Fiesta

Mikey P's Latin American party last night. (Shame I've got to go to work today...) Lots of merengue, a nice bachata track (I need a bit more practice at that), samba, disco with a live singer, and a bit of salsa. And the piñata: a huge decorated star-shaped object hanging from the ceiling which blindfolded people took turns to hit until it fell down to disgorge its presents and prize tokens.

It was probably 50% Latin Americans and 50% Cardiff salsa people, which made for a really good atmosphere. Danced with some of my favourite people, including several I hadn't danced with for weeks. I'm hoping this will be a regular fixture as it was a great start to Christmas week.

Avoiding cold turkey

For those who are worried about missing their fix, Andy's running salsa at the Wharf every weekend except the 26th, and La Tasca is also open apart from the 24/25th and New Year's Day. It's even open New Year's Eve, free.

On New Year's Day Phil Moore is running a salsa night at Rhiwbina rec for those who aren't nursing hangovers.

Also SalsaMania are running their usual Wednesday night at Fiesta Havana on the 22nd (it's closed on the 29th).

Brum

Got sent to Coventry with work yesterday and had to travel up on Sunday night. This time I managed to get them to book me into a hotel in Birmingham so that I could check out the salsa in G2, which was just around the corner.

I was in two minds as to whether to go to the class or just turn up later for the free dancing (only £2 after 9). I went to the class and was glad I did. Michael's teaching was very clear and good-humoured and he knows the importance of repetition. He started off with some nice footwork and spent enought time on it for us to get the moves (rather than just doing a footwork warmup as an exercise in speed-learning which leaves half the class behind). His style of partner dancing is exactly the sort I'd like to learn: sophisticated but follower-focused rather than 'look at me' narcissistic.

I don't know if this applies to Birmingham generally, but this class and the free dancing would have had one big advantage over Cardiff from a women's point of few: all the men seemed reasonably presentable, unlike some of the odd people women in Cardiff have to avoid. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to dance with someone if you don't like his dubious motives/lack of social skills/strange aroma/violent leading (delete where necessary). Maybe if more people realised this, some of the stranger and creepier individuals would stop coming, or at least learn to be civil. (Mind you, if you're looking for strange men try Pontins - the first class I went to I thought it was a Munsters' convention!)

There weren't a whole lot of people there for the free dancing, but I got asked for a dance early on and the only person to turn me down had a broken toe (best excuse I've heard yet). Bloody hot in the club though! I didn't find all the music easy to dance to, but at least it wasn't the same old stuff.

A couple of nice dances but not a lot of eye contact. It's always a bit odd when you dance with someone, you think they're not impressed because you don't get any eye contact, and at the end they're very friendly and positive. I think this varies from region to region - a friend of mine went back to her home town, danced with the usual eye contact, and was told (imagine this in a Shropshire accent): "You don't do that looking thing, do you? We don't do that here."

Torquay

Feeling the urge to go on another salsa weekend soon. A while ago I met someone who enthused about the events at the Victoria Hotel in Torquay. The next one is 25-27th February. Apparently it has good teachers (Angus who I mentioned below is one), and is smaller and more comfortable than Pontins. And at £129 includingdinner, bed and breakfast it would probably work out about the same price.

Christmas salsa

Unfortunately the Toad has finished until the New Year. John Pamplin's class has its final pre-Xmas session on Monday 13th.
Good stuff? The SalsaManiaXmas party on Wednesday 15th at Fiesta Havana in Bristol (hope to get to that one), a Latin American party in O'Neills on Sunday 19th (ditto), and Phil'sNew Year's Eve bash at the Claverton Rooms in Bath (too far!).

Last year the Wharf carried on through the Christmas period without a break - hope the same thing is happening this year.

Pontins

First visit to Brean Sands after three years' dancing. I got there early evening on Friday after battling through the traffic past Newport. I wasn't going to bother with the class that evening but I was glad I did: Angus' intermediate session was everything a salsa class should be (apart from the surprising surplus of men). The sequence wasn't too long, it wasn't all new moves but contained variations on common moves, the level was about right (for me anyway, though some people weren't finding it easy) and the teaching was extremely clear and focused on how to lead the moves gently and accurately.

Later on there was a useful warmup from Kerry. Useful in that it persuaded me not to go to any of her classes...

I didn't get far with the Mario/Maria competition: when I turned round I thought I'd struck lucky, but the first thing my tall and glamorous partner asked was "Do you dance Cuban-style?" Though for a Cuban dancer she was pretty good at following my stuff.

The free dancing on the Friday was great. Basically, with more women than men any halfway presentable male dancer had it made. It got very crowded and dancefloor discipline was a bit lacking, but I don't know when I've ever danced so continuously with so many happy women. Particularly gratifying was one whose response to my request to dance was 'all right, then' but who ended up smiling broadly. Nice when it all goes right. I only made it to half one rather than the 5am some people managed.

I was a bit surprised by the variable standard of the teaching on Saturday. Maybe I chose badly, but I only ended up staying through one full class. This was Heber's excellent bachata class, an object lesson in how to teach complete beginners a new dance step. In a very crowded class he concentrated on teaching the basic step with variations and added style. Lots of wacky charisma, but lots of very useful teaching as well. The only odd thing was that we didn't get to change partners at all. Great for me as I had been grabbed by an ideal partner - good dancer, happy with close holds, patient and with a sense of humour. It was really nice to learn a dance which seemed to be based on relatively simple steps, feeling and fun rather than choreography. Unfortunately Wilson and Yessica's improvers bachata class later on suffered from a severe case of routinitis - little about feeling, all about trying to remember the sequence.

I spent quite a lot of the afternoon free dancing in the Queen Vic. Great atmosphere and I danced with everyone from beginners to advanced dancers. There was some spectacular and inspiring dancing to watch as well.

Had a quick rest to get ready for the big night and then the migraine hit. Seriously pissed off. I still went on the Saturday night but my dancing was crap. Highlight of the night? Berg and Solanche's lambada display. Solanche dances while appearing to be unconscious: she can spin endlessly with eyes shut and head slumped to one side. It's amazing to watch.

Migraines mess up my dancing for days, so I headed off home in the morning. Would I go again? You bet. I think I'll spend even more time in the Queen Vic, though.

Thanks to Kate for organising the Cardiff expedition, and thanks to the occupants of the chalet next door for the entertainment when I called in for a drink. If any of you ever get tired of dancing you have a great future in comedy...

Racism and salsa

Interesting discussion (for a change) taking place on Salsacity forum about whether Mikey P saying that Latin Americans are better at running Latin nights is racist. Hugh thinks it isn't, El Diablito (Stevie from Salsamania) thinks it is. Of course, this being an interesting discussion Hugh has now closed the thread, so I thought I'd put my twopence worth in here.

I can understand Stevie, as a successful and hard-working salsa promoter, objecting to Mikey P's original comment - and I believe it's factually wrong anyway - but I would disagree that it was racist. I think the argument is not that Latinos have an innate superiority where it comes to Latin music and dance, but more that they are culturally more familiar with it - and that, to my view, isn't a racist argument.

No Oz bar

I thought I'd try the Oz bar last night but there was just football on the big screen and a couple of dancers waiting for something to happen. I asked the bar staff when the salsa was going to start and was told that it wouldn't, so those people who got upset about someone offering an alternative to John's Monday night can stop worrying.

