Friday night

Had a bit of a surprise when I turned on the TV yesterday afternoon to be confronted by Moe teaching salsa. He was at Glastonbury, leading a (male) Radio 1 presenter who was a bit surprised to be Moe's "bitch" (the presenter's words, not mine).

Friday night was a real success for those who made it. Nice venue with plenty of dancefloor space and a good atmosphere. I thought I was going to miss Moe's lesson but as it happened he turned up at the same time as I did - 9 - due to traffic problems. The lesson was rueda: good, though a bit crowded and with quite a few beginners. I think in future it would be good to have something else for beginners, because Moe and Lee both had to tone down the level of their lessons. I did learn some new stuff, though, principally 'pelota con clave' which was a new one on me (you clap in time with the clave, which is an interesting exercise when there's no music playing!). I was lucky to be next to Debbie who was leading: in rueda it makes a lot of difference if the person upstream from you knows what they're doing.

The free dancing was good, with quite a few people there who I hadn't danced with before. There were a few over from Bristol/Bath. I danced with Tammi for the first time in years (she's usually too busy leading). The DJ did a good job, and one of the reason it worked was he didn't play any long tracks. Long tracks are brilliant if you're dancing with the right person, but in a situation where a lot of people don't know each other it's good to keep changing.

Moe made up for his late arrival with a series of lineups, from salsa to salsaton and reggaeton, which kept the buzz going. It was interested to see the CBL/Cuban contrast between his and Lee's styles: they're almost polar opposites, with Lee's dancing being precise and very controlled and Moe's being extrovert and enviably funky. I'm looking forward to Tammi's next event and I hope a few more of the regular Cardiff crowd will make the effort. A great start to the weekend.

(I remember when Andy's lineups used to be as much fun as the ones Moe did on Friday. I think it's a bit harder in Risa with 200 people, compared with the 20 or 30 who used to go to the classes in Life. I used to like the lineups there because back then they were the one thing out of his class that I could actually do!)