Timing is all

Friday was the first of Charlotte's monthly dancing-only nights with guest DJs. It was very quiet when I arrived not long after nine, which was nice - got to dance with Vania on an empty dancefloor. It filled up later on. The music was great (Henry Viña) and I think a very good time was had by all.

I noticed one guy there had very good timing. A few weeks earlier I'd wondered why one of my favourite dancers wanted to spend half the night dancing with him, now I know why. He's one of these guys who looks as if he's dancing in slow motion, even when he's doing elaborate moves. I wonder if that style of dancing is like cool jazz - recently someone analysed Miles Davies' playing and worked out that he was a few milliseconds behind the beat.

It is actually possible to do the opposite, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago. I was excited to be having the first dance of the evening with Sabina (if you've danced Cuban-style with her you'll know what I mean: the first time I danced a fast Cuban track with her was the first time I really 'got' what Cuban-style was about).

Anyway, I did a move (Sombrero Ochenta y Ocho) and asked her if I'd got the timing right. What I meant was, had I led the second turn at the right point in the move; what she said was "actually, you're dancing half a beat ahead of the music". I was horrified: she told me that it's actually quite common among musicians. One thing that can make people play ahead of the beat is caffeine: maybe that 11pm espresso at La Tasca isn't such a great idea after all.