RIP Bar Salsa and part II Bar Salsa and Me

RIP Bar Salsa! 

Last week I received the sad news that Bar Salsa! aka Salsa Soho is permanently closing this summer.

It’s being closed as the whole block is being redeveloped to form New Compton Street which will cut through to Shaftesbury Avenue.

 Proposed development. The lower left is Salsa!

more info on the development here: 

Bar Salsa! has been a constant part of the UK salsa scene since the early  nineties. The business has changed hands many times and currently is operated by Stonegate, one of the largest hospitality companies in the UK.

In 2017 it was threatened with closure so Stonegate converted a large Walkabout pub above Temple tube into Salsa Temple. Sadly Salsa Temple closed in June as the building's owners vastly increased the rent in order to reclaim the building.

My relationship with Bar Salsa goes back to the early/mid nineties and last year I wrote part 1 of this blog post below.

Looking forward: 

For this post, Instead of looking back I’m going to look forward.

Most of the salsa teachers have other venues and no doubt will be launching new venues Salsa nights ASAP. I have no fears that the Salsa dance scene will  die, as very few dance scenes ever do. There may well be a simulation effect within the scene where more innovation takes place. There are already trends towards outdoor dance classes and meetup style events, so who knows what forms the dance scene will take in the coming years? My suggestion to the up and coming dancers is to get out there and try stuff! We did thirty years ago and it worked so why not you? Have you really got anything to lose?

Salsa Rapido: 

I’ve decided after thirty years of teaching salsa to let go of the Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive courses now that Salsa Soho is about to close.

Although I’ve run the course in many venues, in many cities, it feels like now’s the time to step back. I’ve clocked up thirty years, and over 60,000 people have attended the Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive courses alone. I’ve received awards from my students via TripAdviser and from my peers so I’ve nothing else to prove. Fliss and I will still run the Thames Salsa Cruise (17/08/2025) and these days I’ve a successful psychotherapy and couple counselling practice. 

But I’m not hanging up my dance teaching boots just yet!

The Mambalsa Project has been growing in my mind and heart over the last few years and offers a huge opportunity for me and anyone who wants to join me exploring the intersection of social partner dance, well-being and self-development. Who knew empathetic communication could be so fun 🙂 (I did!)

Hope!

In my mind the need for social partner dance has never been greater. Working from home, excessive screen time and lack of proper breaks has rendered most working lives sedentary and solitary.

The traditional nightclub models may have to change as young people are drinking less and staying out less on weeknights, but there seems to be a cultural shift as gen Z's and gen A’s appear to value ‘how they feel’ over the superficial ‘how I look’ of the Facebook/ Insta generation. 

Any dance that gets people face to face and empathetically communicating whilst  having fun, has to be valued. I urge salsa teachers to bear this in mind.

Warning

If social partner dances  continue to rely on the performance/competition model of discipline, drills and exacting precision,  dances like Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba may join the dances of yesteryear, reflecting a macho, slightly sleazy 20th century culture that doesn't seem appropriate for the second quarter of the 21st century. 

Let's face it, few need a dance scene to meet people as the dating apps have gobbled up that market. 

My suggestion is that we keep it fun, keep it social, and keep it creative. 

It's not about the building:

Buildings come and buildings go. I've taught at over 66 venues over the last 30 years. Many are now car parks, flats and offices. (Hopefully not my fault!)

What's important is not the dance floor, the sound system or the air conditioning, but the intention within ourselves and the people we dance with, to set the problems of the world aside for just a few minutes as we connect through rhythm and movement on the dance floor.

Bar Salsa is dead, but Salsa lives on!

_____________________

Part II. 

In the blink of an eye, we've clocked up thirty years!

A better question is why? Well, a couple of years / a few years / several years / many years ..... Okay! Thirty years ago! we did a very similar thing at the same venue, but back then it was titled: my Stag Party!

 

 

 

Salsa Soho AKA Bar Salsa AKA Salsa! is the cornerstone of the UK salsa scene. Like Ronnie Scotts just up the road it's been around for ages and everyone in the London salsa scene knows of it. To some it's the home of their social life. To others it is the living hell of a salsa club diluted with non-dancers and less purist dancers than their personal offinaddo status deserves. Whether alluring or sleazy, a parody of Latino culture or a home from home, Salsa! endures. Buyout after buyout owner after owner it now resides in Stonegate's ‘special portfolio’ of quirky but profitable venues. Profitable because it navigates between bar, restaurant, cafe, dance studio and club seven nights per week. Always vibrant and exciting.

