Frank Santos and Natalie Baltao take their turn at CS

October 24, 2008

Time of arrival – around 9:40 PM. That’s my alibi for tonight. No Joe. I think there were four classes. One was led by the guests Frank Santos and Natalie Baltao in the new corner. Main floor was occupied by Vish looking a little harried. I think the other two were led by --- geez, I don’t know their names --- I’ll try to find out for myself and maybe for this blog soon but for now I’ll call them – the big guy and the small guy. Hopefully no one’s offended.

So unexpectedly I led off as the DJ of the night. It sounded like Haihan might show up as a DJ, but he didn’t. No Steph – as expected more or less. No Ivan – hmm. Jane was helping with teaching, I think. Mark showed up later. Sally was there too – briefly. Johnny. Rajiv. Here’s my playlist – shorter than expected – not that I really cared.

Playlist

Songorocosongo – Hector Lavoe (1)
Huracan – Bobby Valentin (2)
Sin Sentimientos – Grupo Niche (3)
Porque Adore – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante (4)
Se Me Fue – Conjunto Yumuri (5)
Que Bonito Es Puerto Rico – Jose Alberto “El Canario” (6)

(1) Starting with a song 7 min 50 sec long is definitely unconventional, but I wasn’t sure if I was starting off until less than a minute before starting. I put the song on long time before that half-guessing that I might be taking it out if someone else wanted to start. I think a lot of people waited a long time for this song to end – thinking that surely it won’t go on for so long.
(2) Frank’s dancing.
(3) Still going. With Jane if I remember correctly.
(4) Crowd disperses a little. Frank and Natalie were together on the floor very briefly for this.
(5) I took the opportunity to ask Natalie for a dance. On2.
(6) I had next two songs lined up (Oscar D’Leon followed by Santiago Ceron), but Vish took over instead. He started with a Bachata, a hiccup of Bachata, mostly instrumental Salsa which got progressively faster (I was dancing with Jane on this one) and following it with three really fast songs in a row starting with Timbalero by El Gran Combo. Timbalero has BPM of ~250. It was played at -5%, which would bring it down to a little under 240 BPM. Here are some other fast songs in comparison – Fuego A La Jicotea (207-210 BPM), Merecumbe (204-219 BPM), Un Verano En New York (204-221 BPM). How do they compare to slow songs? How about La Llave (165 BPM), Ahora Quien (168-179 BPM), Perdoname (158 BPM – original studio version).

Total = 6 songs all Salsa nothing new.

After starting my first dances with Natalie and Jane, I was a little at a loss as how I was going to proceed. It gave me a pause for a little to start with, but it got easier as night went along. I actually managed a second dance with Natalie later (second time was On1, which ended up being a shine-fest) also. I daresay I left a favorable impression – if nothing else by simply having danced more than once with her. Part of the difficulty early on with finding partners was that many of the girls seemed busy chatting, which I was reluctant to interrupt.

Fru was there with her friends. I think they are more of Saturday irregulars. It was nice to see them anyway and I danced a few with them.

Other dances. I kept drifting into On2 timing while dancing with Sharon to Cuando Te Vea (German Villarreal version). I never quite got into dancing Salsa with a recent newcomer – haven’t got her name but she has ballet background. How about that one with Aileen – one which she always start off by saying she’s not used to whatever style she called it (it really makes little difference in my opinion – the person makes bigger difference than the style). There was a visitor from Essex I had few dances with – Cecille I think? There were several with another newcomer with no name and no background. A dance with Louise to a rather corny song was preceded with a Zouk joke, complimentary.

Frank and Natalie's performance piece was done to Aguzate (not all of it) by Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz. I couldn't see anything past the wall of people, however.

I was there until closing time chatting with Vish about the last week's post, etc. Next up. SDE.