An expensive Bar Salsa on a Monday

July 30, 2007

I thought it was as good an opportunity or excuse to check out Bar Salsa on a Monday when Mimi asked me if I wanted to join her and Marina on their outing. Three of us left Cambridge separately - Marina in the morning, Mimi early in the evening right after work, and me shortly after 8:30. The plan was to meet at Bar Salsa around 10.

As I suspected, finding parking was not easy and was not helped by labyrinth that is London road system (typical of all European cities and towns I have been to - even Cambridge can be vexing). I decided to take a risk and park in a resident only spot shortly after 10, and then talk to people at Bar Salsa to assess risk. After talking to a security staff, Andrew, Susana and finally Nikki (the only one who drove a car), I decided that I better move my car before getting a ticket. Unfortunately by the time I returned (no more than 15 minutes), I saw that there was a ticket attached to the front window of my car. Oh well. According to Nikki, the damage was going to be in excess of £100. I did not bother looking at the ticket and went straight back to Bar Salsa without moving the car.

There were a lot of people at Bar Salsa, but it was not as crowded as I expected. Club Salsa on Fridays is more packed. Surprisingly large number of people seemed to be using Cuban moves as a major part of their repertoire. There was also fair number of On2 people. Generally I was not particularly impressed - I thought it was not as good as SOS or Scala. I think I preferred the crowd at the LDA social couple of nights ago too. It took me a few songs before I could even get myself to ask anyone for a dance - in part because I did not see too many people I wanted to dance with but perhaps also in large part because the parking ticket put me in a poor mood.

Mimi and Marina did not arrive until around 10:45. Just before their arrival, I had my first dance. I danced with Mimi next, and then saw her get asked by one of the contestants from the Scala Latinfest dance competition heat next. Either the dance next or the one after the next was pretty good, so the first three of four dances were pretty enjoyable. There were some interesting dances afterwards including one with Nikki, but generally I found it difficult to enjoy myself dancing tonight. It probably did not help that about a third of the girls I asked for a dance declined - it seemed people were generally more reticent about accepting dances from someone they did not know or have seen compared to SOS, Scala, LDA social, etc. I think the one new partner I liked dancing with (twice tonight) might have been someone I met at the LDA social and also had a nice dance then.

I had heard that things generally improve after midnight or so as only the better dancers stay. I did not really see a big improvement - to me it seemed like the place just became quieter without overall level of prospective dancers improving very much. Perhaps if I were more of an insider, I would have found it more fun. There also seemed to be higher ratio of men compared to women, so finding any willing partner after midnight was tricky. If this is typical of Bar Salsa Mondays, I don't think I would have any incentive to come back anytime soon (although I suspect that the chances of me returning soon is very low even if I found it as good as SOS because of inconveniences like day and time of the week and difficulties with parking).

Around 12:45, I decided to cut my loss and leave - Mimi said she couldn't dance anymore with some girl stepping on her foot with sharp heels. Marina opted to stay in London overnight so it was just me and Mimi back to Cambridge. As we walked to the car, I half joked that I hope the car is still there and not clamped. The car was still there, but it was clamped. Total damage - £70 to get the clamp removed and £60 for parking violation. These guys are very efficient. After making the phone call to pay the penalty, we waited about 15-20 minutes before a crew came by to let us go. No more parking in resident only spot in Covent Garden - stick to single yellow lines on Charing Cross Road or one of the smaller streets around it. Live and learn.

LDA anniversary party and Floridita’s

July 28, 2007

The seeds for this evening were sown yesterday when I sent an e-mail to the dinner group about the LDA 1st anniversary party. At the dinner, Mimi asked me if I wanted to go to the LDA party and then go to Floridita’s afterwards. I believe a big impetus for her interest was her friend Marina visiting for several days (one reason why there won’t be an On2 class this coming Monday). Because I was already leaning towards going to the LDA party instead of SOS, I agreed. Cyrille and Zern were flying out of town today, so I asked Sergio and Euvian next whether they would be interested in coming along – no was their answer. I was able to talk Sebastian into taking the shotgun seat, however.

The nominal departure time was 8, but many small things led to tardiness including me leaving the house slightly late, Mimi and Marina taking a while to get out of Mimi’s house, my difficulty in finding the shortest route from Mill Road to Rustat Road to pick up Sebastian (the shortest route on the map was blocked to auto traffic) as well as a road block at the Long Road. So we did not get to leave Cambridge until around 8:30 and did not get to Cecil Sharp House until ~9:50. The drive was fairly uneventful and relatively traffic-free and filled with Swedish being spoken in the back seat.

The party at the LDA seemed very nice – similar to SOS except with better lighting, superior sound sytem (compared to Mary Ward Hall), more space and friendlier atmosphere. The gender ratio seemed to favor men by a great deal – at least among those interested in dancing. The level of dancers was a good mix from beginners to highly experienced social dancers sprinkled with a few professionals – mostly the LDA staff (old and new) but also some out of town guests including Emma Moore who arrived with Chris while I was chatting with Susana. Mario was absent because of a missed or cancelled flight.

Also present was Vera who once again looked for a chewing gum and found a Listerine strip from me instead. Rajiv was there too sans his dancing shoes. Rajiv was in London for the weekend but did not think he was going dancing presumably until he received my e-mail. The sound of a promising Salsa social free of charge was too good to resist although Ivan yesterday was able to resist saying that two consecutive evening of dancing was too much for him despite Helen’s absence and despite him being in London already. I actually suspect a different unspoken excuse, which I won’t reveal.