Unlike Ronnie Scotts and it's status within the jazz community, Salsa! has never traded off its Latino heritage. It's always selling itself to the next generation of dancers who've just discovered Latin music and dancing. The closest it has come to being the ‘home of salsa', was after a refurb many years ago when the corridor to the toilets was going to become London’s ‘Salsa Hall of Fame’. The teachers at Salsa!, myself included, were invited to provide a framed picture (at our expense) to hang under a brass plaque announcing ‘Salsa Hall of Fame’. No doubt as internationally famous salseros visited London they too would be inducted. Sadly the plaque was never made and my picture hangs, along with the others on the ‘Corridor to the Toilets.’

Click for a YouTube clip of us dancing

Last Thursday was a special night for Fliss and I. We went out dancing, albeit middle aged style, with cocktails, a meal and mucho vinos!

Where did we go? Salsa!

Yep! That's us 30 years ago at Salsa!

We haven't changed a bit! Honest!

Salsa Soho has been going even longer than our marriage! I'm guessing it was around 1990-1992 that it was converted from a US chain restaurant: Chicago Meatpackers. It wasn't much of a conversion as the mezzanine was kept in place that once had a model railway running around on top of it. The tall and very solid round tables below are today  used by the bar, and if you ever have to move them you'll find out just how solid they are! I often joke that some of the chewing gum under the tables have world heritage status! Maybe future archaeologists will prove me right.

I never went to it before it was Bar Salsa but I believe Jorge, who runs the highly successful Sunday night at Salsa Temple used to work there as a waiter! Food blogger Bill King, writes in his blog

“We especially liked Chicago Meatpackers in London’s Charing Cross district, where they had a lot of railroad memorabilia and a model train chugging around the room. We got a kick out of a notice on the menu (aimed at British customers, I assume) advising that good steaks should not be eaten well-done!”

Originally Salsa! was a group of five restaurants. I believe the tiny one in Edinburgh’s GrassMarket is still going but under different ownership. There is also Salsa Temple above Temple tube station by the Thames. Slasa Temple was not quite the expansion of the Salsa! brand people think. At the height of the property boom fueled by dodgy Russian dough, the landlords of the block in which Salsa! resides decided to reclaim the basement venue and convert it into luxury apartments. Stonegate, Salsa!’s operating company, had just brought out the Walkabout Pub group, the largest of which was at Temple. This was rapidly converted into Salsa Temple and all teachers DJ's etc were given the order to move. Just before opening the property market in that sector crashed and Salsa Soho's least was extended leaving two bar Salsa!s hence Salsa Soho and Salsa Temple.

So I'd met this violinist years earlier at a pub in Hampstead where I'd hired out my mini PA system to a band she was playing with. Fling became dates, became a trip around the world, became moving in together in a nineties version of an ageless story. 

We went to the Notting Hill Carnival in the summer of 1992 and to avoid the crowds, we slipped down a side street away from the main procession. There was a Latin sound stage pumping out some strange alien music with people dancing a partner dance that clearly wasn't jive or ballroom. Whether it was the music, the dance or the sunshine, I don’t know, but it looked good. I remember reaching down and picking up a flyer. ‘Free one hour class before the dance’. Perfect! I remember thinking an hour would be more than enough to be able to dance all night! We went, enjoyed the class and sat and watched the dancers dance with a far greater appreciation of their skill. We were hooked!

By the time we first went to Salsa! it was in full swing as a Brazilian/ Latin American restaurant. That's why the signage colours are still green and yellow. People forget, or weren't born - which is a fair excuse, that Brazilian dance i.e. Samba and Lambada were arguably more popular than salsa in London in the early nineties; and the combined Latino scene was smaller than the Modern Jive scene, created and led by Ceroc. Ballroom and Latin was in its death throes as venue after venue was converted into Supermarkets (Archway, Muswell Hill)  or lap dancing venues (Tottenham Court Road Spearmint Rhinos, Farringdon's EC1 club). Ballroom had yet to be resuscitated by Strictly Come Dancing, which twenty years after its launch is now in its death throes as bullying and harassment claims amount.

