St. Paul's on Friday

November 9, 2007

Things were beyond my control – not that I want or need things to be under my control. The drive to bring the core group of prominent cross body stylists to Johnny and Serap’s event managed enough momentum so resistance seemed futile. If nothing else, the thirst to try something new and different will sometimes triumph over continuing comforts of following the familiar routine even if it offers no significant improvement. An excellent example for near future may be this talk of visiting Coventry next weekend. It’ll probably be okay but not great yet novelty of dancing in a new place for the first time probably will win out – at least this time around now that enough people have indicated interest to get the ball rolling. Heck, it might end up being the same crowd except in a different city if the movement gets big enough.

St. Paul’s church hall was fairly large – the dance space was a little bigger than total floor space at Club Salsa. Nice wood floor – in better shape than Guildhall or the other church hall Johnny and Serap used last year near the bus station. Liam thought the floor was very slippery – he says the same of Club Salsa. Sam mentioned the place reminded her of school balls where boys and girls segregate at opposite corners of the room - maybe it was the presence of a basketball setup over the entrance or the high ceiling or the arch. Similar things had been said of many other events held outside Club Salsa. There was plenty of seats on the edge, and the volume of music suitable for making conversation led to a lot of lounging around and relaxing rather than looking for a dance after a dance.

Predictably the balance was in favor of the girls – typical when venturing to a new venue is involved. The group arriving around 10 included me, Liam, Raj, Haihan, Per, Steph, Sam and Polly. We were joined by Mark, Sally, Richard, Jane, Cyrille, Sebastian and Ed. Agnes showed up later and Zhenzhi much later near closing time. Isabelle also was here visiting from London and getting a Cambridge version of her birthday dance. It felt as if the party grew double in size as soon as we arrived, and as the evening went on this group came to more or less dominate the scene. As another commented, it was like a private party. This feeling was reinforced when within half hour of arrival, Haihan replaced Theodore as the DJ. It really was like the old Thursday crowd transplanted to a different spot.

The party at St. Paul’s lasted until past 1 AM – much later than it would have ended without the group - and ending with three Bachata in a row. I only had seven dances altogether – meaning I did not even get around to ask everyone in the group. Fairly large contingent of people felt they had not gotten enough dancing, so we headed to Club Salsa hoping for another half hour of dancing. Alas Club Salsa was closed by then. It really goes to show small delicate nature of the scene here in Cambridge. On a normal Friday night I would expect 6-8 people from the group to attend Club Salsa. Outside the group, maybe another 6-8 people would have gone to Club Salsa after St. Paul’s closed early (probably no later than midnight). Those seemingly are not big numbers, but perhaps some people have disproportionate influence because of trickle-down effect their presence generates.

A question is what will happen next week and thereafter? Is it likely that a concerted effort to keep the same group going together to one or another venue every week? If not, how would a smaller group choose? Which venue is more likely to entice newcomers (to Cambridge or to Salsa or to both)? Who has better teachers? Better music? Better people? Better atmosphere? Other intangibles? Does any of it matter? Can Cambridge support two or more Salsa venues on a same night? Someone commented to me some time ago that people who would go to St. Paul’s is not the same as the ones who would attend Club Salsa. How true is that? If there is some truth to it, would the people who would prefer St. Paul’s not welcome people who would prefer Club Salsa attending their event? Or vice versa?