It had been such a long time since I last came down to London for dancing so I tried to spend as much time dancing as reasonable. I was expecting Floridita’s to be mostly Cuban Salsa type, so I also tried to stay at the LDA as long as possible. LDA in a surprise twist played one Reggaeton – right before the show starring four people including Susana, Inaki, Lee and Nikki. There was a birthday dance too for some girl named Suzanne, and I was dragged into the circle by Shaan but avoided going into the center. I think I did dance with the birthday girl later though.

My other dance partners at the LDA social included Mimi, Marina (much happier result than last couple of times), Tracy (surprisingly detached), Imi (better connection than in the past), a winner of the Scala heat (I did not realize this until the middle of the dance – I think she would have preferred On2 and I think I might have been able to do something On2 if I had set my mind to it before asking her), some other people from the SOS scene (some regular partners and some non-regulars), some other potential familiar faces and maybe 4-6 complete new faces (at least one of whom was a really nice follow – I did not try to spin her much or be really challenging in part because I did not want to mar what seemed to be a perfect introductory social dance).

I think the girls were okay with LDA but were more than ready to head for Floridita’s by 11:30 (I had suspected that this would happen and tried to forestall and resist this). We left during the last song after I tried to fit in as much dancing during next 20-25 minutes. We also talked Rajiv into coming with us, and he took over the shotgun seat. The drive to Floridita’s should have taken 10-15 minutes if I knew where I was going, but it ended up taking about 30 minutes – most of the time was wasted trying to get out of the neighborhood of Cecil Sharp House and head towards to correct direction. One of the biggest difficulties for me was trying to read the map while wearing contact lens in the dark with lights inside the car as sole illumination. After a while I enlisted Rajiv for help with the map. Luckily, I was able to find parking very close to Floridita’s.

After all the trouble, Rajiv opted out when he found the cover was a whopping £15. I knew it was going to be expensive but I had expected £10. At least LDA was free - not counting the cheap drinks. I did not find out the cost of drinks at Floridita’s but I suspect it would have been pretty steep. There was a live band, but they had finished by the time we got there. DJ was playing Salsa for about half of the time or perhaps a little less than half. Non-Salsa interludes typically lasted 2-3 Merengue followed by 2-3 Reggaeton (or sometimes a different type of music such as Bachata or Samba). The people were about Club Salsa level except with some more accomplished Cuban stylists and with younger, better built and better dressed people. There also were some flashy followers, who seemed to think themselves too good to dance with any commoners.

Here too there were some meeting with people, some expected and some not. Expected was a friend of Mimi’s from Singapore, who supposedly preferred Cuban style like Marina having learned Salsa first in London as opposed to Singapore. Actually the word a lot of people use is hate rather than prefer although all it really means most of the time is that they are not as good at certain things so they don’t like it. Right now I am most comfortable with On1 cross body style and am getting better with On2 Eddie Torres style. If I thought there was a good Cuban style teacher nearby, I would take the opportunity. Anyhow getting back to the topic, the unexpected surprise was Anastasia with her sister Davina. Apparently there was some Flamenco dance activity this weekend in London. I did not have an opportunity to dance with her – too much non Salsa for a long time followed by Sebastian dancing with her for the entire Salsa block next.

So aside from dancing with Mimi, Marina and Mimi’s friend from Singapore (she asked me if I dance Ballroom), I only danced two other times at Floridita’s – one of them “recommended” by the haughty type who after claiming to be too tired to pass me off to her. The funny/ridiculous/annoying thing is that I think she did this because she was asked by a different guy because she proceeded to the dance floor more or less immediately afterwards and started dancing. That was a new one for arrogance and a strange mixing of rudeness and consideration.

We stayed at Floridita’s until closing time or 3 AM. The girls had more fun at Floridita’s. Marina said she felt like she didn’t know how to dance at LDA while she felt comfortable at Floridita’s. For me, this was a much nicer and honest statement than what I heard at the beginning of the evening thus what seemed like a prickly interaction at the start of the evening ended with a détente and much warmer vibes. For me Floridita’s tonight was okay but no better than Club Salsa Fridays in overall dance quality – just more and nicer looking people, much higher cover charge, much longer commute, some different new music and presumably expensive drinks. I did not get an assessment from Sebastian – I suspect he would have enjoyed both places because both provided novelty.

The drive back was very tiring. More roadblocks. Too many people walking in the streets of Soho. Bad weather. Surprisingly high volume of traffic – apparently going to Stansted airport. I did not get home until 4:50 AM.

Spiked crowd

July 27, 2007

The evening started at Al Casbah with Sergio, Sebastian, Euvian, Marina, Mimi, Zern and Cyrille. The table was booked for 7:30, but I did not get there until 8:10 so others ordered for me. The food was mediocre, and I did not eat much. Some others apparently did not feel very good afterwards for dancing and blamed it on the cous cous. The intermediate stop was the Fountain Inn, which was okay – Mimi and Marina did not join us for this excursion. We took a table for a change. The outing to Club Salsa started at 11 without Zern.

