Risa

Made it to Risa last Thursday. First impression: it's big, and there were loads of people there. I never realised there were so many people trying to learn salsa in Cardiff. There were several new good female dancers who I hadn't encountered before.

It's ideal for lessons: three classes could run in parallel without being cramped, though even here there were so many people that rotating partners got confusing. The warmup was entertaining (merengue rather than salsa, and nowhere near as frenetic as the ones Andy used to do in Life).

The salsa class only lasted an hour because of the bachata workshop. A really nice sequence which seemed fine in the class, though the lead I thought I'd perfected didn't seem to work when I tried it on the dancefloor later on.

Tony Lara's bachata class was entertaining and I learnt some new stuff that will come in useful. And then it was time for the free dancing. Plenty of space and plenty of people - at least earlier on - and the music was good despite the mixing.

Pretty much everyone I wanted to dance with was there so I had some nice dances, including one which was great fun, but it started thinning out quite early. I'm not sure whether it was the heat but I was knackered and several of the women I danced with said they were too. It wasn't helped by the lighting which makes it feel like a school disco - I wonder if they can do anything to give it a bit more atmosphere?