O'Neills, on the other hand, was surprisingly busy. I had a cracking dance with Liz was was on great form, and finally got around to dancing with Charlie after three years of dancing salsa in Cardiff. Had a couple of other nice dances too.

Loosening up

Nearly didn't get there last night after spending all week travelling around England with work. Apart from being tired, the other thing that nearly sabotaged it was free access to a fitness suite in one of the hotels: I joined in a boxercise class under the impression it was going to be something like aerobics (and jumping around to music can't be that hard, can it?), but it was high-speed circuit training to techno music led by a woman with a six-pack. Fortunately by last night the stiffness was on its way out.

I got my second wind big time when I got to the Toad. It was a really nice night, the opposite of La Tasca last week (and different to what the Toad's usually like): not too many people there but most of them were people you'd want to dance with. Delighted to see that amusing and talented ***, who I've danced with in O'Neills, can now make it on Thursdays; and I had a nice dance with the amazingly precise dancer whose name I haven't found out yet. Apart from a couple of abrasive tracks the music was good too, nicely varied and quite relaxed. A couple of cumbia tracks: amazingly at least a third of the people on the floor were actually dancing cumbia to it...

You win some...

Memo to self: don't go to La Tasca on a wet international night. Dangerously drunk muggles filling the dance floor, hardly any women; and I couldn't leave early because I'd arranged to pick my daughter up from a party at 1am. I was assured by several people that it's usually really good. Music was good (Than) and I managed one good dance trying to keep Louise out of the way of lurching idiots, but I'd had enough by half twelve. Jordy and Sofia were just arriving as I left - I hope they had a better time than I did!

Status

I got asked recently why I didn't dance Leroc. I didn't want to cause offence by giving an honest answer so I muttered something about salsa being enough for me.

Got me thinking about the relative status of different dances. We salsa dancers know we're better than Leroc dancers, but who do they look down on? And who do we look up to? In my case it would be breakdancers: I'm not a big fan of the music but good breakdancing needs vastly more physical fitness, co-ordination and control than salsa. I remember reading once about professional ballet dancers and breakdancers trying out each other's disciplines: the breakdancers could handle the physical demands of ballet, but the ballet dancers found breakdancing a real challenge.

Up and down

The week started well on Sunday at the Wharf. Natalie was teaching: someone I know who normally goes to O'Neills enthused about how much she'd learnt.

Not many people there for the free dancing, but Sarah, Natalie and Lucy together meant more good dancers than you often get at other nights, and it was nice to dance with good dancers with plenty of space. Though Natalie was practising her lead which cut down on the amount of time any of them were available (I didn't get to dance with her at all). Lucy is one of those dancers who always makes me dance better: she's so good and so 'neutral' that it's very easy to lead much more precisely than usual.

Got to the Toad at ten to ten last night, expecting to find the class about to end, and found that the second class hadn't even started. I joined in: again, some neat moves, but very difficult to do in such a crowded setting. And Nigel didn't really teach the lead. Well, what he did was teach a lead (for the one where you turn a woman by her shoulder a couple of times then she ducks under) that would work with a skilled dancer who knew it was coming, but which is not nearly clear enough for most people. I tried it out in the free dancing and only got it to work when I resorted to my normal lead for that move (much to the relief of my partner, who was delighted that she finally managed to follow it). (SEE COMMENT BELOW).

Stupid dodgems again - in the class one man clouted my partner on the back and didn't even notice, and in the free dancing (which didn't start until nearly half past ten) I found myself actually choosing to dance near Tarzan because he was less dangerous than the people in the other half of the room.

And Kate, please keep Nigel away from the decks...that version of Aisha was atrocious!

New Monday night

There's a new Latin/salsa night on Mondays in the Oz bar in St Mary Street. Free dancing from 8-12. It's run by 'DJ Mikey P from Peru', so I would imagine it'll attract the Spanish/Latin American crowd - good for anyone who likes dancing Cuban style! Might try it as an alternative to O'Neills.

Nigel's class

Nigel Maye's class had good and less good points last night. Things I liked: it started with an exhilarating warmup (why doesn't Andy do those any more?). There were some really neat moves. The class picked up where it left off the previous week. Explaining the ladies' footwork.

Things I wasn't so keen on: very little swapping partners. For the women who got stuck with someone who didn't have a clue, this was really frustrating. And he doesn't go into nearly as much detail as Andy on getting the lead right.

Free dancing was the usual mayhem until eleven or so, including people who should know better. Had some nice dances despite struggling with a lingering cough/cold; and got complimented on my lead again - in English this time - by someone who makes it easy to lead precisely.

Sang along with 'Monton de Estrellas' and realised that I can't sing along in Spanish and think of interesting moves at the same time.

Booked my place at Pontins...

Cardiff salsa nights and classes

None of the promoters/teachers of the nights below have asked to be included in this list. It's provided purely as a source of information for dancers, particularly those who travel some distance and want to know which nights are worth going to.

If there is no comment by a class, it means I haven't been to it (or heard comments from others about it) recently.

Mondays at O'Neills - Cuban (ish)
Classes (beginners, then improvers, then intermediate) 7-9, dancing 9-12 (recently extended from 11)
Plus points:
John Pamplin's beginners' classes are popular and inclusive (though some of his jokes are pretty cheesy). Like a lot of dancers in Cardiff I started off with him. John's happy to dance with the punters (and women love dancing with him.) Plenty of space on the dancefloor. Quite a relaxed atmosphere.
Minus points:
The most expensive salsa classes in Cardiff, but not the best. Music quality a bit variable.

Tuesdays at Cuba (LA/CBL)
Classes 8.30 beginners, 9.30 improvers, dancing until 2
Plus points:
Music is usually good. Lively.
Minus points:
Full of drunks and students on the pull. Often stupidly crowded.

Tuesdays at Zync: themed nights, salsa classes twice a month, and early evening tapas. I haven't been yet but it's supposed to be good. It's run by Mikey from Peru and includes a mix of Latin music. Runs from 8 until 2 and costs £2.

Wednesdays at La Tasca (LA/CBL)
Taught by Tammi. Classes (beginners, then improvers, then intermediate) 8-10. No free dancing afterwards.

Wednesdays at the Toad
New Latin night. Dancing only, no classes. Not been yet.

Thursdays at the Toad (LA)
Classes: beginners, improvers, intermediate run concurrently from 8.30 - 10ish. Free dancing from just after ten until midnight or later.
Usually the biggest salsa night of the week, attracting people from Bristol as well as Cardiff. Teaching from Natalie, Kate, and Andy. All the teachers are good: Andy (intermediate) knows more about how to teach dancing than any other salsa teacher in Cardiff, with lots of individual advice and detail. Free dancing can be a bit of a manic scrum, but tends to get better later as it thins out. You get almost all of Cardiff's best dancers there at some time or another (and some of the worst!) and the music's usually good.

Friday
La Cachaçaria, downstairs in Las Iguanas (Mill Lane), on 19 August. Small dancefloor, free, 8pm-2am, Than plays good music.

Saturday
Free dancing in La Tasca. Good music and a live percussionist. Sometimes it's overrun by drunk muggles - best avoided on big match nights - but it's usually got a real buzzing atmosphere. It runs from 11 until 2 and it's free.