Initially, things looked promising. Zhenzhi and Mimi (along with Mimi’s friends) arrived before us, but Mimi did not stay long. Ivan and Nina were surprise attendants – it was like a Thursday for them except much more of the same. Natalia and her friend arrived shortly thereafter. There was a big crowd too – unfortunately very small on people who can dance in any style and very big on heavy alcohol drinkers - Sharon ended up behind the bar. I don’t know where these people came from, and I have doubts about such thing being sustainable. The crowding did not abate until well after 1, and by then everyone else had given up for one reason or another.

The music was problematic too. The songs were initially too same and too familiar and occasionally with very poor sound. After about half an hour, I couldn’t bear to dance anymore so I took myself out. When another very familiar song came on with awful sound, I decided to visit the empty DJ booth to see what the problem was. While fiddling with some knobs with Serap and Shila (acting DJ) gathered around, I noticed that the distortion at times sounded like a feedback loop. I decided to turn down the microphone level, which seemed to help a little. Then I turned the microphone off, which further improved the sound quality. Incidentally the microphone was sitting right next to the CD player on the left side and was not being used because it was “behaving” badly. I told Shila to try using the left CD player now – it worked fine. Unfortunately the music problem was not quite over. The next set of songs were poor in overall quality, which prompted me to tell Shila that he now needed to pick better songs. After 2-3 misses, song choices improved. However, there were a lot of tracks with skipping problems later. The number of CDs in Shila’s case was pretty small – less than 20 – not much variety. Apparently Vishal is away – according to Marina for 5 weeks (!) – so this could mean being subjected to a very limited set of songs (possibly with a lot of skipping problems) for a while. I can’t believe Vishal did not ask me for help. Oh well.

Most of the dances I had were fine. There weren’t many dances, space was tight and a few of the people on the floor were pretty rude (The worst case involved a woman walking in between Ivan and Nina while they were dancing with each other – I can’t remember if they were doing a shine or just doing basic without holding hands at the start of the song. I already had a pretty poor opinion of her after trying to dance with her earlier – she did not follow, she openly questioned what I was dancing (as opposed to wrestling I presume), and when I decided to go into open position and do some shine after too many instances of not getting my leads followed she walked out. Not my loss, but for tonight she seemed to fit into the crowd just fine.)

Transitional day - not bad

July 26, 2007

I did not get to Sauce until around 9:20. The number of followers at Club Salsa was good for this summer despite absence of Jane while leader pool was typical except for absence of Sergio and Cyrille and reappearance of Hayden. The frequency of dances with (relatively) new non-complete beginners was somewhat higher than usual for Thursdays this summer and included dances with a co-worker's daughter and a girlfriend of an acquaintance. Sam was there but did not stay long while Zhenzhi did not arrive until very late. My dancing form was more interesting than it has been for a while this summer. On2 was limited to a half Cha Cha with Nicola and a Salsa with Euvian. I also talked about helping with DJing next week with Sally, and I'll be bringing my CDs next week.

Simple sequence in principle

July 23, 2007

Or not.

Breakdown was about 1 hour on isolations, 30 minutes on footwork and shines, followed by about an hour on partner work (we ran about half hour over our allotted time). I won't bother describing isolations in words - I've talked about general difficulties a few times already.

Shine (just the finished product here with description of footwork only - there was nothing special for the upper body - it should be made to look good and this is better done with a mirror individually)

1 R foot cross far over L with weight transfer
2 weight transfer to L foot
3 R foot cross over to R with weight transfer
4 bring L foot closer to R with weight transfer
4.5 (or 5?) R foot cross over L with weight transfer
5,6,7 (or 6,7?) L toe, L heel front, L heel to L (or L heel toe pointing up/forward then L heel pointing L)
8 L foot flat and weight transfer to L
1 R foot cross far over L with weight transfer again
2 weight transfer to L foot
3 R foot cross over to R with weight transfer
4 L foot more or less in place with weight transfer
5 R foot kick
6 R foot slide back with weight transfer
7, 7.5, 8 back towards forward with cha cha step (L, R, and L slightly back)
1,2,3 basic

Partner work (new material only)

Start with R-R
Leading follower into traveling 1/2 clockwise turn can be done with either CBL start or with open break start (main difference being stepping forward or back on 6 for the leader).

To lead follower to turn back to original position instead (this would involve 12 o'clock turn or perhaps better yet 3 o'clock turn for follower), it might be better to start from open break (backward charge) on 6 for leader. The lead for follower to turn could come shortly before 1 (3 o'clock) or before 2 (12 o'clock). Leader should be in CBL position by 1.

This move can be done with both connections too - ending with L-L hat for leader and ready for a normal CBL.

Now this was linked with a twist, which I found tricky to get timing right. I think I understand this better after having thought about follower's footwork that makes most sense.

5,6,7,1,2,3 follower does back basic while leader does open break into CBL position and leading follower into 3 o'clock or 12 o'clock turn during 1,2,3 (Sergio calls this a 1-2 beat block but I still think the end result is about the same)
5 follower's weight is on L foot finishing the turn
6 back basic for follower and leader starts leading follower forward (after 6?)
7,8,1 follower has forward momentum and swings around 1/2 counterclockwise - this is essentially Copa footwork clockwise! with traveling and obligate weight transfer to R on 1
2,3,4,5,6,7 finish Copa lead follower into 1 1/2 counterclockwise traveling turn ending with back basic

Hmm. This took a bit of thinking and writing - but it comes down to leading a 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock turn followed immediately by Copa. Anyhow, the positioning is somewhat unusual.