The London Salsa scene had gained a foothold in 1987 when Nelson Batista started teaching (he'd forgotten the exact year when I last asked him). He was closely followed by Colombian Xiomara Granados (forgive my spelling). Nelson's original sidekick was none other than Elder Sanchez who by the early nineties set up Salsateca. I once borrowed, and sadly returned, a VHS video of a T.V. documentary clip on salsa featuring Nelson and Elder dancing away. They both looked hilariously young! Oh how I'm eating those words today as I compare myself now to our wedding pictures! 

1994 was the start of the golden era for salsa dancing in the UK. At the time there were under eight teachers in London at central London venues. I would drive twelve miles from Stanmore to Euston to meet Fliss for our salsa classes with Salsa Fusion. Parking was a lot easier back then! By the end of 1995 salsa had broken out of central London and into the suburbs and suddenly there were over eighty classes inside the M25! It felt like surfing a tsunami wave spreading out from central London!

Salsa! was was my list. We all had one. A list of venues spanning the week that everyone knew about. Mondays Salsa! with Ramero's night (before he moved to Sound in Leicester Square). Tuesday's Bar Rumba- Shaftesbury Ave, Wednesdays La Finca- Kings Cross, etc. 

Ramiro Zapatta ran a competition once a month and we saw Robert Charlamagne and partner in a dance off against Susanna Montero and Chandi. It was awesome and in hindsight significant. Robert, at the time, represented a smooth, fluid, rotational London style that fused Cubanesque moves with Afro Caribbean effortlessness and a lot of Robert's personal funk. It was playful and inspiring. Susanna captivated us with the cheeky aire of a ballet dancer being naughty. Her style became more linear as the LA style influence grew in London. A style she championed at the expense of the original London style. 

I first used the term London Style on my website in 1996 but Leon Rose later used it in the late nineties to refer to a soft linear style that had swept across Europe and remains prevalent today. Let’s face it, it's hard to maintain the anger and angst expressed by the underprivileged Los Angeles Latino communities through L.A. style, when you've grown up in some leafy European suburb! I didn't know it then, but Robert and Susanna were playing out the ancient story of the wren, representing the old year, being killed by the robin of the new year. (Yes that's why we have robins on Christmas cards)

Having started teaching in 1995 my first professional association with Bar Salsa! was in 2002 when I set up a monthly get together of salsa teachers called The Salsa Instructors Forum. Its aim was to share good teaching practice and it was useful and successful. I was also venturing out to Europe dancing a solo demo with a mop and office chair (called Catno. as in catalogue number) 

By 2003 I ran my first full day improvers course and then at beginners level and kaboom! I'd hit on the untapped market of people wanting to learn dance who couldn't make or tolerate weekly classes. The Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive course was born, but I'd run out of weekend days and my congress demos and forums fell by the wayside. 

Although I'd been a full time salsa teacher since 1997, only now did we have enough income and stability to buy a home. To the young people out there, I know what it's like to spend years working hard but watching the housing market seem ever further away. 

My courses still run weekly and my teaching has evolved immeasurably to today's intersection of dance psychology and well-being. The 1-Day courses and its five hour group dynamic, also gave me the chance to develop my comedy skills and I credit my five shows at the Edinburgh Fringe to the many many guinea pigs that were tested on during my salsa intensives. It was also the 1-Day courses that fueled my interest in psychology. The group dynamics and the systems of fun, communication etc, all led me to a point where I trained as a counsellor. It was a retirement plan that I had little intention of using in any significant way until I started seeing clients during training who allowed me into their lives. The retirement plan really paid off when I needed chemotherapy last year and could barely teach dance.

That leads me onto the purpose of this piece. It's an open letter of gratitude to three things that are very special to me:

Bar Salsa! AKA Salsa Soho. A dear friend that has been with me on my journey for over three decades. The kindness of the management team during covid and my cancer journey was of the highest calibre. 

To Salsa, that strange alien music and dance that still inspires me.

Above all, to my wife Felicity AKA DJ Felicidad, who has shared and witnessed my journey. Happy anniversary :)

Me with Fadi and Fliss

Salsa! in full swing

Twenty Five years of the Thames Salsa Cruise

My, how time flies!
 

