Impressions Of Friday Night At Hamburg

July 18, 2008

The quality of social dancers attending this event is very high. It is pretty friendly too. In my experience the overall quality of followers probably was at least as high as any other Congresses I have attended to date and probably higher. Having said that, I found the overall enjoyable-ness of the evening as merely solid. As I feared, last week’s SOS was too good – so much so that this evening was a slight downgrade by comparison.

I think the two biggest factors for not pushing tonight into the beyond HC category were music and water. When I finished dinner (Café Paris), I realized that I was quite thirsty. I may simply not have drunk as much liquid as usual. Moreover, I did not drink more before heading over to the CCH for dancing. I ended up getting something like 5 drinks including a large bottle of water as the last resort, but I was dancing mildly dehydrated all night. Not good. Music was a little underwhelming also. Sometimes the DJs stayed with one type of music too long. There was two Bachata in a row and no other rest of the evening. There was a three Timba-tinged songs in a row at another point, and the later part of the evening was surprisingly Timba/Son heavy. There were plenty of heavy music but there were no Romantica.

Some songs played included the following: Ahora Si (Ismael Miranda) was played twice all night! I never heard this song played by anyone else before. Que Quiera Nina (Kako Y Totico) was a new one too. Aguanile (I stayed away from this one, but then again there was a even faster song later I ended up dancing On2 but without doing much partner work). Un Verano En New York, Don Goyo (El Gran Combo), something by the New Swing Sextet (?), Cuando Se Canta Bonita (Willie Rosario), something by Tabaco Y Ron (?), something by Oscar D’Leon (?), a version of Tiene Sabor. Some major artists ignored included Africando, Angel Canales, Bobby Valentin, Cal Tjader, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Frankie Dante, Frankie Ruiz, Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Grupo Gale, Grupo Niche, Hector Lavoe, Hector Tricoche, Henry Fiol, Ismael Rivera, Javier Vazquez, Jimmy Bosch, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Arroyo, Johnny Colon, Johnny Pacheco, Jose Alberto, Larry Harlow, Lebron Brothers, Linda Leida, Machito, Manny Oquendo, Marvin Santiago, Marc Anthony, Orquesta Guayacan, Rey Reyes, Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena, Santiago Ceron, Son Boricua, Sonora Carruseles, Sonora Poncena, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Rodriguez Jr, Tommy Olivencia, Tony Vega, Willie Colon. I’d have to venture to guess that some of the DJs might have been being a little too clever.

Dancing. The best ones were Cha Cha. It might have helped that the first one was with Edie and next several scattered Cha Cha were by far the most solid string of Cha Cha dances I pulled off. I think I was asked to dance Cha Cha two or three times by people I never saw before. In any case I consistently enjoyed Cha Cha more than On1 or On2 tonight. In most cases, I simply asked "On1?" rather than "On1 or On2?" assuming that people who really preferred On1 might be less likely to blurt out On2 with the former. For whatever its worth the On2 dances on average did not give me any better partners compared to On1 dances. Two somewhat long breaks were induced first by a fairly long series of dances finishing with some of the heaviest followers all night long and by aforementioned 3 Timba in a row.

Socializing. Not much during the party aside from chatting a few times with the Singaporean contingent – Justin and the second girl mostly, not Yanqing. I chatted a little with some of the London contingent as well – huge as expected.

I was there from around 11:30 (arriving just as Anne and Anichi were finishing the first half of the showcases) and stayed until around 4:30. Dancing was started relaxed and not trying hard at all and finished lackadaisical not wanting to spend too much energy because I had so little left.

The big surprise was Eddie Torres closing the showcase with nice social dancing. I rather liked it but it would have been better without the big crowd in front (i.e. better as accidental glimpse and having a prime view).