Start again.
5,6,7,1,2,3 follower does back basic while leader does open break into CBL position and leading follower into 3 o'clock or 12 o'clock turn during 1,2,3 starting with R-R and aided with L-L - disconnect R-R after follower is finished turning
5,6,7 leader moves across follower's path and turns 1/2 counterclockwise with L-L high and start initiating Copa but bringing follower into CBL position at the end before L-L hat for leader happens around 8 (what must be happening is L-L starts neutral before bringing follower forward for Copa and turning her 1/2 counterclockwise with L-L staying high throughout before L-L is brought back towards leader for the hat) and R hand getting firm grip of follower's back - in fact R hand probably would contribute to leading Copa from mid-way point
1,2,3 finish Copa - follower would be doing backward charge on 1, forward momentum on 2 and led into 1 1/2 traveling counterclockwise turn to start on 3 (or slightly before - the lead comes between 2 and 3 with free L hand on follower's shoulder lead)

[note added later: Sergio says it wasn't 3/12 o'clock followed by Copa. Perhaps more clarification to follow later.]

There was another move that was being shown (supposedly for next week), but I did not pay any attention to it as I decided to concentrate more on the shine earlier and the partner work material described above.

There were too many errands to run so I did not stop by Club Salsa afterwards.

Vish B-day

July 20, 2007

Too busy and too uninspired to write much. This was Vishal's birthday party. There were many cars parked nearby. There were many unusual guests in forms of instructors and their friends. Joe Davids was the DJ for a couple of hours. Joe started his session fairly cheesy (I think he was perfectly reasonable to have done so given what was being played shortly before he took over) but also played a lot of standard good stuff too. Some people were dressed to nines - most notable being Cristian's white tie and suit with suspenders. I on the other hand wore a short-sleeved shirt (bright yellow) for the first time to Club Salsa on a Friday this year. I also drank about 1 1/2 bottles of San Miguel (on top of another beer I had for dinner) before having my first dance. From the usual gang the only others making an appearance were Rajiv and later on Cyrille. Despite it all, the crowding on the dance floor was very manageable. Vishal had his birthday dance with girls circling him a la London style. Cristian and Danie gave an impromptu performance - I think the song used was Herencia Rumbera (Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound). Cha Cha was played twice (same song) so I had two On2 opportunities with Andrea and with Natalia. There also was a nice opportunity to dance with Cinzia. The party ended ~2:30 AM.

The outsiders

July 19, 2007

It was an unusual night, no?

If only the people from the usual Cambridge scene were to be considered, this was a weak Thursday - compared to the summer standard.

A long aside - it's possible that from end of January to the end of March of 2007 could be considered the height of the new Golden Age of sort not to be topped for some time. Regulars in the scene during that time include Sergio, Ivan, Cyrille, Mark, Rajiv, Haihan, Zern, William, Lindsey, Nicola, Stephanie, Jane, Agnes, Zhenzhi, Mimi, Nina, Charlotte, Euvian. The last person to provide a significant push upwards was Haihan in my opinion. The decline started with Sergio's departure in April. Sergio's return in June was more than offset by summer departure of Mark, Haihan, Stephanie, Agnes. Because Sergio will be gone by end of September for about a year (or just in time for the summer vacation people to return), I think the scene reaching a new height only could happen by an import of another major talent.

Back to tonight - because of a rather large number of outside visitors, tonight ended up being slightly above average Thursday for the summer. What happened? Here's a hint.

Thus I was expecting the dude from York - he was the one with the bandanas. I did not expect the other five people though. Not necessarily everyone showed up because of the posts - I'm guessing one of the couple might have been there for a reason completely unrelated - here I'm referring to Pavlina and Pierre, whom I have met in London and in Blackpool and apparently has a friend living in Cambridge. Who knows for sure, however.

Absent from the class were Rajiv, Cyrille and Zern. Zern was nowhere to be seen tonight. Charlotte was a surprise addition to Sauce after the first class. I talked mostly with Ed until Cyrille showed up.

The other unusual thing was that Ivan was the DJ for the night. He played some things Sally doesn't play as well as some things he hadn't played before. Some of the selections are listed below.

El Todopoderoso, Paraiso De Dulzura (Hector Lavoe) – I’m guessing that Ivan’s collection of Hector Lavoe album is limited to La Voz, which was also my first Hector Lavoe album. These songs are okay, but they quickly became second or third tier choices when I acquired additional Hector Lavoe albums. A really good and very extensive Hector Lavoe compilation CD (2 CDs) was released few days ago - called A Man And His Music - La Voz (with just a little patience, the price should come down to under £8 and possibly £7 - this is the case for all Fania A Man and His Music 2 CD compilations sold by Amazon associated dealers); for those not interested in getting several individual albums instead, this collection should be a great buy. I probably will end up getting this compilation for songs like La Banda, La Murga, Rey Del Punctualidad, which are included in three separate original albums (with Willie Colon or with Fania All Stars) (and I already have 4 albums by Hector Lavoe – La Voz, Comedia, De Ti Depende, El Sabio - and two with Willie Colon - El Juicio, Crime Pays).

