July 25, 2008
It wasn't the busiest of the days but I ended up having quite a lot of dances. For a large part I was picking on people I had not danced with much in the past - perhaps still on the Hamburg mode. A few nervous hands here and there, I suppose I was more bemused more than anything else by the shivering. I try not to force moves and overwhelm, but I still wonder if it looks that way to bystanders. Do I nevertheless contribute to the flash and spin brigade even when dancing with beginners?
Andrea and Polly were both around. Talking about On2 at the start of the song led to an On2 dance with Andrea, which in turn led to an On1 dance later. Latter probably was the nicest-looking dance of the evening. It's probably safe to say that Andrea has been more in-tune-dance with me in Cambridge than anyone else by a good number over past month or two. This might say more about how out-of-touch I have been with better followers in Cambridge lately - I probably could count in one hand the number of people, who I think respond well to me and allow me to dance rather than merely lead turn patterns.
I was getting ready to DJ as the number of reasonable social-call dances dwindled. Vish said he wanted to play some songs after Joe for several songs first. When I thought it was my turn, however, Cristian took over instead. Oh yeah - forgot to mention he was there tonight - somewhat unusual for a non-special Friday. Sally talked about being here tonight but she on the other hand was a no-show. Cristian motioned me to take over around 1:30, but I declined (and I would have declined even if I had been asked an hour earlier). I note that I have acted as DJ only once in all of July thus far - the 31st will be for the second time all month!
I didn't dance for next hour or so with the music taking an odd turn - two Merengue, two Bachata, then a series of generally fast Salsa, a Reggaeton-fest. It took me a while to get my interest up again. More than anything else, I was looking for something slower because I wasn't inspired to dance to something fast with anyone still around by then. It had also become incredibly male-heavy (not meaning lead-heavy though).
I was ready to go home by 12:20 or so, but I somehow stuck around until 1. And then I spotted a French girl I've seen a few times over past month - most notably on the two Saturdays I deejayed for while Vish was away. Highly adaptable follower - not a specialist - unfortunately I learned at the end of the evening that she's moving back to France next week. Anyhow, she got me more interested again and get me off the couch. Also Cristian had turned back to more mainstream easy-on-the-ears type of song selection so I ended up staying until closing time once again.
Penultimate Thursday
July 24, 2008
It occurred to me that I have never felt so little has changed in my perspectives on Salsa dancing after a congress event as this last one at Hamburg. Sure it was fun but nothing approaching a breakthrough. I suppose that was bound to happen as I go to more of them. I could also say that I developed some confidence about Cha Cha. I wouldn't say that there was a dramatic improvement, but I think I would now be enjoying it rather than sweating through it. I probably would feel more comfortable about asking people to dance to it at SOS and elsewhere.
I have no idea how things were last week. This week marked return of Ivan from his longer vacation as well as me being back after one week's absence. Other notable leads included Steve, Johnny and that big On2 dude I've seen more often in London than in Cambridge. Zhenzhi, Lindsey and Jane were there too. Musical selections included slightly more familiar choices than usual - Acid, La Llave, Usted Abuso (Son Boricua), Mujer Divina (Son Boricua), Lluvia Con Nieve, Swing La Moderna, Juana Pena. More Cha Cha than usual too.
Next Thursday is the last one for Sally at Club Salsa. Sally asked me to bring my music collection so I'll probably play a small number of songs. It'll be Cuban on Thursdays starting August. There's someone named Leandro in discussion for teaching at Club Salsa at some point too although it didn't sound like he would start in beginning of August. Back to Casino Rueda maybe? I haven't actually heard anything in person from Vish. Maybe tomorrow.
It occurred to me that I have never felt so little has changed in my perspectives on Salsa dancing after a congress event as this last one at Hamburg. Sure it was fun but nothing approaching a breakthrough. I suppose that was bound to happen as I go to more of them. I could also say that I developed some confidence about Cha Cha. I wouldn't say that there was a dramatic improvement, but I think I would now be enjoying it rather than sweating through it. I probably would feel more comfortable about asking people to dance to it at SOS and elsewhere.
I have no idea how things were last week. This week marked return of Ivan from his longer vacation as well as me being back after one week's absence. Other notable leads included Steve, Johnny and that big On2 dude I've seen more often in London than in Cambridge. Zhenzhi, Lindsey and Jane were there too. Musical selections included slightly more familiar choices than usual - Acid, La Llave, Usted Abuso (Son Boricua), Mujer Divina (Son Boricua), Lluvia Con Nieve, Swing La Moderna, Juana Pena. More Cha Cha than usual too.
Next Thursday is the last one for Sally at Club Salsa. Sally asked me to bring my music collection so I'll probably play a small number of songs. It'll be Cuban on Thursdays starting August. There's someone named Leandro in discussion for teaching at Club Salsa at some point too although it didn't sound like he would start in beginning of August. Back to Casino Rueda maybe? I haven't actually heard anything in person from Vish. Maybe tomorrow.
The Rest Of Hamburg Trip
July 20 and 21, 2008
After a brunch at a Pakistani restaurant and waiting out another bout of rain back at the hotel, I decided to head East take a hike around the Outer Alster Lake. I started on the West bank heading North. This part of the path traversed a waterfront park with many strollers. Most people seemed to be going the other direction towards the city centre. I wasn’t sure if this was because more people preferred to walk around the lake in counterclockwise direction or because I had started somewhat later in the afternoon. At the North end of the Alster Lake, the path became neighborhood streets away from the water before returning to the waterfront on the East side but without large greenery separating the footpath from the streets and houses. Here I also found most people walking South towards the city centre but now going the same directions as me thus seemingly invalidating “counterclockwise” hypothesis.
Just before reaching Inner Alster Lake, I took a turn towards Hauptbahnhof and Kunsthalle, None of the Hamburg museums seemed especially noteworthy so my main aim was to get some impressions of the city in its outward appearances such as its architecture. Thus some of the main targets once I was done with the walk around the lake included Chilehaus (a building shaped like an ocean liner), Hafencity (a gigantic construction site) and the future site of the Elbphilharmonie (a supposed Hamburg’s equivalent of Sydney Opera House). Chilehaus was a nice enough looking building, but without a guidebook I probably would have walked right by it without noticing it. Hafencity construction site was interesting merely because of the scale of construction. I realized that I had walked by Elbphilharmonie without seeing it yesterday – thanks to wet conditions. It looked like this building was going to be more reminiscent of Guggenheim Bilbao rather than the Sydney Opera House in look. I had to beg a question, “How big a deal would these building be as more and more like them are built?” An apt comparison from my recent travel experience could be the Cubist buildings of Prague – avant-garde at first but completely unremarkable sans historic reasons today.
Precipitation was minimal after I started my long walk of the day. However, it was cold and windy. Pretty much everyone I saw was wearing windbreakers. It seemed like I was one in a thousand with neither a overcoat of some sort nor an umbrella.
I left the hotel for CCH a little past 11:40 this time around and thus continuing the trend of leaving later and later. I saw no signs of the first set of shows. I had a little bit of the social dancing in between the shows. As for the second set of shows, I decided to take a seat closer (half-way) although I still ended up watching the screen mostly rather than the live performers. After Eddie Torres suggested that the organizers dispense with re-introduction of the performers of the evening, it looked like the social would get kicked off earlier. Oh no. After barely starting the song, Imad stopped the DJ and decided to do the introduction and ensuing clowning after all. I had already a partner picked and asked and everything (and she had to leave early too). Not only that, they followed it up with a competition asking “randomly” picked entrants to copy of move demonstrated by one of the performers. It ended up being quite amusing, but it still went quite long and I had to wonder about losing all steam. I found it all too much standing doing nothing even though I was sitting until the penultimate show - by Eddie Torres and Melissa once again. Fortunately, I was still feeling lively past 4 AM and ended up staying until 4:57 with no immediate end to the party in sight.
The Sunday party was somewhere between Friday and Saturday in many ways. Timba and Son made its return but not quite to the degree seen on Friday. There was more Cha Cha than Saturday but less than Friday. More miscellaneous non-Salsa – not quite sure what to call them but they weren’t completely disastrous because I somehow managed to make something out of dancing to those (in fact they were arguably better than average for the night to some of the best of the evening). There were considerably more dances with less accomplished followers compared to Saturday, but there were a number of dances on par with the best of my Saturday dances. The most consistently good dances were Cha Cha rather than On1 or On2 – once again. I think I could argue that nearly half of my top 10 and top 20 dances all weekend was Cha Cha - or at least a third of the top 10/20.
