A Legendary X-mas Party at CS

December 5, 2008

Six invited performers – Danie, Andrea, Sam, James, Sean, Solvita. No offence meant but I wasn’t particularly interested in the performances tonight – which really is saying nothing given the only CS showcase I had even a mild interest in watching this year was the one by Nelson Flores and Veronica Castilla. However, I was looking forward to seeing and dancing with Andrea, who was my favorite partner by far this summer in Cambridge. I also thought the chance of Polly being there was high.

As I neared home to eat dinner before heading to CS, I spotted a slew of flashing lights emitted by several police vehicles and ambulances. As I turned into my street, I saw a body covered in raingear of the type favored by police slumped on the middle of the main road at the intersection. I think he or she was seriously injured but perhaps not in a life-threatening manner given that it took them at least twenty or thirty minutes after I arrived home to get him or her into the ambulance for hospital. As I was leaving for CS, I saw a car parked in the middle of my side road at the junction with a police escort behind it and hindering my getaway. A guy was on the passenger seat, but the driver’s seat was empty.

I arrived at CS fairly early – 9:45 or so. By recent standards, the lessons must have started close to on time because the social started fairly soon afterwards. It looked like neither Vish nor Joe was taking part in teaching – at least for the second hour. The teaching team looked like Sean and Solvita, Dan and Kafe. I had eaten a little too much so I stood by the DJ booth digesting for quite some time and watching Sean dance with various ladies from the classes before venturing to dance.

I don’t quite remember whom I danced with first. I asked Solvita at some point before asking anyone else; she declined but found me much later in the evening leading to a make-up dance (which unfortunately was to a most bizarre song played all night). It might have been with Steph, in which case I would have had my first and second dance of the night with her. First one On1 and second one On2 as Joe started playing type of songs I prefer. Steph left early for a work at some university party.

I then occupied myself dancing with some complete beginners and some improvers as well as old acquaintances like Michelle and Natasha as more people started piling down. Among the guests included Sally, Lindsey, Nicola, Mark, Jane, Richard, Samantha, Johnny, Demetrios and “DJ Shorty.” Samantha said she had to call RAC in order to get here tonight; I opted not to tell her about the accident. Steve, Natalia, Gabriella, Raj, Robin arrived before me. Cristian and Louise arrived a bit later. Polly was the last to arrive. Most of them stayed quite a while, some until very late.

There were “four” performances altogether tonight. I only watched the first one by Danie, Andrea, Sam and James. However the word watched doesn’t really work because I wasn’t able to focus on the whole performance. This is possibly because I was too close to the action. It seemed like I was usually watching feet of one or two persons at a time or some other random body parts rather than the dance as a whole. This reminds me that symmetries and synchronicities are always issues with a performance done by more than one couple. In Salsa performance world I have seen, Tropical Gem of a couple of years ago was the best at doing this with machine-like precision with large number of participants. Some of the New York dance companies are quite good at doing this with two or three couples. I think Joe said Andrea Stewart did the choreography. The costumes for the girls looked lovely by the way.

As for the other performances, I was stuck behind a wall of people and had no energy to scrounge for a better view. Two of them had no dancing involved as far as I can tell – essentially karaoke. My old pal Nanak was responsible for the second song. Sean and Solveig can be said to have done two performances as well – one Bachata and one Salsa. I can’t comment more since I saw none of it.

Later Robin asked me if I liked Sean’s style of dancing. I think he meant social dancing. Up until that time, I had only seen him dance with ladies from the classes and only glimpses of it. So I watched him for maybe half minute or so (I think he was dancing with Polly at the time). I thought he was good although somewhat generic. At SOS or at congresses, he would certainly stand out as one of the better dancers. However, he would not have caught my eyes and draw my attention for 5 seconds unless I was watching his partner. In order for a lead to arouse my attention, I would have to know him fairly well or he would have to be quite extraordinary (the most recent example that comes to my mind is Mario B at the Scala – he was entertaining). At Athens for example, the only leads I watched for more than 5 second at a time were Andrew and Mario, both of whom I have known for a long time. I actually thought Mario looked off his game until I saw one of his hands in a cast next night. I might as well add that I’m the same person who referred to Eddie Torres as bland, and I have no interest in emulating or imitating anyone on the dance floor at this point in my life. For someone new at this (say around a year or so or less), getting inspired by someone else’s style or whatever seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Probably the most important thing in the long run is to work on improving fundamentals, however.

Joe went on DJing for a long time; I remember checking the time at 1:40 (I’m pretty sure it was 1:40 not 12:40). The thing is that at that time I still had not danced with everyone I wanted to dance with. So I avoided the DJ booth for a while until Cristian took over.

I ended up dancing multiples with several people. At one point, I thought Jane was going to leave before I got a chance to ask for even just one (and it had been a while since I danced with her too – Salsa Del Este might have been the last time!). I ended up dancing with her three times. I also danced at least three times with Andrea and Polly too. It was not too long ago when Andrea asked me for a dance as often as I asked her. She now counts on me to do all the asking; I don’t mind as long as she keeps dancing with me. Polly was great too – back to and beyond the form she had before her ankle surgery. Also available for a treble was Louise, who was absolutely delightful to dance with. All these repeat dances would not have happened except the party went on until past 3:30!

In terms of how long the dancing went on, it was not unlike being at a Congress. Definitely smaller, but the quality of dancing was really good. The percentage of On2 dances went up as night went along as well – with last several dances all ending up being On2. Unlike at a congress setting I had 3 beers tonight.

Towards the end of the evening, Louise, Nicola and Lindsey took over the DJ booth. Hilarity ensued. They played some good Salsa songs – Fuego En El 23 twice. It climaxed with them playing Mambo No 5 by Lou Bega (and getting Mohammed to shake to it) and following it up with Macarena. I think more than a few people decided to videotape it. Maybe it will live in infamy in youtube (but not by me).

I think this qualify as a night to remember - a le-wait-for-it-gendary night perhaps even without the usual same sex dance competition. Last time a CS party went strong so late was when Lee was here last (and it went longer tonight than then). It was probably the first Friday in a very long time where neither Vish nor I played any songs.