Chester

I was up in Wrexham from Sunday until last night. I bought the Evening Leader in a failed attempt to find out what was on in town on Monday night. Actually I think it was a successful attempt: there wasn't anything on. One of the bigger stories concerned a local couple who were attempting to sell an empty Pot Noodle carton on Ebay.

My work in Wrexham could best be described as 'challenging' - rewarding but draining - so I really needed a dance by Tuesday night. Bouverie in Chester sounded good. Twenty minutes from Wrexham to Chester by car, and at least another twenty minutes trying to negotiate the Byzantine complexity of the one-way system.

The Bouverie is a smoky but reasonably slick pub in studentland with friendly bar staff. I was starving by the time I eventually found it so I decided to forgo the first class in favour of getting my blood sugar up to a sensible level. Very tasty the fajitas were, too.

Tom and Kwai's intermediate class was very well-organised. It helped that there were only two couples in the class, and they rotated constantly with both teachers dancing with punters. This meant that Kwai was able to spot the bits of Cuban technique I was having trouble with and discreetly mention them to Tom who could teach me through them.

The moves were taught in bite-sized turn patterns of no more than four measures, and the class started with the most difficult one (setenta moderna): in other words, unlike most salsa classes it actually got easier as it went along. We repeated each turn pattern until all of us had it more or less up to speed (they went patiently at the pace of the slowest, which unfortunately as a non-Cuban dancer was me), and then at intervals during the lesson the turn patterns were integrated into a rueda.

By the end of the lesson I was feeling at least halfway competent at dancing in circles, and quite exhilarated (I love rueda, and good Cuban dancing is really funky). I had a couple of good dances in the free dancing afterwards - I'd like to have stayed later than half ten but wisdom prevailed. Friendly, encouraging, and effective teaching: I've actually got a good reason to look forward to the next time I have to work in Wrexham.

Actually, there's another one: Perelli's restaurant, which I discovered when looking for somewhere decent to eat on Wednesday night. A cracking salad nicoise, friendly service, and - unexpectedly - a soundtrack of samba, salsa and boogaloo.

Unfortunately I was completely wiped out after the drive back last night so I missed Risa. I'm hoping to get to Salsa Noir tonight, though.