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.