Wednesdays in Bristol

Stevie has now resurrected his long-running Wednesday nights in Bristol, now at the Warehouse in Prince Street. This used to be a popular night for Cardiff dancers when it was in Fiesta Havana.

The main selling point looks good: short, punchy classes (half an hour at each level) which just teach a couple of moves in plenty of depth, with 15 minutes free dancing between the classes to practice. Stevie's promoting this as 'a new concept for salsa': in my opinion it's how all drop-in salsa classes should be run. One reason I enjoyed Andy's Sunday nights at the Wharf was that the classes were short so they only included a small number of moves.

More info on Stevie's new website: www.salsa-mania.co.uk

The Salsa Beat Machine

The Salsa Beat Machine (click on post title to access the link) is an amazing little online program. It takes a piece of salsa music and lets you turn off and on different instruments (including an instructor saying '1' and '5'). As well as changing the master volume, the volume of each instrument, and the tempo, you can change what kind of salsa melodies and patterns the instruments play. A brilliant idea.

Moe Flex at Walkabout

Well that was fun. Got there in time for the second (intermediate to advanced rueda) class. The dance floor is huge, as was the class, with women outnumbering men about two or three to one. Large contingent from Bristol. Not the most useful rueda class ever, not because of the teaching but because of its size and the level of some participants. Moe asked people who didn't know the key moves to drop out but I don't think anybody did. Also when there was music it was too loud to hear the calls. But I still managed to learn one new move (prima loca) - and he didn't catch me out with 'mentira' once :)

I enjoyed the free dancing. My Cuban dancing is pretty limited, but it's OK by Cardiff standards and went down pretty well. There was a bit too much reggaeton too early on for me - though a lot of people seemed to be enjoying it, and Moe's funky lineups were cool. All in all a good turnout, and I had the best time I've had out dancing for a while, despite having to leave by 11. Looking forward to the next one.

I won't make dancing the rest of this week or the weekend as I'm working in Liverpool. Sunny at the moment but the forecast is terrible.

Moe Flex

Don't forget it's Moe Flex at Walkabout tonight - details on Misael's site. Should be good and I'm hoping to get there - I thought I was going to be on the train to Liverpool but I don't have to go until tomorrow morning.

Great dance quote

From one of those HMV 'My Inspiration' ads - this time Martin Scorsese quoting from the Powell and Pressburger film "The Red Shoes":

Boris Lermontov: "Why do you want to dance?"
Victoria Page: "Why do you want to live?"

Why it's good to dance

New Scientist has this story about why women prefer men who can dance.

Daytime salsa and Palenke

I've been hoping somebody would do this for ages: monthly Saturday afternoon salsa events. First one on August 15th is the very funky Iris de Brito teaching styling and kizomba. (Kizomba is a style of music and a very sensual and increasing popular dance, originally from Angola, based on zouk).

It's in the Soda Bar on St Mary Street, . £20 for an 'all day pass': 3pm - 10.30pm: £10 from 5.30pm - 10.30 (paella and freestyle dancing), or £5 on the door: 7pm - 10.30 onwards. Susannah's organising it - contact her for tickets on 07968 945 424.

Salsadicción have another of their Friday night events on the 31st, this time with live band Palenke.

Stefanja and Shahid

Stefanja and Shahid, originally uploaded by tomcardiff.

Unfortunately Risa isn't back (yet) - there's a problem with the electrics so it hasn't opened yet. So last night the only comfortable person was Stefanja, who seems to find anything below about 30 Celsius cold. Here she is dancing with Shahid.

Actually I'm going to miss Jumpin' Jaks because those spotlights provide great rim light for taking pictures - if we're still there next week I might take my big camera along.