As we approach the Thames Salsa Cruise’s 25th Anniversary on Sunday 21st May 2023, I’d like to offer a few reflections of this very special event that’s been part of the London Salsa scene for quarter of a century.

I’d also like to offer my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who’s come on the cruise over the years. You’ve made it what it is: A beautiful, fun evening of joy.

 

 

How it began:

We were having a good year. I was teaching salsa nights in the West End, City of London and a couple of venues in North and North West London.
I was also editing the Email Salsa News which was a salsa events listing email magazine, that went out weekly.
Fliss, AKA DJ Felicidad and I, decided to celebrate with a salsa picnic by the river in Jubilee Gardens next to Embankment station.

We quickly realised that promoting this free event was taking as much effort as promoting a profit making event with as much reputational risk if things went wrong. (We found out on the day that picnics are banned in Jubilee gardens!) It was time to take a risk and hire a boat as an add-on to the picnic. The idea of the Thames Salsa Cruise was born. Four hours of Sunday afternoon cruising the Thames and back in time to get home ready for Monday.

 

The Party:

I believe dancing should be fun, not some exacting, elitist, performance based art form!
This informs how I teach and the events I run. One time many , many years ago, a couple arrived at the pier, sauntered up and announced they were Latin champions and required VIP status. My response would have failed any customer service exam (including Rian Airs). Needless to say they did not board :)

The Boat:

Although it was the same boat back then, HMV Royalty, a veteran of the first world war, was less well appointed than she is today. She had a cambered i.e. sloping dance floor so that any liquid: spilt drinks, river spray, body fluids etc., would run to the sides. This made dancing interesting! Quickly we adopted the idea that if your partner was shorter than you, they stand in the middle and vice versa!

We also had to hump a PA system from wherever we could park to the boat and back. Back then I mounted two CD Walkmans in a black attaché case with a small mixer. I had many enquiries from other DJs as to where they could buy one.

Mambo Number Five

Given the cost and the dance floor it was vital to remind everyone that the Thames Salsa Cruise was not a club night. There was far less boat traffic back then so after a while everyone got used to the floor and we stopped being special. I had a cunning plan! Fliss put on Mambo Number Five and I would lead an animation (line up) that deliberately rocked the boat by everyone running from side to side. This was discussed with the skipper first to ensure it was perfectly safe. By the way, they test the buoyancy annually by placing tonnes of weight on one side to tilt the boat well beyond its maximum capacity. They also ultrasound the hull for cracks and carry at least double the life saving equipment needed for the capacity.

Anyway Mambo Number FIve was a success and we’ve repeated it on every cruise ever since. Sometimes it's good to be a little silly :)

The River Thames

The Thames has changed so much since we started. It's almost hard to imagine but when we started the London Eye, Millennium Dome, Shard, Headlamp, Walkie Talkie, Emirates Cable Car, Greenwich Meridian Laser and so many more things we're simply not around! It feels as if they've been built just for you to see as you dance the night away.
One of my hack lines is that the Thames Salsa Cruise has been going longer than Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!
“Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep” Henry VI, Part II

Video:

Back in 2009 I spent a week editing a video of the Cruise. It’s still a very good representation of what it’s like. If you recognise yourself in the video, let me assure you that you haven't changed a bit :)

https://youtu.be/V5R_mFFpSbQ

Last night was a bit of an event

Last night was a bit of an event. After my Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive course in Soho I went home and got ready to go out again! That in itself is noteworthy!

Somewhere along the line, the inner parental voice of ‘you’re teaching tomorrow so not on a school night’ made a comfy sofa a far too easy option! Motivation is often fickle but there was no way we were going to miss this.

It was Salsateca’s thirtieth anniversary and nearly all the old faces of the salsa scene would be at London’s Porchester Hall all suited and booted (assuming boots are patent leather, sparkly or have suede soles)

Further motivation came from the fact that I would be receiving an award for 'Outstanding contribution to the salsa scene'. Many thanks to Elder and Salsateca for a fabulous event and for bringing so many old faces together.