I had very few dances with people I knew from elsewhere – no more than 3 people including Edie. I think this happened in large part because most of them were stuck in the most crowded corner of the dance hall, which I stayed away for large parts of the evening. The crowding supposedly happened because most of the performer and instructor types were dancing in that corner. As a result, the only big names I saw social dancing all weekend were Mario and Edie – the ones most likely to move out of that pigeonhole. I might add that I would not be able to recognize at least 90% of the performer types out of a line-up.
All in all I probably had more than one dance all weekend with no more than 10 people. I still somehow managed to dance with 2 different people on all three nights – one for 3 Cha Cha altogether (with it getting better and better each night) and another for 8 all weekend (it started with me accidentally continuing on for a third dance in a row because of a song fusing business on Friday leading to her asking me first one Saturday and me asking for a second consecutive one on Saturday and then ending up with 3 more on Sunday). It was a record of sort for Congress setting although it was really no more than a combination of chance, and her seemingly find me nice to dance with and thus dancing with enthusiasm and me finding her pretty good rather than extraordinarily good but nevertheless finding her responses much to my liking. There was another woman I ended up dancing with for probably three songs on two different occasions on Sunday and probably would have tried to dance more with her had I danced with her on Friday or Saturday; I’m not even sure if she was there first two nights. I’m guessing I danced at least 40 dances a night on both Saturday and Sunday and more than 30 on Friday.
In summary I would say that the Hamburg Congress was very good. The calibre of social dancing was near the top. Music was sometimes really good but at times marred by the DJ (with caveat that DJ Dave was the only one sticking out like a sore thumb – with too many Timba/Son in a row on Friday and too many miscues on Saturday and a unique self-promotion to end his set on Sunday) and so-so band. The floor was near the bottom (unevenly slippery thus making carpet preferable for some) although certainly better than concrete floor of Madrid.
After a weekend of touring Hamburg, the striking features to me were the trees and vegetations in general as noted on the first day and the bodies of water seemingly everywhere. Pretty much the only way a city could be so dominated by water as Hamburg is to be a city wholly within a small island or better yet large number of islets (presumably like Venice). Maybe I could add rain to the mix since getting wet seemed difficult to avoid. I believe it went from about raining 50% of the time on Saturday to 20% on Sunday to 90% on Monday. In fact the Monday rains prompted me to give up on some short expeditions before heading off to the airport.
Postscripts. I had brought my camera with me to Hamburg but found that it was not working. I realized that I left my keys at the hotel after arriving home. Upon checking my e-mail, I saw that the hotel management had sent me e-mail about my keys while I was still at the Hamburg Airport. There were five or six hotels in the same building (Dammtorpalais) with two of the hotels making the list on my Lonely Planet Guidebook. Not mine (Hotel Wagner). However, I think it probably was the cheapest. The only complaint was the unpredictable alternate drops in both hot- and cold-water pressure, which they were not able to address when I mentioned it Sunday afternoon (not exactly a big surprise). Returning to a warmer UK made me think of Madrid last year.
After a brunch at a Pakistani restaurant and waiting out another bout of rain back at the hotel, I decided to head East take a hike around the Outer Alster Lake. I started on the West bank heading North. This part of the path traversed a waterfront park with many strollers. Most people seemed to be going the other direction towards the city centre. I wasn’t sure if this was because more people preferred to walk around the lake in counterclockwise direction or because I had started somewhat later in the afternoon. At the North end of the Alster Lake, the path became neighborhood streets away from the water before returning to the waterfront on the East side but without large greenery separating the footpath from the streets and houses. Here I also found most people walking South towards the city centre but now going the same directions as me thus seemingly invalidating “counterclockwise” hypothesis.
Just before reaching Inner Alster Lake, I took a turn towards Hauptbahnhof and Kunsthalle, None of the Hamburg museums seemed especially noteworthy so my main aim was to get some impressions of the city in its outward appearances such as its architecture. Thus some of the main targets once I was done with the walk around the lake included Chilehaus (a building shaped like an ocean liner), Hafencity (a gigantic construction site) and the future site of the Elbphilharmonie (a supposed Hamburg’s equivalent of Sydney Opera House). Chilehaus was a nice enough looking building, but without a guidebook I probably would have walked right by it without noticing it. Hafencity construction site was interesting merely because of the scale of construction. I realized that I had walked by Elbphilharmonie without seeing it yesterday – thanks to wet conditions. It looked like this building was going to be more reminiscent of Guggenheim Bilbao rather than the Sydney Opera House in look. I had to beg a question, “How big a deal would these building be as more and more like them are built?” An apt comparison from my recent travel experience could be the Cubist buildings of Prague – avant-garde at first but completely unremarkable sans historic reasons today.
Precipitation was minimal after I started my long walk of the day. However, it was cold and windy. Pretty much everyone I saw was wearing windbreakers. It seemed like I was one in a thousand with neither a overcoat of some sort nor an umbrella.
I left the hotel for CCH a little past 11:40 this time around and thus continuing the trend of leaving later and later. I saw no signs of the first set of shows. I had a little bit of the social dancing in between the shows. As for the second set of shows, I decided to take a seat closer (half-way) although I still ended up watching the screen mostly rather than the live performers. After Eddie Torres suggested that the organizers dispense with re-introduction of the performers of the evening, it looked like the social would get kicked off earlier. Oh no. After barely starting the song, Imad stopped the DJ and decided to do the introduction and ensuing clowning after all. I had already a partner picked and asked and everything (and she had to leave early too). Not only that, they followed it up with a competition asking “randomly” picked entrants to copy of move demonstrated by one of the performers. It ended up being quite amusing, but it still went quite long and I had to wonder about losing all steam. I found it all too much standing doing nothing even though I was sitting until the penultimate show - by Eddie Torres and Melissa once again. Fortunately, I was still feeling lively past 4 AM and ended up staying until 4:57 with no immediate end to the party in sight.
The Sunday party was somewhere between Friday and Saturday in many ways. Timba and Son made its return but not quite to the degree seen on Friday. There was more Cha Cha than Saturday but less than Friday. More miscellaneous non-Salsa – not quite sure what to call them but they weren’t completely disastrous because I somehow managed to make something out of dancing to those (in fact they were arguably better than average for the night to some of the best of the evening). There were considerably more dances with less accomplished followers compared to Saturday, but there were a number of dances on par with the best of my Saturday dances. The most consistently good dances were Cha Cha rather than On1 or On2 – once again. I think I could argue that nearly half of my top 10 and top 20 dances all weekend was Cha Cha - or at least a third of the top 10/20.
I had very few dances with people I knew from elsewhere – no more than 3 people including Edie. I think this happened in large part because most of them were stuck in the most crowded corner of the dance hall, which I stayed away for large parts of the evening. The crowding supposedly happened because most of the performer and instructor types were dancing in that corner. As a result, the only big names I saw social dancing all weekend were Mario and Edie – the ones most likely to move out of that pigeonhole. I might add that I would not be able to recognize at least 90% of the performer types out of a line-up.
All in all I probably had more than one dance all weekend with no more than 10 people. I still somehow managed to dance with 2 different people on all three nights – one for 3 Cha Cha altogether (with it getting better and better each night) and another for 8 all weekend (it started with me accidentally continuing on for a third dance in a row because of a song fusing business on Friday leading to her asking me first one Saturday and me asking for a second consecutive one on Saturday and then ending up with 3 more on Sunday). It was a record of sort for Congress setting although it was really no more than a combination of chance, and her seemingly find me nice to dance with and thus dancing with enthusiasm and me finding her pretty good rather than extraordinarily good but nevertheless finding her responses much to my liking. There was another woman I ended up dancing with for probably three songs on two different occasions on Sunday and probably would have tried to dance more with her had I danced with her on Friday or Saturday; I’m not even sure if she was there first two nights. I’m guessing I danced at least 40 dances a night on both Saturday and Sunday and more than 30 on Friday.
In summary I would say that the Hamburg Congress was very good. The calibre of social dancing was near the top. Music was sometimes really good but at times marred by the DJ (with caveat that DJ Dave was the only one sticking out like a sore thumb – with too many Timba/Son in a row on Friday and too many miscues on Saturday and a unique self-promotion to end his set on Sunday) and so-so band. The floor was near the bottom (unevenly slippery thus making carpet preferable for some) although certainly better than concrete floor of Madrid.
