Because people like to say salsa
Oct. 2nd, 2005 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenSo I'm guessing you're curious about me and the salsa club.
The genius behind this idea was one of the girls in my belly dance class. She teaches the salsa classes at the school and thought it would be fun for our little tribe plus a friend of hers (and the owner, who is also in our tribe) to go to a salsa club.
Now admittedly for both me and K, our tribe leader, this is not the activity we would have picked as a girls' night out, or at least a first girls' night out. It's a structured dance that only two members of the group knew how to do, we don't all know each other that well outside of belly dance, you don't know who might not be able to hold their booze or who's going to be a total man whore or whatever, plus it's a dance that needs a partner and we all had none.
But K and I figured better to go along for the sake of the experience as a whole and next time we'd figure out something else to do. As K put it "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." and right about then is when I knew at least one person and I were sharing a baseline expectation for the evening ;)
K and I both also had our girly moments of not knowing what in the hell to wear, and bonding over the fact that both of us much prefer single dancing than dancing where the man takes the lead.
I also had clothing fun in that the outfit I was going to wear no longer fits me as anything except a possible clown suit (my pants, my favorite pants! waaah!). So my final outfit of the evening consisted of me cobbling together what nice fall weather clothing I had that was vaguely matchy. I ended up with a long black skirt with little slits on each side that allowed for freedom of movement and a tight purple top that was kind of shiny (literally shiny, not like Firefly shiny... though it was that too). I also went with some ankle boots that worked with the outfit and I knew would be comfortable for my feet, but in hindsight I wish somebody had warned me that rubber heels should be avoided. Fortunately the boots aren't that rubbery, but they were rubbery enough that I could tell the difference.
K and I went to the club in the same car. We found the place attached to a Best Western, which worried us a bit in terms of coolness factor but as the evening went on we both had to admit it actually made the club perfect for beginners like us. Nobody there was there because it was cool in and of itself, they were there because they enjoyed the dancing and the music. So that was nice.
Lessons for beginners started at 8 and went for two hours (advanced lessons started at 9 on a different floor with a different teacher). Beginners were put on a tiny dance floor near the bar and walked through a handful of steps. We learned - and forgive me if I get names wrong here - basic, Suzy Q, Suzy Q combo, the hook, the crossover, and... one more step I can't remember the name of.
The teacher was very good at breaking all these steps down for us. What she was not good at, however, was teaching us how to dance with a partner.
Now part of the problem there was that there were only 2 men in the class and 8-10 women. As the class neared the end we did pair off with the guys and the teacher (who danced the male part) volleyball style, but other than teaching one basic turn that was it. This then left us pretty SOL for the main dancing of the night because 99.99% of the dancing done was pairs dancing. Moreover, the club wasn't limited to salsa dancing and that was all we learned. So if you got paried up with somebody who wanted to do the cha cha you were SOL again. This ended up limiting K a great deal because she was extremely nervous about the idea of dancing with somebody, so she only ended up doing it once. I decided that since I was there I might as well take the plunge and just warned any guy who asked me that I was a newbie so go easy on me.
Once the lessons were over we all grabbed a table for ourselves that was right by the dance floor and set in for a night of what would be good music and people watching if nothing else. I actually liked watching the people dance because I could keep a close eye on their feet and try to pick up on when they were doing steps that I'd learned. It was also nice seeing the general makeup of the crowd, which really was a mix of a lot of ages and races all there because they enjoyed dancing. I saw a lot of couples pair up who were unmatched in anything except dance skill.
Our salsa teacher tribe mate hardly ever sat down. She'd gone through the advanced class and apparently all the guys in the class decided that since she was so good they wanted to dance with her. (Plus she's cute, which can't hurt.) It was literally the kind of thing where as soon as she sat down for one song somebody else came and took her to the dance floor.
What was weird, though, was that they literally took her to the dance floor. No asking, no eye contact, just walk by the table, take her hand, and keep walking. She never seemed to mind it though (and I did catch her rolling her eyes when one guy bugged her while they were dancing) so I couldn't tell if maybe the hand-grab is normal salsa club etiquette. Likewise when the dancing was over people just... stopped. No smile, no thanks for the nice dance, they just stopped moving and went back to their tables. Strange.
