Friday, July 25, 2008

Heat and rain

I had it all worked out - take a day off today to take my daughters to the beach, and stay late at Risa last night. Well, it was tipping down with rain when I woke up, and Risa wrapped up not long after twelve. Oh well.

Andy's now moved the advanced class upstairs, which means there's loads more space - I might start going again. It was very hot up there last night though. One advantage, for those of us who don't do the classes, is that the free dancing downstairs started reasonably promptly. It's great to have Stevie on the decks: he's playing some really interesting and varied music. A lot of Cuban earlier on, some nice Latin jazz later, and no Colombian boogaloo. (I know it's easy to dance to but I've heard those Sonora Carruseles songs so often). A shame there weren't more dancers to enjoy it.

I went to Koko Gorilaz again on Tuesday, which I enjoyed: quite a few dancers there who you don't see anywhere else. After the classes Misael and Sabina took the time to help me sort out 'culebra' which he hadn't quite finished teaching in the earlier class. Sabina also told me some interesting stuff about Cuba: apparently rueda is often done as a game there, with surplus guys waiting around the circle to take the place of dancers who get ejected if they get a move wrong. Might improve the standard here ;)

Last of the July advanced workshops on Sunday. They've been really useful and I'm looking forward to when they start again in the Autumn.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Party night

Irene and Shahid (Salsa Buena) have a Salsa Party night on Saturday 19th July at Pure, their new Tuesday night venue in Guildhall Place off St Mary Street. You need to have a flyer or an advance ticket - get them from Irene (Irene102@hotmail.co.uk or 07877-375317). Guest teachers are Simon and Angelique.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Risa

Having gone on about how great Paris was, I have to say that Bar Risa was rather wonderful last night. The Bristol contingent were there in force for Ali's birthday, and Stevie was back on the decks after a break for Glastonbury. I was feeling inspired after my Paris trip and some of my favourite dancers were there, so I think I've stopped pining for Cerise Matthieu (see the previous post but one.)

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Paris video



Sorry about the rubbish phone video. The top row is the outdoor salsa by Quai Saint-Bernard; the bottom row is Barrio Latino (bottom right is the birthday dance).

Barrio Latino

This former factory near the Bastille has a spectacular interior with balconies around a wooden floor.

I was feeling confident, having not been turned down once the previous night. I was a bit tired so my dancing was a bit variable to start with, but nobody seemed to mind. It’s pure cross-body style. With one woman I thought it was worth taking the risk of appearing in my own HM Bateman cartoon (‘The man who danced Cuban style in Barrio Latino’) and it went down well: she asked me where I’d learnt to dance Cuban-style and told me it was what she normally danced.

The best dancers mostly danced on the side of the floor nearest the DJ booth. I saw some terrific dancing by people who really seemed to be making it fun. Some of the top women only dance with the top men – I had a few refusals – but that wasn’t really a problem (I’d rather get a straight ‘no’ than dance with someone who’s not enjoying herself).

The music was uniformly excellent, almost all salsa, and unlike Madrid and Brussels I only recognised a couple of songs all afternoon. Very good-humoured: when I miscalculated a move and inadvertently inserted the woman I was dancing with between another dancer and his partner he just laughed it off.

Memorable dances included two with a woman who resembled Cerys Matthews, but smaller, browner, and prettier. She had an extraordinarily decisive bachata hip action – 1, 2, 3, BANG, 5, 6, 7, BANG... I tried to work out how she did it while I watched her dancing with someone else. Then there was the tallest woman I’ve ever danced with: she looked far too cool to dance with me (serious, pierced navel, tattooed hip) but when she said yes I had to hastily try and calculate which moves would work with someone who was probably 15cm taller than me.

Mid-afternoon I had two brilliant dances in succession, dancing better than I have for a long time. One was with the first woman I’d danced with the previous night. The second was one of the best dances I’ve ever had with a stranger, with some wonderfully subtle following.

I also realised that I really have learnt a lot recently as I was using of a lot of the points of technique from Andy’s advanced workshops (and Angus’s private lesson). And Misael’s Sombrero 88 and Ventilador worked with the Cuban woman.

One of the regular dancers had her birthday dance later, which was cool: just the top dancers circling her and taking it in turns (with plenty of joking around when somebody jumped in out of turn) while the whole club clapped out the clave.

Negatives? It was very hot (but then it was a very hot weekend), the drinks cost three times what you’d pay in Risa, and the dance floor got very crowded later on. None of these things should stop you going. Unlike Madrid – where I found the dance culture a bit alien – dancing in Paris seemed like the UK but just better: better music, better dancers and more fun. Definitely the most enjoyable three and a half hours I've spent dancing in a long time.

A warm summer night in the City of Light

When I was invited to a seminar in Paris I couldn’t turn down my third European capital in three months. One contributor on SalsaForums reckoned it has the best ‘Puerto Rican’ (CBL) dancing outside New York, and it’s where Kate learnt to dance Cuban style. I headed over a day early to catch Barrio Latino on Sunday afernoon, and then I heard about the open-air Saturday nights on Quai Saint-Bernard.

It was still daylight when I found the square near the Musée du Monde Arabe on the Left Bank. I identified a dancer who looked good and intercepted her as she left the floor. A good choice: she had loads of style and a great attitude which encouraged me to dance in a relaxed way (though the free Limoncello after my pizza may have helped).

The vibe was really positive and easy-going and the women I danced with engaged, with plenty of eye contact and humour. I took it easy as I didn’t want to wreck my knee before Barrio Latino the following day, but even though I wasn’t dancing much I didn’t want to leave. I left around half eleven (after the sound system broke down for the third time). All around, on the grass and on the bank of the river, Parisians were having picnics in the summer heat as I walked back towards the Metro.