Two For The Price Of One

August 9, 2008

After a so-called party lasting two hours (I must have checked the time at least 20 times the whole time), I decided I had enough and headed over to CS. Yeah – it’s Saturday meaning more of Latino party rather than a Salsa party. Even if I’m just watching people dance, it’s better than watching people talk. Vishal remarked that there were quite a few people from the usual Thursday group. Ah – it’s a Diaspora. I wonder where (or should that be when?) they will end up? Thursday seems unlikely. Saturday really makes no sense. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays offer different advantages and disadvantages.

I was there for nearly 2 1/2 hours, but ended up dancing only twice all night. Once with Astrid, who came with two friends – a guy and a girl. Another was with the Polish (?) girl, who was at SOS next evening [note: this post is being written belatedly]. I guess it was one of those uninspiring or uninspired nights for dancing.

Vish played a lot of Reggaeton – quite a few new ones. I think he might have been playing some non-standard Salsa (at least by Saturday standard) as well.

August 10, 2008

After the first three or four dances, it occurred to me that I hadn’t danced On2 for quite some time. I hadn’t danced On2 much neither in Hamburg nor in Cambridge. After six or so dances all On1, I began to wonder how I would do once I found a partner who preferred On2. When it finally happened, it wasn’t too bad. In fact, it led to three On2 dances in a row. After those, I started another dance On1 but kept going back to On2. After half a minute or so, I apologized to my partner and said let’s do On2 because I can’t stay on time to On1 with this song. And then there was another song I was familiar with but couldn’t figure out what I was dancing to – after a while I gave up trying to figure out the timing and just went with the flow. And then there was a song I started On2 but opted to switch over to On1 after a while later in the evening - once again a very familiar song. Two of the three songs with count flip flopping were danced with people I have danced with before - and dance well with in the past. There were two Cha Cha played tonight, and both times I took full advantage of it and was happy to discover that I had retained my Hamburg Cha Cha form. I guess I’ll have to thank Edie and Hamburg.

There were two others from Cambridge – Dimitrios and I’m not sure what her name is but I think she might be from Poland. I liked seeing them there because good quality and quantity of practice SOS should make them better. It won’t happen overnight, but it is much easier to help people improve faster when they are already improving. Liam was there also sporting a start of beard – very much like that of Rajiv.

Amir was the DJ. He played just about average set by his standard – a little weak at the start but better after first several songs. Some of the songs I recall include Sonea Mi Son (Tabaco Y Ron), Tito’s Colada (Tito Puente), Avisale A Mi Contrario (Roberto Roena), En El Balcon (Tito Rodriguez), Trucutu (Tommy Olivencia), Bajo Con Tumbao possibly (Eddie Palmieri), Picadillo (Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri), Tremendo Problema (artist?), Un Verano En New York (El Gran Combo), something by Henry Fiol maybe?, something by Spanish Harlem Orchestra almost certainly from their first album, possibly something from Obra Maestra (Tito Puente & Eddie Palmieri) not Picadillo Jam or Paris Mambo but I could be wrong. I think there were quite a few songs, which were ended early by fading out – nothing really objectionable though.

The road sucked. All over. M11. All over London. I really would have preferred to take the train, but the weekend schedule involved a bus transfer between Cambridge and Royston – same as last weekend and also next weekend.

All in all, another nice SOS trip – probably in the top thirds for this year.