Mi Ritmo Es Bueno (Bobby Valentin) – Presumably from the album Rey Del Bajo. Ivan seems to like this song the most of out this album, which also contains other good (perhaps better) songs such as Hay Craneo (comp. Tito Rodriguez) and Cuando Te Vea (comp. Tito Puente).

Lluvia Con Nieve (Mon Rivera) – This is not a Charanga. It’s Mambo. Maybe Mambo-Jazz hybrid. This was the first time Ivan played this - becoming the third person to have done so in Cambridge (after me and Vishal - haha).

Clave Mambo (Joe Cuba Sextet) – I don’t have this song in my CD collection because I am not willing to get it by buying a compilation album only for this song. I’m waiting for the album We Must Be Doing Something Right / Estamos Haciendo Algo Bien to be reissued. To best of my knowledge, this was the first time anyone played this song in Cambridge.

Rumbon Melon (Joey Pastrana) – From the album Let's Ball - out of print

La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence) – I see that Ivan added this to his collection probably by buying the CD DLI II – I can’t remember if there’s a compilation CD with this song at this time.

My Favorite Things (New Swing Sextet)
Cao Cao Mani Picao (artist?) - I think Ivan might be the only person in Cambridge with this version.
Merecumbe (Johnny Colon)
Indestructible (Ray Barretto)
Asia Mood (Tito Puente)

Lamento Boliviano (Toque De Keda) - last song of the evening.

There are bunch of songs I didn't know and not in regular play list for other DJs too. The Cha Cha would be an example.

Anyhow, it was an interesting night. I can't say I was in great form - I might give myself a B - my form was decided average or perhaps slightly above average (by standard of last 2-3 months or so). My effort to incorporate some new moves from Monday was definitely rough around the edges although they seemed like pretty simple moves. Conversely some moves which I thought were easy because I have been using them for a while now was no longer very easy when applied to new people. Maybe my lead isn't as good as I thought - maybe a lot of people are clued into what I'm going to lead because I have become somewhat predictable.

Comment of the day - "There's a lot of desperate people." Whoa! Urrr… no comment.

1+1=2 ... makes sense!

July 16, 2007

The body movement part of the class lasted a whopping 70 minutes today. After 20-30 minutes I felt tired and came close to falling down several times. Some of the exercises took so much energy yet I hardly showed any movement. The worst part for me involved movement of anything between my stomach and my chest. I think my joints might be too calcified to get a whole lot out of these exercises even with months and years of practice. I’ll just have to grind it out and see how much I can get done in next couple of months.

I liked the method of doing feet part and rest of the body part separately first before combining the two for some of the more complicated body movement exercises. I can’t speak for others but it helped me to approximate the material more easily.

The footwork part had some revisions as well some tangible new material, which I can write down for a change. For 12 o’clock turn, Sergio reminded me yet again that I should not get my left foot to prepare to side (a bit to left) rather than straight forward (I suspect he might not mind slightly to right as much, but I could be wrong). I found myself losing my balance more easily with these fixes (but it could be because I was just too tired).

Shine (the final product only – some of the intermediate parts are not so bad either)
1,2,3 cross over steps (R, L, R) – in place or minimal traveling
5 cross over step L
6 R foot slide back (an early version involved bringing L foot back together on 7 before crossing over step R on 1 before another basic) and land – head flick back around 6 1/2 before facing partner again by 7 or so
7 L foot in place (although I found it somehow easier for next part if I slide L slightly back here on 7 and do a crossover step on 1 with R before proceeding with basic)

A turn for leader (count done in follower’s timing)
1,2,3,5,6,7 basic
8 start a swivel turn weight (starting to transfer weight to R but on both feet during the turn)
1 weight transfer to R foot when turn is completed
2 L foot back for back basic (or open break)
3 R foot in place
5,6,7 second half of normal basic

Since this is used primarily by lead, it probably would be good idea to practice this with leader’s timing also. In this case, start the swivel turn on 4 followed by weight transfer to R foot on 5 for backwards charge or open break on 6.

Now this move can be used to initiate Copa (tension on 6, start bringing follower in on 7) with switching from L-R to R-R at the end of the turn (R-R connection made by 5 1/2).

Also this move can be linked up with a kind of Copa fake demonstrated next.

6,7 Copa start with R-R hold (here we had leader’s hand coming from top I think)
8 R-R down disconnect with free R hand going around follower’s hips (not at the waist and do not use fingers – ha ha) and start guiding follower to turn 1/2 counterclockwise (I think follower’s turn would happen between 1 and 2)
1,2 footwork for leader is L foot to close in with R on 1 and then R foot back now with lead turned about 1/4 counterclockwise to get out of follower’s way on 2
3 there are couple of options here including a normal Copa turn (possibly with L hand at hip also guiding the turn) but the version practiced for final effect had L-R connection made in front of follower which would go straight up to lead follower into 1/2 traveling clockwise turn

Pretty cool. This is … elegant. I imagine I’ll try practicing this both On1 (translating to On1 seems fairly straightforward with caveat that pulling it off in real situation no doubt will take work) and On2.

Random note. There might be an extra experienced lead visiting from the north this Thursday.

