Friday, May 28, 2004

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).

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

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

Friday, May 21, 2004

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.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

¿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.