I got up and danced a few times. The first guy was a bit of a skeez. He seemed nice enough when I warned him right off the bat that I was a beginner, but then he started bossing me around on some of the moves and then looked insulted when at one point he encouraged me to do fancy stuff and I actually had good footwork. Like I'd been lying to him about being new or something.
At any rate, he only got me for the tail end of a song so we weren't on the floor long. On the way back later K mentioned how she could tell with that one guy I wasn't dancing nearly as well with the other guys who asked me, so my guess is that in addition to having a sucky personality he's not much of a leader either.
The other guys who asked me were much nicer, even when I was clearly screwing up things like turns (which, other than the basic, we were not taught). I also had one moment of actually being happy not to lead, b/c one guy had us doing this boring, to me, one-two step (definitely not salsa, no idea if it was something else or if he was just moving as best he could in what was right then a very crowded dance floor) and at one point I worried that maybe I should be trying to mix things up a bit. Then I figured hey, he's the one leading. If he wants more he can indicate that somehow.
At a quarter to midnight the band came out to replace the DJ. They were very good and LOUD. Around then K and I decided to just have fun dancing and we went on the floor to just move to the music and not worry about having a partner. We did some of the steps we learned from class and then K started riffing in some belly dance moves so we improved back and forth with that. I heard a few people doing appreciative hoots but no clue if they were looking at us or others on the dance floor. On the one hand, it did sound like it came from nearby and we were on the edge of the floor and thus easy to see, on the other the floor was very crowded and there were more than a few dancers there who really new their stuff and thus could've been earning the sounds of appreciation. Heck, could've been for the band for all I know.
By that point we were both starting to have our fill, so we hung out for just a few more songs and then made our way back home. All in all we did enjoy ourselves, and certainly enjoyed ourselves more than we thought we would. We'd do it again, but possibly with the hope of at least getting more instruction for partner dancing next time 'round.
And that's about that. =)
ETA: Oh yeah, forgot to mention that when we got there K and I lost our first challenge, which was to actually figure out how to get in. We tried one door, it was locked. Tried another, it led to the hotel. Asked at the hotel and were told to go back where we came and make a right. Did that, found nothing. Did another right and found a door but it was very plain and also locked. Went back, found the first door again, tried it and that time it opened.
As K and I are both blond I'm sure there's a joke to be made here somewhere. Either that or we're it ;)
The genius behind this idea was one of the girls in my belly dance class. She teaches the salsa classes at the school and thought it would be fun for our little tribe plus a friend of hers (and the owner, who is also in our tribe) to go to a salsa club.
Now admittedly for both me and K, our tribe leader, this is not the activity we would have picked as a girls' night out, or at least a first girls' night out. It's a structured dance that only two members of the group knew how to do, we don't all know each other that well outside of belly dance, you don't know who might not be able to hold their booze or who's going to be a total man whore or whatever, plus it's a dance that needs a partner and we all had none.
But K and I figured better to go along for the sake of the experience as a whole and next time we'd figure out something else to do. As K put it "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." and right about then is when I knew at least one person and I were sharing a baseline expectation for the evening ;)
K and I both also had our girly moments of not knowing what in the hell to wear, and bonding over the fact that both of us much prefer single dancing than dancing where the man takes the lead.
I also had clothing fun in that the outfit I was going to wear no longer fits me as anything except a possible clown suit (my pants, my favorite pants! waaah!). So my final outfit of the evening consisted of me cobbling together what nice fall weather clothing I had that was vaguely matchy. I ended up with a long black skirt with little slits on each side that allowed for freedom of movement and a tight purple top that was kind of shiny (literally shiny, not like Firefly shiny... though it was that too). I also went with some ankle boots that worked with the outfit and I knew would be comfortable for my feet, but in hindsight I wish somebody had warned me that rubber heels should be avoided. Fortunately the boots aren't that rubbery, but they were rubbery enough that I could tell the difference.
K and I went to the club in the same car. We found the place attached to a Best Western, which worried us a bit in terms of coolness factor but as the evening went on we both had to admit it actually made the club perfect for beginners like us. Nobody there was there because it was cool in and of itself, they were there because they enjoyed the dancing and the music. So that was nice.
Lessons for beginners started at 8 and went for two hours (advanced lessons started at 9 on a different floor with a different teacher). Beginners were put on a tiny dance floor near the bar and walked through a handful of steps. We learned - and forgive me if I get names wrong here - basic, Suzy Q, Suzy Q combo, the hook, the crossover, and... one more step I can't remember the name of.
