Monday, August 25, 2008

Last night

I nearly didn't go to Chiquitos for Shahid's birthday last night. Glad I did, though - I got to dance with several nice dancers I'd never met before, including several dances with the rather wonderful Margot. I'm just hoping that they'll all still be in Cardiff when I get back from holiday in mid-September (off on Thursday, might get to Koko Gorilaz and/or Cuba tomorrow but it depends on how much work I manage to finish during the day).

Friday, August 22, 2008

Looking up

Well, my friend Stefanja - who learnt her salsa in Madrid - thought her first visit to Risa (and first dancing for a year) was great. The night didn't start too brilliantly: for some reason I find it really hard to focus in the Thursday classes, so I gave up after the first half. But things definitely picked up later on: it was a lot livelier than it has been for a while, and I started getting my second wind around eleven. Some lovely dancers there, including one who hadn't been there for a while and one who's leaving us for three months to look after orang-utans (I hope they can dance).

I've not been feeling that I'm dancing very well lately – I'm missing the Sunday workshops and dancing with Patricia – so it was great that one dancer really liked Sombrero 88 (thanks Misael) and another told me I have a 'lovely lovely' lead : )

Best thing is that it looks as if Risa is on target to meet Andy and Stevie's ambitions for it: for the first time in a while it didn't fizzle out at midnight. There was a good contingent from Bristol there and a few strangers turned up late, so it was still going strong when we left at around quarter past twelve. Looking forward to some sleepless Thursday nights in the autumn.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Barocco

Kate's off on holiday for a fortnight so her Cuban salsa classes in Barocco start back on September 3rd.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

O'Neills

I went to O'Neills last night for the first time in months. I was expecting it to be quiet because of the holidays but it was actually very lively with several people there who I really like dancing with. Misael is now teaching there and was doing a very large rueda as I arrived.

There was quite a sizeable Cuban/Latin contingent and I slotted in to a rueda Misael was calling which included Manuel and Maria. I was pretty pleased with the way I managed to keep up on the first rueda, but later on I completely messed up one unfamiliar move, bringing chaos to the circle and leaving Liz dancing on her own (much to spectator Teresa's amusement). I think I've got it now...All in all I had a good time and I'll probably be back next week.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Role swapping

Kate's Cuban class on Wednesday was really useful with lots of points of style, and my rueda calling seems to have improved. Amusingly, Kate's boyfriend Jon was the best follower there by some distance (and according to my daughter, Debbie was one of the best leaders).

Swapping lead and follow is quite an entertaining thing to do. Perhaps that could be included in Andy's next advanced workshop series? The best female leader I've encountered was Anita: not only could she lead well - and she's tall enough for it not to look daft - but she was very good at explaining how to follow. I was just getting to grips with the principle of following when she went off to Japan.

Quick bit of info: Sabina and Misael's Cuban classes in Q Bar on Sundays are off until September as the venue is being refurbished.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Rueda y La Tasca

I was talking to a dancer on Thursday night who had been hoping to find some good Cuban salsa in Cardiff. She should have been at La Tasca on Saturday - there were plenty of Cuban-style dancers there.

I haven't seen a rueda there before, but I'd just asked Sara for a dance when I noticed Gorka starting one. Sara's a rueda fan and Jordy moved over to let us slot in. It was great -there's nothing better than a lively, funky wheel where everybody knows what they're doing, and Gorka calls a great rueda. Quite an all-star (and largely Spanish) group: in addition to Gorka, it included James Perez (who taught the first rueda workshop I ever went to), and Nicky who teaches around Swansea, as well as Núria and Sofia. Turns out I was even luckier than I thought to catch it because Gorka has moved back to Spain and this was the last day of a visit to Wales.