After a weekend of touring Hamburg, the striking features to me were the trees and vegetations in general as noted on the first day and the bodies of water seemingly everywhere. Pretty much the only way a city could be so dominated by water as Hamburg is to be a city wholly within a small island or better yet large number of islets (presumably like Venice). Maybe I could add rain to the mix since getting wet seemed difficult to avoid. I believe it went from about raining 50% of the time on Saturday to 20% on Sunday to 90% on Monday. In fact the Monday rains prompted me to give up on some short expeditions before heading off to the airport.
Postscripts. I had brought my camera with me to Hamburg but found that it was not working. I realized that I left my keys at the hotel after arriving home. Upon checking my e-mail, I saw that the hotel management had sent me e-mail about my keys while I was still at the Hamburg Airport. There were five or six hotels in the same building (Dammtorpalais) with two of the hotels making the list on my Lonely Planet Guidebook. Not mine (Hotel Wagner). However, I think it probably was the cheapest. The only complaint was the unpredictable alternate drops in both hot- and cold-water pressure, which they were not able to address when I mentioned it Sunday afternoon (not exactly a big surprise). Returning to a warmer UK made me think of Madrid last year.
Main Party At The Hamburg Congress
July 19, 2008
After another dinner with Tracy (this time Italian – Tiffany’s I think? It was less interesting all-around than Café Paris last night), I headed to CCH shortly after 11:30. This time I missed the first set of shows altogether.
After a few decent or better dances typical of this Congress, I watched the second set of shows seated in the far corner looking at the screen rather than the performers directly. I think this made the performances even less interesting. I disliked pretty much all of the music and especially the way they were cut up and bandaged together. The only exception was Eddie Torres. The dancing was okay but not particularly impressive on the screen, but the music represented a change back to sanity. The final act Swinguys were utterly boring on the screen – no doubt in part because I have seen the same act several times already. I wonder how they and the rest of Alberto Torres’ entourage will be received in Cali.
The rest of the social started well enough. Solid to very nice dances. Then Andy Montanez and his band Mercadonegro started. Hmm. First two songs were so-so. Third was better. Three of the best known hits were Se Le Ve, El Swing and Un Verano En New York. Although Andy Montanez is a pretty big name, he doesn’t have a great deal of hits – probably no more than a half dozen dance hits are known even to a fairly serious non-native collector. For me the extending of many of the songs didn’t do much – quite boring in fact. The attempted conversation with the audience fell completely flat, not surprising given only a small minority of the dancers spoke Spanish.
It was a relief when the DJ started spinning again. The first several songs were nice well-known ones too. The songs choices by the DJs for the rest of the evening was very good and much to my liking. Even the DJ who played the three Timba in a row last night was doing much better in terms of selection – at least to my liking. However, the same guy was making a big nuisance of himself in other ways including using sound effects (nonchalant to irritating), premature stopping of songs (why? why? why?) and the worst – accidental or deliberate lowering of the volume on two different occasions. I think there were some boos and hisses second time it happened. Amazing. The two times I look at the DJ booth in irritation both nights, it was the same clown acting as if he’s on the top of the world or acting defiant.
Overall Salsa dancing for me was better than last night. Very very good. There wasn’t as much Cha Cha, but I found enthusiastic partners for most of the opportunities given. I felt less tired at the closing time at 5 AM compared to how I felt by 3:30 AM Friday night.
Once again the space closest to the stage and to the left of centre was the most crowded. Once again I ended up staying away until much later in the evening. I was dancing more than taking breaks, and huddling in tight space simply did not appeal. I couldn’t even tell you how much social dancing the performers and big names were doing because I really wasn’t paying attention. Also I wouldn’t have been able to recognize most of them anyway – aside from Mario and Edie, who I did spot once or twice all night and Eddie, who I didn’t see during social dancing. My impression was that many of them were indeed dancing unlike at Bournemouth for whatever its worth.
After another dinner with Tracy (this time Italian – Tiffany’s I think? It was less interesting all-around than Café Paris last night), I headed to CCH shortly after 11:30. This time I missed the first set of shows altogether.
After a few decent or better dances typical of this Congress, I watched the second set of shows seated in the far corner looking at the screen rather than the performers directly. I think this made the performances even less interesting. I disliked pretty much all of the music and especially the way they were cut up and bandaged together. The only exception was Eddie Torres. The dancing was okay but not particularly impressive on the screen, but the music represented a change back to sanity. The final act Swinguys were utterly boring on the screen – no doubt in part because I have seen the same act several times already. I wonder how they and the rest of Alberto Torres’ entourage will be received in Cali.
The rest of the social started well enough. Solid to very nice dances. Then Andy Montanez and his band Mercadonegro started. Hmm. First two songs were so-so. Third was better. Three of the best known hits were Se Le Ve, El Swing and Un Verano En New York. Although Andy Montanez is a pretty big name, he doesn’t have a great deal of hits – probably no more than a half dozen dance hits are known even to a fairly serious non-native collector. For me the extending of many of the songs didn’t do much – quite boring in fact. The attempted conversation with the audience fell completely flat, not surprising given only a small minority of the dancers spoke Spanish.
It was a relief when the DJ started spinning again. The first several songs were nice well-known ones too. The songs choices by the DJs for the rest of the evening was very good and much to my liking. Even the DJ who played the three Timba in a row last night was doing much better in terms of selection – at least to my liking. However, the same guy was making a big nuisance of himself in other ways including using sound effects (nonchalant to irritating), premature stopping of songs (why? why? why?) and the worst – accidental or deliberate lowering of the volume on two different occasions. I think there were some boos and hisses second time it happened. Amazing. The two times I look at the DJ booth in irritation both nights, it was the same clown acting as if he’s on the top of the world or acting defiant.
Overall Salsa dancing for me was better than last night. Very very good. There wasn’t as much Cha Cha, but I found enthusiastic partners for most of the opportunities given. I felt less tired at the closing time at 5 AM compared to how I felt by 3:30 AM Friday night.
Once again the space closest to the stage and to the left of centre was the most crowded. Once again I ended up staying away until much later in the evening. I was dancing more than taking breaks, and huddling in tight space simply did not appeal. I couldn’t even tell you how much social dancing the performers and big names were doing because I really wasn’t paying attention. Also I wouldn’t have been able to recognize most of them anyway – aside from Mario and Edie, who I did spot once or twice all night and Eddie, who I didn’t see during social dancing. My impression was that many of them were indeed dancing unlike at Bournemouth for whatever its worth.
Walking Tour Of Hamburg
July 19, 2008
If Sergio were to ask me, “So how was Hamburg,” I might reply, “Very wet.”
Within five minutes of starting my walk I was telling myself that it would have been so easy to bring an umbrella with me to Hamburg. As I was packing, I had it within inches from my grip. I had plenty of luggage space. It was only a combination of eternal optimism and the attitude of whatever happens that stopped me.
After another five minutes Westward I was in the middle of Strenschanzenpark under another tree saying to myself, “This is not a light rain. It’s a downpour.” All the weather forecasts I had saw back in England talked about less than 50% chance of light rain. I was soaked and I was unsure what I wanted to do and I didn’t see any shelter. A couple emerged without an umbrella – the boyfriend using his light jacket to cover his girlfriend. They asked me a question in German – presumably asking whether I was lost. I replied I didn’t speak German. Few seconds later I proceeded forward and found a U-Bahn station (Sternschanze) a mere 10 meters from where I had taken cover. There was a croissant shop but I was completely out of money having spent what I took out yesterday on the ticket, meals and large number of drinks. I waited for about 10 minutes until the rain became a trickle.
Soon I found myself in Schanzeviertel, which has an ambiance similar to busy London neighborhood but with clear Teutonic majority. After searching for an ATM, I retraced my steps back to a couple of cheap eateries in the Schanze recommended by Lonely Planet. I settled on Shikara Quick – an Indian fare.
When I came out after brunch, the sun was shining and I was dry. I made my way down South with the idea of swinging around to the South side of the Hamburg downtown. At a split on the road Neuer Pferdemarkt, I decided to take a slight detour to go further South rather than starting to turn Southeast. This would lead me to Reeperbahn, supposedly the largest red light district in Europe.
I thought the visit to Reeperbahn might be amusing when I spotted a large group of teenage schoolgirls a block from where I started off sucking on a pink candy attached to a ring. As I passed them I realized that the candies were miniature replica of penis, which led to give myself a chuckle after passing them. However, when I did get to the red light district, I was quite unimpressed by the neighborhood. It seemed like no more than a very large area with usual sex shops no different than places one would find in any major city in the western world. I suppose the open window displays and large advertisements isn’t universal. I was going to give it a quick pass and head over next to downtown as originally planned.