Sundays in the Wharf (LA)
Absolute Beginners: 7-8pm
Improvers: 8:00-8:45pm
Intermediate: 8:45-9:30pm
Free dancing 9.30-11
Good points: Andy's teaching (see above). Music is usually excellent. Nice relaxed atmosphere. Great music. Usually a few good dancers there (particularly women).
Minus points: Can be quiet. Finishes at 11.

Also:
Paul Gordon-Smith teaches beginners' courses at the David Lloyd Centre off Newport Road - you have to be a member.

Who goes to what nights? You get more older people on a Monday; younger on a Tuesday, particularly in Cuba. If you like Cuban style or come from Latin America you may find like-minded people later on Thursday in the Toad, and on Saturday in La Tasca.

Toadtime

Nigel Maye is teaching at the Toad for the next three weeks while Andy is in Brazil. I did his class last night which was great: entertaining but practical with some really interesting moves.

The free dancing was dodgy, though. Last week I hardly stopped dancing. This week, even though more of my favourite dancers were there, there were also far too many careless idiots and drunk muggles.

At one point Charlotte and I found what we thought was the only possible available space; after half a minute Billy No-Rhythm and his current squeeze appeared next to us. Not a welcome sight, particularly as I was winded by a flailing elbow the last time I danced near them.

I expect beginners to be a bit unaware of dancefloor etiquette, but there are far too many careless dancers around who have been dancing long enough to know better. Even in O'Neills, where there's normally enough space for everybody, I ended up having to take avoiding action twice on Monday (for the same couple, who seem to think everyone wants to watch them strutting around the dancefloor).

End of rant...

Salsacity/SalsaCardiff

I've removed Salsa Cardiff from the links on this site. I hadn't posted there for a while because, like most people I know who used to post there, I was fed up with innocuous posts being removed on a whim. I thought I'd try again, but he's still at it.

I was amused, however, to spot this response in a recent discussion about classes:

"The Toad is very good, but a monday night is much better, more room, great floor, and no strange men watching."

I wonder who she could mean?

Halloween

Salsa Halloween party at the Wharf on Sunday night. Classes will run as usual, followed by 'halloween fun - fancy dress is expected'! Wondering who to go as...

More visions

Couldn't work out why I was dancing so badly at O'Neills last night. I couldn't seem to get precise timing into my lead. I managed the odd flashy move and a bit of subtlety when I got to dance with the amusing and talented *** (no, I'm not going to put her name here or you'll all be wanting to dance with her) but nothing really flowed.

All was revealed on the next dance when the flashing lights started in mid-dance. I've never had a migraine attack start while I was dancing before. Nothing for it but to go and wait in the car for the scintillating scotoma to go away.

Pre-migraine signs? Thirsty and a bit spaced out, plus the poor lead. I know aphasia (can't get the words out right) often comes before an attack for some people: I once had an attack that was prefigured by my touch-typing going haywire, though I could still speak OK. I suppose the word for dodgy dancing would be aterpsichorea?

Low-flying dancers

Or something like that. My tactics for coping with a manic scrum like the Toad:
- dance parallel to a wall, which cuts down the number of angles from which flying lunatics can appear
- choose a partner with a light dancing style who can stay on line and dance compactly
- keep looking over your shoulder to see where it's safe to put your partner
– keep the moves small and forget about being flash

Or alternatively, wait until later when most of the idiots have gone...

Las palabras

I've been learning Spanish for several years now but started listening closely to salsa lyrics when Clare asked me to translate her favourite song, 'Monton de Estrellas'. It was a really useful exercise, trying to get the exact words by repeated listening. And it's left me with a much better ear for the lyrics of other songs.

And they aren't all about dancing and having fun. It's always a bit strange to watch people dancing obliviously to a song whose lyrics include 'Alone, I'm alone... just waiting for death, when my luck will change'. And in the car this evening I was listening to a pleasant and melodious Cuban number about being in a hospital without anaesthetic: think I'll have to listen closely to that one and try and work out what the real story is.

Wheee!

Things are looking up. I was thinking of giving up on O'Neills after a couple of dodgy evenings there lately. But despite a lingering cold I had an unexpectedly enjoyable hour and a half there last night. Not only were several of my favourite dancers there, but I got to dance with a talented and appreciative newcomer with a great attitude. And O'Neills is the only night she goes to in Cardiff, so I'll be braving John's record collection for a while yet...

St Donats

John Pamplin's running salsa workshops followed by food then dancing on Saturday at St Donats. He'll be doing the beginners's/improvers Cuban workshop and Martin Travers is doing intermediate NY/LA style. It's essential to book by ringing the venue - 01446 799100 - if you want to do the classes (though the information on their website about the event is inaccurate).

I'm away over the weekend, but St Donats is a nice venue. It would be great if someone could get it together to relaunch the salsa weekends that Cathi used to run there.

How to learn salsa

Yep, how to learn salsa, not how to dance salsa (you can't learn that from a website). I was a slow learner and I made quite a few mistakes while I was learning, so I think I'm qualified to give some advice on this.

1 Look for a teacher who puts plenty of repetition in the class and who concentrates on getting the basics right. Avoid anyone who teaches long sequences. Contrary to what some teachers would have you believe, you can be a good salsa dancer even if you can't memorise long sequences, and you can have a great memory for long sequences and still be a crap dancer.

2 Try different classes, even if you like your teacher. Being amusing and charismatic doesn't necessarily make someone a good teacher. Some teachers are good at teaching some things but have blind spots about others.

3 Go more than once a week if you can, and practise at home. Like learning a language, the more practice you get, the better - so practise the basic steps at home until they come naturally

4 Avoid any teacher who makes women lead because of a shortage of men. Leading and following are very different and you'll just get very confused. (Though when you've reached intermediate level, you can learn a lot by swapping roles.)

5 Listen to salsa in the car, at home, everywhere. Practise listening for the 'one' and getting used to the rhythm. If you don't have the basic rhythm right you'll never be a really good dancer.

6 Take your teacher's advice on which level you should be in. Don't go in the intermediate/advanced class before you're ready (particularly if you're a man). I did it; I didn't learn anything and just managed to annoy my partners.

7 Get out and dance. Don't leave it too long before you start free dancing. This is particularly true for women: once a woman's got the basics, a decent sense of rhythm, and the ability to follow, she will probably learn a lot more on the dancefloor than she would in trying to follow men who can't lead in the class.

8 If you encounter a man in the class who can't lead, don't lead him. You won't learn what the move feels like to follow, and he won't learn what it feels like to lead it.

9 Don't try and learn everything from videos: there's no substitute for the interaction you get in a class. I know one individual who's learnt everything from videos: he's got some flash moves but he can't dance in rhythm.

10 If you're a man, expect learning salsa to take a long time and don't be discouraged. It took me weeks to get the basic step and a year to develop an acceptable lead. Some people can learn much more quickly - being a musician or having a martial arts background seems to help – but for us mortals it's a slow process.

I'll add some more points to this if I think of them.

Raising my game

New tactic number one for the Toad last night: have a rest and get there just before the class ends, then grab some quick dances when everyone goes to the bar. Worked well, too: three good dances before the floor started filling up. Including one with the new face I mentioned last week. She really is an amazingly sharp and precise dancer; when I dance with someone as good as that I find myself raising my game and dancing more precisely myself. I have to admit that as a 'fairly uncomplicated' dancer - as I was once described - I'm not sure that I can keep her entertained for more than one dance a night.

