DC Dance Collective Monthy Social

December 27, 2008

Several days ago - much nicer airplane trip compared to last time; among other things I was bumped up. Today - much nicer birthday compared to last year. The fact that it was celebrated outside a hospital was a definite plus, and I had my first cake in decades.

I did not have this event on my list of venues to visit until this afternoon. I was intrigued by the advertised closing time of 2 AM as well as a separate room for non-Salsa/Cha Cha. The location seemed fairly convenient as well. One or two of the people who made reservation via the meetup group made me think it might be worthwhile. Mostly I was getting a little bored so I decided to give it a try.

How was it? It was okay, not exactly great. The venue felt a bit warm. Floor was rather slow. It was oblong and reasonably spacious but not especially airy and smaller than every other DC venues I have seen in the past. The setting was a mirrored studio rather than a bar or a club. There was no chance of random person walking in. The music volume was fairly low although some people were wearing earplugs anyway.

The musical choice seemed unnecessarily highbrow (or obscure) and restrictive; it was arguably more challenging than in most congress nights I’ve attended and seemingly not really being utilized by most dancers. I think there were two DJs, but they were not distinguishable. Well-known classics from any period were mostly absent; the only songs I knew by title were Ajiaco Caliente by Eddie Palmieri, Mi Desengano by Roberto Roena, and Perla Fina by Monguito, and I would consider Perla Fina as at best an obscure classic. There was nothing Colombian or Venezuelan (never mind Timba, Son, etc), nothing from the 1990s or 2000s and nothing from the 1950s, no Romantica, and I don't remember any Charanga being played either. Pretty much everything sounded the same aside from a handful of somewhat smoother big-band jazz-like tunes. There were plenty of transitions, breaks and solos. Melody was driven pretty much by horns and occasional tres/cuatro only (trumpets mostly and very little trombone or sax, no vibraphones and very little violins and flute if at all, and piano was usually not prominent). At least not everything was fast, but it was quite monotonous. I would say that playing NYC Salsa CDs vol 1, 2, 3 straight through minus one or two better-known tracks would have achieved a similar effect as the selections tonight.

Dancing was again okay but nothing to write home about. There were too many dances where I felt my partner was not on the beat; music might be partly to blame. Good connections came by infrequently - too infrequent that good ones felt more like a relief more than anything else. I did not get to dance with everyone I asked – probably the new guy factor for the mid-level followers in the scene. Meanwhile I now wonder if some people appreciated that I danced with them period rather than because they thought I gave them a particularly good dance. I never really built much momentum. I had one repeat dance – with an improver-level follower who at least seemed to be able to stay on time most of the time. Slightly over quarter of the dances were On2.

This evening did nothing to change my assessment of the DC scene from previous years. I might add that it feels like old scene on a down cycle – the same down cycle I’ve seen for few years now. I suspect that if I were to live here, I would quickly settle down to a fairly low frequency of going out.