Playing Castro's Tune

Radio 4 is broadcasting a two-part programme about the impact of Castro's revolution on Cuban music. Episode 1 starts tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1330 and is repeated at 1530 on January 3rd.

New Year's Eve

La Tasca on NYE is scheduled to start around 10 and run until around 12.30, so you'll need to get there earlier than usual.

Salsa a lo Cubano

Got to Barocco on Tuesday to find that it had been double-booked with a Christmas party. So instead I went to La Tasca on Wednesday for the first time - Sabina gave those of us who turned up to Barocco half price entry. The class was really good, and there were several good dancers there who I'd never met before. Cycling to work meant that I was also a lot more wide awake last night than I was on Tuesday. Even better, we did some rueda after the class, and everybody in the group - including some who hadn't done rueda before - could dance on time. That makes so much difference. Only downside was that the room was very hot.

Christmas breaks and new Thursday venue

Minor changes to the Christmas break details (see earlier post). Purple Lounge closed this Sunday (21st); Bar Cuba closed 30th December; La Tasca is open right through, including Wednesday 31st - New Year's Eve.

Jumpin Jaks, the replacement for Bar Risa, starts on 8th January. Jumpin Jaks is upstairs in the building to the left of Bar Risa.

Parties

O'Neills Christmas party tonight; Salsabuena Christmas Dinner Dance tomorrow night (no food bookings left but you can still dance); Risa on Thursday. This should be the big one, I think - it looks as if most of the people I want to dance with are going.

Unfortunately Stevie won't be coming over to Risa any more. Shame - I really like his music.

Christmas

The good news is that with the exception of Bar Risa, Andy's other venues are carrying on as normal through the holiday period- that's La Tasca, Bar Cuba and the Purple Lounge : )

Salsa famine

Not a complete salsa famine over Christmas - Irene and Shahid's Monday night classes in Fairwater (see link in right column) continue throughout the break.

Christmas salsa famine

Looks like it's going to be the usual fortnight of no dancing this year, though if anyone fancies post-Christmas dancing in the City of Light there's this on December 27th. Very tempting...

Bar Risa Xmas Party

I'm looking forward to the Bar Risa party on the 18th (though I think I might pass on the 'sexy santa' fancy dress). Sadly they will then be closed until February for refurbishment (where are we all going to get our fix?) Miguel and Mayana will do a show and teach the second half of the intermediate class, and Alain Hernandez will be leading a 'fun reggaeton lineup'.

Details on the Dancalatina homepage.

Reggaeton special

It's a reggaeton special at Barocco tomorrow night - beginners' and improvers' salsa will be as normal, Alain Hernandez from the Cubania dance company will be doing a reggaeton class instead of the intermediate salsa, and he'll also be taking the rueda class.

Purple Lounge

I've been meaning to go for weeks. I was desperate for some exercise so I dragged myself out into the cold last night, resisting the temptation to slob out in front of the telly (amazingly, there are things worth watching on at the moment).

Good points: nice wooden floor, pleasant ambience (though no a/c). It's not a big room. The class was very small - I think there were ten people there. Good for learning, less good for dancing afterwards. Apparently it's busier sometimes.

As usual with Andy's classes the personal advice was very useful. He's good at pointing out little details that make a huge difference - in this case, how to lead a copa smoothly with an inexperienced partner. And it certainly worked: one woman told me that she'd fallen over trying to do the copa with everyone else there, but not with me. (Though she did manage to fall over later on in the routine...)

I'm hoping that the numbers will pick up as it's a nice way to end the weekend/start the week.