I don't know - I just don't know

July 13, 2007

Dinner was at Saffron Brasserie - table for 8. The music at the Fountain Inn was better than average. Six made it to Club Salsa eventually. No Serap today - I think she was in London practicing with Domenic - too bad. The music was of surprising quality even before our arrival. The most notable and welcome thing was Zhenzhi being back, which led to a lot of catch-up dances. Vishal decided to keep the social going until 2:30. Memorable comments included "I want to be danced with" and "I don't want to be the second choice." Sure, but I am confused nevertheless.

too many commentaries?

July 12, 2007

Intermediate/Advanced with Chris assisted by Charlotte (Sally was not feeling well)

1,2,3,5,6,7 crossed hold R-R on top - open break and bring follower in to leader's R side (I've referred to this as reverse CBL but I'm not sure if I like that label now) lead follower into 1 1/2 clockwise turn (minimize traveling) with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise for reverse crucifix (leader in front)
1,2,3,5,6,7 both arms down - step fairly big to R and slightly back bringing R-R up and bring follower to leader's L side and lead follower to turn full clockwise between 2 and 3 with L-L ending behind her at waist level (follower's footwork is a bit tricky here because the instruction suggests turning full clockwise on 2/3 on her L foot - in order to get the lead on time getting both arms down on 1 might not be a good idea - maybe bringing L-L down while keeping R-R fairly high and bringing it over to lead follower's turn on 2 would work better + doing a crossover step on 1 might be useful too) (another possibility is to try to lead this so that follower starts turning on 3 on her R foot and landing on her L foot on 4 before completing rest of the turns) - lead follower to a further 1 1/2 clockwise turn temporarily disconnecting L-L (end with L-L behind follower's R waist and R-R about level with follower's head)
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns full clockwise while doing the following R-R hat for leader keeping follower's hand on leader's R shoulder, switch from L-L to R-L keeping follower's L hand behind her R waist and catch follower's R hand at leader's shoulder level with now free L hand - then lead follower to full counterclockwise turn (some traveling for follower or judgement call?) ending in low wrap with both connections while leader repositions himself behind and to left of follower [this bit seems pretty easy to use - we'll see]
1,2,3,5,6,7 bring follower straight back on 1,2,3 under both arms while leader moves (same clockwise walk started at the start of previous bar) to face follower and lead follower to double turn (clockwise stationary - see if there is time to squeeze in something of a preparation for follower) with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise at the end of her turn with follower's arms over leader shoulders and with connections crossed over in front of leader
1,2,3,5,6,7 leader turns full clockwise keeping L-L connections intact and brought low during the turn (ending behind leader's R waist) and while briefly disconnecting and reconnecting R-R - lead (signal might be a much better terminology here) follower to turn full clockwise (stationary with R-R behind leader's back) and then with leader turning 1/2 counterclockwise to face partner again
1,2,3,5,6,7 Copa (I think this started with crossed hold R-R on top and may have required leader to turn clockwise to end back-to-back in which case it might be useful to step slightly forward on 1 rather than doing the usual open break to end with better positioning on 3/4 - not sure though)

Sergio and Nat were already at the Sauce when the group from the class (incl. Rajiv, William, Sebastian, Andrea and Pauline) got there. Zern joined us on a high chair later. I don't remember much about it aside from Pauline's new phone, vacation plans, occasional breeze coming in through the door, and a comment along the lines of "It's all downhill from here."

There was only one On2 dance opportunity tonight - it was okay. Zern seems to be catching on fast. Sergio criticized me on the lack of spotting and apparent lack of use of shoulders and hips during spins.

On1 form seemed better than last week - maybe slightly better early than late in the evening although reasonably consistent throughout.

Random notes. Jane, Richard and Phyllis were back. Mimi (not our Mimi - someone from before my time) is supposedly pregnant. Lindsey left her phone inside. Sergio talked about losing passion for the dance.

Next up - maybe something new

July 9, 2007

Not quite one hour was spent on isolation exercises. I was able to use the mirror more effectively to examine what I was doing this time. Maybe it's a sign of improvement or maybe not. Some of the exercises feel a little less awkward. Repetitions can only help. I thought I was able to get that "thing" about pressing my feet gradually into the ground, but Sergio seemed to quash that idea.

We tried a different speaker system Sergio brought in - more precisely it's Liam's speakers. I guess it sounds better than the one in the Pye room. Sergio and I initially in agreement with timing to Oyelo (Johnny Colon) but no longer by about half-way point - it's still better than last week.

Looking back at previous notes, I see that some of the basic footwork exercises were omitted or could use additional detail. These are my interpretations (arbitrary and liable to be wrong of course).

Right axle (follower's timing)
1 R foot in place
2 L foot prepare (slightly forward and slight twist to left - use hips and/or shoulder as appropriate)
3 start turning full to right (clockwise) as L knee is brought in together with R
4 still turning with weight on R foot
5 land L foot

Left axle (follower's timing)
5 L foot in place
6 R foot prepare (slightly forward slight twist to right - use hips and/or shoulder as appropriate)
7 start turning full left (counterclockwise) as R knee is brought in together with L
8 still turning with weight on L foot
1 land R foot

Follower's (right) turn
1,2,3 forward basic
5 L foot back slightly
6 R foot in place
7 L foot prepare
8/1 start turning right
2 land L foot (paddle for double turn - in which case L foot presumably next would need to land on 5)

Some additional exercises done this evening included the following - Right axle followed by left axle, follower's right turn followed by broken left turn, crossovers, body movements with some basic.

