Seven Week Itch? Whatever.

October 5, 2008

The urge to dance at SOS was not the critical factor. In fact I was getting quite used to not going to SOS after not having made the trip for several weeks. Sure the long hiatus would have been a reasonable excuse but the clincher was the idea that a change in setting – getting on a train with a computer but without internet connection – might do something to get on with writing that letter I have been putting off. So I said temporary goodbye to distraction otherwise known as work, politics (yes, we can!) and play and got on the train making a pointed omission to bring a book to read to clinch the deal. It was going to be a one-way deal of course but it’s still better than nothing, and the inward trip went as planned. Some progress was made – not extensive, but every small step is a minor victory.

Now onto SOS itself. A quote of Fruity’s “Oh dear, oh dear” might have been appropriate given relative dearth of followers especially of the type I am used to dancing with. It meant exploring options I had been reluctant to take for reasons I cannot even remember. It turned out to a good thing – I think I found another favorite – lovely all around and seemingly into what I was doing even if I couldn’t completely shake off the idea that it might have been for a show. I suppose I might know better after another dance next time I see her. After a solid first couple of hours, the final hour turned into exquisite category. This would have to place tonight at the top quartile for this year – it rivalled the brilliant night the week before Hamburg.

A part of the reason was that Julian the Duke went away from playing his usual consistently mediocre repertoire. For a change, he didn’t play Avisale A Mi Contrario. On the other hand, he played songs like Ajiaco Caliente and Clave Mambo, neither of which I did not get around to dance to unfortunately. Other than two uninspired Cha Cha (why is that I rarely hear neither simple solid Cha Cha nor brilliantly weird funky Cha Cha in London?) and questionable final song of the evening (Sonero Del Barrio by Tabaco and Ron is the best he could think of???), it was a quite excellent mix overall. About a third of my dances were On2 – no big problems to speak of despite lack of practice (well – at least nothing more than usual).

One of the first people I saw was Quentin – back from NYC. He commented that there were a lot of new good dancers in London now while checking out one guy in particular – I got a good look at him later and it was Nelson Flores. What the heck was he doing here? No Veronica. I might add what the heck was Quentin not taking advantage of the NYC On2 scene? I also saw Roger for the first time in a while. Heck, seemingly all the guys I know were there including Sean, Simon, Andrew and Amir but none with their female counterpart. I only got a chance to say hello to some of them. It was amusing to see Jamil seemingly having integrated into the On2 community in London. Oh I almost forgot – Goldilocks was there too. Ditto for Liam and the other London kid from last week.

So it was a nice trip overall. Not gratuitous. It was also somewhat productive – in dance and in other matters. Insightful in some ways especially with a move I had been working on forever. It’s amazing how much difference a few centimeters could make – or maybe about 5-10 centimeters in this case to add a little bit of clarity of direction. Heck, playing it right could lead to some amusing variation also.

Here concludes another episode full of gobbledegook to try the patience of likes of NP.

[note added later: The Nelson question was answered in Sally's regular post - he's teaching a performance course in London now with Irene. No doubt he's doing other guest gigs too.]