The Toad was very crowded again though. One thing I can be pleased about is that I managed to avoid any collisions even with Tarzan flying around (I was wrong the other week when I said he'd improved...) but why don't other people look where they're going/ where they're putting their partners?

Which brings me on to new tactic number two: get on the dancefloor at the beginning of a song and try to stake out some space with some 'big' moves in the hope that we don't get crowded into a corner. Sort of worked for a bit.

Think I need to finally get to Brean Sands in December: I've been dancing for three years and have yet to get to a Pontins - it's about time I tried it.

Toad again

Everyone's back which means the Toad was very busy last night, particularly with beginners. But Andy's Intermediate class was also crowded with more women than men for a change. The main dancefloor was manic when the free dancing started - Number One Dance Partner and I went off to a corner of the bar to find some safe space to warm up.

Good points: a couple of new faces - including one who follows 'beautifully' as Lucy put it - and the return of some old faces. Good music, especially later on, though starting the free dances with a very fast pachanga wasn't the best idea. Andy's teaching: why does nobody else watch each couple dancing and give them individual advice?

Bad points: start time is getting later. At one point it was supposed to be 8, then it moved to 8.30 and now it's 8.40. Classes so crowded that sometimes there's no space to safely do the move you're being taught (not that that worries some men who are oblivious to what's going on around them). Bar staff clearing away glasses that are half full while you're dancing. Muggles in the way.

Carnaval

Friday was the big monthly salsa and samba night in Glasgow School of Art. It was supposed to start at ten but didn't get going until closer to eleven. I was dancing a lot better than the previous night: after the first dance I got a kiss on both cheeks and “Eres un lider fantastico” - a bit of an exaggeration but a pretty good start to any evening.

The music was very good and the venue wasn’t bad. There seemed to be plenty of space, but being in the students’ union during Freshers week brought predictable hazards; at one point a pair of beer monsters turned half the place into a no-go zone before knocking a pint over in the middle of the dancefloor.

Once you’re warmed up it’s always good dancing in a new city because you’re bound to have a few moves that will be new to the locals. I certainly managed to surprise a few women (mainly in a good way, I think – at least, one asked me for a second dance and nobody turned me down). At one point I surprised myself by sticking together a couple of moves into a flash combination that I hadn’t done before but worked well: unfortunately when I woke up the following morning I couldn’t for the life of me remember it.

In Cardiff, apart from the Latin crowd, you can pretty much assume that people will dance CBL style. Here it was predominantly Cuban, so I had to wait and watch to find out who were either CBL dancers or Cuban dancers who looked as if they were compatible with CBL style – and the good CBL dancers were in demand.

Duncan’s excellent music got a large number of muggles up dancing later, which meant that a fair bit of my attention had to be on keeping my partner out of danger rather than thinking which flashy move to do next.

Tumbao, the Scottish rueda champions, did a spectacular display. After that quite a few of the dancers started leaving, and I could feel myself beginning to lose the plot, so I left and got to bed at a relatively sensible 2am.

Cuba Norte

A good week’s dancing last week: on Monday John played good music all night, I finally got my lead working again three weeks after getting back from holiday (it’s frightening how quickly it deteriorates without practice) and Number One Dance Partner was on form.

Most of the week I was up in Glasgow for a conference and on Clare’s recommendation I went to Cuba Norte on Thursday to try and learn some Cuban-style salsa from Farah and Duncan.

It was obvious that Farah is a remarkable dancer right from her graceful and sophisticated footwark warmup. But unlike some ‘natural’ dancers she can really teach. This was the first really good Cuban salsa lesson I’ve had, and I learnt some stuff that I could actually reproduce on the dancefloor. Only thing that was a bit odd was that we didn’t change partners at all in the first lesson.

In the second class, though Duncan was only teaching a single named turn pattern – setenta something or other – I struggled a bit, and had to admit to a series of tolerant and helpful partners in turn that I wasn’t actually a Cuban dancer. Rueda was good fun, though I didn’t know a lot of the moves.

I hadn’t slept very well for the previous couple of nights, and by the time I got round to a (CBL) dance I was losing my sense of rhythm and my lead: to be honest I was rubbish. So I cut my losses and had an early night.

Bristol Dance Festival

My train got me in too late for the first session, so I watched the tail end of the beginner's tango class. Shame I missed it as it looked good: at least, people seemed to be gliding across the floor reasonably elegantly. The only tango class I've ever done was undermined by an Argentinian teacher's dodgy English, though it did include the memorable line - trying to explain leading - "First I will move her backwards, then I will make her come"!

Melitza's samba class was very clear, and very energetic: well, it was energetic for me, though at the end she put on a normal-speed samba track which was about twice as fast as the ones we'd been practising to. I'd like to do a bit more of it - I'd certainly get fit if I did.

I was originally planning to do the Latin Jazz class, but my brain was already overloaded trying to get my head (or rather my feet) round samba, so I thought I'd do salsa instead. Saher's intermediate salsa class was OK but the sequence was a couple of measures too long for me. Ian's la rueda was enjoyable, with added style provided by Anna and Lee. Hope Kate gets round to reviving la rueda in Cardiff soon.

I didn't do Andy's salsa on 2 class but it went down a storm with the punters who wanted to get him to do regular classes in Bristol.

The dance displays outside were on a very iffy green carpet which really limited the dancers, though the crowd enjoyed it. A bit more advance planning would have been good - I know that at least one of the dancers in the salsa trio display had no advance warning that she was going to do it!

There weren't many of the really good Bristol/Bath dancers around but there was a good contingent from Cardiff. All the classes were either Latin or street dance: it would be nice to have a crack at swing, jive or lindy hop next year. Overall I thought it was pretty good. Not many people hung around for the end of afternoon party so I left early to catch my train as I was already committed to going to a party in Penarth - shame really as I was just warming up and could really have done with a night in La Tasca rather than too much red wine...

Bristol Dance Festival

Bristol Dance Festival - now called Bristol DanceBiz Festival - is on this Saturday (click on the link above). Classes are in Fiesta Havana and Walkabout and there's a street party outside in Corn Street. Should be fun unless it rains!

Getting back into it

Only takes a couple of weeks to get rusty and to lose precise connection on the lead, though my rhythm seemed to be coming back last night. I'll be too busy over the next couple of weeks to really get back into practice, but I might go over to the Bristol Dance Festival on September 18th.

Plenty of dancing in circles in the Toad last night, which was nice to watch, apart from one character who seemed to be vying to rival Tarzan for 'most dancefloor covered in an evening'. (Actually, Tarzan himself seems to have improved greatly.)

I'm going to have to get a private lesson to learn some lifts when I have time, particularly after seeing Tammi doing a spectacular one with another girl last night. I just need to find a suitably sylph-like partner in crime in order to avoid doing myself a mischief...

El Sapo

(The Toad)

Just practising my Spanish - off to Andalucia for a couple of weeks. Slightly anxious about being out of reach of my regular salsa fix up in the mountains, but last night was a great way of topping up my salsa batteries. Seems like the Toad is really taking off again: loads of people there and it was still going strong when I left at 12.45, rather than winding down at midnight which had been doing. (Means that Fridays in work are going to be even less productive than usual when I get back!)