Spot turn, Leader's turn (optionally followed by follower's turn) and leading a right turn (optionally double turn) for follower was covered for partner work session. So we're now pretty close to catching up with the sessions in March.

Sergio claimed that he can teach girls much faster than guys. Hmm. I have some doubt about it - does he mean he can teach follower's part much faster than leader's part? Maybe I should make it a challenge for him.

Oh. The title of this post is somewhat misleading especially given that limiting today's material was in part because of my own suggestion - and there were some new things for me too especially for isolations and with some of the footwork.

Club Salsa afterwards was quiet once again although less so than last Monday.

On a side note, Vishal sounded like he was giving a serious consideration to having an On2 class started - at least on trial basis. The prospective teacher is someone no one has heard of (as far as I know) but has made one appearance last Thursday.

Alcohol the big equalizer

July 6, 2007

Cyrille's text said Nat booked a table at Sala Thong at 8:30 and that I should let others know. I did. I left work a little late - compounding the mistake by taking the wrong exit off M11. I headed to Regent Street and then circled around Parkers Piece before finding a place to park - it was a little difficult in part because of some festival being held at Parkers Piece. I walked across Parkers Piece and entered Mai Thai before realizing that I was supposed to be at Sala Thong. Oops. Instead of going back to my car, I walked to Sala Thong - it probably took a little over 10 minutes. It was just past 9 PM when I made my entrance in front of a mildly surprised quartet of Natalie, Sergio, Cyrille and Rajiv.

Some of the topics at the dinner included Egypt, taste of something French, Unlikely Salsero, Lady Salsa, clairvoyance, Ghostbusters, magicians (David Blaine, David Copperfield… no one knew Doug Henning). Another one I remember was about alcohol - about it making you more you (or some such). It reminded me of what people used to say about my old friend Brad - "Brad under the influence of alcohol - same Brad except more so."

Time of arrival at Club Salsa was 10:40 PM. Initial and lingering thought was that we arrived too early. It was quite crowded and became even more so later yet it felt like there were a lot of people missing too. Domenic was back to continue his practice with Serap for their dance competition at Vauxhall and drawing large number of onlookers and admirers.

Absence of smoking was nice. There might have been more drinking without it. I stood around for a rather long time and not dancing very much until I decided that having some San Miguel would be a good idea. I think it made me care a little less about imperfections in dancing. I think it was a good thing tonight because thinking too much about mistakes would have been too depressing. After two bottles, I considered getting a third on around 1:40 before deciding that it would be unnecessary. Being slightly inebriated might not be so bad sometimes because it might allow me to care less about messiness, and it might have made things more fun for me if I started drinking earlier rather than standing around and doing nothing.

Zern, Euvian and other people arrived later after watching a performance of Lady Salsa. I had seen the show about 20 months ago and wrote about it. Some of the cast members visited Club Salsa on that occasion, but there was no repeat visit tonight. Looking back, there were some very strange conversations recorded from that night - including one between me and Janet.

Cyrille talked about not getting drunk tonight and presumably he restrained himself compared to last few Fridays. I'm guessing he drank less tonight, but I'm not totally sure.

Louise demonstrated that she's not as tall as she seems; height (and weight) was a recurring topic tonight with a number of people. Louise also asked me about my form tonight, which startled me a little before she reminded me that I mentioned something about it to her last night. How was my form tonight? Marginally better compared to last night and helped somewhat by alcohol, which caused me think about it less.

wanning moon - will it wax again?

July 5, 2007

Is this really summer? Is July supposed to be like this? I checked the weather forecast and then weather statistics for London and found that the temperature today was essentially par for July. Hmm. Were last few summers warmer than average then? Did we not have warmer days in April? I also checked weather statistics for American cities like New York and Portland. It confirmed my memory of Portland having really nice summers – it is a lot rainier in winter though. It feels really cold when leaving work late at night – it’s not so bad after a late night of dancing.

I didn’t leave for Club Salsa until after 9. I stopped by Sauce first – taking a seat with Pauline, Andrea, William, Clara et al. I’ve learned that Pauline and Andrea have been friends for 11 years. Like Andrea, Pauline will be moving away in September. It sounded like both of them might be back in Cambridge periodically though. Zern and Euvian arrived after me. Zern sat on my side while Euvian went to the other side beyond my hearing range. Speaking of hearing, isn’t it weird that hearing (or having conversation) is much easier with some people compared to others with high background noise?

Almost immediately upon arrival, Vishal talked to me about some girl dancing On2 and suggesting that I dance with her. So I started the evening of dancing On2. She was nice – I think she was definitely more solid with On2 timing than me. I ended up dancing with her twice. I also tried to talk some others into dancing with her, but I am unsure if anyone else tried.

The floor was very slippery. Usually I don’t mind and usually prefer slippery floor, but it was a bit difficult tonight. Let’s just say that it’s unnerving when you find yourself constantly slipping and losing balance because your dance partner is (unwittingly) being too stiff, giving too much resistance or not being responsive enough (I think this could be one way to describe a reason for someone being “heavy” as opposed to “light”), etc.