Elder Sanchez founded Salsateca in 1992 the year Fliss and I started to learn salsa. For many of our generation of dancers, Salsateca’s Wednesday nights at La Finca were an essential part of London's salsa scene. Elder remains one of the few salseros that I’ve never worked with or attended a class. Of the ten or so recipients at the event I had worked with all but two. To me this makes the consideration for an award all the more poignant and I’m sincerely grateful to Elder and his team.

Reflections:


The award says 30th anniversary. Obviously that’s Salsateca’s anniversary but it has special meaning for Fliss and I.

Last August was the 30th anniversary of Fliss and I going to the Notting Hill Carnival where I saw salsa dancing for the first time. I remember reaching down and picking up a flyer for a class/club night. Little did I realise that that would lead to 30 year of dancing salsa and 27year of teaching it!

Muchos gracias :)


It goes on to say “For outstanding contribution to the salsa scene” which I feel sums me up in every way.

My first nickname amongst salseros back in the day was ‘The white guy who could dance’. Back then the men on the scene were mainly Latino and AfroCaribean. I was literally outstanding!

I have always tried to innovate rather than borrow ideas from others. Salsa Rapido method since '95, The Thames Salsa Cruise (celebrating 25 yrs in 2023), Salsa University at Turnmills (weekly multi adv classes '98), the first ever weekly bachata classes at the Cuban Camden '06, The Salsa Instructors forum '02, the 1-Day Intensive format (first of its kind in the world) '03, my Catno mop and chair demo that I took around Europe '02, and not forgetting the Mambalsa project '14 and the Third Way of Dance '22.

There are many other projects to mention and some that failed but they always taught me something, perhaps more than the successful ones.


I never perceived a great camaraderie on the salsa scene amongst professionals. My memory of the nineties is that we all lived in solitary defensive bunkers desperate for students and enough profit to break even. The explosive growth of the salsa scene: from five to over eighty nights inside the M25 within four years '94-98, was matched by an even greater growth in the numbers of salsa teachers! In economics I believe it’s called the pig cycle. It was typical that a beginner student of mine would teach my lesson to their class the same week. Let's say it was more about quantity than quality back then!

Although that actually happened, I think it may be a little unfair to generalize, but events like last night help dispel my fantasy constructed from my own insecurities (ooooeeer look who’s a qualified counsellor).


It is fair to say that the salsa scene was a collection of mavericks who innovated a salsa dance industry out of thin air. In the early nineties ballroom and Latin was virtually non-existent (awaiting Strictly to resuscitate it). Modern jive, Brazilian samba and lambada were bigger scenes than salsa, which consisted of about five classes in central London.

Salsa was never part of the dance establishment. No grants or funding supported salsa. We worked anywhere we could. My first venue was a portacabin out the back of the Old Bull Arts Center in High Barnet. I worked my way up (or down) to a basement in Salsa Soho.

Along the way I’ve clocked up over 55 venues! Some lasted years like Salsa University at Turnmills, The Cuban (13 years) and Downstairs at the Kings Head but others flaked away after a few weeks. The main venue killer was junior venue management trying out their new ideas and senior management trying to turn a Monday night’s bar-take into a Saturday nights!


Back in 1995 when I started teaching (with Fliss). Originally we started as ‘The Red Hot Salsa Co.’ but then found out someone was trading as Red Hot Salsa so we changed to The Streetbeat Salsa Co. We needed an edge, a USP, hence my teaching method: Salsa Rapido, the fast ‘n fun way into salsa. This was always more than a strap line, for me it was an ethos. If people learnt fast they would be out clubbing and spreading the word. If my classes were fun it would bind the group. I had no concept of comedy theory back then but it remains the dominant psychology of comedy theory, that humour is a way to bond people together, effectively an extension of primates grooming each other.


I feel now Fast ‘n Fun has evolved into the The Third Way of Dance TWD, where the triangle of Benefits: fun, friendships and feeling great form an ethos that connects the first way of dance: Social, with the second way: Fitness and physical health to the Third way: A combination of Well-being, social and fitness.


It’s a major part of the Mambalsa Project as well as Salsa Rapido. More on that later :)

To Swap or not to Swap....

I’m writing this in September 2021, at a time where in many ways we’re post-covid. Clubs and bars and most importantly dance classes are open for business and people are working out a ‘new normal’.