Really good to see some people who hadn't been there for a while, particularly Anna (emerging from months of PhD-imposed purdah and dancing like she'd never been away) and Lee. Enough people for a nice fast rueda later on. Hope we might have the nucleus of a decent la rueda group if Jordy and Sofia are going to join in regularly as well.

The Wharf

God, the Wharf was hot last night! Being a pub rather than a club they have those primitive things called windows rather than air-conditioning. And I'm afraid the quality of my dancing deteriorates when I start overheating. Had several enjoyable dances, though.

It's always a nice way to round off the weekend: good music and a friendly atmosphere. Last night there was the added entertainment of watching Natalie lead men. No surprise that she's good at it, having seen her leading a very drunk ******** at the Caramelo Son gig (see 21 June post) with more success than me...

Toad

The Toad was busy last night: surprising as O'Neills was quiet on Monday. Kate took the advanced class for a change and it was great: steadily built up with plenty of repetition and detail and some cool moves. I do rate Andy's teaching but it was nice to learn some different stuff. The moves seemed a bit more suited to us mere mortals than some of the stuff Andy does. The only problem was the usual one of not enough space.

Too many men and too hot, which meant that free dancing wasn't great: Charlotte was away and the other Kate wasn't there. Tammi was, but without shoes, which may be why not many of the surplus men joined in her birthday dance and it was left to Kate and Natalie to show the bystanders how leading should be done!

But Tall Kay is always fun to dance with (Paul said she was good and he's right - I'm not sure that she realises how good she is) and I ended the evening nicely by dancing with Kate. One of these days I'll actually have a dance with her when I'm feeling on form...

Big Weekend

Caramelo Son are playing the Big Weekend on Sunday (August 1st) in Cardiff Civic Centre. They're due on stage 6.15-7.15. I enjoyed them at the Toucan Club a few weeks ago, and it would be good to see a few dancers there (though I'm not sure what we'll do for a dancing surface - maybe the City Hall car park?)

Links

I've added some links (on the right).

Ricardo Lemvo

Fiddlers in Bristol have got what looks like a very interesting gig coming up on Guy Fawkes' Night - Congolese musician Ricardo Lemvo (see link above) and his band, who play a wide variety of African, Cuban and Latin musical styles and sing in numerous different languages. Unfortunately I'm going to be working in Keele that weekend so I won't be able to go - nor will I be able to go to Club Cubana which is on at the same time : (

Visions of the heavenly city

Well, that's what mediaeval abbess and composer Hildegard of Bingen thought they were. To me they're 'scintillating scotoma', the little flashing zigzags that come with a migraine attack. The only revelation I got from them yesterday morning was that I was going to feel crap for a couple of days, which was a pain as I'd got a ticket for Sierra Maestra at the World Music Prom.

Their set was a musicologists' delight with a whole range of different Cuban styles and rhythms (it might have been nice to have had a bit more emphasis on son for those of us who consider ourselves dancers rather than musicologists). The number which ended the first half was very long, and the final number was very fast, so it was a good thing I danced them both with Charlotte - she can follow my lead even when I'm half asleep or in a post-migraine daze. It would be nice to see them in a club context - the 'Prom' format, with its interval and ending around 10, is a little restrictive (the previous time I saw them was in a muddy field at Womad).

Couple of observations: nice to have a really big dance floor at St Davids' Hall so there was room for dancers and muggles, unlike the much smaller dancefloor for Victor Hugo's band last year. Suggestion: how about having appropriate music (eg salsa and son) played before the show and in the interval at a danceable volume?

Cafe Latino

I picked up an interesting CD in the Washington Gallery in Penarth. Cafe Latino on the German 'Brisa' label comes in a tin and has a selection of old Latin tracks, which sound to my inexpert ears as if they're from the 50s and 60s. Usefully for those of us with inexpert ears, each track is labelled with its genre, from son and guaracha to plena and pachanga (they've managed to mix up the genre categories on two tracks). Nice if you like old stuff - the merengue track, for example, is more mellow than the modern equivalent - and for those of us who are learning Spanish, the lyrics on a lot of the songs are clear and easy to follow.

Who's there?

It's intriguing to look at the site statistics and see who the regular visitors are. I had a regular visitor from a gov.uk address until a couple of weeks ago - I wonder if it was Sue or Anne, or someone else altogether? Whoever it was has either got bored with the blog or gone on holiday.

I've also spotted an insomniac with a co.uk address who visits between three and five in the morning and reads posts about Bristol. I n wonder if that's someone unable to sleep after a night's dancing in Fiesta Havana?

Rescue

O'Neills was great last night. Got there at half eight and wished I'd joined in the class - it looked like a neat, leadable turn pattern. And John played excellent music. Only thing was I was stuck at the bar waiting for some desperately needed rehydration while a couple of the best tracks were on, and then as soon as I got back on the dancefloor he'd slowed it down again. Lots of people there, including plenty who I enjoy dancing with.

Unfortunately I had to leave early because my dodgy wrist was complaining. I could dance all night with it if I just danced with people I asked, but a couple of dances with, er, less subtle partners who asked me started it off. It's a shame there isn't a tactful way of turning people down (particularly as these are women who I like and would happily dance with usually) without causing offence: I can miss one dance by saying I'm giving my wrist a rest, but can't then really go off to dance with someone else.

Perhaps I need another tactic. There are a couple of guys who I know Number One Dance Partner hates dancing with, and if I see them heading in her direction, I'll just happen to ask her for a dance first to save her from them. Maybe I'll try and get a couple of my own 'rescuers' primed...

...why men don't dance

I don't turn people down for dances, or at least hardly ever and even then only for reasons unconnected with their dancing ability or attractiveness (eg being totally knackered or already having put my non-dancing shoes on prior to leaving): apart from the fact that I know what it feels like to be turned down, it's also flattering to be asked, whatever the standard of the person who's asking.

But, out of the really good dancers, who I _ask_ to dance depends what kind of night I'm having. If I know that a woman has a really strong sense of rhythm and individual style that I can really get into when I'm on form, I'd prefer not to dance with her at all when I'm not on form.

I suspect that quite a few men feel the same, so if you spend large parts of the evening with nobody asking you to dance, it might just be that we know you're too good for us!

Why men dance...

I hope I explained why I dance in my first blog entry. There’s something really rewarding about leading and following. I wouldn’t deny, though, that part of the attraction is the simplicity of the relationship: man leads, woman follows, it’s the man’s job to guide and protect the woman. It would be very boring if the rest of life was like that, but it’s quite refreshing (and it was put this way to me by a woman who is a very strong feminist) to have one area of life where it’s legitimate.

But some men seem to have strange motiviation. There are the (fortunately fairly rare) creeps who go because it’s their only way of getting near women. And there are also the guys whose main motivation seems to be to patronise women. I recently watched a friend enduring a dance with a highly competent but unattractive individual whose moves mostly seemed to be designed to take the piss or ‘amusingly’ involve suggestive contact. She can normally smile through anything but looked aghast through most of the dance and then told me that he’d only smiled when he’d managed to get her on the wrong foot.

Two other things that annoy me are the lecturers: you know, the woman can’t follow the move so the man stops dead in the middle of the dance floor and explains it to her in detail. Particularly ludicrous when the woman is a much better dancer than the man and if he’d led it properly she would have followed it!

And why is it that the guys you see most often trying to do salsa trio (dancing with two women) aren't very good dancers? Salsa trio looks good when someone like Than does it: but if you can’t do it well, you don’t look a stud, you look a prat.