For the most part I thought I was in dreadful form tonight. Of all dances On1, I would have given passing grade to me for maybe two or three at most. At the risk of sounding a little pompous, I think people who I did not get to dance with tonight did not miss anything. I held off asking some people for a dance for a long time or altogether because of this perceived poor form. I also held off from dancing On2 on some occasions because of shortage in confidence. Some of it had to do with slippery floor as I mentioned above, but I think I don’t think it was the only reason. A little tired maybe? A little stiff perhaps? A little uninspired? A little bored with myself? I don’t really know why. If people who are away want to believe that this is because they are not here, feel free to believe it. You know who you are. I will neither confirm nor deny it.

It was a curious night in other ways too. Here’s a conversation illustrating the point.

Ivan – Where’s Sergio?
Me – He’s in London
Ivan – Where’s Cyrille?
Me – (shrugs) An even better question is where’s Raj?
Ivan – Yeah… Hmmmmm…

There was a nice opportunity for On2 Cha Cha. Euvian struggled with her timing early but seemed to get used to it fairly quickly.

My Salsa dancing ended with another one On2. By the way, I’m not trying to advocate that Eddie Torres On2 is superior to On1. I certainly don’t mean that I find On2 more enjoyable either. At this point I know and comfortable with On1 considerably more than On2 so I generally would have a lot more fun dancing On1 given best dance partners. However, given a choice between a typical average On1 dance and an opportunity to practice On2, I find On2 more engaging and stimulating – mostly because it’s something new and also because I feel I am making real and rapid progress with pretty much every On2 dance as opposed to at best occasional incremental improvements with On1 (and possibly regressing sometimes).

Having said that, my last On2 dance was exhilarating – I hope neither my dance partner at the time nor everyone else I danced with tonight mind me saying it. The reason why I say it was great is because it felt like one of those “breakthrough” dances – arguably my fourth breakthrough dance On2. The first On2 breakthrough was when I managed to dance On2 from start of the song to the end of the song. I must have gone off time perhaps 20 times during the song, but making it through the end was a victory. The second breakthrough was the time when I went through the song without constantly feeling that I was going to go off time – basically I was on time all the time when I was leading moves I knew well and sometimes even pulled off some moves I wasn’t sure with without going off time. Third breakthrough was when I did the same with someone I had never danced On2 with mostly mistake free. I consider this one the fourth breakthrough because the dance felt more than comfortable – words like natural, fun and flowing comes to mind. It was doubly great because I was expecting a pretty lousy dance given how poorly I danced most of the evening. In this case relative blandness of the song probably helped. It’s also notable that I have not seen any new On2 moves between my first and fourth “breakthroughs.” Many thanks for suggesting On2 (but please don’t leave a comment on this blog about it). Thanks also to Nicola for an (unintentional) assist.

The last dance of the evening was a Bachata – possibly because of Ivan’s urging.

"Random" note - I found my Frankie Martinez DVD after more than a week of searching - I also found just under 10 pounds of coins along with it.

Playing catch-up

July 2, 2007

The isolation portion of the class is quite physically taxing. I wonder if there are any others like it in England. Some instructors incorporate isolations as part of the warm-up but lasting only about 5 minutes. I have seen such warm-ups with Ivan and subsequently in workshops run by Joe Davids and Tony Lara, but they don't match the intensity or length of these Monday sessions. In England the only class which could be considered equivalent is one-hour body movement class in London with Irene Miguel. I imagine Irene Miguel would try to make her class appear distinct from Frankie Martinez. There are no pretensions of trying to look different from Frankie Martinez here - it's not an exact copy but this is probably due to limitations in ability and time (Frankie's isolation classes are 90 minutes long - we're doing maybe 50 minutes at most right now).

Sometimes I feel like I am flailing around looking pretty ridiculous. This especially true when the exercise involves moving in a way I am less used to. Simply changing the rotation of shoulders - say from backwards (which I am more used to) to forwards (which I have practiced considerably less) creates unexpected amount of difficulty. My left shoulder is much better than my right shoulder - I blame it on softball. I'm quite awful with chest movement and generally anything that involves movement of vertebrae. Much of the time I am not concentrating on making the movement look good but just trying to keep in time - I imagine I will be flailing about for weeks until I get used to the movements. Moving hip, knees, ankles were generally easier for me - presumably different people will find different things easy or difficult.

I was somewhat tired and not particularly in good spinning shape so it was probably a good thing that not as much double turns were done today. Sergio tried to throw in a shine - there was only one tricky and fast part to it, but he seemed to spend too little time on the difficult bit and seemed to give up too easily and too willing to change it. With partner work, I thought we tried to go too fast and too slow at the same time. After returning in June, we have done the following - cross body lead, cross body lead with inside turn for follower. I don't think the next logical move was preparation for turn (as if leading a double turn although it was so clear to me that a preparation for a single turn at this juncture was useful). Also Sergio went back into that odd routine of trying to explain moves in On1 timing before going to On2 timing once again - I had told him that this was not very useful when he did this back in March. If there's a technique to be corrected, do it On2 and hope that people will apply similar principles for On1. I'm not sure how much of Spot turn and Copa stuck on people's minds.

We are still working with the crappy sound system in the studio. I have no idea if this is causing additional problem or if this is more of a problem with some people not being very good at picking up beats in unfamiliar music. I wonder if using Cha Cha more would help also. As for live practice, it might be useful to take account of the fact that leads need to adjust a little bit to not doing his steps on follower's timing.

I stopped by Club Salsa briefly afterwards. Rajiv went too. It was very quiet - Aside from Danie, I did not know any of the girls by their name.