Then it started to rain again. I was near one of the shops as it started, and this one looked a bit different. The exterior was similar to certain upscale fashion stores rather than grimy sex shop. Inside I found just as more perfumes and clothes than more obvious sex-related paraphernalia. My first thought was, “It’s a Gap-fied sex shop.” Actually its look might have been a little more upscale than Gap – aside from the concrete floor. Maybe it had a touch of Sharper Image and presumably Victoria’s Secret. I don’t know if this was typical, but there were more women than men in this store. The rain switched from light to downpour from one minute to next so I found cover in several different shops. None of the other stores were remarkable although one did make me think, “This one’s a Woolworth’s.”
Past St. Pauli U-Bahn station, I continued on Budapester Strasse still getting hounded periodically by heavier turn of rain. From one cover, I had a good look at St. Michaeliskirche from Baroque era. With fits and spurts of movement, I proceeded until seeing a sign pointing to Rathausmarkt and Hafencity. What the heck, I have plenty of time. I headed South towards Hafencity.
Looking back I don't think I quite made it to Hafencity but some aspect of the neighboring area was surprisingly interesting. Speicherstadt made me think of Venice but with all multi-story modern red brick buildings housing large companies and attractions including an amusement park called Hamburg Dungeon. I had gotten on a wooden bridge to cross the water and found that the network of elevated wooden walkways continued onward covering several parallel avenues running up and down North to South as well as East to West. They didn’t seem particularly functional, but I thought it was very neat nevertheless. I watched the ships traversing the Elbe River and a public transit boat docking to a station.
Rest of the walk was more hurried. I was in search of a place to buy some large bottled water so that I would be better hydrated at the start of the social. This led me back to Rathausmakrt and then up to Hauptbahnhof and back in rain. It’s a big downtown shopping district, crowded and pleasant but nothing special. No doubt all visitors to Hamburg end up here so no reason to dwell on it. The walk back to Dammtor and the hotel was very wet too.
The account of the Saturday night after a short break.
If Sergio were to ask me, “So how was Hamburg,” I might reply, “Very wet.”
Within five minutes of starting my walk I was telling myself that it would have been so easy to bring an umbrella with me to Hamburg. As I was packing, I had it within inches from my grip. I had plenty of luggage space. It was only a combination of eternal optimism and the attitude of whatever happens that stopped me.
After another five minutes Westward I was in the middle of Strenschanzenpark under another tree saying to myself, “This is not a light rain. It’s a downpour.” All the weather forecasts I had saw back in England talked about less than 50% chance of light rain. I was soaked and I was unsure what I wanted to do and I didn’t see any shelter. A couple emerged without an umbrella – the boyfriend using his light jacket to cover his girlfriend. They asked me a question in German – presumably asking whether I was lost. I replied I didn’t speak German. Few seconds later I proceeded forward and found a U-Bahn station (Sternschanze) a mere 10 meters from where I had taken cover. There was a croissant shop but I was completely out of money having spent what I took out yesterday on the ticket, meals and large number of drinks. I waited for about 10 minutes until the rain became a trickle.
Soon I found myself in Schanzeviertel, which has an ambiance similar to busy London neighborhood but with clear Teutonic majority. After searching for an ATM, I retraced my steps back to a couple of cheap eateries in the Schanze recommended by Lonely Planet. I settled on Shikara Quick – an Indian fare.
When I came out after brunch, the sun was shining and I was dry. I made my way down South with the idea of swinging around to the South side of the Hamburg downtown. At a split on the road Neuer Pferdemarkt, I decided to take a slight detour to go further South rather than starting to turn Southeast. This would lead me to Reeperbahn, supposedly the largest red light district in Europe.
I thought the visit to Reeperbahn might be amusing when I spotted a large group of teenage schoolgirls a block from where I started off sucking on a pink candy attached to a ring. As I passed them I realized that the candies were miniature replica of penis, which led to give myself a chuckle after passing them. However, when I did get to the red light district, I was quite unimpressed by the neighborhood. It seemed like no more than a very large area with usual sex shops no different than places one would find in any major city in the western world. I suppose the open window displays and large advertisements isn’t universal. I was going to give it a quick pass and head over next to downtown as originally planned.
Then it started to rain again. I was near one of the shops as it started, and this one looked a bit different. The exterior was similar to certain upscale fashion stores rather than grimy sex shop. Inside I found just as more perfumes and clothes than more obvious sex-related paraphernalia. My first thought was, “It’s a Gap-fied sex shop.” Actually its look might have been a little more upscale than Gap – aside from the concrete floor. Maybe it had a touch of Sharper Image and presumably Victoria’s Secret. I don’t know if this was typical, but there were more women than men in this store. The rain switched from light to downpour from one minute to next so I found cover in several different shops. None of the other stores were remarkable although one did make me think, “This one’s a Woolworth’s.”
Past St. Pauli U-Bahn station, I continued on Budapester Strasse still getting hounded periodically by heavier turn of rain. From one cover, I had a good look at St. Michaeliskirche from Baroque era. With fits and spurts of movement, I proceeded until seeing a sign pointing to Rathausmarkt and Hafencity. What the heck, I have plenty of time. I headed South towards Hafencity.
Looking back I don't think I quite made it to Hafencity but some aspect of the neighboring area was surprisingly interesting. Speicherstadt made me think of Venice but with all multi-story modern red brick buildings housing large companies and attractions including an amusement park called Hamburg Dungeon. I had gotten on a wooden bridge to cross the water and found that the network of elevated wooden walkways continued onward covering several parallel avenues running up and down North to South as well as East to West. They didn’t seem particularly functional, but I thought it was very neat nevertheless. I watched the ships traversing the Elbe River and a public transit boat docking to a station.
Rest of the walk was more hurried. I was in search of a place to buy some large bottled water so that I would be better hydrated at the start of the social. This led me back to Rathausmakrt and then up to Hauptbahnhof and back in rain. It’s a big downtown shopping district, crowded and pleasant but nothing special. No doubt all visitors to Hamburg end up here so no reason to dwell on it. The walk back to Dammtor and the hotel was very wet too.
The account of the Saturday night after a short break.
Impressions Of Friday Night At Hamburg
July 18, 2008
The quality of social dancers attending this event is very high. It is pretty friendly too. In my experience the overall quality of followers probably was at least as high as any other Congresses I have attended to date and probably higher. Having said that, I found the overall enjoyable-ness of the evening as merely solid. As I feared, last week’s SOS was too good – so much so that this evening was a slight downgrade by comparison.
I think the two biggest factors for not pushing tonight into the beyond HC category were music and water. When I finished dinner (Café Paris), I realized that I was quite thirsty. I may simply not have drunk as much liquid as usual. Moreover, I did not drink more before heading over to the CCH for dancing. I ended up getting something like 5 drinks including a large bottle of water as the last resort, but I was dancing mildly dehydrated all night. Not good. Music was a little underwhelming also. Sometimes the DJs stayed with one type of music too long. There was two Bachata in a row and no other rest of the evening. There was a three Timba-tinged songs in a row at another point, and the later part of the evening was surprisingly Timba/Son heavy. There were plenty of heavy music but there were no Romantica.
Some songs played included the following: Ahora Si (Ismael Miranda) was played twice all night! I never heard this song played by anyone else before. Que Quiera Nina (Kako Y Totico) was a new one too. Aguanile (I stayed away from this one, but then again there was a even faster song later I ended up dancing On2 but without doing much partner work). Un Verano En New York, Don Goyo (El Gran Combo), something by the New Swing Sextet (?), Cuando Se Canta Bonita (Willie Rosario), something by Tabaco Y Ron (?), something by Oscar D’Leon (?), a version of Tiene Sabor. Some major artists ignored included Africando, Angel Canales, Bobby Valentin, Cal Tjader, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Frankie Dante, Frankie Ruiz, Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Grupo Gale, Grupo Niche, Hector Lavoe, Hector Tricoche, Henry Fiol, Ismael Rivera, Javier Vazquez, Jimmy Bosch, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Arroyo, Johnny Colon, Johnny Pacheco, Jose Alberto, Larry Harlow, Lebron Brothers, Linda Leida, Machito, Manny Oquendo, Marvin Santiago, Marc Anthony, Orquesta Guayacan, Rey Reyes, Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena, Santiago Ceron, Son Boricua, Sonora Carruseles, Sonora Poncena, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Rodriguez Jr, Tommy Olivencia, Tony Vega, Willie Colon. I’d have to venture to guess that some of the DJs might have been being a little too clever.