BAWA

Friday night’s a bit of a killer after a heavy week but Number One Dance Partner and I persuaded each other to make the trek over the bridge. BAWA, in Filton, was cold and almost empty when we got there. The room was fine – the Concorde Room isn’t the giant ballroom where salsa used to happen there, but was perfectly OK for the numbers though NODP found it a bit slippery. The people who did turn up – apart from the seven from Cardiff who made up a quarter of the numbers – seemed to be predominantly the regular Claverton Rooms/Sulis crew. Music and the sound system, as usual for an event involving Janey and Phil, was excellent: plenty of punch for dancing to but you could still hold a conversation. I danced with a couple of very good women who I hadn’t encountered before (and NODP got to dance with the remarkable Leroy, who has to be one of the most subtle and sophisticaled dancers around). It’s a shame it was so quiet, probably because they’re competing with Fiesta Havana which may be easier for many people to get to.

Bristle

I see that Jorge Peguero y su Orquesa are at Fiesta Havana in Bristol next week. I saw them there a few weeks ago and he was advertised as a 'silky smooth sonero' which is a long way from the truth: they're pretty rough and raucous and were too bloody loud.

Usually a good atmosphere there on Friday nights, though. Tomorrow they're competing with DJ Janey in the BAWA club in Filton which I'm going to try to get to if I still have any energy left: I used to go to salsa events there a couple of years ago and it's a great venue (big wooden dancefloor, cheap drinks, and not too far away). Janey is the universally excellent DJ at the Claverton Rooms.

Callaghans

Managed to persuade a couple of friends to come to Callaghans last night. Started a bit late (they were waiting for punters to turn up) and the warmup was the most shambolic I've ever seen until Maria took over and injected a bit of style into the proceedings.

The 'advanced' class was interesting with a nice turn pattern which I hope I can remember. Slightly strange because it's largely taught in translation: Jordy, an excellent dancer himself (and a nice guy) tells the students what to do, but Maria - who speaks very little English but is clearly an experienced dance teacher - picks up key points of technique which he then translates. I think perhaps they could do with including a bit more practice and repetition in the class: I've forgotten all the setenta variations I did there a couple of weeks ago. My dile que no is definitely getting better, though.

It's also a bit too crowded to do the Cuban moves properly, particularly later on when people try to negotiate their way through the class carrying pints of Guinness. Did Yogur, which every partner I practised it with seemed to think was hilarious (don't know what they'd think if they knew what Yogur means in Spanish slang) and learnt a cool lift, though now I need to work out who I dare try it with.

The party seemed to be just getting started when I left. Made me wish I was young and irresponsible again, but 11.30 is quite late enough for me on a Tuesday. It goes on until three. It's a nice relaxed atmosphere and there are lots of people you don't see anywhere else, including some good merengue dancers (who are rare as hen's teeth on most salsa nights). Next time I've got a quiet Wednesday I'll try staying til late.

They played 'Monton de Estrellas' twice (bet you wish you'd been there now, Clare!)

Mambo blogorama

Blog by the group Mamborama, for Cuban music fanatics.

You're on Candid Camera

Scary but instructive to film yourself free dancing. It's actually incredibly useful, and if your ego will put up with it I'd recommend it to anyone. It's good at affirming that at least some of my moves look good, and at picking up the ones that I really need to practise or abandon.

I found that I lean forward too much (Charlotte had already told me about that one), that I look a prat doing shines (which she'd tactfully implied rather than stated), that I still move my arms about too much and that my LA footwork needs more precision. (Andy had already told me about the last two, but somehow seeing it on video is much more convincing).

The most interesting thing I spotted was that even though I'm not a Cuban dancer I seem to look better doing Cuban moves. Which is an incentive to head to Callaghan's again next week.

At least I looked a lot better than in the sneaky video which someone shot of me dancing while drunk at a conference a year ago. That video was really useful, though - it made me stop doing elephant strides and spend an evening in front of the mirror concentrating on SMALLER STEPS as Andy had been telling me for at least a year and a half...

Caramelo Son

Went to the Toucan on Saturday night to see Caramelo Son, a nine-piece all-woman band from Cuba. Very crowded and smoky, and most of the audience were the usual Toucan regulars rather than dancers. Which is nice in a way - feels a bit more real - but can make the dancing very tricky as muggles are so unpredictable.

The DJ played a good variety of music, including several I recognised from the NuYorican Funk Experience compilations, but he played some which were far too fast, too early on. Particulary difficult when dancing with a very drunk ******* (name omitted to save embarrassment) though she's still easier to dance with when pissed than a lot of people are when sober! I was surprised at how rough the sound system was.

The band started very wooden but soon warmed up. They did some very long extended songs which was great if you were dancing with the right person, but must have been difficult if you weren't. I had to dance as 'protectively' as possible, particularly as one idiot was waving a lighted cigarette around between eye and arm level next to me at one point. It's hard to relax into the dance when you're spending half your time looking over my shoulder to see if there was space for me to CBL the girl into, Had a couple of really enjoyable dances. One with KatewhospeaksSpanish who's always great to dance with, and another with someone who obviously used to find me difficult to dance with (the feeling was mutual) but whose dancing style I suddenly 'got' a few weeks ago and I find very rewarding to dance with now. I've had the same thing happen with two or three people over the last few months, so I must be making some progress.

Learning to dance in circles

Went to Callaghans in the Holiday Inn last night for the second time (the first was months ago). It was much busier than before. This is the only salsa night in Cardiff run by Spanish speakers and it makes a difference: the atmosphere is more relaxed and friendly, the clientele are younger (and very multinational), and of course the teachers dance in circles. Well. Or at least, a lot better than I can. Very few of the usual Cardiff mafia there - I think I was the only one there in Blochs'n'black.

The way they run it is to have fairly short lessons interspersed with short freestyle breaks. Quite a bit of merengue in the breaks as they vary the music according to who's there. At 11 they were starting a merengue lesson for everybody, but apparently the night goes on until 3. You have to keep Latin time if you want to hang around for sustained freestyle!

Very smoky and a lot of beginners or inexperienced dancers. We did the intermediate class run by Jordy and Maria. I discovered that my dile que no (Cuban cross body), which I had fondly thought was not bad by Cardiff standards, is rubbish and learnt how to improve it with a proper Cuban 'frame'. In the second lesson they taught several variations on 'setenta'. I thought it was a really interesting lesson, and that and watching the teachers dance freestyle persuaded me that Cuban salsa actually is something I want to do: it looks great and a lot of fun when it's done properly. I've been taught a few Cuban moves in the past but this was much more vigorous and convincing than the way I've been taught it before.

One or two problems: it was crowded (though no worse than the Toad) which made organising the class a bit tricky, and the standard of the dancers in the class wasn't all that good: of the participants only Clare and a Spanish man were actually good Cuban dancers already. I got my dodgy wrist yanked about by a couple of women who (a) couldn't get the sequence and (b) had never learnt to follow. But I did learn a lot. Might be nice to try and persuade the teachers to run a crossover class for teaching experienced CBL dancers to do Cuban style.

Clave(rton Rooms) and the Salsa Taliban

Ugh, tired, bed at 3.15 am Sun after a night in Bath. Disappointing turnout - I gather Caramelo Son were on at Fiddlers which may have had something to do with it. A couple of nice dances but I wasn't really on form. Had to drop out of Paul's class as my RSI was giving me gip.

