Dancing at 10% (or make it 5%?)

December 12, 2008

The state of economy has crept even into an announcement wishing for happy holidays by Joe. I suppose everything is tanking including the British pound. Oh well. I suppose the point of living abroad here in the UK was never about financial gain. I think I know just about enough to get nowhere with these things.

Slow night. Probably it has something to do with the year winding down. I will be here for another ten days or so before heading to the States for three weeks. That should be good for perhaps four more posts from the UK this year. As for the posts from the States – who knows for sure? Probably a few from the DC area and maybe I finally will make it to NYC – although the schedule is less favorable than last year. As long as I avoid hospitalization...

I ended up dancing with a lot of beginners tonight. Arguably the first was the best – someone with a very interesting combination of tension and frame although primitive but still leading to an excellent lead-follow connection as well as crisp steps on beat, which is quite atypical and requires a good ear. Usually dances with beginners end up being akin to letting them go through a limited set of exercise, but this one felt like a real dance and rather exciting perhaps because it was slightly precarious. Being able to predict how and when my partner will step on which foot on which beat is so nice, and being able to have her achieve a sensation of being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound especially for the first time can be priceless. Conversely having so-thought “experienced” followers, who often end up on wrong foot and off time with easy music, can be really disappointing.

I’m guessing the teaching team tonight was Joe, Dan, Kafe, Jane and Vish. Johnny, Steve, Natalia, Robin etc were there early, but Natalia and Steve did not stay very long. Richard and Phyllis arrived afterwards and stayed a little while. The expressive couple was back after a lengthy absence. Anna and finally Demetrios arrived even later. Vish did not stay long at all. He made a small move to replace Joe at the DJ booth but seemed more than happy to get me to go first instead. In fact, he left for home quite early – maybe less than one third way through my set, which lasted until slightly after 2 AM.

Playlist

Salsa Y Control – Isidro Infante
Mambo – Cachao (1)
Caballero Y Dama – Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Barranquillero Arrebatao – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
La Cura – Frankie Ruiz (2)
El Hijo De Obatala – Ray Barretto* (-10%) (3)
Me Enamorado De Ella – Juan Luis Guerra (4)
Te Extrano – Extreme
Ritmo Tambo Y Flores – Javier Vazquez (labeled Sonora Matancera in my CD) (5)
Prende El Fogon – Sonora Poncena*
Me Voy Pa Cali – Oscar D’Leon (6)
Ay Amor Cuando Hablan Las Miradas – Orquesta Guayacan
Ponme El Alcolado Juana – El Gran Combo*
Valio La Pena – Marc Anthony
Woman De Callao – Juan Luis Guerra
Perdios – Monchy & Alexandra
Chango Ta Beni – German Villarreal
Cao Cao Mani Picao – Tito Puente (w/ Vincentico Valdez)
Yerbero Moderno – Celia Cruz* (7)
Ken Moussoul Guis Li – Africando
Lejos De Ti – Son Boricua
Diamoule Mawo – Laba Sosseh
La Novela – Fulanito (8)
Pobre Mendigo – Toque D Keda
Isla Del Encanto – Orquesta Broadway (9)
Bailemos Otra Vez – Jose Alberto “El Canario”* (-5%)
Bilongo – Eddie Palmieri
Descarga Lebron – Lebron Brothers (-8%) (10)
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence (11)
Lamento Boliviano – Toque De Keda
Contigo - Cache

(1) Joe stayed for one dance (Salsa Y Control). He seemed amused by this choice.
(2) Vish was buttering me up already – possibly making his getaway plans.
(3) I had not realized I never played this song before until writing this post. This song was played by Cristian last week at -5%, and Vish stopped by to rave about the song. I think Vish recognized that this was the same song as last week a little more than half-way through.
(4) More buttering job.
(5) I think this is where Vish talked me into playing until 2 AM.
(6) Party pooper?
(7) I wasn’t sure if I had played this before. I had not. I guess this could be considered a bookend to the 50s music. The six song sequence from Chango Ta Beni to Diamoule Mawo with this song in the middle was written up while I was playing Woman De Callao and Perdios.
(8) This was designed so that I would only play about half of the song. Good call.
(9) Here began a sequence of songs I kept changing in order to get a particular dance I wanted. I never got that specific dance. It made for an unusual finish.
(10) I danced to this one.
(11) This song was on-deck for a few songs before finally getting played. It could easily have been the last song given that it ended at 2 AM. Bulbul called for 2 more songs.

Total = 31 songs. 3 Merengue. 4 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha new. 23 Salsa including 4 new.

I never got around to asking either Jane or Sharon tonight. I waited too long and then Vish left earlier than expected. I danced with Sharon’s friend – not especially remarkable except it was possibly for the first time socially and it probably was a bit overdue. Perhaps it says something about getting used to not asking someone for a dance – too many examples to tell.