Dancing. The best ones were Cha Cha. It might have helped that the first one was with Edie and next several scattered Cha Cha were by far the most solid string of Cha Cha dances I pulled off. I think I was asked to dance Cha Cha two or three times by people I never saw before. In any case I consistently enjoyed Cha Cha more than On1 or On2 tonight. In most cases, I simply asked "On1?" rather than "On1 or On2?" assuming that people who really preferred On1 might be less likely to blurt out On2 with the former. For whatever its worth the On2 dances on average did not give me any better partners compared to On1 dances. Two somewhat long breaks were induced first by a fairly long series of dances finishing with some of the heaviest followers all night long and by aforementioned 3 Timba in a row.
Socializing. Not much during the party aside from chatting a few times with the Singaporean contingent – Justin and the second girl mostly, not Yanqing. I chatted a little with some of the London contingent as well – huge as expected.
I was there from around 11:30 (arriving just as Anne and Anichi were finishing the first half of the showcases) and stayed until around 4:30. Dancing was started relaxed and not trying hard at all and finished lackadaisical not wanting to spend too much energy because I had so little left.
The big surprise was Eddie Torres closing the showcase with nice social dancing. I rather liked it but it would have been better without the big crowd in front (i.e. better as accidental glimpse and having a prime view).
The quality of social dancers attending this event is very high. It is pretty friendly too. In my experience the overall quality of followers probably was at least as high as any other Congresses I have attended to date and probably higher. Having said that, I found the overall enjoyable-ness of the evening as merely solid. As I feared, last week’s SOS was too good – so much so that this evening was a slight downgrade by comparison.
I think the two biggest factors for not pushing tonight into the beyond HC category were music and water. When I finished dinner (Café Paris), I realized that I was quite thirsty. I may simply not have drunk as much liquid as usual. Moreover, I did not drink more before heading over to the CCH for dancing. I ended up getting something like 5 drinks including a large bottle of water as the last resort, but I was dancing mildly dehydrated all night. Not good. Music was a little underwhelming also. Sometimes the DJs stayed with one type of music too long. There was two Bachata in a row and no other rest of the evening. There was a three Timba-tinged songs in a row at another point, and the later part of the evening was surprisingly Timba/Son heavy. There were plenty of heavy music but there were no Romantica.
Some songs played included the following: Ahora Si (Ismael Miranda) was played twice all night! I never heard this song played by anyone else before. Que Quiera Nina (Kako Y Totico) was a new one too. Aguanile (I stayed away from this one, but then again there was a even faster song later I ended up dancing On2 but without doing much partner work). Un Verano En New York, Don Goyo (El Gran Combo), something by the New Swing Sextet (?), Cuando Se Canta Bonita (Willie Rosario), something by Tabaco Y Ron (?), something by Oscar D’Leon (?), a version of Tiene Sabor. Some major artists ignored included Africando, Angel Canales, Bobby Valentin, Cal Tjader, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Frankie Dante, Frankie Ruiz, Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Grupo Gale, Grupo Niche, Hector Lavoe, Hector Tricoche, Henry Fiol, Ismael Rivera, Javier Vazquez, Jimmy Bosch, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Arroyo, Johnny Colon, Johnny Pacheco, Jose Alberto, Larry Harlow, Lebron Brothers, Linda Leida, Machito, Manny Oquendo, Marvin Santiago, Marc Anthony, Orquesta Guayacan, Rey Reyes, Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena, Santiago Ceron, Son Boricua, Sonora Carruseles, Sonora Poncena, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Rodriguez Jr, Tommy Olivencia, Tony Vega, Willie Colon. I’d have to venture to guess that some of the DJs might have been being a little too clever.
Dancing. The best ones were Cha Cha. It might have helped that the first one was with Edie and next several scattered Cha Cha were by far the most solid string of Cha Cha dances I pulled off. I think I was asked to dance Cha Cha two or three times by people I never saw before. In any case I consistently enjoyed Cha Cha more than On1 or On2 tonight. In most cases, I simply asked "On1?" rather than "On1 or On2?" assuming that people who really preferred On1 might be less likely to blurt out On2 with the former. For whatever its worth the On2 dances on average did not give me any better partners compared to On1 dances. Two somewhat long breaks were induced first by a fairly long series of dances finishing with some of the heaviest followers all night long and by aforementioned 3 Timba in a row.
Socializing. Not much during the party aside from chatting a few times with the Singaporean contingent – Justin and the second girl mostly, not Yanqing. I chatted a little with some of the London contingent as well – huge as expected.
I was there from around 11:30 (arriving just as Anne and Anichi were finishing the first half of the showcases) and stayed until around 4:30. Dancing was started relaxed and not trying hard at all and finished lackadaisical not wanting to spend too much energy because I had so little left.
The big surprise was Eddie Torres closing the showcase with nice social dancing. I rather liked it but it would have been better without the big crowd in front (i.e. better as accidental glimpse and having a prime view).
A Traveler's Tale
July 18, 2008
9:15 AM flight leaving from London City Airport meant no Salsa Thursday night. Alarm was set for 5:25-5:30 AM. I only started reviewing the trip in earnest ~7 PM previous night and was in bed shortly before 1:30 AM. I took the 6:15 AM train to London Kings Cross. This time I remembered that these early morning trains get very crowded as it collects more passengers along the way. Once in London, a diversion to London Bridge instead of Bank for DLR was recommended for the tube. I mistook Canary Wharf for Canning Town resulting in ~20 minute delay. No harm done though as I made it to the airport with barely under and hour before departure time. The extra time did give me time to remember that I probably had some Euros stacked away somewhere at home from some years ago.
I was relaxed because I knew that life is pretty simple at the London City Airport – compared to Stansted and especially to Heathrow. The fact that there was only one self-help booth open (second one was not working) for Lufthansa and that people in front of me were taking exceedingly long time was a little annoying, but really no problems. As I neared the gate, I made sure to check and see that no fuel was leaking from the engine of the airplane; I didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time I took a flight from this airport. A small turboprop plane operated by Contact Air for Lufthansa performed flawlessly. I had considered doing some writing or editing as well as reading the guidebook, but I ended up staying with Anabasis (Xenophon).
Hamburg airport was very efficient. No long walks. No long lines. I decided to take public transportation into downtown. I was slightly surprised that the bus from the airport to the nearly S-Bahn/U-Bahn station Ohlsdorf was part of the public transit system as opposed to a free shuttle service – this meant I bought the ticket at the bus stop without English instructions. This will all be obsolete in a few months because an extension of S-Bahn to the airport is scheduled to open later this year. I was tripped up for few minutes by there being a interruption to the U-Bahn service southbound from Ohlsdorf; their webpage without English translation was too much of a challenge for me to figure this out in advance previous night.
Two things really stood out while I was riding the S-Bahn S1 toward downtown. First was that I found Hamburg highly verdant. The place was full of trees! I don’t remember seeing any urban setting so heavily populated with trees one might expect only in real forests anywhere. Second was the size of the Bahn trains. The Hamburg trains are not sparkling new (no worse than NYC, about the same as some of the older London tube trains, definitely more worn than nice Boston or Portland subway or light rail services), but they have really high ceilings – higher than any urban rapid transit trains in American cities (let’s not even try to compare them to the London underground trains, which I think feels cramped and slightly claustrophobic even if they are sparsely occupied). Somewhat less striking was that the look of buildings (houses, etc) felt quite different even compared to other German cities I have visited previously – meaning Munich, Leipzig and Tubingen.
After changing from S1 to S31 at Hauptbahnhof and congratulating myself for making a rare correct split second decision in these travel-related regards. I decided to give myself a small challenge of finding my hotel without consulting a map or asking for help. I tried to recall the layout of the map and the satellite image. Then I determined the orientation (North-South etc) by using the direction I came from on the S-Bahn and using the tall SAS Radisson building, the shape of the Dammtor train station, the shape of the streets and the locations of the grassy area for confirmation of the map I had visualized in my head. I couldn’t use the sun because it was completely overcast, and I did not remember a single street name (or for that matter I couldn’t remember the complete name of the hotel). It was supposed to be a short walk – no more than 5 minutes. It started to rain. I was in the hotel lobby within 5 minutes. I thought it was pretty good considering I had not looked at the map since last night; in fact I had not touched the guidebook all day. I had seen a photo of the hotel exterior, but there was nothing particularly unique about it and there were no big signs of the hotel name.
