April 11, 2008 to April 14, 2008
Friday was a fabulous night – arguably the most enjoyable congress night all around for me since the first Britfest. I think the first Congress will always be the measuring stick - even though back then I was limited compared to now and every dance was essentially the same. I suppose I might think of the same of now with more experience years from now. Virtually everyone I danced with seemed enthusiastic and capable of more than just the basics. There were well over half dozen people I would have been happy to dance with over and over again. Very few people had ego issues – it was an exceedingly friendly and accomplished crowd. It felt ten times better than the UK Congress 2007 and hundred times better than the Madrid Festival 2007.
I liked the music when Lubi was DJing, but the other DJ Mauri for me was below average as a Congress DJ – I liked about 20-30% of his songs. I think Mauri was responsible for the 3-4 Timba, 3-4 Bachata, possibly most of the Cha Cha (which in principle is fine with me except I didn’t dance any) and virtually all of the more questionable selections all night Friday night. With Lubi, I’d say I liked around 80% of the songs - at least on Friday.
The songs from Friday included Cubanoson (Cubanoson), Don Anastacio (Javier Vazquez), Fuego En El 23 (La Sonora Poncena), Rumbon Melon (not Joey Pastrana but still good), Ublabadu (Fania All-Stars with Hector Lavoe), Alejate (Hector Lavoe), Tu Loco Loco Y Yo Tranquillo (Roberto Roena), Baila Que Baila (unknown artist), unknown Linda Leida song, Isla Del Encanto (unknown artist), unknown song with Marvin Santiago on vocals.
The lowlights especially for Friday were the shows, the MCs talking between shows and introducing teachers in two languages (mostly Neeraj and Michal the congress organizer with Mario taking over for Neeraj for the last part on Saturday). Among Friday shows, I enjoyed the Tango-Salsa one during the first session and the very last show with karaoke marching band. Sergio's opinion was about the same. For Saturday, I missed the first set of shows including the one done by the Oxford folks (Mark and Lisa of ConTambor were on the same flight as us both ways. I recognized them from pictures I've seen on the web, so I took my chance to strike a conversation with Mark at the baggage claim area in Prague. We constantly bumped into each other all weekend). While the Saturday performances seemed more polished compared to Friday, most did not engage me much. I found the routine done by Tamambo and Ania to be the nicest one to watch - beating out bigger names like Orville Small (heavily borrowing from Swing Guys), Hacha Y Machete (to the song of the same title) or Neeraj Maskara with a new partner. Surprise, surprise - it was completely unexpected even though I've seen both of them before separately; they may get a lot of mileage out of this new partnership. Sergio was looking forward to the performance by Jazzy and Amy because of her NYC connection so we got up from our chairs in the back to watch it only to give up after about half a minute finding it little more than a spin-fest. Sunday was essentially an amateur night for giving support and nurturing still nascent local Prague Salsa groups and was more notable for the comedy routine of sort done by Tamambo acting as the MC.
Not surprisingly I did not find many familiar faces on Friday. Aside from some of the teachers (Tamambo, Ania, Neeraj, Victor and Burju – no Mario tonight and same for Orville and Sabine) I recognized only two people from SOS including Monica from the LDA. Sergio said he spotted one more (usually wearing go-go boots but not here). Monica I danced with and I chatted briefly with Tamambo, who was here for the very first time as well and seemed to be trying to convince himself that tomorrow night is going to be much better (I told him that I found tonight fabulous). I saw Tamambo all three nights, and he mentioned to me that they have new floor at SOS – I’ve heard about this already and told him that I look forward to seeing it – as well as more speakers.
Maybe the novelty factor wore off. Perhaps it was slightly crowded for somewhat longer. Or my expectations were raised too high. Saturday on the whole was a lot less enjoyable for me compared to Friday. I suppose it could have been the music as well - Lubi did not play as much as he did on Friday.
The songs from Saturday included El Cantante (Hector Lavoe), Traicion (Roberto Roena), Debes Callar (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Ahora Quien (Marc Anthony), possibly Sabor Los Rumberos Nuevos (Angel Canales), Esto Es El Guaguanco (Cheo Feliciano), Guarare (Ray Barretto), Los Rumberos (Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante).
There were several more people I recognized on Saturday. The go-go-boots girl was there with the go-go boots - I guess she's not the same without it (and I certainly did not recognize her without it). There was another guy - I think I had spotted him before at SOS and at Coventry. Eva showed up - she recognized me and put two and two together while she was dancing with Sergio. Apparently Sergio saying that he liked Prague made her happy. I also bumped into Pavlina and Pierre - Pavlina is a Czech also. There was an ancient guy whom I have seen in a few different congresses in the UK - I think I once photographed him dancing with Zhenzhi. There was another girl I met somewhere - I don't know her name but we recognized each other and had a dance later. Mario also showed up late - he was very busy so nothing more than a hello there.
Of dances with new people, two people and dances stood out in positive light. Most others were disappointing for various reasons - not the least of reason being that I couldn't get quite a few of my partners to be more than disinterested even though I felt that the overall quality of my partners was probably lower than on Friday - somehow.