Swapping partners is just one of many aspects of the current salsa scene that many, in our post pandemic world, consider ‘risky’. I could, just as easily, use mask wearing or hand sanitizing or simply going out to dance. For me, visualising partner swapping at a salsa event connects me to the messey real world problem of risk. So here’s a few of my thoughts that I hope are useful.

Culture:
Unlike many other dance scenes, partner swapping is part salsa culture. In my mind, salsa has retained an inherent core value of social interaction. I suggest that as a scene, it remains primarily social. This contrasts with many other dances whose origins are based upon performance, or dances that have developed through a culture of competition. In both groups there is a greater tendency to form a partnership to compete or perform. I accept that salsa has moved towards a demonstration/competition culture since the turn of the century, but it remains the fact that the vast majority of people who get into salsa do so to go out dancing and not to compete or perform.

Risk:
Covid presents significant risks at the moment. I'm sure everyone knows the potential outcomes of catching covid and I can pretty much guarantee that those who don't are not reading this blog post.

The risks are death, long covid, or a nasty couple of weeks feeling awful with added anxiety of not knowing if you have some underlying condition that makes you vulnerable to the first two. That last one is a real fear, or should be. I’m 56 and just before covid I discovered I only had one kidney. It's big and happy and not at all lonely as it has healthy relationships with my other internal organs. It strikes me that I’ve spent a fair amount of my adult life not knowing something as fundamental as missing an organ, although I’ve always had a thing for steak and kidney pie, so perhaps the clues were there!

With vaccination and new treatments the risk of hospitalization and death has been reduced greatly but covid is still around and it seems to like being here, which suggests that waiting for it to go away isn’t an option.

My Dilemma?
This Autumn I’ve restarted my Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive courses after a very long and unscheduled break. I’m faced with the choice of inviting people new to salsa to join my course. This presents an ethical challenge. In a nutshell, I don’t want to be the cause of someone's illness or death. At the same time I don’t want to be unemployed or bankrupt.

During August I ran two courses where they were restricted to couples only, socially distanced and no partner swapping was allowed. They worked well enough, but I’m not comfortable presenting salsa as a non-swapping dance. Apart from my need to reflect the salsa culture as I see it, I’m not prepared to exclude huge chunks of the salsa experience such as: Asking strangers to dance is exciting. Or the fun of dancing La Rueda.

There are also very practical teaching reasons to change partners. Perhaps the main effect is the sense of achievement I see when a beginner realises they’ve ‘got it’ because ‘it works’ with several people, and therefore it will work with anyone, and not just someone they know who’s probably compensating for their error in some way.


Two types of salsa dancers:
There are currently two types of salsa dancers: The ‘I’m OK with the Risk’ (Risk-OK) who are going out to classes and clubs and happy taking the risks or swapping partners etc, and the ‘I’m not OK with the Risk’ (Risk-Not-OK) group who are not going out to classes or clubs.

And yet....
At any moment, if you ask anyone from either group, their position appears fixed, polarised and entrenched. Justifications are used to back up their position such as facts and figures, theories and beliefs. I’m sure we’ve all had one of those ‘covid chats’ in the last eighteen months!
It’s a classic ‘them and us’ situation, and I’m certain whichever group you are in, you’ll have a strong view about the other side's position.

I would suggest a different picture where people are shifting from one group to another.
At times when a Risk-Not-OK perceives the risk to be lowering they reach a tipping point and join the Risk-OK group.
We can see this demonstrated in face mask wearing and I’d like to suggest that this is very similar to the decisions being made about going dancing and swapping partners etc.

Tescos
Recently I went to a large Tesco in North London. Welcome to my laboratory :)
My guesstimate of mask use within the store has gone from 98% during lockdown, to 75% just after restrictions were lifted in July and today (Sept 13th ‘21) they were around the 10% mark. Clearly many of the ‘mask wearing’ group have changed position to become a non-mask wearer. I saw someone fumbling with a mask outside the shop and they seemed to reach a subconscious tipping point, a “sod it” point, when they stuffed the mask back into their pocket and joined the non-mask wearing group. I mainly still wear one to shops to protect the vulnerable but my ‘sod it’ point is coming closer every day.

