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.