The teacher was very good at breaking all these steps down for us. What she was not good at, however, was teaching us how to dance with a partner.
Now part of the problem there was that there were only 2 men in the class and 8-10 women. As the class neared the end we did pair off with the guys and the teacher (who danced the male part) volleyball style, but other than teaching one basic turn that was it. This then left us pretty SOL for the main dancing of the night because 99.99% of the dancing done was pairs dancing. Moreover, the club wasn't limited to salsa dancing and that was all we learned. So if you got paried up with somebody who wanted to do the cha cha you were SOL again. This ended up limiting K a great deal because she was extremely nervous about the idea of dancing with somebody, so she only ended up doing it once. I decided that since I was there I might as well take the plunge and just warned any guy who asked me that I was a newbie so go easy on me.
Once the lessons were over we all grabbed a table for ourselves that was right by the dance floor and set in for a night of what would be good music and people watching if nothing else. I actually liked watching the people dance because I could keep a close eye on their feet and try to pick up on when they were doing steps that I'd learned. It was also nice seeing the general makeup of the crowd, which really was a mix of a lot of ages and races all there because they enjoyed dancing. I saw a lot of couples pair up who were unmatched in anything except dance skill.
Our salsa teacher tribe mate hardly ever sat down. She'd gone through the advanced class and apparently all the guys in the class decided that since she was so good they wanted to dance with her. (Plus she's cute, which can't hurt.) It was literally the kind of thing where as soon as she sat down for one song somebody else came and took her to the dance floor.
What was weird, though, was that they literally took her to the dance floor. No asking, no eye contact, just walk by the table, take her hand, and keep walking. She never seemed to mind it though (and I did catch her rolling her eyes when one guy bugged her while they were dancing) so I couldn't tell if maybe the hand-grab is normal salsa club etiquette. Likewise when the dancing was over people just... stopped. No smile, no thanks for the nice dance, they just stopped moving and went back to their tables. Strange.
I got up and danced a few times. The first guy was a bit of a skeez. He seemed nice enough when I warned him right off the bat that I was a beginner, but then he started bossing me around on some of the moves and then looked insulted when at one point he encouraged me to do fancy stuff and I actually had good footwork. Like I'd been lying to him about being new or something.
At any rate, he only got me for the tail end of a song so we weren't on the floor long. On the way back later K mentioned how she could tell with that one guy I wasn't dancing nearly as well with the other guys who asked me, so my guess is that in addition to having a sucky personality he's not much of a leader either.
The other guys who asked me were much nicer, even when I was clearly screwing up things like turns (which, other than the basic, we were not taught). I also had one moment of actually being happy not to lead, b/c one guy had us doing this boring, to me, one-two step (definitely not salsa, no idea if it was something else or if he was just moving as best he could in what was right then a very crowded dance floor) and at one point I worried that maybe I should be trying to mix things up a bit. Then I figured hey, he's the one leading. If he wants more he can indicate that somehow.
At a quarter to midnight the band came out to replace the DJ. They were very good and LOUD. Around then K and I decided to just have fun dancing and we went on the floor to just move to the music and not worry about having a partner. We did some of the steps we learned from class and then K started riffing in some belly dance moves so we improved back and forth with that. I heard a few people doing appreciative hoots but no clue if they were looking at us or others on the dance floor. On the one hand, it did sound like it came from nearby and we were on the edge of the floor and thus easy to see, on the other the floor was very crowded and there were more than a few dancers there who really new their stuff and thus could've been earning the sounds of appreciation. Heck, could've been for the band for all I know.
By that point we were both starting to have our fill, so we hung out for just a few more songs and then made our way back home. All in all we did enjoy ourselves, and certainly enjoyed ourselves more than we thought we would. We'd do it again, but possibly with the hope of at least getting more instruction for partner dancing next time 'round.
And that's about that. =)
ETA: Oh yeah, forgot to mention that when we got there K and I lost our first challenge, which was to actually figure out how to get in. We tried one door, it was locked. Tried another, it led to the hotel. Asked at the hotel and were told to go back where we came and make a right. Did that, found nothing. Did another right and found a door but it was very plain and also locked. Went back, found the first door again, tried it and that time it opened.
As K and I are both blond I'm sure there's a joke to be made here somewhere. Either that or we're it ;)