Wacko!
What interests me is that my ‘sod it’ point is not driven by any data. Why do I wear a mask in one shop and not another? I’m inconsistent. The covid case numbers haven't changed much day to day and my immune system hasn’t either. I’m less likely to wear a mask in a shoe shop than a clothing store. The idea that somehow shoe shops are safer is wacko! I can feel my brain searching for a justification but there isn’t one. My decision is not based on anything other than an emotional gut reaction, in other words my mood. That’s a thought to consider when you're next trading facts and figures in a covid chat!

Let’s all go moo

Try it, it feels good. Mooooooooooooo! A long slow out breath calming the vagus nerve and lowing our heart rate, blood pressure, noradrenaline and a whole load of sciency stuff that was known for millennia before the sciency stuff came about. It’s calming and lowers our stress and anxiety. I find wearing a cow onesie helps too, but some find that udderly stupid! Writing cow jokes is a no-bull pursuit!

If you have a good moooo before making a decision it is likely to be a better decision. Less anxiety etc. means less influence by the fight/flight response. This allows us to weigh the decisions intelligently..... Or do we?

We are all herd animals and our decision making is heavily influenced by the herd. Scroll through a few salsa links on Facebook and: Wow! What a party everyone’s having without us! How happy and safe they all look! If they’re ok, surely I’ll be fine? But what promoter show’s a balanced view, it’s simply not their job! Who posts the pictures of the salsa dancers sitting at home not going out? Who posts pictures of half empty dance floors etc. One or two have notably shared their covid videos after catching it at salsa events but social media is biased. If you don’t believe me, look at your own profile picture!

Back to my dance of dilemma:
My concern is for those making a decision to dance for the first time, or those rejoining after a long break or if they have a vulnerability. They have to make a risk decision based on poor information and mood! For some it’s easy. An overwhelming argument on one side or the other. For many it’s less so.

I’m certain that every teacher and promoter has weighed the pros and cons.Run through the regulations and come to a decision. I did this summer with my first Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive courses restricted to limited numbers, couples only and strictly no swapping partners. I tested myself the day before and waived transfer fees for postponement. I sent out texts the day before encouraging people not to come if they felt in any way ill.

I believe that was my best decision then, but now my position has changed.
It all comes down to the grey area of decision making. Those who don’t feel safe won’t come. Those who do will, but those in the middle might sign up and regret it. When they arrive they’ll feel uncomfortable and unsafe. If they leave the class they might feel they’ve in some way failed. They also might be someone with symptoms who’s keeping faith with their commitments by coming. The best solution for them is to never have booked in the first place or feel very able to postpone.

I now believe it’s better to remove nearly all restrictions so that the risk is clear to everyone. If one person in the room has covid we will all be exposed.
That way the Risk-Not-OK are less likely to book and those feeling a bit ‘peaky’ will postpone.
So far it’s worked well. In fact it’s fair to say that I feel more exposed on the tube to the venue with more people unmasked and close, than at the course.

Short Term:
In the short term the salsa dance scene may have shrunk dramatically but it's growing back and I believe it will return. If we hold on to the values at the heart of social dance: fun, friendship and respect, I'm certain it will grow and flourish.

Blend ‘21 the Reboot

A White Paper by Alastair Sadler

Back in 2017 I published a blog post about a new evening format I’d created called Blend. Blog Link

To put it simply it’s a blend of class and free-dance that offers a different approach to the typical UK class/club format that’s been dominant in the UK since the late 1980’s. I use this comparison, not as a challenge, but rather to highlight the difference and present an alternative format that I believe could offer many benefits to many forms of social dance.

I originally developed Blend for the Mambalsa Project. Mambalsa is a new partner dance that works to any 4:4 time music. Blend could work for any subject as it is a format rather than content / presentation which I would refer to as the teaching method e.g. Salsa Rapido method.

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This October ‘21 I’m launching a new night in Central London’s Kings Cross that will be based on the Blend format.

Check out salsakingscross.co.uk for details.

 

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What’s a Blend event like?

The evening starts with a short 40min  ‘Welcome Session’

This is aimed at absolute beginners and others new to the blend format.

Welcome, is a meet and greet combined with a core skills class aimed at a clearly defined entry level for the blend. It’s easy to skip over the meet and greet element but that’s where we disarm the fears, answer any niggles and welcome new people into our community.