Worth going to watch a tall black dancer whose technique Charlotte described as feeling 'like dancing in slow motion'. No flashy or spectacular moves but a lot of precision to his footwork and timing. Made me want to rethink the way I dance: perhaps I should ease off on the spins and new moves, and video/get feedback from partners on my current moves to see where I could make them more subtle and intricate.

Which brings me on to Salsa Taliban: quite an amusing attack on the salsa mafia from a Latino in Sheffield: "For those who are not in the scene, or even aware of the concept, the 'salsa taliban' is a group of unique people dotted across the united kingdom (UK) who ONLY want 100% Salsa, and despise other types of latin rhythm. You usually see this people wearing black clothing with salsa oozing from either a T-shirt, special dance shoes, etc." I'm afraid I'm guilty on the black clothing front (though I certainly wasn't wearing black on Saturday) and the special dance shoes (I do like my Blochs). But I do agree with a lot of what he says.

The right way to teach

Interesting post (click on the link above) about how to teach salsa, emphasising the importance of repetition. He's absolutely right: even teachers who basically have a good teaching technique hardly ever drill sequences enough. I think it's no surprise that some of the best salsa teachers have a sports background so they know something of the theory of how we learn physical routines.

One thing I'd disagree with is the suggestion that 'it doesn't matter how long the sequence is'. Maybe he means 'within reason' - I once saw an idiot 'teaching' a sequence that was over 20 eight-beat (two-bar) measures long. Some teachers seem to thing that long sequences are OK cos 'you can just pick up the moves you like out of the sequence', but I think this is a very inefficient and wasteful way of teaching. Saul suggested once on the salsacity forum that teachers should teach advanced lessons that just consist of _one_ move, taught in detail, and I'd have to agree with him.

Once and future salsa

Giving the Toad a miss tonight to save my energy for the Claverton Rooms in Bath on Saturday.

John was playing some dodgy stuff in O'Neills on Monday night. I thought the salsa version of Satisfaction was bad enough, but salsa Mozart? What was he thinking? On the positive side, it's great to have Charlotte* back on the dancefloor and refreshed after her little break from salsa. We haven't quite got back into look-almost-no-hands salsa telepathy mode yet, but maybe we'll get there on Saturday.

Just noticed in a couple of places that Sierra Maestra are now down for the World Music prom on 19 July instead of Orchestra Baobab. They should be great: I saw them at Womad last year and had my one dance of the weekend by finding the one available salsa dancer in a sea of drunk and stoned muggles. Dancing on uneven mud while someone pushes a pushchair across the dancing line isn't the easiest, but I still felt a lot better for it.

Next Saturday is Caramelo Son, a large all-girl salsa band in the Toucan club. I like the Toucan - before La Tasca started it was the only civilised place to go in Cardiff on a Saturday night. I'll probably call in La Tasca on the way as bands usually start very late in the Toucan.


*not to be confused with Charlie who demonstrates with John, who I've never danced with

Dale (2)

There are some touching personal comments about Dale on the Salsacity forum (click on the link above). A lot of people have been really shaken by his death: even people who didn't know him that well are finding it difficult to come to terms with. I was pleased to hear from Neil (Salsara) that a dance night is planned in his memory.

Neil's other comment was that he used to joke with Dale that Dale was his target for the standard of dancing he'd like to achieve. He was certainly well beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve, and was a deserved winner of the first Welsh salsa championship.

I remember one evening a few months ago he was dancing in the Toad when Andy - for a joke - cranked up the bpm to a ridiculously high level. Dale hung in there, still slick and controlled, and still smiling: I don't think there's another dancer in Cardiff who could have kept pace.

Working away

If I'm working away from Cardiff I always try to get to salsa if I can manage it. I've escaped for a night's salsa in London, Leeds, Cheltenham, Bangor (North Wales), Cork and Belfast. I've never had a bad time dancing in a strange city, though I danced with the rudest woman I've ever danced with in Leeds. Fortunately everyone else there was fine. Hoping to check out Glasgow and Edinburgh soon.

Comments?

Well, I know from the site statistics that people are reading this blog, but nobody's saying anything... Feel free to comment on any of the posts by clicking on '0 comments' at the bottom of each post'

Ladies who lead

A very long thread which I sparked off on the Salsacity forum.

Rueda terms

My not entirely serious list of rueda terms on the salsacity forum.

Salsafrenzy

Salsafrenzy is a site which links to blogs by salsa dancers. They've linked to me so I thought I should return the favour. Click on the post title to visit them.

Another Saturday night

Last Thursday was subdued for obvious reasons. Main item of interest was the Amazon sisters: very tall, young and friendly, and only one of them was obviously attached so the other one was targeted by le(e)ches. Some people never learn that the etiquette is pretty straightforward in these cases: ask her for one dance, thank your lucky stars that she dances with you, dance with her nicely then say thank you. Wait for her to ask you for another dance. Don't monopolise her for several dances while her smile becomes fixed...I once encountered a woman hiding behind a pillar in the Toad to try and avoid having to dance with one of these people.

Other good things about Thursday: dancing with Carol again (good to see her back into salsa: triathlon's loss is salsa's gain) and a nice dance with VaguelyCuban whose name I've forgotten (dark hair and glasses). She's really good: precise, fast and graceful, seems to glide across the floor. Gets the LA switches of direction with no problem, but she instantly revealed her Cuban dance background the first time I tried a wristlock half turn and back: LA girls will turn more or less on the spot, Cuban dancers walk back and forth. (Learnt that one from dancing with you, Clare.)

Saturday I went to Tall Paul's event at the David Lloyd centre, after debating whether to go to the Samba Gales event instead. Paul's obviously put a lot of effort into organising it but it wasn't the greatest salsa night ever. Points against: room with little atmosphere, intermittently dodgy music. Paul does tend to favour cheesy stuff with lyrics in English, though there was some good stuff as well. Very few of the usual Cardiff gang there - mostly Paul's students from the David Lloyd centre. Points in favour: Joe Lantelli's class was entertaining, though I have to admit I rarely pick up anything I'm actually going to use from his lessons. Spectacular dance display from Joe and Siobhan (I found out why Joe has that unusual haircut - I won't spoil the surprise for anyone who hasn't seen the show, but the display has a kung fu theme). Got to dance with Siobhan who was great, and felt very chuffed when she complimented me on my moves. Identified a couple of good dancers who I hadn't danced with before, (if anyone reading this was there, they were the woman in the pink trousers and the smiling woman in black - though I think she might be over from Bristol).

As it was winding down I thought I'd try Andy's Latin night in La Tasca, the tapas restaurant in Cardiff's Old Brewery quarter. (Good food, but I hadn't danced there before). Almost didn't go as I wasn't feeling that inspired and Cardiff on a Saturday night is not my favourite place. But the top of St Mary Street was less like a zoo than usual, which made me feel optimistic. Got upstairs to a compact dance floor which was almost empty. Andy assured me that people would be there later: and at about a quarter to twelve, there they all were - Lucy, Katy, the Constantinou sisters and the woman who first tried to teach me the cross-body lead in Life a very long time ago. Plus a substantial Latin contingent. The atmosphere was great: good dancers but everyone just having fun. Katy, Chris and Rene doing their line dancing - sorry, styling routines ; ) Bloody crowded: at one point I found myself dancing in a very narrow gap between the DJ booth and someone's table, which was very good practice for keeping to my line, and at another point I was attempting to dance in circles in the entrance to the gent's toilet. (Must learn to dance Cuban-style properly if I'm going to ask Spanish women to dance). Music was great: mostly good salsa, a bit of merengue, I think I recognised some punta. I thought it was the best atmosphere in Cardiff since Journeys ended.

