Friday, May 22, 2009

Latest

Shahid's plan for early evening salsa is spreading - now you can dance free at Culto's on Saturday night from 7.30 (while Marlen's reggaeton class is going on). I really like this idea, hope it takes off.

Jumping' Jaks was good last night - Andy's playing some great music lately. It's incredibly hot though. Tip: if you dance around the edges of the room, rather than on the main dance floor, the surface is much better.

Amused to learn from my feisty friend last night that she'd been chatting to a guy who reads the blog and who guessed correctly that she was the person I was writing about. Mustn't write anything too incriminating!

Rafael and Yanet

Misael is opening a new Cuban night at Walkabout in St Mary Street, and he's kicking off with Rafael and Yanet on Tuesday 9th. Should be good, but this means there are now four competing nights on Tuesdays - there's Sabina's Barocco, Shahid's Havana and the longest- established, Andy's Bar Cuba. Wonder how many of them can be sustained?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Coco Xpress cancelled

The live band tonight at Culto is cancelled - Shahid has decided that the venue isn't suitable for people to dance in comfort to a live band. There will be a normal club night and he will refund anyone who's bought tickets.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Salsa before bedtime

Shahid's starting a new Tuesday night at Havana in City Road. The big attraction is that there's dancing downstairs starting at 7.30 while the classes are going on upstairs. At last something for those of us who are too old/too busy for late nights midweek. I wonder who will be going?

Also he has a live band (Coco Xpress) at Culto on Wednesday - unfortunately I have another early start this Thursday so I'll miss it (as I did with Moe Flex last week).

Link here: Salsa Buena

Dancer with attitude

When my friend who answers back first came to Cardiff one of the other guys said to me approvingly (at least, I think it was approving) "she's quite feisty, isn't she?". She proved just how feisty last Thursday when Andy told her that she needed to make a move ''more saucy and sexy". Her response was to show him the finger with the response "that's as saucy as you're going to get from me..."

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Lecturers

Sorry to go on about this again but I'm really getting fed up with this: guys who ask women to dance and then lecture them on what they're doing wrong. It's happened several times to a friend of mine. She'd be the first to admit that her dancing has its idiosyncrasies, but she's talented and fun to dance with. So far she's been lectured by one of the messiest and most unstylish dancers around, and by another guy who omitted to notice (while he was giving her the benefit of his expertise) that he was dancing the entire dance on the 5. (Guys who can actually dance - like Shahid - just dance with her and let the lead do the talking). Fortunately she answers back - maybe if more women did so these guys would learn some manners.

Case number two: the other week in JJs I had a great dance with a woman who's always been good but has dramatically improved lately, with brilliantly controlled spinning (in fact I need to polish up my dancing so I can keep up with her). A few days later I got a text from her asking if I was in town as she needed a dance to chill out: she'd had a thoroughly unpleasant dance which had ruined her evening, with an 'expert' who had thrown moves at her, criticised her dancing, and then told her to relax!

On a more positive note, great to see Sara R back on the scene: she may think she's rusty but she's one of the most exciting people around to dance with - another dancer who makes me raise my game when I dance with her.

New stuff

Shahid and Leann have an event this Wednesday in Culto with Moe Flex, who's an excellent teacher, and the following Wednesday they have a live band - Coco Xpress. For more details visit http://www.salsabuena.co.uk/

Also Marlen is adding a third night of Reggeaton, this time at Culto on a Saturday night. (The other nights are Monday and Thursday in the Yard). I've heard good reports about her Thursday night. I assume Saturday must have been popular because there were no Cubans in La Tasca.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Space

La Tasca's getting very busy lately. Great to see Lisa and Jane over from Bristol last weekend, even if the main dance floor was ridiculously crowded, and suffering not just from drunk muggles but from 'dancers' who won't tone down their dancing to take account of the lack of space. I commented on this to one very good dancer, who said "it's a test of your skill" and proceeded to demonstrate hers by dancing very stylishly in a very small space. We got through the whole dance with no physical contact with adjacent dancers, but as soon as the music ended the guy behind her elbowed her in the head :(