Nice to be back

I think I'm appreciating dancing in Cardiff more since getting back from Madrid. I'm enjoying Bar Risa on a Thursday night enormously: plenty of space, cracking music and a lot of good dancers with a great attitude who really connect when you dance with them. Later on Andy's varying the music a bit with some fast Latin jazz, and while the numbers thin out after 11 most of the people who stay are people you'd want to dance with. On the 22nd it's going to get a bit livelier: Stevie (El Diablito) is coming over from Bristol to run a Latin party from 11 until 2, which may be repeated if it's successful.

Picked up a couple of unusual leads from the final one of this series of Andy's Sunday workshops. I've enjoyed them, and it's been nice dancing with Katie (another good dancer with a nice attitude). I had fun dancing bachata with her in La Tasca last week while dodging the drunks. That was a good night despite the drunks, with the added bonus of getting to dance with Cristina who was back for the weekend (having missed her in Madrid). 

Last night Angus Peters was guest teacher for Tammi's masquerade ball in Llanharan. I'd been really impressed both times I'd caught Angus' group lessons, so I booked a private lesson with Patricia. Angus' style is very different from Andy's (though diametrically opposite to Cuban style): it's cross-body style but with the emphasis on smooth, continuous motion rather than the dynamism of LA style. The lesson was really useful: a lot of emphasis on how to make the lead clear, accurate and effortless for both partners, with some apparently simple but extremely effective tips and small adjustments which worked well on the dancefloor afterwards. It's got me thinking a lot about how I should dance and how I can improve my dancing. 

Still not sure if I'm going to get to Paris in July. But it looks like I may be checking out the Brussels salsa scene in a month's time as I've been asked to do a couple of days work there.