Monday, December 20, 2004

Fiesta

Mikey P's Latin American party last night. (Shame I've got to go to work today...) Lots of merengue, a nice bachata track (I need a bit more practice at that), samba, disco with a live singer, and a bit of salsa. And the piñata: a huge decorated star-shaped object hanging from the ceiling which blindfolded people took turns to hit until it fell down to disgorge its presents and prize tokens.

It was probably 50% Latin Americans and 50% Cardiff salsa people, which made for a really good atmosphere. Danced with some of my favourite people, including several I hadn't danced with for weeks. I'm hoping this will be a regular fixture as it was a great start to Christmas week.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Avoiding cold turkey

For those who are worried about missing their fix, Andy's running salsa at the Wharf every weekend except the 26th, and La Tasca is also open apart from the 24/25th and New Year's Day. It's even open New Year's Eve, free.

On New Year's Day Phil Moore is running a salsa night at Rhiwbina rec for those who aren't nursing hangovers.

Also SalsaMania are running their usual Wednesday night at Fiesta Havana on the 22nd (it's closed on the 29th).

Brum

Got sent to Coventry with work yesterday and had to travel up on Sunday night. This time I managed to get them to book me into a hotel in Birmingham so that I could check out the salsa in G2, which was just around the corner.

I was in two minds as to whether to go to the class or just turn up later for the free dancing (only £2 after 9). I went to the class and was glad I did. Michael's teaching was very clear and good-humoured and he knows the importance of repetition. He started off with some nice footwork and spent enought time on it for us to get the moves (rather than just doing a footwork warmup as an exercise in speed-learning which leaves half the class behind). His style of partner dancing is exactly the sort I'd like to learn: sophisticated but follower-focused rather than 'look at me' narcissistic.

I don't know if this applies to Birmingham generally, but this class and the free dancing would have had one big advantage over Cardiff from a women's point of few: all the men seemed reasonably presentable, unlike some of the odd people women in Cardiff have to avoid. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to dance with someone if you don't like his dubious motives/lack of social skills/strange aroma/violent leading (delete where necessary). Maybe if more people realised this, some of the stranger and creepier individuals would stop coming, or at least learn to be civil. (Mind you, if you're looking for strange men try Pontins - the first class I went to I thought it was a Munsters' convention!)

There weren't a whole lot of people there for the free dancing, but I got asked for a dance early on and the only person to turn me down had a broken toe (best excuse I've heard yet). Bloody hot in the club though! I didn't find all the music easy to dance to, but at least it wasn't the same old stuff.

A couple of nice dances but not a lot of eye contact. It's always a bit odd when you dance with someone, you think they're not impressed because you don't get any eye contact, and at the end they're very friendly and positive. I think this varies from region to region - a friend of mine went back to her home town, danced with the usual eye contact, and was told (imagine this in a Shropshire accent): "You don't do that looking thing, do you? We don't do that here."

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Torquay

Feeling the urge to go on another salsa weekend soon. A while ago I met someone who enthused about the events at the Victoria Hotel in Torquay. The next one is 25-27th February. Apparently it has good teachers (Angus who I mentioned below is one), and is smaller and more comfortable than Pontins. And at £129 includingdinner, bed and breakfast it would probably work out about the same price.

Christmas salsa

Unfortunately the Toad has finished until the New Year. John Pamplin's class has its final pre-Xmas session on Monday 13th.
Good stuff? The SalsaManiaXmas party on Wednesday 15th at Fiesta Havana in Bristol (hope to get to that one), a Latin American party in O'Neills on Sunday 19th (ditto), and Phil'sNew Year's Eve bash at the Claverton Rooms in Bath (too far!).

Last year the Wharf carried on through the Christmas period without a break - hope the same thing is happening this year.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Pontins

First visit to Brean Sands after three years' dancing. I got there early evening on Friday after battling through the traffic past Newport. I wasn't going to bother with the class that evening but I was glad I did: Angus' intermediate session was everything a salsa class should be (apart from the surprising surplus of men). The sequence wasn't too long, it wasn't all new moves but contained variations on common moves, the level was about right (for me anyway, though some people weren't finding it easy) and the teaching was extremely clear and focused on how to lead the moves gently and accurately.

Later on there was a useful warmup from Kerry. Useful in that it persuaded me not to go to any of her classes...

I didn't get far with the Mario/Maria competition: when I turned round I thought I'd struck lucky, but the first thing my tall and glamorous partner asked was "Do you dance Cuban-style?" Though for a Cuban dancer she was pretty good at following my stuff.

The free dancing on the Friday was great. Basically, with more women than men any halfway presentable male dancer had it made. It got very crowded and dancefloor discipline was a bit lacking, but I don't know when I've ever danced so continuously with so many happy women. Particularly gratifying was one whose response to my request to dance was 'all right, then' but who ended up smiling broadly. Nice when it all goes right. I only made it to half one rather than the 5am some people managed.

I was a bit surprised by the variable standard of the teaching on Saturday. Maybe I chose badly, but I only ended up staying through one full class. This was Heber's excellent bachata class, an object lesson in how to teach complete beginners a new dance step. In a very crowded class he concentrated on teaching the basic step with variations and added style. Lots of wacky charisma, but lots of very useful teaching as well. The only odd thing was that we didn't get to change partners at all. Great for me as I had been grabbed by an ideal partner - good dancer, happy with close holds, patient and with a sense of humour. It was really nice to learn a dance which seemed to be based on relatively simple steps, feeling and fun rather than choreography. Unfortunately Wilson and Yessica's improvers bachata class later on suffered from a severe case of routinitis - little about feeling, all about trying to remember the sequence.

I spent quite a lot of the afternoon free dancing in the Queen Vic. Great atmosphere and I danced with everyone from beginners to advanced dancers. There was some spectacular and inspiring dancing to watch as well.

Had a quick rest to get ready for the big night and then the migraine hit. Seriously pissed off. I still went on the Saturday night but my dancing was crap. Highlight of the night? Berg and Solanche's lambada display. Solanche dances while appearing to be unconscious: she can spin endlessly with eyes shut and head slumped to one side. It's amazing to watch.

Migraines mess up my dancing for days, so I headed off home in the morning. Would I go again? You bet. I think I'll spend even more time in the Queen Vic, though.

Thanks to Kate for organising the Cardiff expedition, and thanks to the occupants of the chalet next door for the entertainment when I called in for a drink. If any of you ever get tired of dancing you have a great future in comedy...

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Racism and salsa

Interesting discussion (for a change) taking place on Salsacity forum about whether Mikey P saying that Latin Americans are better at running Latin nights is racist. Hugh thinks it isn't, El Diablito (Stevie from Salsamania) thinks it is. Of course, this being an interesting discussion Hugh has now closed the thread, so I thought I'd put my twopence worth in here.

I can understand Stevie, as a successful and hard-working salsa promoter, objecting to Mikey P's original comment - and I believe it's factually wrong anyway - but I would disagree that it was racist. I think the argument is not that Latinos have an innate superiority where it comes to Latin music and dance, but more that they are culturally more familiar with it - and that, to my view, isn't a racist argument.