Back in form or at least back in the mood

February 23, 2008

It's difficult to think of anything that has changed, but changed it has. By the time I stepped onto the dance floor, I thought I was in a good mood for dancing. A few dances later I was feeling great, and the feeling lasted all night with me quickly forgetting any minor setbacks, which would have made me gloomy for much of last week. In fact I had forgotten until now that the very first person I asked for a dance declined my offer complaining about the song - and this was the last song before the showcases started! Hmm. I guess that means I was feeling good while sitting on the stage on the dance floor and watching others either dance, interact, etc. I was like Teflon - nothing bad stuck.

I mean it's not like the place was jammed packed. It wasn't bad. In fact I rather liked the balance of people and space. Later I heard that the number of attendees was nearly 600 - don't quote me on that. Usually there was decent enough space on the main floor so there was little reason to dance on the stage; I think I only did it 2-3 times all night at most. I suppose the only thing against overcrowding was that by 3:30 AM or so, I had pretty much danced with everyone I wanted - not to say that it sucked afterwards because some of the best dances came after 3:30.

I think I liked the fact that Lubi was the DJ when I got there; he was there tonight to promote release of his new Beginners Guide to Salsa compilation CD released by Nascente. I can't say for the others but he played a lot of songs I knew well including some song I had not heard in London before like Recordando A Cuba (Cubanoson) and Get It Up (Eurocuban Project). Other songs (with caveat that I don't know for sure who was the DJ for each song) included La-La-La (Direct Latin Influence), Swing La Moderna (version?), La Cura (Frankie Ruiz), Arenquen (played twice!), Dejame En Paz, Avisale A Mi Contrario (Tito Rodriguez), Hacha Y Machete (Alfredo De La Fe) - the latter two songs came up well after Lubi was done DJing.

Showcases. I don’t remember much about it. I missed the first one, which must have been Ella Peck and Element Dance Co.; I've never seen them before. Nico and Aneta and Mambolifestyle Company also had performances also. All was it was blur despite having a clear view - maybe I was too close to the action. The most memorable part was noticing quite a few familiar and/or friendly faces in the Mambolifestyle student team including a couple of people with Cambridge connection. I wonder if I am nonchalant due to ever increasing threshold for being impressed or amused by performances.

Perhaps the best thing about having performances might be getting those performers to show up at the social afterwards - if they are interested in social dancing - if they are any good at it - or maybe give perception of such so that non-performing but decent social dancers show up. I don't know. One thing I have noticed is that unless I knew them before, I couldn't tell who there were performers and who were not on the social dance floor later. I don’t care. By the way, I don't think performing leads to better social dancing - not that there's anything wrong with performing - and any practice should help as long as the premise of the practice was sound to begin with.

Did I mention that social dancing was a lot of fun tonight? For the most part I was keeping things simple. Everything was On1 - there was only one instance where there was question about whether it was going to be On1 or O2 (she had no preference so I decided On1). For the most part I felt quite in control and confident. I don't think there were any complaints. I daresay the vast majority of my partners seemed to really enjoy it too. There was one girl, who I saw a couple of times at SOS and seemed to have picked me out as "a must" if I'm there - she was very fun. All signs of appreciation and beyond are highly gratifying of course. There was another who I did not end up dancing with because she was too tired by then (although I would have loved to) but seemed to recognize me and was friendly with; I only remembered afterwards that I have danced with her once before at SOS this year - apparently she is training in another dance style for school or career or such.

A little about travel. The party leaving from Cambridge was something like 13 but only 3 women. I remember expressing a hope to Mark that the ratio would not be so skewed in London. We picked up a pair in Royston then took A10 all the way down to London (the area near Islington was very lively). Much of the route was completely new to most people, and Steve acted as the main guide. Vishal was driving (thus not drinking all night), and Mark and I sat shotgun, which led to three of conversing most of the way down to London - mostly about music and dancing in UK (Manchester, Coventry, Ealing, etc), Vish's previous life and some gossip. Standard Salsa stuff. The minibus had a tape-deck so I was able to use my iPod-cassette setup to play music. We got lost once but not badly and ended up doubling back once for parking reasons closer to Scala (looking at the map afterwards, I see that we could have done a lot better with a nicer map - oh well ... missing a turn also led to more parking discoveries). We got there a little after midnight.

On the way back, the front three were the same while the next row was taken up by Steve, Natalia and one other. Only Steve and I were awake the entire time - aside from Vish of course. So I talked to Steve a little (e.g. about where he learned On2). Mostly I talked with Vish - all kinds of stuff including some hilarious off the cuff comments. Travel, business and gossip were the main topics. We returned to Cambridge around 6 AM via A1 and Royston.