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Mucha Salsa Valentines Party, Liverpool |
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Written by JoJo
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Sunday, 24 February 2008 |
Mucha Salsa hold their parties in Liverpool on a monthly basis and they are usually held at the Greenbank Sports Academy, Sefton Park. Unfortunately their usual venue is having some problems so the last couple of parties have been held in the temporary home of the Blenheim Lakeside Hotel, 37 Aigburth Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool L17 4JE. This party on the 16th February was the first time I had been to the new venue, and there was a Valentines Theme. Entrance was £6.
The hotel has some free, on-site parking, but it is quite limited so most people had to park on the street in front of the hotel.
The organisers had made a real effort decorating the room with heart shaped balloons and putting out valentine style sweets on all the tables – the room really did look great.
The function room at this venue has a split room format. The first room you enter has the bar in it, with plenty of tables and chairs and also a dancefloor surrounded by floor to ceiling mirrors.
The second room, which is a permanent marquee, is accessed through an archway next to the first, smaller dancefloor. The marquee room houses a larger dancefloor and the DJ equipment. The sound system is linked to both rooms so everyone dances to the same music.
Some people did not like this split room format, but I liked it because one space was just for dancing and the other was for dancing and chilling out around the bar area. Also the marquee room was considerably cooler than the other room, so when you got too hot you could cool off in the marquee room and vice versa. The only problem with the seating area was that it encouraged people to sit down and chat for too long. The night was well attended though, so the dancefloors were never empty.
Doors opened at 8pm and the classes were supposed to start at 8.15pm, but as is normally the case, people were late arriving so the classes kicked off a little late. There were 3 classes altogether and they were well attended. Beginners and Improvers classes were taken by Resident Teachers Ana, and Robert and Sandra. The Guest Teacher on this night was Emma Moore of Salsology, Manchester with a Ladies Styling Class.
I did not take part in any of the classes but watched the beginners and improvers ones which were going on in the bar room. The styling class was held in the marquee room – I would have liked to watch this one too but as there was no seating in there I was not able to. It was also too cold to stay in there for too long doing nothing.
I did however go in a couple of times to see what was going on, but for the first half of the class all the ladies were sat on the floor – not sure what that was all about, but I do know that they would have been very cold in there sitting around doing nothing. Also, there seemed to be a lot of talking going on so very little music was involved, which also meant that the other 2 classes had no music to practice their steps to, which was a bit of a problem for the teachers involved.
The beginners and improvers classes both finished on time, but the styling class over-ran by half and hour, which was really starting to cause some discontent amongst the dancers that were waiting. Eventually the dancing got going to some great music played by DJs Mani and FunkySalsa Mike. These two DJs always play great sets and this night was no exception – they kept the dancefloors busy for the rest of the evening with some great tracks.
The night seemed to be blighted by some minor problems which culminated in the night being cut a little short due to complaints from neighbours about noise levels, but all in all it was a good night which was well attended – the music was great, the venue was nice and both dancefloors were good. I feel it needs to be pointed out though that none of the problems were the fault of the organisers.
As the venue is a hotel, the bar upstairs was still open after the salsa night downstairs had ended, so we made use of this and stayed on for a drink :o)
Opinions about the venues seemed to be split with some preferring the Greenbank and some preferring the Blenheim Lakeside Hotel. As with all venues, both have good and bad points so preference was all down to individual choice.
The organisers are hoping to be back in their usual home of the Greenbank Academy by April, but please check their website before attending any of their monthly parties to check which venue is being used.
www.muchasalsa.co.uk
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