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)