Mandali, Avisale A Mi Contrario (artist? maybe Tito Rodriguez?), La Vida Es Un Carnaval, Me Libere, La Salsa Nunca Se Acabo, Merecumbe (for birthday dance), La 33, Etnia, Otra Oportunidad, Caballo Viejo.
Johnny's long private lessons continued. If nothing else it gave me and Cyrille ample opportunity to dance with Serap. One of Cyrille's dances with Serap elicited a pretty big reaction from Luis et al. Cyrille and Serap liked one of my dances with Serap - Serap thought it was really good with suggestions for improvement for facial expression and more consistent footwork.
After seeing me dance with Serap (the song was Dame Cinco), Cyrille commented that he never saw me dance like I did then. I replied that I dance according to the conditions - four major ones being the song, my partner, amount of space available and how I feel about dancing in general at the moment. For example, I tend not to do a lot of shines unless my partner feels comfortable doing shines. I also usually don't do much in terms of movements unless my partner can handle it.
Next up. Scala. I think the Cambridge contingent will be very small.
rain with snow
May 3, 2007
Intermediate/Advanced with Chris assisted by Jane
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold - CBL into hammerlock with L-R behind follower's L waist (R-L high)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns full clockwise during 1,2,3 letting go L-R temporarily before reconnecting to lead follower to a double turn with all connections ending high with leader's R arm pointing up - perhaps step forward on 7 and let go L hand early [note: another thing to try - end with R-L behind follower's R waist hammerlock.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 move L hand to behind leader's R waist to offer connection there [note: the connection wanted here is L-L meaning the connection changes from R-L to R-R during or after the follower's turn in previous bar. It might be worth trying this move with a simplified version of previous move - something like R-R double turn ending with both arms pointing up.] and bring follower forward on 2,3 to leader's R with R-R going over follower's head initially and brought down (at this point, I would say the leader and follower can be somewhere between back-to-back and side-to-side) - lead follower behind and around leader (no turning required - lead her to step to her right on 5 and back on 6,7 - Chris suggested that the lead should be done with L-L although I sometimes never made the L-L connection during practice) and switch to L-R (end position is leader and follower facing each other having more or less ended in same position on 8 as was on 1 except now leader is probably positioned to follower's L side) [note: this move seems fairly simple in principle and quite doable in retrospect.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (L-R) and bring follower forward up to 5 (possibly could use free R hand on follower's stomach) then lead her back into full counterclockwise turn on 6 and switch to R-R with leader turning 1/2 (counterclockwise in this class) to end facing same direction as follower (leader is positioned ahead and to L of follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower forward on 2,3,5 with R-R high straight ahead and lead a windmill 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower with switch to L-R at the first bottom hand position of windmill and with leader turning clockwise (~1/2 to 3/4) at the end of follower's turn to finish positioned to new L of follower with L-R behind leader's back R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 matrix-like move to get R-R connection (R to wrist is fine) and lead free 1 1/2 traveling turn for follower
Sally was away in Barcelona doing her Salsa Holiday thingy. I had mistakenly thought this was going to happen last week.
Drinks at the Sauce group included Zern, Natalie, William, Clara, Rajiv and Ed. One of the topic discussed was the UK Salsa competition heat to be done at Club Salsa on May 20. Aside from Natalie and Zern, it was salsa salsa salsa.
There was a fairly big turnout from the Singapore contingent of the Salsa team. Zhenzhi was back after a long absence. She went through at least three shoes. Sam was there very briefly (I didn't even get to say hello) to practice with Mark. Agnes, Haihan and Stephanie stayed til the end and somewhat beyond outside after closing time - Salsa congresses was a topic and Stephanie mentioned that she liked the one in Hamburg. Another topic wassome dance competition (varsity?)varsity dance competition against Oxford University in Peterborough of all placesSt Ives (makes more sense) with five couples from the Salsa team entering the competition. Others at the social included Cyrille, Ivan, Euvian, Mimi, Richard. Return of Mimi meant much needed dances On2.
After a something of a long downturn (lasting about 2 weeks or so), I had a pretty good time on the dance floor. Of course this does not mean people I danced with found the dances 'fun'. At one point Euvian said something like "When are you going to let me go?"
Around 11:30 I noticed the CD left by Chris on an autopilot was ending (less than 2 minutes remaining) with no sign of anything being ready as the next song. I had some compilation CDs I had prepared for On2 class and put one of them on. Four songs from the CD was played in sequence - Asia Mood, Hong Kong Mambo, Japan Mambo (all by Tito Puente), and Lluvia Con Nieve (Mon Rivera). I think it compensated for lack of Mambo up until that point.