After checking in and taking a moment for a breather, I ambled over to CCH no more than 5 minutes away. While I was waiting on the line I heard someone to my left saying “Hey.” I turned around and saw Mario H. How did I miss the big guy? I chatted a little with him while waiting. I looked around meanwhile and spotted rest of his gang – Shaan, Inaki among others. Franco (Steph’s friend from Berlin) was also hanging around with Mario’s group. I overheard Shaan saying something about someone’s timing being a little iffy. Not Eddie Torres. Mario chimed in, “Eddie is the best. Teacher of teachers.” Best teacher? No, best dancer too – still better than everyone else… including Frankie.” I simply nodded. Of course it makes a certain sense. Frankie for example looks great, but I could make something of the notion that his partner-work or turn patterns is not exactly groundbreaking unlike say his movements done apart from his partner.
Anyhow I should get back to the real world. Go sightseeing or get a more substantial rest. It’ll be a long night of dancing.
9:15 AM flight leaving from London City Airport meant no Salsa Thursday night. Alarm was set for 5:25-5:30 AM. I only started reviewing the trip in earnest ~7 PM previous night and was in bed shortly before 1:30 AM. I took the 6:15 AM train to London Kings Cross. This time I remembered that these early morning trains get very crowded as it collects more passengers along the way. Once in London, a diversion to London Bridge instead of Bank for DLR was recommended for the tube. I mistook Canary Wharf for Canning Town resulting in ~20 minute delay. No harm done though as I made it to the airport with barely under and hour before departure time. The extra time did give me time to remember that I probably had some Euros stacked away somewhere at home from some years ago.
I was relaxed because I knew that life is pretty simple at the London City Airport – compared to Stansted and especially to Heathrow. The fact that there was only one self-help booth open (second one was not working) for Lufthansa and that people in front of me were taking exceedingly long time was a little annoying, but really no problems. As I neared the gate, I made sure to check and see that no fuel was leaking from the engine of the airplane; I didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time I took a flight from this airport. A small turboprop plane operated by Contact Air for Lufthansa performed flawlessly. I had considered doing some writing or editing as well as reading the guidebook, but I ended up staying with Anabasis (Xenophon).
Hamburg airport was very efficient. No long walks. No long lines. I decided to take public transportation into downtown. I was slightly surprised that the bus from the airport to the nearly S-Bahn/U-Bahn station Ohlsdorf was part of the public transit system as opposed to a free shuttle service – this meant I bought the ticket at the bus stop without English instructions. This will all be obsolete in a few months because an extension of S-Bahn to the airport is scheduled to open later this year. I was tripped up for few minutes by there being a interruption to the U-Bahn service southbound from Ohlsdorf; their webpage without English translation was too much of a challenge for me to figure this out in advance previous night.
Two things really stood out while I was riding the S-Bahn S1 toward downtown. First was that I found Hamburg highly verdant. The place was full of trees! I don’t remember seeing any urban setting so heavily populated with trees one might expect only in real forests anywhere. Second was the size of the Bahn trains. The Hamburg trains are not sparkling new (no worse than NYC, about the same as some of the older London tube trains, definitely more worn than nice Boston or Portland subway or light rail services), but they have really high ceilings – higher than any urban rapid transit trains in American cities (let’s not even try to compare them to the London underground trains, which I think feels cramped and slightly claustrophobic even if they are sparsely occupied). Somewhat less striking was that the look of buildings (houses, etc) felt quite different even compared to other German cities I have visited previously – meaning Munich, Leipzig and Tubingen.
After changing from S1 to S31 at Hauptbahnhof and congratulating myself for making a rare correct split second decision in these travel-related regards. I decided to give myself a small challenge of finding my hotel without consulting a map or asking for help. I tried to recall the layout of the map and the satellite image. Then I determined the orientation (North-South etc) by using the direction I came from on the S-Bahn and using the tall SAS Radisson building, the shape of the Dammtor train station, the shape of the streets and the locations of the grassy area for confirmation of the map I had visualized in my head. I couldn’t use the sun because it was completely overcast, and I did not remember a single street name (or for that matter I couldn’t remember the complete name of the hotel). It was supposed to be a short walk – no more than 5 minutes. It started to rain. I was in the hotel lobby within 5 minutes. I thought it was pretty good considering I had not looked at the map since last night; in fact I had not touched the guidebook all day. I had seen a photo of the hotel exterior, but there was nothing particularly unique about it and there were no big signs of the hotel name.
After checking in and taking a moment for a breather, I ambled over to CCH no more than 5 minutes away. While I was waiting on the line I heard someone to my left saying “Hey.” I turned around and saw Mario H. How did I miss the big guy? I chatted a little with him while waiting. I looked around meanwhile and spotted rest of his gang – Shaan, Inaki among others. Franco (Steph’s friend from Berlin) was also hanging around with Mario’s group. I overheard Shaan saying something about someone’s timing being a little iffy. Not Eddie Torres. Mario chimed in, “Eddie is the best. Teacher of teachers.” Best teacher? No, best dancer too – still better than everyone else… including Frankie.” I simply nodded. Of course it makes a certain sense. Frankie for example looks great, but I could make something of the notion that his partner-work or turn patterns is not exactly groundbreaking unlike say his movements done apart from his partner.
Anyhow I should get back to the real world. Go sightseeing or get a more substantial rest. It’ll be a long night of dancing.
Ballroom Dancesport A Combined: Week 3
July 16, 2008
The nightly M11 closure for 2 weeks should stop wreaking havoc soon enough. The difficulties with Ballroom on the other hand may prove intractable for much longer.
The Latin part is in some ways easier although this may be ignoring some fundamental problems. It seems to me that most of the leading technique is similar to Salsa. The connection through the fingers, hands, arms and ultimately the body is used for leading like Salsa. This is true for Rumba, Cha Cha as well as Samba and even my least favorite dance Jive. While I do not feel as in control as in Salsa classes, I think I generally could guide more difficult followers in Rumba and Cha Cha fairly effectively and at least be aware of follower going off doing unexpected backleading, etc and try to come up with solutions – even if the ideas do not turn out particularly useful.
With Modern, I am quite lost. I think more parts of the body gets used for leading – legs, shoulders, torso, you name it. With the social classes at beginner and improver level, I don’t think I have been made sufficiently aware of this. Thus I feel as if I am in no man’s land. I can’t lead poorly trained followers, and I don’t know how to lead more properly trained followers.
I guess it’s like a chicken and egg problem all over again – as it may be the case with all partner dancing. It is difficult to get any good without large amount of practice preferably with people who know what they’re doing, but it’s also difficult to get any kind of practice with people who know what they’re doing. Generally speaking people who know what they are doing have better things to do than to spend time with people who don’t. To get better quickly, taking merely one class a week isn’t going to be any good. One probably wants multiple sessions a week as well as some practice time (perhaps social dancing) on top of it. I on the other hand has never even gone to a general dancing, and it would be difficult for me to do this – at least while I’m still in Cambridge and Vish is still operating CS. Although having gotten pretty good with a different partner dance (Salsa in my case) is of some use (aside from probably needing to unlearn conflicting elements between Salsa and Ballroom dances especially Modern dances), it would take a serious commitment to get even to a reasonable level with Ballroom dances – reasonable by my standards, which I suspect is quite a bit higher than what I might have considered reasonable if I were starting a dance of any time for the very first time.
On more than one occasion Ivan talked about Ballroom people coming over to his Salsa lessons thinking that it would be a piece of cake (how wrong they were!). I never thought Ballroom dances would be a piece of cake, but it is probably fair to say that I never found it more daunting than I do now.
If you are already quite good at something else and know you can and are getting better with more practice, how easy is it to abandon it for something very different and more difficult with your labor not expected to bear much fruit for a comparatively long time? What if the prize for the new challenge is no bigger or even smaller? Reckoning by number of people involved, isn’t Salsa much bigger and popular in Cambridge or London or the UK or the USA?
Knowing what I know or what I think I know, I could think of many reasons to think continuing this class may not be the best use of my time. Maybe I could stick with this level for most of the Latin dances, but I think I probably would be better off with working on more basic fundamentals for Modern dances. Probably the most efficient way is to get a private lesson. Bruce seems quite good. However, I don’t think this is much good unless I were to have plenty of practice outside (GD, etc), and I don’t see where that time would come from. Another option and one that would require less time commitment would be to take something like Dancesport Improvers (or perhaps even Beginners). However, no such courses are offered during the summer. So it’s between a rock and a hard place.
Enough already. Let's see if I can remember the class material. As usual it's no more than a brief outline.