The first highlight was just before the last of the shows where I left my drink with Sergio to have a somewhat higher energy expenditure dance than I was looking for at that time but was quite good and ended up being arguably the best of the evening. Sergio commented that she was doing her super styling (I guess she might belong to one of the performance groups) and also that it was pretty good (or was it that I did pretty well? The distinction is not important to me in any case). For the next 3 hours or so, everything else paled in comparison.
Second was towards the end of the evening when I spotted a wisp of a girl I sitting and fanning herself with her hand and with a nice outfit (white tank top maybe and a patterned flared skirt to knee level in pastel color, which might be considered retro or conservative in Salsa setting or otherwise). By this time I had so many underwhelming dances and was quite tired, but I got an intuition that I would have a pleasant dance with her even if she were not much more than a beginner. She turned out to be much more than that and was in fact quite astonishing - the hijacks, quasi-backleads and amazing recoveries. Irresponsible - maybe it should be outlawed. It was a dance that left me shocked, satisfied and yearning for more - a little scary; I think I lost a sliver of what's left of my heart in Prague. Perhaps not surprising is that I was too stunned to make suitable compliment to her at the end of the dance. I looked for her on Sunday but no luck.
The Sunday party was at a different location; the first two nights were at the Congress Center next to Vysehrad metro station while the Sunday party was at Club Tropison on the 5th floor of KOTVA department store by Namesti Republiky metro station. The floor was considerably smaller - comparable to LeL in St. Ives but without the columns in for the wood floor and surrounding carpeted floor about 2/3 of LeL but with a lot more chairs and tables on the carpet and comparable to Bar Salsa in London in total area except that the wood floor portion is about the size of the dance area immediately next to the DJ booth or perhaps a little smaller and rest carpeted. In any case, a much smaller venue meant that the organizers were not selling tickets for Sunday only. Because the party pass sold out early, Sergio wasn't able to accompany me Sunday night.
Club Tropison was considerably warmer than the Congress Center. Combine it with my tired legs from all the walking on cobblestones and sightseeing during the day and constantly switching between wood floor and carpet for dancing, it was a bit of a struggle. Lubi seemingly played even less than he did on Saturday, and there were long Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton sessions lasting 6-8 songs. There was one non-Latin song thrown in as well (was it MC Hammer?). Despite all that I had a pretty good time.
Salsa songs from Sunday included Bomba Carambomba (Angel Canales), La Cura (Frankie Ruiz), Lluvia (Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz), Vagabundo (El Gran Combo),
A main reason why Sunday was better for me was better dance partners although one would think that it should be the other way around. It's nice to dance with people who look happy dancing with me. I could say that more than a few seemed appreciative, but perhaps that would be showing too much ego. I think I ended up dancing more than one night with only two people all weekend. Both obviously were enjoyable, and tonight's one was initiated by her. I think I was going to ask at some point - I had seen her several times after the first dance on Friday and always gave her a smile, but being asked instead made it even easier to get my confidence up and to get into just enjoying the dance with little pressure.
I left the Sunday party shortly before 2:30 so that I could get some sleep before the morning flight. We stayed til around 3:30 on Friday and til closing time at 4 on Saturday. Considering that I did not get much sleep Thursday before the flight, fatigue was certainly a big issue. No doubt it will take a few days to recover from this vacation.
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Miscellaneous quotes during the trip…
I think you can do pretty well with food here as long as you stay away from Prague food.
Maybe this is the Hunger Wall.
Did I mention that you are a delusional starving student?
33 to 1.
Trust me.
I think every one is here for smokes and free internet connection.
Size 24/34 jeans for men! (Diesel)
It's a Polish Salsa Congress. (although I think 80% Polish and 20% other is a gross exaggeration - I'd guess 40% Polish, 50% max)
Don't you recognize me? (from a random vagabond at Wenceslas Square)
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Trite observations…
Prague is very pretty.
There are a lot of dogs in Prague.
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Highlights of sights....
Prague Castle
Old Town Square with amazingly underwhelming Astronomical Clock
less obvious sights near Church of Our Lady Before Tyn (or Tyn Church for short) - Bric A Brac (tiny knick-knack shop), Valentyno (café-bar & accommodation - very well hidden with a pretty yard - great location 100 m from Old Town Square yet it seemed very quiet and peaceful - check www.valentyno.cz (apartments 1-3 only … 4 is at a different location) ... I think this is a kind of place that may look much better seen in person), a small gallery, which had a painting Sergio thought would be better without the bottom 1/3 of it).
St. James Church with a mad organist
St. Nicholas Church (both - with mistaken initial idea of the first one being kick-ass)
Jewish Museum (or failed "museum of an extinct race")
Vysehrad and nearby Cubist buildings in one hour
Hike up to the Hunger Wall
David Cerny sculptures
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Food…
Egg MacMuffins - in extreme moderation, it can hit the spot (airport)
Hostine U Tri Zlatych Trojek - cheap but with an unusual mandatory 15% gratuity
Czech Pub on Jecna near Lipova - 5 of 8 beers tasted were not worth finishing (it might have turned the tide against spending money on Czech cuisine too)
Daily Market - according to Sergio good apple (from South America, I think)
V Zatisi - about being a delusional starving student … although sans lunch
Pizza takeout at 4:30 AM - enough said
Dahab - everyone was on hookah
Café Tonino Lamborghini - random chance tiramisu held up well against V Zatisi
Sausage stands lining Wenceslas square - can feel it in your stomach for a very long time
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