Intermediate/Advanced with Chris assisted by Jane
1,2,3,5,6,7 open hold - CBL into hammerlock with L-R behind follower's L waist (R-L high)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns full clockwise during 1,2,3 letting go L-R temporarily before reconnecting to lead follower to a double turn with all connections ending high with leader's R arm pointing up - perhaps step forward on 7 and let go L hand early [note: another thing to try - end with R-L behind follower's R waist hammerlock.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 move L hand to behind leader's R waist to offer connection there [note: the connection wanted here is L-L meaning the connection changes from R-L to R-R during or after the follower's turn in previous bar. It might be worth trying this move with a simplified version of previous move - something like R-R double turn ending with both arms pointing up.] and bring follower forward on 2,3 to leader's R with R-R going over follower's head initially and brought down (at this point, I would say the leader and follower can be somewhere between back-to-back and side-to-side) - lead follower behind and around leader (no turning required - lead her to step to her right on 5 and back on 6,7 - Chris suggested that the lead should be done with L-L although I sometimes never made the L-L connection during practice) and switch to L-R (end position is leader and follower facing each other having more or less ended in same position on 8 as was on 1 except now leader is probably positioned to follower's L side) [note: this move seems fairly simple in principle and quite doable in retrospect.]
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break (L-R) and bring follower forward up to 5 (possibly could use free R hand on follower's stomach) then lead her back into full counterclockwise turn on 6 and switch to R-R with leader turning 1/2 (counterclockwise in this class) to end facing same direction as follower (leader is positioned ahead and to L of follower)
1,2,3,5,6,7 lead follower forward on 2,3,5 with R-R high straight ahead and lead a windmill 1 1/2 clockwise traveling turn for follower with switch to L-R at the first bottom hand position of windmill and with leader turning clockwise (~1/2 to 3/4) at the end of follower's turn to finish positioned to new L of follower with L-R behind leader's back R waist
1,2,3,5,6,7 matrix-like move to get R-R connection (R to wrist is fine) and lead free 1 1/2 traveling turn for follower
Sally was away in Barcelona doing her Salsa Holiday thingy. I had mistakenly thought this was going to happen last week.
Drinks at the Sauce group included Zern, Natalie, William, Clara, Rajiv and Ed. One of the topic discussed was the UK Salsa competition heat to be done at Club Salsa on May 20. Aside from Natalie and Zern, it was salsa salsa salsa.
There was a fairly big turnout from the Singapore contingent of the Salsa team. Zhenzhi was back after a long absence. She went through at least three shoes. Sam was there very briefly (I didn't even get to say hello) to practice with Mark. Agnes, Haihan and Stephanie stayed til the end and somewhat beyond outside after closing time - Salsa congresses was a topic and Stephanie mentioned that she liked the one in Hamburg. Another topic was
After a something of a long downturn (lasting about 2 weeks or so), I had a pretty good time on the dance floor. Of course this does not mean people I danced with found the dances 'fun'. At one point Euvian said something like "When are you going to let me go?"
Around 11:30 I noticed the CD left by Chris on an autopilot was ending (less than 2 minutes remaining) with no sign of anything being ready as the next song. I had some compilation CDs I had prepared for On2 class and put one of them on. Four songs from the CD was played in sequence - Asia Mood, Hong Kong Mambo, Japan Mambo (all by Tito Puente), and Lluvia Con Nieve (Mon Rivera). I think it compensated for lack of Mambo up until that point.
Apathy
April 30, 2007
I stopped by for a shade over half an hour. Dani picked most of the music; I liked it. Among picked were Otra Oportunidad, La Palomilla, Nina Y Senora, You Rock My World.
I will be DJing a lot less on Fridays. Expect Vishal to play music pretty much all night Friday unless he needs to be elsewhere (in which case I may step in). If I get bored, I might DJ a little on Mondays but nothing definite on that.
Apathy continues to rule. I wonder if I or this blog is becoming irrelevant. Not having replaced my laptop surely does not help matters.
I stopped by for a shade over half an hour. Dani picked most of the music; I liked it. Among picked were Otra Oportunidad, La Palomilla, Nina Y Senora, You Rock My World.
I will be DJing a lot less on Fridays. Expect Vishal to play music pretty much all night Friday unless he needs to be elsewhere (in which case I may step in). If I get bored, I might DJ a little on Mondays but nothing definite on that.
Apathy continues to rule. I wonder if I or this blog is becoming irrelevant. Not having replaced my laptop surely does not help matters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)