Samba
- Volta to left (x4 syncopated steps) starting with R foot - syncopated steps (R, L&R, L&R, L&R L&R)
- in place basic (L normal position, R back position holding body still?, L syncopated in place then mirror image with R first)
- Bota Fogo with lead and follower exchanging places under L-R (x2)
- exchange places and Volta (x4 syncopated steps)
- exchange palces and Volta (x4 syncopated steps again)
- Whisk to L then Whisk to R as follower is turned around full counterclockwise with R-L connection made and kept low and L-R over and under into wrap position
- unwrap follower (clockwise turn) and side L steps for leader and pseudo-wrap her again (counterclockwise turn) but disengaging connection briefly and establish L-L connection and free R on pseudo-closed hold (leader only does two steps here leaving weight on L so that Government walk is started with R first - same as follower
- Government walk (x4) forward slightly to L
- Bota Fogo (of different kind) leader starts by going to R first (R to R, L cross behind R, R in place syncopated - then the other way around)
- Government walk (x4) forward slightly to R this time
- Bota Fogo again (similar to the last one rather than the simple version) but ending with follower turned around 1/2 clockwise to get back face-to-face ready for another Volta
Tango
Improver level steps later done with syncopated timing and with a lot more detail…
Running out of time... I'll have to finish this later. Right now, I'm not sure if there's going to be a week 4 for me.
The nightly M11 closure for 2 weeks should stop wreaking havoc soon enough. The difficulties with Ballroom on the other hand may prove intractable for much longer.
The Latin part is in some ways easier although this may be ignoring some fundamental problems. It seems to me that most of the leading technique is similar to Salsa. The connection through the fingers, hands, arms and ultimately the body is used for leading like Salsa. This is true for Rumba, Cha Cha as well as Samba and even my least favorite dance Jive. While I do not feel as in control as in Salsa classes, I think I generally could guide more difficult followers in Rumba and Cha Cha fairly effectively and at least be aware of follower going off doing unexpected backleading, etc and try to come up with solutions – even if the ideas do not turn out particularly useful.
With Modern, I am quite lost. I think more parts of the body gets used for leading – legs, shoulders, torso, you name it. With the social classes at beginner and improver level, I don’t think I have been made sufficiently aware of this. Thus I feel as if I am in no man’s land. I can’t lead poorly trained followers, and I don’t know how to lead more properly trained followers.
I guess it’s like a chicken and egg problem all over again – as it may be the case with all partner dancing. It is difficult to get any good without large amount of practice preferably with people who know what they’re doing, but it’s also difficult to get any kind of practice with people who know what they’re doing. Generally speaking people who know what they are doing have better things to do than to spend time with people who don’t. To get better quickly, taking merely one class a week isn’t going to be any good. One probably wants multiple sessions a week as well as some practice time (perhaps social dancing) on top of it. I on the other hand has never even gone to a general dancing, and it would be difficult for me to do this – at least while I’m still in Cambridge and Vish is still operating CS. Although having gotten pretty good with a different partner dance (Salsa in my case) is of some use (aside from probably needing to unlearn conflicting elements between Salsa and Ballroom dances especially Modern dances), it would take a serious commitment to get even to a reasonable level with Ballroom dances – reasonable by my standards, which I suspect is quite a bit higher than what I might have considered reasonable if I were starting a dance of any time for the very first time.
On more than one occasion Ivan talked about Ballroom people coming over to his Salsa lessons thinking that it would be a piece of cake (how wrong they were!). I never thought Ballroom dances would be a piece of cake, but it is probably fair to say that I never found it more daunting than I do now.
If you are already quite good at something else and know you can and are getting better with more practice, how easy is it to abandon it for something very different and more difficult with your labor not expected to bear much fruit for a comparatively long time? What if the prize for the new challenge is no bigger or even smaller? Reckoning by number of people involved, isn’t Salsa much bigger and popular in Cambridge or London or the UK or the USA?
Knowing what I know or what I think I know, I could think of many reasons to think continuing this class may not be the best use of my time. Maybe I could stick with this level for most of the Latin dances, but I think I probably would be better off with working on more basic fundamentals for Modern dances. Probably the most efficient way is to get a private lesson. Bruce seems quite good. However, I don’t think this is much good unless I were to have plenty of practice outside (GD, etc), and I don’t see where that time would come from. Another option and one that would require less time commitment would be to take something like Dancesport Improvers (or perhaps even Beginners). However, no such courses are offered during the summer. So it’s between a rock and a hard place.
Enough already. Let's see if I can remember the class material. As usual it's no more than a brief outline.
Samba
- Volta to left (x4 syncopated steps) starting with R foot - syncopated steps (R, L&R, L&R, L&R L&R)
- in place basic (L normal position, R back position holding body still?, L syncopated in place then mirror image with R first)
- Bota Fogo with lead and follower exchanging places under L-R (x2)
- exchange places and Volta (x4 syncopated steps)
- exchange palces and Volta (x4 syncopated steps again)
- Whisk to L then Whisk to R as follower is turned around full counterclockwise with R-L connection made and kept low and L-R over and under into wrap position
- unwrap follower (clockwise turn) and side L steps for leader and pseudo-wrap her again (counterclockwise turn) but disengaging connection briefly and establish L-L connection and free R on pseudo-closed hold (leader only does two steps here leaving weight on L so that Government walk is started with R first - same as follower
- Government walk (x4) forward slightly to L
- Bota Fogo (of different kind) leader starts by going to R first (R to R, L cross behind R, R in place syncopated - then the other way around)
- Government walk (x4) forward slightly to R this time
- Bota Fogo again (similar to the last one rather than the simple version) but ending with follower turned around 1/2 clockwise to get back face-to-face ready for another Volta
Tango
Improver level steps later done with syncopated timing and with a lot more detail…
Running out of time... I'll have to finish this later. Right now, I'm not sure if there's going to be a week 4 for me.
From Mariana Trench To Himalayas
July 13, 2008
Oh s**t! My first dance partner suggested dancing On2, and she was really good. Aside from a couple of time slip-ups I was credible. Is this another one of those “peak way too early and be miserable at the end of the evening” type of night?
Wrong. There were several dances even better scattered throughout the night. It was in fact one of the best SOS night for me in a very long time – by far the best of this year. There were about equal number of great On1 and On2 dances. If I had to choose, I would have to give On2 a slight advantage. I would have to give one of the On2 dances a top 10 rating for all time. I felt so on fire that I even asked Eva for a dance for the penultimate dance of the night – and did a passable job – be able to hang as some might say.
D**m! It did occur to me that while I was trying to avoid ending the week really low, but what I was looking for a mild improvement to build upon rather than have one of the best evenings of the year tonight. Hopefully it will last a while and not drop precipitously within another night or two of dancing. Pretty much the only thing I could complain about all night was that a speaker was blaring loudly into one of the area to cool off.
I think the trouble was that I was so shocked by the difficulties earlier in the week that having a more favourable environment – presumably combination of better spacious floor, easier generally slower music and followers in better form – got me really excited and exuberant. At the very least, I think I successfully dispelled any notion that I might have regressed significantly in last couple of months.
The evening was also notable for seeing Marianne for the first time in a long time. I also ran into Johnny, Rico and Liam. At the start of the evening I thought I spotted Justin and Yanqing – instructors for Agnes back in Singapore. I wanted to go say hello to them, but they disappeared within half an hour or so after my arrival. Presumably they’re on a European trip coinciding with the Hamburg Congress.
The DJ was Sylvester. Unlike last time, he played a large number of pleasant songs. Even his second-rate covers were reasonably good. A nice Cal Tjader (Philadelphia Mambo?) here, good Louie Ramirez (Geisha Girl) there, less often heard but still good Tito Puente (Mambo Diablo?) here, Machito (Tanga) there, etc goes a long way to establish firm footing for dancing in my opinion.
Even the train schedule was favourable. The 11:15 train back to Cambridge was rescheduled for 11:25 instead so I was able to enjoy the last dance of the evening, which did not start until 11. To make an effort to be extra efficient this weekend, I took my laptop to SOS to work on various write-ups including a draft for this post.
Oh s**t! My first dance partner suggested dancing On2, and she was really good. Aside from a couple of time slip-ups I was credible. Is this another one of those “peak way too early and be miserable at the end of the evening” type of night?
Wrong. There were several dances even better scattered throughout the night. It was in fact one of the best SOS night for me in a very long time – by far the best of this year. There were about equal number of great On1 and On2 dances. If I had to choose, I would have to give On2 a slight advantage. I would have to give one of the On2 dances a top 10 rating for all time. I felt so on fire that I even asked Eva for a dance for the penultimate dance of the night – and did a passable job – be able to hang as some might say.
