Risking accusations of racism?

March 6, 2008

Cambridge admittedly has large number of foreigners befitting a small city dominated by internationally renowned university. My workplace too is full of internationals from Italy, Span, Germany, America, China. However, the majority of people are still English. On the other hand, English are not the majority in the Cambridge Salsa scene – at least right now.

Considering that Salsa is a Latin dance perhaps international flavor of people in the scene is not surprising. Well, yes and no. For one thing, if I were to look at the CBL crowd, there’s hardly anyone who qualifies as Latino. In fact I can think of only one person of Hispanic or Latin American heritage among the Salsa team since I started taking lessons. I think the last year’s team had 5 English, 3 Singaporeans, 1 New Zealander, 1 Indonesian-German, 1 Korean, 1 German, 1 Indian and 1 Chinese (to my best guess).

English also don’t make up the majority of CBL scene outside the old team although they can be said to have the plurality – the number of ethnic Chinese is nearly the same as English. There also have been people from France, Russia, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia, Cyprus, Belgium among others. Many people who I initially guessed English have turned out to be something else – including half-English. Perhaps Salsa attracts foreigners disproportionately because they reject the Pub-based social life of the English and because they lack the pre-established social network.

The rise of East and Southeast Asians in the Cambridge Salsa scene is a very recent phenomenon and may yet prove to be highly transient. When I first started, there was no Chinese to be seen in the Cambridge Salsa scene. It was only after more than one year that I met Agnes. And then soon afterwards Zhenzhi, Zern, Euvian, et al emerged. The first ones learned Salsa in their home country, but we are getting more and more Cambridge-grown talents. Perhaps this is akin to rich getting richer or perhaps a sign of who is better able to attract friends from their social circle to enter the Salsa scene.

When the social started tonight, I thought that this was a pretty good night by recent standards. This was before Zhenzhi showed up and before Agnes showed up and before Steph showed up. Haihan’s posse showed up in full force too – I think there were 4 of his protégés (I think I got one of the name in full now – Wei Sheng I think – I did not ask for spelling of the name – I did not get the girl’s names or at least I’m not going to cheat by using third-hand information). Also present were Jane, Charlotte, Annette, Laura, Clara, William, Liam, Cyrille Zern, Mark, Rajiv and Ivan.

Ivan informed me that his dissertation (or is it thesis?) is due on his birthday in less than one month. The magic number apparently has an interesting coincidence – by design. I had not realized how his age compared to Sergio and Cyrille until now – I did not know which direction it laid. Now when was it that I guessed his age and said to him that he cannot be much more than X after he complained of growing old? I think I was very close to the mark back then.

Cyrille apparently changed his departure date slightly (or my understanding of his schedule has changed). He is leaving mid-week next week for an interview and will return on Saturday the 15th before flying back to complete his move on the 19th (or was it 18th?). Cyrille thought the 15th might be a good date for a dinner or party or whatever.

My dances were sometimes iffy and sometimes silly. I can’t say it ever reached comfortable and assured state. There were many good dances but I had a lot of trouble stringing multiple good dances together in a row. I had one On2 dance (Por Que Adore), one Cha Cha, and one Bachata also.