The Clubs - The Dancing - The People....
3 Nights a week used to be a minimum for me...
The great thing about Salsa is that you can choose to go without planning weeks in advance... Infact many's the time when I've suddenly found out my kids are not spending the night with me and so releases me to dance...
I used to print out Salsa Jive's weekly classes and store them in a folder which was left in the car... along with dance shoes and Joop (you need a strong fragrence in Salsa)...
Every new venue would require an entry in the Sat Nav (which I call Di - short for Directions) and I would also type in what night the venue had dancing...
All this seems to be a distant memory - but last week I found myself revisiting old haunts - sampling new places and restoring my faith in Dancing (see previous post !)
..
Friday - The Chapel Cheltenham...
There was nothing on regionally for me... Birmingham seemed too far for some reason and there was nothing west of London (M4 Corridor) or South of Bristol.. which explained the Huge influx into The Chapel in Cheltenham..
Joy an instructer from Swindon/Chippenham was there as was many of the Swindon/Oxford crowd (presumably because nothing else was on).. A few from Cardiff I recognised and the rest from Glos and Cheltenham...
The dancing was of a higher standard than usual although too many dips going on... (I like to leave my dips on the buffet table where they belong)
Very pretty girls in Cheltenham - call me un-PC if you like but hot pants and tight tops... short skirts and deep red lipstick, a pretty face and lovely smile pretty much seals the deal when it comes to choosing who I dance with.... disgraceful ladies I know... sorry...
me thinks I may get into more hot water on this subject so quickly back pedals with
of course there are many women I ask that look good dancers that I will also choose...
Phew ...did I get away with that ? NO ? Bollocks
Anyways... Highlight of the evening was a dance with a beautiful Special Needs Teacher from Cheltenham who stopped mid dance to wave at her son who was staring through the open door of the club hoping to catch sight of his mum...
The experience un-nerved me a bit - but decided to wave also at the young chap - who didn't look old enough to be carrying that Smirnoff Ice - and complement my Dance partner on looking so young (far too young to have a lad that old)... which helped get over the fact that I felt that I was being judged on how good my dancing was or "What the f*** is that bloke doing holding my mum so close"..
Sunday... Aztec Wine Bar - Bristol
Sunday nights are a good learning night for me... but can also be a lazy night... laziness overuled the burning need to improve my technic and I decided on 5 min drive rather than 1hr and bridge fee to Cardiff - where Andy Witt - one of my fav teachers was starting a new venue up -
This was as a replacement for the popular Wharfe venue that stopped Salsa some 6 months ago - proberbly when they eventually worked out that the revenue from 100 salsa dancers = 3 pissed up Rugby fans...
Anyways... Aztec West it was and "lazy" pretty much sumed up the atmosphere...
Dancers....regulars from North Bristol...
I think I had danced with 80% of the 15 women there before.. (100% by the end of the evening)...
The music was OK - not loud enough - the dancefloor good... and the venue not a bad one - but I don't see numbers getting above 50 long term... I may be wrong...
Thursday... Le Diab'litho - Paris
The Diab'litho is pretty much the best club in Paris well at least the best on a weekday.. Good value at €10 entrance which includes Soft Drink and Buffet (Nice Chilli and rice thankyou very much).
Its in the North of the city 2 stops from Gard Nord.
The class was Rueda which explained the cuban bias later in the freestyle.. A good mix of abilities and I'm sure the UK ladies would love it as I counted 16 guys waiting to pounce by the dance floor at the end of the lesson...
The guys all seemed tall to me and too handsome by half - so took the terribly polite english stance - trying my best to be Hugh Grant and coming across as Mr Bean...
However - I was not refused once and had some lovely dances... I did however feel quite old... It was a trendy club and most were under 30... No-one spoke English - or at least they told me they didn't... The Music was classic Cuban - no Reggaton - No Bachatta..
The Standard in Paris is much higher than the rest of France - I danced in Nice last month and found they have only recently (2 yrs) got the bug in that region... Paris was good but only compares to a good night in Brum/Newcastle/Nottingham and falls short of London (though pains me to say it)... and Barcelona - which is BY FAR the best place to dance in Europe.
Monday Night is Cardiff Night...
Cardiff is a great place for dancing – no question…
There is a huge choice of venues and nights – a thriving community.
Now you may ask why I would travel from Bristol where there are plenty of Salsa classes and one Monthly event (Que Pasa) to pay an extra £5.10 bridge fee and £6 entrance to dance in O’neills Cardiff. To be honest I’m not sure myself… I just get a feeling about where I want to go – sometimes its based upon having a chat with some people I know, sometimes its wanting to dance where nobody knows me, sometimes its where I will get the most out of a teacher, and I used to go to one venue just to see one woman (but that’s another story !)