Dale

Dale (Jaycee) was killed in a road accident on Wednesday. One of the most talented dancers in Cardiff, he was a former Welsh salsa champion and a Latin percussionist. With Than he used to run the very popular Saturday salsa night in Journeys, and he also taught at Life and O'Neills.

I was shocked to learn that he was only 23. There's nothing useful you can say when somebody as young and talented dies like that.

Andy Witt has written a tribute on the Salsa Cardiff site.

Where did they all go?

I've been tempted to stop going to the Toad (and go to Fiesta Havana on a Friday instead) but last night I unexpectedly had a great time. Some people really don't like it because it's so crowded and there are some many people crashing around; it certainly doesn't suit people who like dancing in circles ; )

Got there around half nine and the classes were packed. Watched a bit of Andy's class (I rate his teaching but his moves need a bit of space to do well, and there's no space to practise them properly in the Toad). I could hear Zoe teaching la rueda to her beginners on the far side (she has a loud voice for such a small person) and they looked like they were having fun.

Felt on form for the first time since I got back from Belfast, so got straight into dancing as soon as the classes ended (the end time is drifting back to 10.15, unfortunately). The usual problems with people taking up far too much space for the amount of space that's available. Danced with a couple of familiar faces who hadn't been around for a while which was nice. Then it started thinning out, surprisingly early, so for a while it was great.

A couple of exhilarating dances with Kate (who interprets for Maria's class on a Tuesday night). I think maybe she's the most fun to dance with in Cardiff: advanced - a very fast, responsive dancer who seems to be able to follow pretty much anything - but also always seems to be enjoying herself and doesn't take herself too seriously. Shouldn't really have posted this as I'll probably have to join a queue to dance with her now, of course (as it is I just managed to sneak in front of Peter when I saw him heading in her direction).

But by half eleven it was almost empty, and several people I'd been planning to dance with had gone (maybe they'd seen me coming...) Perhaps people don't realise how much more pleasant it is to dance there later, and also perhaps women don't realise that they are in short supply later on. Maybe people don't realise how much nicer the atmosphere now that Katie (la reina de la rueda) has taken over running it. (No drunk lambada demos, for a start.) Or maybe you're all more sensible than me and worry about getting to work in the morning.

Must try to get to La Tasca this weekend (the Claverton Rooms in Bath, great though it is, is just too far: I can cope with getting to bed at 2, but 3am is too much).

O'Neills

Good points about O'Neills: friendly, biggest and best dancefloor in Cardiff. Space to dance which means that collisions are rare even though some of Cardiff's less controlled dancers go there. (Fortunately, it's also the one night that many of the better dancers go to - particular those who don't want to play dodgems in the Toad.)

John's good with beginners: most of the old guard started with him. I have learnt some good pure Cuban stuff from him, though he tends to teach a mixture of CBL and Cuban. I'm fairly sure, though, that he's a former ballroom dancer and it shows in his teaching: longish sequences and some stuff that wouldn't work with a partner who doesn't know what's coming.

Negatives: some of John's music is terrible, and he does like flashing lights which put some of us right off our dancing.

Dance quotes

Couldn't resist lifting these from the BBC3 website:

'Dancing is like bank robbery, it takes split second timing.'
- Twyla Tharp

'Dance is like life, it exists as you're flitting through it, and when it's over, it's done.'
- Jerome Robbins

'We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.'
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

'So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?'
- Hermann Hesse

Belfast

Spent the tail end of last week at a conference in Belfast (oops, that's blown my cover - mentioned it to a couple of people in the Toad last night) which luckily coincided with their Fiesta Latina. Saturday night's charity salsa disco was a great way of working off the frustrations of listening to several days of waffle in English and French.

The standard of the women was very high and nobody seemed to have a diva attitude - I danced with some of the best women there and they were all friendly (should have expected that, as Anne who's originally from Ballymena was responsible from getting me into salsa in the first place). All CBL style, none of this strange dancing round in circles (sorry Clare!) The music was very good too, with the exception of the Cha Cha Slide (thought I'd heard the last of that now Paul has promised to bin his copy).

Didn't pay too much attention to the standard of the men: some were very good, and the guy who beat us in the Mario/Maria competition definitely deserved to win - but there were a lot of beginners around because they were running a 'learn salsa in a weekend' series of classes. More women than men, which was good for me (I hardly stopped dancing) but must be a bit frustrating for the girls. As in Cardiff there are a few women learning to lead in order not to spend half the evening hanging around.

Thanks to the organisers SalsaBelfast, the extremely friendly and welcoming crowd, and to Helen, an excellent dancer who I was lucky enough to get in the Mario/Maria. I was also impressed with the workshop on Sunday by Chris who teaches at the university on Tuesdays: very clear, only taught three measures over an hour which to my mind is how salsa should be taught. Also meant that I came back to Cardiff with a move that nobody else does. (Mind you, hardly anyone can follow it so I need to refine it a bit!)

Why a blog?

Might seem like a bit of an ego trip, but people seemed to like what I wrote on the Salsacardiff forum. Salsacardiff is a useful site but I got tired of inoffensive posts by myself and others being removed by the forum owner.

If any of the Cardiff salsa gang are interested I might expand this into a group blog. I promise I won't remove comments purely because they criticise me, make mildly critical comments about the Cardiff salsa scene, or include jokes which I don't get ; )

Salsa cruda

Skin, deseed and chop the tomatoes, then finely chop the onions, green chilli and coriander. Finally combine all the ingredients, with a little salt and maybe some sugar if the tomatoes are underripe.

Just trying to work out whether the ads at the top of the page are allocated by humans or machines. If the latter, we should be seeing some ads for Mexican cookery books here soon.

¿Porque bailamos?

A friend recently told me that he'd never 'got' dancing: couldn't understand what people got out of it.

What got me into salsa a few years ago was that I thought it looked really cool. I saw a couple dancing really well at a gig where everyone else was jigging up and down, and I thought 'I want to be able to do that'.

Looking cool, though, has very little to do with what keeps me dancing. Men who are principally concerned with how cool they look while dancing tend to look selfish and narcissistic, and not a lot of fun to dance with. It was better put by a non-dancer I overheard while I was dancing with a small and talented Australian called Kylie (not, not that one). "Man, that looks like so much fun."

But it's more than fun, which is why it's so difficult to explain to non-dancers. It's that absolute focused connection with a partner. A focused connection that may only last for one dance: on more than one occasion I've had one great first dance with a woman that I've never managed to repeat. A focused connection that may only be about dance: I can have great, empathic dances with women but then find there's little connection once we're off the dance floor. But while it lasts - for three, five, seven minutes of absolute mutual concentration, judging the lead to her follow and the moves to her level of ability, spinning her, spinning myself, stopping and switching direction, working together to play with the rhythm, holding the missing '4' as long as possible to build up the momentum for the 5,6,7 - there's little to match it.