Revolving Doors

January 23, 2009

I arrived too close to the end of the lessons to figure out who was part of the teaching team tonight. Joe was not there whereas Vish, Kafe and Dan were. Mark was there early so I think he might have been involved as well.

No cool-down track was used, and the social dancing started with Vish’s pre-recorded CD (starting with Ven A Medellin by Grupo Gale and El Pito by Isidro Infante). It was a three DJ rotation this time with Vish’s pre-recorded CD followed by Haihan, then Vish, then me, then Vish again to close the night.

People in attendance were fairly large in number to start with but there were not much of an overlap with last week. Steph was there after having performed in her Agnes show as was Raj sans the show. Some of the other old Thursday regulars showed up as well. The old Thursday people all left by around the time Haihan departed or shortly thereafter.

Demetrios showed up a bit later in the evening. From what I saw of his Chan Chan during Vish’s last set, I might say that the student is now the master – or at least a role reversal could be argued about. It took him less time than me, and he seems to be able to deal with partners with imprecise timing better than me (for me, it’s a chore not a challenge).

Hmm. How about that ever-growing all-male clique? I suppose it’s not a clique. I wonder if the absence of reliable (read salsaholic) followers is causing a replica of old Buenos Aires Tango scene. It’s threatening to become a commonplace sight.

There was a circle dance for Abbe. She brought me a Champagne glass afterwards – thanks. I danced with her to Ritmo Sabroso. She wanted to try an On2 dance again, and I got her on the floor when Vish inexplicably started Alto Songo by Afro-Cuban All-Stars. However, he switched the song to the Spanish version of Playa No More so I went back to On1. Thus there was only one On2 dance for me tonight (a bit sloppy one to Bomba Carambomba by Son Boricua – my partner did not like the song).

The most notable newcomer tonight was Christine from Freiburg. Due to her ride not showing up, she and her friend stayed until closing. She said she arrived at Cambridge about 3 months ago and previously tried CS on a Wednesday and a Saturday. She left for her friend’s place with help from another.

For me the dances during the early part of the evening were as whole below expectations. Possible factors included rustiness, nervousness, after-effects of previous lousy partners, and general common beginner issues. Dances after finishing my set on the other hand were more satisfying arguably with reasons other than merely change of expectations.

Vishal was using more CDs for Salsa than he had been in last couple of years. Quite a few of his songs or CDs appeared to be suffering from degradation.

Other chats were with Robin (general dance stuff), Bojan (Ntoman) and Tomas (the reason for shortage of ...).

Playlist

Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo
Las Mujeres – Los Nemus Del Pacifico*
Noche De Salsa – Louie Ramirez
Soy Antillana – Celia Cruz & La Sonora Poncena*
La Musica Es Mi Vida – Spanish Harlem Orchestra
La Guitarra – Erick*
Babarabatiri – Tito Puente
Rosalia – Juan Luis Guerra
Te Extrano – Extreme
El As De La Rumba – Jose Alberto “El Canario”*
Lindo Yambu – Cheo Feliciano
Sonando – Poncho Sanchez
Avisale A Mi Contrario – Roberto Roena
Abaniquito – Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers (-3%)
Que Le Den Candela – Los Van Van*
Ritmo Sabroso – Alfredo De La Fe & Fruko* (-3%)

Total = 16 songs. 1 Bachata. 1 Merengue. 1 Cha Cha. 13 Salsa including 6 new.