I haven’t been dancing for weeks (not since Cheltenham – 2/3 weeks previous), for me this is a LONG time… there is a good Salsa addiction graph ...see below
I’ve pretty much gone through this 36 month graph now and back struggling to go once a week… this showed last night as I became more and more frustrated with my dancing…
The lesson was good fun (Charlotte) although for me a woman teacher is no good for me (unless its one to one)… nothing is better than a guy telling you how to lead a move – but that’s a another topic
It was only when I started dancing that I noticed that
a) My legs were tired
b) I had forgotten LOTS of moves
c) I was getting out of breath
This is soooo not me… well maybe.. a bit…. I think I know a lot of moves – a bit like I think I’m a better dancer than I actually am.
But I did used to be able to dance 5 nights a week into early hours get up do a school run – work in an office all day, play gigs all around the country , then do it all again… (hmmmm…however this did land me in hospital a couple of years ago…).
Anyways it was all going wrong yesterday –
Its been a long time since I’ve looked at my dance partner halfway through the song and her eyes a glazed over – or shes looking for where her next dance is coming from…
For me ….Bachatta doesn’t indicate the rush to a beautiful woman ….and a long slow sensual dance on the half full dancefloor..
It indicates a trip to the bar for an expensive red bull – or in last nights case, a ninja style slow exit grabbing my coat from the shadows…
I left at 11pm (embarressed that I was leaving as hardened Salsa crows were still paying there way into the club)..my “Salsa tail” between my legs.
If there were no Lows – there would be no Highs.
Why I Didn't Go Dancing..... Put the kettle on...
Why I Didn't go Dancing Last Night - Part 1 The base of my thumb is throbbing - sort of a dull pain that reminds me there will be a bruise there later… thankfully my ankle isn't as bad as I first thought, and the pain has nearly disappeared. 16:00 - I spent yesterday afternoon with the patio doors open a warm breeze circulating the kitchen whilst I concentrated (well sort of) on the end of month financials. The good thing about by wireless setup is that I can have my home PC connected to the internet at the same time as my laptop - doing searches - downloading music..Etceterra etcetera (is that the sound of music creeping in ?) Anyways - the financial system crashed at 16:15 which gave me a chance to "plan" my evening - dancing I thought … 3 mins on salsa jive and I'd caught up on the latest about Joe, what's on this weekend... and what classes are available on a Wednesday…Yeovil – nah Bridgwater – lets not go there, Weston – Nah, Bristol – No ….Swindon I thought - new club re-opening "Moonrakers"… added Postcode into my phone ready to transfer into Di (affectionate name for my Sat Nav- Di RECTIONS – get it ??)… I had a plan - I was happy.. Time to clear up… Kitchen tidy - lounge tidy (moving the odd clothes and a cheap Tesco’s value coat hanger onto the stairs to take up later) - Clean downstairs loo and vacuuming Later…. My new car is coming with an iPod adapter - cheaper than a 6 disc changer it allows me to plug in my iPod into the cup-holder area and access the playlists from the "multi-function" steering wheel… well it would if I actually HAD an iPod… so in preparation I thought I'd download iTunes so that when I eventually get an iPod I will have all my music ready to transfer… Much Later … one of the "features" of iTunes is that it allows you to display an album cover of the music you are listening to - If it recognises the music it can even get the graphic for you and display it.. Cool… apart from it only found about 40% of my music … This is where the Virgoean (is that a word) in me abandoned all reason… I HAD TO FIND EVERY ALBUM COVER from somewhere (Google/Amazon/eBay) and import… It was a quest that I couldn't stop… Much Much Later… I had finished … I felt good ….but not proud…. But despite what you may think …. This is NOT the reason why I didn't go Dancing Last Night Quick bath and I was ready to go…. Why I didn't go Dancing Last Night - Part 2 NO POPCORN!!… you would think that any place hiring DVD's would have popcorn - if not Butterkist toffee ...then a plain bucket of something - even if it does taste like parcel packing. But no…. Not in my local "Smile".. BTW why do these places smell like someones just spilt a bottle of TCP on the floor ? Brace yourself... Things started to go down hill at this point - (this is still about why I didn't go dancing last night)… The staff in my local Smile are young - young and foreign (Tanya according to her faded name badge) - young , foreign and slow… not slow in a retarded way - slow because they have better things to do than to do their job… like talk to each other - or text/call their boyfriends - (who happen to be outside on the modern equivalent of BMX's)... or