Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Fiesta Havana

Stevie from Salsamania has just let me know that Fiesta Havana does now have working air conditioning, so for anyone who's going tonight it should be a less sweaty experience than before.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Good night out

So much for all my plans to get to Zync, Bristol and La Cachaçaria - didn't get to one of them. But I had a good time in the Toad and a really good time in the Wharf last night. I'm going to try and get there regularly in preference to O'Neills: it's a nice relaxed atmosphere, the lesson was really interesting and useful (and Andy was in top comic form). The standard of people in the class was refreshingly good (all the women in the class could do the moves, and apparently most of the men could too). Plenty of space for free dancing - there were only half a dozen women dancing afterwards, but they were all people I like and enjoy dancing with, and I got some really useful feedback on my lead on a couple of moves (thanks Sue!)

(Only problem was the newly polished floor which was a bit like a skating rink - let's hope plenty of people with grubby feet walk across it before next Sunday...)

Big Latin Night Out, Bristol

Bristol, 17 September: a day of dance workshops (in venues near Corn Street) and outdoor displays, followed by a latin night in the Students' Union in Clifton. I went last year: there were some good workshops but it wasn't that well attended (though there was a good-sized Cardiff contingent). This year the workshop programme looks even better, and they have a proper evening event which was lacking last year. Lots of interesting stuff, though unfortunately three workshops I want to do are running at the same time (samba with the distractingly gorgeous Militsa, salsa hip-hop with Sahir, and Latin Jazz with Oscar).

Monday, August 22, 2005

Toad, Wharf etc

The Toad was fun last week - or at least it was when i finally warmed up (ten minutes before my daughter rang and asked for a lift home...). Great to dance with Kate again for the first time since she got back from America; and particularly good to have her leading rueda again. (She makes it more dynamic and fun than any other leader I've encountered.) She's going to be running a five-week rueda refresher class in Swansea on Monday nights soon, which I'll try to get to.

Didn't get to Than's new night at La Cachaçaria, unfortunately - hope it went well.

The Wharf was a lot quieter last night than the previous week, when I was impressed by the number of good or very good dancers there. I was glad I went last night anyway - this time I did the lesson (usefully, Andy pointed out where my CBL had got sloppy) and danced with Lucy for the first time for weeks.

Going to miss O'Neills tonight. Might try Zync or Callaghans tomorrow, or alternatively I might save my energy for Angus's class in Bristol Golf Club on Thursday.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Than's new night

Than's starting a new salsa night in La Cachacaria (downstairs at Las Iguanas) next Friday. It runs 8pm to 2am. Apparently the dancefloor is very small, but with Than DJing it should be fine if the right people turn up. Nice to have somewhere to go for a dance early in the evening without hanging round for classes to finish.

That's more like it...

Ah, now I remember why I like dancing! I wasn't that inspired after Monday, but as soon as I got to the Toad I livened up - it was great to be back and surprisingly busy with several of my favourite dancers there. I had a really good dance fairly early on which made me feel like a proper dancer again. (Or at least, I thought it was really good - hope you did too, Lisa!)

Still got a little way to go before getting back to full fluency again: there were a couple of dances later on where I was definitely lacking subtlety even when dancing with really good partners. But at least I don't feel as if it's going to take months.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Toucan closed

The Toucan Club has moved out of its St Mary Street premises because a developer is converting the upper floor of the building into flats (yeah, like Cardiff really needs more luxury flats). Apparently they hope to reopen soon once they find another venue, and they'll be running one-off nights in other venues in the meantime.

In its previous location - which is now Callaghan's - the Toucan was where salsa started in Cardiff (before my time). The St Mary Street venue was one of the few civilised places to see good music in the City Centre. They haven't done a lot of Latin gigs recently but it's still a shame to lose a good venue.

Visit their website for the latest news.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Holidays...

Who needs them? Well, I do - but it's frustrating trying to get back into salsa after a fortnight away and then a week off with a bad cold. I was pretty rubbish last night and I reckon it'll take several weeks of going at least twice a week to really get back to speed.

O'Neills was amazingly busy with quite a few new faces, and some who haven't been around for a while - in particular Jayne, who hasn't been around for months. Jayne was really helpful to me when I first started dancing - it's good to see her back on the scene.