Diversity Dance Co visits Club Salsa

May 2, 2008

On the way to CS, I stopped by at St Paul's Center to drop off a CD containing the music for Miriam and Colleen's performance. I had failed to take the CD with me to SOS last weekend and thus could not give the CD to Colleen. Now Johnny presumably will mail the CD to Miriam. Johnny and Serap had decent number of people at their class, and they looked like a loyal bunch. I don't think Johnny and Serap will give up teaching Salsa on Fridays anytime soon. It's unfortunate because CS Fridays with Johnny and Serap as mainstays of the social scene would be so much stronger. Also unlike someone like me, Cyrille, Sebastian and all of the student-types, Johnny and Serap are likely to be living in Cambridge for years or decades to come.

There's no doubt that the Friday classes at CS has gotten much bigger since Joe Davids took over. I arrived around 9:30 so check out the proceedings. The classes taught by Joe, Danie and Vish were once again nearly packed - above average by recent standards. Lee and his company arrived shortly afterwards, and they were quite impressed by the crowded classes. Joe isn't going anywhere in near future as long as Vish keeps running CS.

Lee's Diversity Dance Company is made up of four people, who said they considered themselves more of a buddy group. I had not realized this from the pictures, but I knew one of the three others already - Helen from LDA. So in a sense the talk was a bit of catching up - I hadn't seen either Lee or Helen for half year or more. I also talked a little with the second guy - I think his name might be Andreas but I'm totally unsure [note added later: I think his name is Albert]. I did not get to talk to the second woman Johanna until I asked her for a dance later in the evening - I did not get her name right until later because of background noise. It's a common problem for me; increase background noise, and I can't have normal conversation with pretty much everyone. For example, I asked Lee about the music they were going to be using for their performance. I knew the song name, but I couldn't figure out based on their naming it. Only after figuring out the chorus did I realize what they were saying. El Tiroteo - originally done by the New Swing Sextet and covered by Joe Arroyo possibly with a new title Ban Ban.

Before the social started I also conversed a bit with Astrid - mostly talking shop. She's going to be really good once she figures out the beats and gain a bit more experience with following in general.

Many of the Thursday regulars showed up tonight - Sally, Jane, Mark, Raj, Nicola, Lindsey, Ed and (minor surprise) Ivan. Cristian from Wednesday was also there and briefly DJed when Joe was done. Steve was there too but without the usual cohorts. Marina who used to work behind bars came by with friends in part to celebrate her birthday. No Sergio after all. Liam must be busy with exams. Ditto Haihan. A few more good leads would have been nice - where were likes of Zern? Sam was there too and the planets lined up nicely this time around. There seemed to be at least several people from out of town - the only one I knew somewhat was Sofia (from Coventry with a CTU shirt and a Scala night), who found me first for a dance to Fragile or another version of the same song.

Joe was the DJ for a quite long time to start the evening. Good stuff - less commercial than usual. One of the bigger surprises was Guallando by Fulanito, which is something one of the regulars here had been bugging me about for quite some time. Joe went on well beyond the showcase done by the Diversity Dance Co. Crisitian as mentioned earlier was the next DJ. Vish took over next. Both sets were fairly brief.

I must have started my set well after 1 AM.

Playlist

Bomba Carambomba – Angel Canales* (-5%) (1)
Me Prendiste Velas – Oscar D’Leon
Canto Al Amor – Sonora Poncena* (studio version) (2)
Ahora Si – Ismael Miranda (3)
Satin And Lace – Tito Rodriguez* (4)
Nadie Como Ella – Marc Anthony
Los Caminos De La Vida – Ismael Miranda & Junior Gonzalez* (5)
El Que Se Fue – Roberto Roena (6)
Swing A La Moderna – Mandingo Y Su Son*
Yolanda – Orquesta Guayacan (7)
Te Extrano – Extreme
Ojala Que Llueve Café – Juan Luis Guerra* (8)
Salchicha Con Huevos – Jimmy Sabater (shorter older version)*
Perdoname – Gilberto Santa Rosa (9)
Sin Sentimientos – Grupo Niche
Mambo Diablo – Tito Puente (50s version)
Ay Amor, Cuando Hablan Las Miradas – Orquesta Guayacan (10)
Por Que Adore – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante
Rosalia – Juan Luis Guerra*
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda
Ahora Si – Sonora Poncena (45th anniversary live version) (11)*

(1) Play the fastest song first. What a concept. I figured it was now or never considering the party seemed to be losing heat quickly. Mark led Lee to this one.
(2) Slowing the pace rapidly – at least at the start of the song. I danced with Johanna for the second time, struggling a little with On2 timing especially during the trumpet duet with non-Mambo beat. Johanna by the way was really great with On2 – definitely better with or accustomed to On2 than On1.
(3) Now to mid-high speed. Lee, Helen, Johanna and Andreas began preparing for departure.
(4) Another dance for me with Sofia.
(5) Helen asked me for the song info on this one. This will not be the easiest one to obtain. I never found the opportunity to dance with her tonight.
(6) Very few people left now. I stopped Sharon from leaving momentarily and had another dance with her.
(7) I thought there was a real chance that this could be the last song. I begun to lower the volume as it seemed oppressively loud with thin crowd of people left – not background level but more comfortable.
(8) Very slow Merengue – I was really surprised that people danced to it including some not known for dancing Merengue. I went to brag about it to Vish, and he bought me another drink (after not letting me pay for the first one earlier in the evening).
(9) I’m still thinking the party could end at any time. Mark is still going strong switching between Jane and Sofia. Steve is around also still dancing.
(10) I’ve changed my mind. I think this might go to the advertised end with another Merengue-Bachata-Salsa combination.
(11) I started this one at 2:54 AM announcing that it will be the last song. This song by the way is listed as 16 minutes and 21 seconds long on my CD. I first asked for a dance with Sofia before venturing such a long song. It looked like she knew the song very well. I may have played it anyway but not finish it. Since no one was at the DJ booth it was played to the very end. It’s a new record – shattering 3 or 4 dances I had to El Cantante by Hector Lavoe. My neck felt a little odd at the start of the evening and quite a few of the dances felt a little off, but all was better by the end of the evening.

Total = 21 songs. 2 Merengue, both new. 2 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha (new). 16 Salsa including 6 new.

Sofia is apparently moving to France. She asked me if I was coming to Paris in June. I had considered it ... along with the idea of Hamburg instead. Something to think more about perhaps.