they are making themselves "pretty" nails, hair.. etcetera etcetera (Crikey I am Yull Bryner) The girl in last night was doing none of these things… She was in the Isle stacking shelves... (Not popcorn mind) singing… NO Shouting… NO Wailing to "Linkin Park" on the Radio (music that is being piped into the store), only it was sung in broken English - sort of Eastern European Porno style, where you think its English but cannot make out the words… Disappointed with no popcorn I had found an alternative in Chilli Nuts (wanted honey roast but non of them either …tut) and a packet of Libenz Biscuits (you know the ones - quaint pictures of Swiss mountain scenes (goats , mountains, farm labourers) made in chocolate over hanging a very crisp thin biscuit.. LUSH.. I also hired 2 DVD's "Envy" a comedy with Jack Black and Ben Stiller and "Nicolas Cage is … The Weatherman". Later…. Both of these films were in the "Comedy" section both films had famous actors in them… I only had the time to watch one last night so chose "The Weatherman", now I like Nicolas Cage - he can do drama, comedy, he is particularly good at melancholy - If Nicholas Cage was a dog he would be a blood-hound.. Sort of longing to be played with but you wouldn't want to get too close cos you'd get drooled upon… 20 mins into the film… OK - the scene had been set - "Separated, unhappy Weatherman in Chicago, with dysfunctional family... awaits something good to happen"... for example... in "teen movie " Aquamarine watched with kids on Tuesday within 10 minutes two lonely girls had already met the magical Aquamarine a beautiful teenage mermaid that had promised to give them a wish if they help her fall in love within 3 days… Easy to understand - feel good - American Pulp. My Nuts were gone and I was struggling to find my first smile let alone laugh - His daughter was obese and depressed and turned to smoking and stealing - due to being called "Camel Toe" at school His son was being abused by his counsellor He was obsessed with his ex-wife - wanting to "try again" Flashbacks of previous arguments.. He takes up archery and dreams of killing his ex-wife new partner.. I was on my 2nd biscuit when I realised that; A) These biscuits are a copy of the real thing found in proper supermarkets (probably smuggled in by Tanya's parents... last time they visited their family in Krakow) B) This is NOT A COMEDY C) Chilli Nuts go with nothing At this point the film turns a dark corner… his father (Michael Caine) develops a terminal illness and decides to have a living funeral… soon after the living funeral they have the real thing.. Oooh 2 funerals in this comedy !!! As you can imagine sides were splitting at this point He lands a job in New York and lives there - visiting kids at weekends End of Film I now understand why this was not in the "Top Title" section and only cost £1.50 to hire. I went to bed- cheated, hungry, and wishing I watched Envy (is that Irony?)…
01:20 Chilli Nuts make you thirsty… FACT It was no good had to go and find a drink from somewhere… no nothing upstairs I could drink half finished apple juice sprite, water... so downstairs in the dark… Half asleep… "Hmm Milk, Apple Juice Summer Fruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…." Who the F*** left that coat hanger there… ================================================================================================ It's okay... my hand broke the fall.. and my ankle isn't that twisted… As I lay awake - not being able to sleep through the throbbing in my hand I planned today’s email… Why I REALLY didn't go Dancing Last night As I had a bath and was thinking about what to wear two things popped into my head… · I had left my Wallet and Insurance details in the Office · I was supposed to call the AA out about my lights Not having a wallet was OK - Salsa evenings are hardly expensive affairs - and I had £20.. But lights… I'd need them… I swapped cars with Fred (work colleague) at lunchtime so I had the Polo back - unfortunately - both headlights were now broken (one had gone the last time he took my car)… I was meant to call the AA out but had forgotten (bloody iTunes)… there was no way I can drive anywhere without lights… It was then I decided to have a night in with a good Film… hmmm you now know the rest… Appendix All good stories need an Appendix - somewhere to put some of the unanswered questions... Not only did Freds car acquire a half eaten sandwich in Bridgwater - it also acquired slightly bent wing mirror and 2 scratches down the passenger door ! Don't worry, I've smoothed this over with Fred - I sort the lights he sorts out the scratches… As I limped into the Smile shop this morning and handed the DVD 's over the counter I pushed down on the case so I could read the words on the Disc… Nicholas Cage is "The Weatherman" and underneath the strap line "A Comedy to Brighten up your Day"…
As I left the shop I looked up… It had clouded over.