D**m! It did occur to me that while I was trying to avoid ending the week really low, but what I was looking for a mild improvement to build upon rather than have one of the best evenings of the year tonight. Hopefully it will last a while and not drop precipitously within another night or two of dancing. Pretty much the only thing I could complain about all night was that a speaker was blaring loudly into one of the area to cool off.
I think the trouble was that I was so shocked by the difficulties earlier in the week that having a more favourable environment – presumably combination of better spacious floor, easier generally slower music and followers in better form – got me really excited and exuberant. At the very least, I think I successfully dispelled any notion that I might have regressed significantly in last couple of months.
The evening was also notable for seeing Marianne for the first time in a long time. I also ran into Johnny, Rico and Liam. At the start of the evening I thought I spotted Justin and Yanqing – instructors for Agnes back in Singapore. I wanted to go say hello to them, but they disappeared within half an hour or so after my arrival. Presumably they’re on a European trip coinciding with the Hamburg Congress.
The DJ was Sylvester. Unlike last time, he played a large number of pleasant songs. Even his second-rate covers were reasonably good. A nice Cal Tjader (Philadelphia Mambo?) here, good Louie Ramirez (Geisha Girl) there, less often heard but still good Tito Puente (Mambo Diablo?) here, Machito (Tanga) there, etc goes a long way to establish firm footing for dancing in my opinion.
Even the train schedule was favourable. The 11:15 train back to Cambridge was rescheduled for 11:25 instead so I was able to enjoy the last dance of the evening, which did not start until 11. To make an effort to be extra efficient this weekend, I took my laptop to SOS to work on various write-ups including a draft for this post.
Orquesta La 33 in Cambridge
July 11, 2008
It is what it is. The La-33 concert was great and awful at the same time. How often does Cambridge get an opportunity to dance to a top-notch band? The band sounded tremendous, but the dancers were not ready for them – at least not ready for the way I would have liked to dance to their music, which was generally very energetic. The most common issues were timing (ranging from seemingly not hearing the beats at all to simply not being able to keep up with fast music) and space. I suppose the underlying issue was that finding a suitable partner for dancing was extremely challenging – not the least because the many candidates seemed reluctant (of course this is nothing new with some of them). Without getting into more specifics, I would summarize the event as the best-sounding Salsa band I’ve heard in Cambridge and the least satisfying dance experience with a live band.
After chatting a bit with Raj, Haihan and Laura in the dining area after the band, I headed back to CS. It was quite busy with so-called Latino crowd. I tried a few dances but couldn’t really get into it. The problem is that the number of people I can have fun dancing nowadays is completely dependent on the song. Generally slower songs are fine with the largest number of people, and as the song becomes faster the number drops precipitously. This is not to say that everyone is best with slower songs because there are people who for some reason are not very good with slow songs. More interesting or complex songs also means fewer people are any good with it. Songs with good segments for extended shines? Ditto. If dancing is a challenge, consider deejaying for group of one-trick ponies who prefer or demand that the music fit their dancing style rather than vice versa.
In case this is of use. Indestructible by Ray Barretto at –6% goes from 201 BPM to 207 BPM (214-200 BPM without adjustment). El Pito by Isidro Infante at –8% is at 167 BPM (182 BPM without adjustment). 180 BPM means it’s a solid medium-speed or possibly slow-medium song. 200+ BPM means it’s a fast song.
Playlist
A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia (1)
Senora – Domenic Marte
Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo
Yo Puedo Tu Puedes – Hector Tricoche*
Ven A Medellin – Grupo Gale
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars
El Ajiaco – La Charanga New York*
San Martin (2)
Quiero Enamorarte – Marco Ferretti
Bilongo – Charanga De La 4 (polished shortened version)*
(1) I thought about starting with a Merengue. Then I started to drift away from that idea. Then Vish asked me to play a Merengue or two. Don’t play too much Mambo (whatever it means yada yada) and the usual litany.
(2) Someone brought along a CD to be played as a request. I think it was a compilation album, and I couldn’t figure out who the artist was. It sounded like a Merengue of sort – a bit silly but not completely out of character for the night. The request came around the time the Hector Tricoche song was being played, and after listening to most of the song I told them I would play it in about 15 minutes. Just as I was about to play this, Vish stopped by again to say that he wanted to play a few songs in a couple of songs. Fine. It’s his prerogative, and it’s probably a reasonable call at the time. Still it does make me wonder why I am being asked to bother deejaying at all. Maybe it’s because the belief is that there’s no monetary value involved.
Total = 10 songs. 9 songs from my collection. 2 Merengue. 2 Bachata. 6 Salsa including 3 new (includes slightly altered version of a new song from 2 weeks ago).
It became a Reggaeton-fest afterwards with the kids storming the dance floor. It was packed and it lasted quite a long time. This was followed by an even longer Salsa-fest where Vish did a more than creditable imitation of me – assuming that was the intent. He even played a Boogaloo/Cha Cha. The irony is that by then I had lost all will to dance – too frustrated with how things went all night. Further the only dance I had during the last hours (only because I was asked) was to Ahora Quien by Marc Anthony – the most conventional song Vish picked all night.
Final word. Perhaps it is not a bad thing to get a poor night of dancing out of the way this week.
It is what it is. The La-33 concert was great and awful at the same time. How often does Cambridge get an opportunity to dance to a top-notch band? The band sounded tremendous, but the dancers were not ready for them – at least not ready for the way I would have liked to dance to their music, which was generally very energetic. The most common issues were timing (ranging from seemingly not hearing the beats at all to simply not being able to keep up with fast music) and space. I suppose the underlying issue was that finding a suitable partner for dancing was extremely challenging – not the least because the many candidates seemed reluctant (of course this is nothing new with some of them). Without getting into more specifics, I would summarize the event as the best-sounding Salsa band I’ve heard in Cambridge and the least satisfying dance experience with a live band.
After chatting a bit with Raj, Haihan and Laura in the dining area after the band, I headed back to CS. It was quite busy with so-called Latino crowd. I tried a few dances but couldn’t really get into it. The problem is that the number of people I can have fun dancing nowadays is completely dependent on the song. Generally slower songs are fine with the largest number of people, and as the song becomes faster the number drops precipitously. This is not to say that everyone is best with slower songs because there are people who for some reason are not very good with slow songs. More interesting or complex songs also means fewer people are any good with it. Songs with good segments for extended shines? Ditto. If dancing is a challenge, consider deejaying for group of one-trick ponies who prefer or demand that the music fit their dancing style rather than vice versa.
In case this is of use. Indestructible by Ray Barretto at –6% goes from 201 BPM to 207 BPM (214-200 BPM without adjustment). El Pito by Isidro Infante at –8% is at 167 BPM (182 BPM without adjustment). 180 BPM means it’s a solid medium-speed or possibly slow-medium song. 200+ BPM means it’s a fast song.
Playlist
A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia (1)
Senora – Domenic Marte
Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo
Yo Puedo Tu Puedes – Hector Tricoche*
Ven A Medellin – Grupo Gale
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars
El Ajiaco – La Charanga New York*
San Martin (2)
Quiero Enamorarte – Marco Ferretti
Bilongo – Charanga De La 4 (polished shortened version)*
(1) I thought about starting with a Merengue. Then I started to drift away from that idea. Then Vish asked me to play a Merengue or two. Don’t play too much Mambo (whatever it means yada yada) and the usual litany.
(2) Someone brought along a CD to be played as a request. I think it was a compilation album, and I couldn’t figure out who the artist was. It sounded like a Merengue of sort – a bit silly but not completely out of character for the night. The request came around the time the Hector Tricoche song was being played, and after listening to most of the song I told them I would play it in about 15 minutes. Just as I was about to play this, Vish stopped by again to say that he wanted to play a few songs in a couple of songs. Fine. It’s his prerogative, and it’s probably a reasonable call at the time. Still it does make me wonder why I am being asked to bother deejaying at all. Maybe it’s because the belief is that there’s no monetary value involved.
Total = 10 songs. 9 songs from my collection. 2 Merengue. 2 Bachata. 6 Salsa including 3 new (includes slightly altered version of a new song from 2 weeks ago).
It became a Reggaeton-fest afterwards with the kids storming the dance floor. It was packed and it lasted quite a long time. This was followed by an even longer Salsa-fest where Vish did a more than creditable imitation of me – assuming that was the intent. He even played a Boogaloo/Cha Cha. The irony is that by then I had lost all will to dance – too frustrated with how things went all night. Further the only dance I had during the last hours (only because I was asked) was to Ahora Quien by Marc Anthony – the most conventional song Vish picked all night.
Final word. Perhaps it is not a bad thing to get a poor night of dancing out of the way this week.
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