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...