A monthly affair

November 2, 2008

It was that time of the month? Kidding aside, it does seem like SOS is becoming a once a month affair. Thus far going less frequently has made the experience more consistently enjoyable. Also it does seem like I’m still evolving and generally getting more confident from one month to next.

Roger thought there were more guys than usual and at higher calibre than usual tonight. I didn’t notice anything. Heck, I couldn’t be bothered to check out the girls to see who’d be good to dance with after a short while because nothing really stood out. I ended up asking people who I either knew was good or people who looked like they might be pretty good. It worked for most part.

Overall the dances were almost unanimously excellent. Pretty much the only exception was a dance fairly early in the evening with a total beginner with little sense of moving in time to the music; that song felt really long. Amusingly another guy asked her right after me – possibly because it was so obvious that she was a beginner. My partner right afterwards was a somewhat inexperienced intermediate and danced a little too big. Fortunately, I had tons of room so it was not a problem – the dance was pretty fun in fact. Again amusingly another guy (pretty good lead I might add – and maybe a little picky as well) grabbed her right afterwards. In both cases, I really doubt I would have been so eager to dance with either of my partners if I had been watching. Did I make them look better than they were or did they think they could do better than me? Pretty much every dance felt really good. It has been a long time since I felt like I was locked-in and totally in the zone for such an extended length of time.

It wasn’t like I can thank the musical selection for this. I think it was Julian the Duke who was the DJ. He played better than average set for him, but I would not have called it special or spectacular. Songs played included Mentirosa, Tiembla, El Cantante, Mambo Is Here To Stay (Latin Giants of Jazz), Cosas Nativas, Lluvia (Willie Rosario?), Chango Ta Beni (German Villarreal), Hace Tiempo (after a technical difficulty with the start of previous song). Cha Cha selections were better than usual by SOS standard. Thankfully Julian skipped Avisale A Mi Contrario once again.

Between one-fourth to one-third of my dances were done On2. I’m getting to a point where my On2 is almost indistinguishable from my On1 in terms of comfort level. At least that is how it felt tonight. I felt confident enough to finally ask Miriam for a dance; it went fine except the song ended a little too quickly and a little too abruptly for me. It’s probably silly for me to judge her, but she is very nice to dance with.

No Leon. No Tamambo. I think Mauro was in charge. Sharon was there and seemed to be getting her money’s worth. Other people I said hello to included Sean, Amir and that guy I had brief chat with at the last Scala and SDE.

Prediction: O 54 M 45. 370+ EV. 56 Senate (+ 2 Ind).