Arrived home from FL yesterday. Hearing the captain say, "It's currently 72 degrees in Los Angeles", really made my day. That, and the puking after getting off of the plane, heralding the end of a long-fought bought with nausea. (caffeine dep + lactose overdose + pressure change = loopy tim)
Z has already blogged about the trip in general, so I'll instead talk about a unique little experience I had while out there.
I thought I'd try and meet up with some salsa or rueda dancers while in town -- I've heard great things about Miami dancers, and the Miami/Cuban style is the one I gravitate towards, insofar as I am able.
I didn't see any clubs that looked appealing, but I did track down a class on Sunday. Originally advertised as a rueda class, it turned out to be the day when they now do, get this... LA style salsa.
That being said, it was about as good a class as I can expect -- it didn't live up to my super-anal standards re: technique, but the teachers were both friendly, competent, and very capable dancers. I picked up a few moves I'll have to try out.
The best part, though, was a girl I danced with during the break. She was one of the students, but a good dancer, and the one wrangled by the instructor for demonstration after demonstration. Oh, did I mention she was deaf?
She was a great follower, and dancer, and was a pleasure to dance with. Since she relied solely on me for the rhythm, it made me think a lot more about the relationship between lead, follow and music. Normally, a bad follower doesn't follow any rhythm, a decent follower dances to the rhythm of the music, and a good follower will deviate from the music to follow the leader (if the leader wanders or plays a bit). In this case, she followed me all of the time, and it was a little surreal to feel the feedback immediately if I played around with the beat a little bit. Anyway, it was great fun. Yay!
UPDATE: One other detail. In order to decide whether I should be grouped with the beginners or the intermediate class, the head guy asked one of the female instructors to dance with me briefly. After a minute, she said, "It's like he's dancing casino and LA," with a genuinely perplexed, almost bothered expression. "Put him in intermediate."
(Casino is the original Cuban name for Salsa, and still refers to the Cuban style. It's still used in the name of Rueda de Casino, for example. Also, I consider "Cuban" to be a huge compliment. Dancing a bit like I'm from LA? A given.)
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2 comments:
Sounds like the class was great fun. I'm glad to hear it!
As for the 72 degrees in LA (at night), as bad as I'm sure it was in Florida, I'm finding the temperature here pretty oppressive.
Of course, we're visiting Seattle at what is typically the optimal time of year for that city.
And I will try to figure out what events I want --- I guess I'll do it tomorrow. :) That's about the extent to which I can procrastinate without failing completely.
Several times a group of deaf people attended my usual salsa class. It was definitely a different experience dancing with a deaf partner. The first time I had noticed the different feel without being able to account for it, until my partner had rotated on and I saw her signing to her friend.
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