Salsa Del Este 2008

October 25, 2008

The day started with my absentee ballot back on my door. Oh well. At least there probably is enough time left to send it again. Slowly but (hopefully) surely things are moving along to complete my exit strategy. Pent up pressures of long list of task from the summer seem to be slowly dissipating. Soon enough the era of the blog might be considered the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Maybe the “oppressed” will re-emerge from the caves. Who knows? It will be beyond my control (and care) anyway.

On to Salsa Del Este. Nice venue! It’s miles better than Chilford, where the first SDE was held. The room used is better than almost everything else I’ve seen in the UK - better than London Mary Ward Hall or Royal National Hotel (sites of SOS London), Scala, Cambridge Guildhall, Coventry Colliery Club or Park Hall Hotel (Salsa Kingdom). It was not a big downgrade from places like Blackpool Winter Gardens Royal Empress Ballroom or Spanish Hall (minus the gaudy ceilings) used for the Britfest or BIC ballrooms used for the last UK Congress. Nice and spacious and with a sound system, which was most remarkable for being innocuous (i.e. no painfully loud spots or silent spots – I don’t even remember where the speakers were located!).

I arrived around 9:40 as the classes were wrapping up. The Singapore contingent was the first group I ran into. I initially mistook Angie for Isabel but covered it up until I revealed my mistake at the end of the night to Haihan. There were plenty of familiar faces – the Pure Salsa crew, the Royston trio, Raj, Sam, Johnny, Sharon, Will, Laura, Dimitrios, but there were quite a few surprise no-shows as well – Ivan foremost. Big but not Small. Polly mentioned that Andrea is back in London. Serap was not feeling well apparently. I’d add that there was surprisingly small overlap between the CS party last night and tonight – mostly because the entrenched regulars really don’t travel.

The music choice was not especially to my liking for the first half. After a few timba/son, I decided to throw Mauricio a curveball by requesting a Charanga of his choice. The first one he played was rather obscure, and he played a few more during the second half of the party. I was tempted to ask for another request or two but never got around to it (it would have been either a Cha Cha – there was one played during the second half of the party – or Cal Tjader, which would be have been a bigger challenge).

For whatever its worth, the songs I remember being played during the second half included El Cantante, Muneca (Alfredo De La Fe), Descarga La Moderna, Lejos De Ti, Hong Kong Mambo (Duste remix or possibly a modified version of it), Moliendo Café (unknown version), Pedro Navaja. The second half playlist in fact was quite similar in tone to how I might have picked the songs if I were the DJ. I think the first half songs included Bamboleo (Fania All Stars), Babarabatiri (Willie Rosario).

I probably danced with people outside Cambridge scene for just about half of the songs. I’m guessing I had about 25-30 dances altogether. Perhaps one third of the dances were On2. More shines than typical even by Congress standards.

Here I bury four paragraphs worth of stuff I’m keeping private (for my own amusement only).

Minor things of note. Chris B is no longer with puresalsa (not included in the slide show - maybe it merely reflected his absence for tonight only)? Chris S went out of the way to say hello – much appreciated. Moe Flex is – has a great personality.

The performances were – easy to watch. Three were from Irene Miguel productions – more performer-driven rather than costume-driven for a change. Artsy but not flowery. The last one involved a trio from Salsology with Sally getting a hometown center stage partnered with Mushi. If nothing else it worked out well for height purposes. Chris was partnered with Emma. The girl making up the third couple (on left) was one of very few people I failed to ask for a dance – among the people I had marked as one of the people I definitely wanted to ask. For me the best part was that I found perspective partners among performers as well as from their entourage (as well as teacher’s entourage).

Summary. I really enjoyed this one. For me anyway, it was an excellent facsimile for a Congress night and arguably better than an average SOS night. By the way average means 50th percentile and certainly does not mean bad. Certainly I rate this one level higher than that one Coventry party last year. This evaluation does not account for the price of the evening or the travel required.