The Blend

Imagine the typical classes and free dance chopped up into small chunks and rearranged so that in one chunk you’re learning and in the next you’re free-dancing or practising what we’ve just done or taking a well earned break.

A blend format venue would feel different from the get go:

Pre booked and prepaid only (A QR code at the door for any walk ins)

Pre published curriculums so participants can see their own progress

A greater emphasis on building a positive social space, friendly, supportive and confident. 

 

Chunks

Sections known as Chunks are typically 15mins long with a five minute buffer, therefore there are three chunks per hour and Welcome + 5/6 chunks per evening.

Because everyone will know that chunks are 15mins long. Creativity and expression can be workshopped taking the class content far beyond ‘the move’. 

Sessions might include:

• Tactile mirroring

• Footwork Patterns

• The Event Microscope 

• Classic Combo Show ‘n Tell

• Musical Interpretation

• Expression Express

• Super Shape

• Major Move

I’m not expecting the above names to mean anything, but the above list already appears more diverse and interesting than the typical format of: Footwork, move, more moves, Too many moves to remember!

This means atypical teaching methods (for salsa) can be employed with less resistance to change. For new dances like Mambalsa it can simply be the way Mambalsa is done!  

An example of this would be: Jigsaw breakout groups which can be set a challenge e.g. “Using tonight's Classic Combo as a staring point, add expression to show the core emotion of Anger within the mambo section.”  (b.t.w. If I ever sound like I'm setting an essay question in a class, shoot me!)

The above example would build the bonds within small groups as students work towards the goal of demonstrating to the wider class. 

Drama / Buzz 

A second advantage of the 15 min. chunks is that pace and drama can be added to the class simply by saying “I’ve only got 15 minutes for you to master xyz!” (Any relation to US cop shows of the 1970's is purely intensional! And yes I know it shows my age!!) Pace is an essential factor within a class. Too slow and students leave through boredom. Too fast and the class becomes too hard.

Preparation 

Preparation (not something salsa teachers are noted for!) is easy. Not only is it easier to create a chunk rather than a whole class, a chunk can be kept and reintroduced within a different lesson plan. The typical (to salsa) 'never ending sequence’ where instructors keep adding to a sequence of moves until the end of the class or the dancers head explodes, regardless of whether anyone can remember the beginning, would be avoided. In fairness to the never ending sequence it’s highly experiential and the fact that it’s difficult to remember forces the leader to develop their own sequence from the bits they can remember. (For the record, this is me being nice!)

Perhaps an unintended effect of greater preparation is that it would be easier to create and post online content online of the class. 

 

Music

When I trialled the Blend format in Camden, I noticed some significant differences in my beginners salsa group. First was the effect of constant music. The music as it was at a medium tempo and sometimes we needed to go slower but the majority of the time the group danced to music. Their connection to the music in terms of timing and interpretation were significantly improved. It also seemed as if a barrier was removed, that prevented them from free-dancing. Free-dancing had become part of the class. I think it's fair to say that typically beginners bolt after their class. This often empties the room making the evening less successful. The beginners were also interacting with the intermediate group far more than usual. A chat at the bar and a quick dance before the next chunk started gave everyone a thrill.

 

Not on a school night! 

No one has to wait until the classes are over for the ‘social’ side of the evening to begin, it’s social throughout with space to dance and chat and relax. 

Often career minded people want to get home at a reasonable time because they have to be fresh the following morning. They want a fun class but they want some free dance as well before it’s time to catch the train home. This group is increasing year on year as are the amount of younger people who drink less. 

 

It's not a church hall!

Venues aren't expected to be well lit church halls during the classes. From the bar/club’s perspective it's often two hours of no bar trade and no atmosphere, often with no music and the lights up, which alienates non dancers). Venues absolutely hate this, almost as much as they hate a class load of people all trying to get served at the bar straight after the class! Here lies a massive opportunity for Blend to offer constant (but no loud) music with an exciting buzzy atmosphere that entertains the non dancers as much as the participants. In short venues with a quiet night and no separate function room can be sold on Blend!

It's different

It's different, and therefore confusing and possibly uncomfortable to anyone expecting something different. There's a lot of security in an evening's format. All I can say is try it, and let chat about what's different afterwards. 

Progress comes for listening as much as leadership. 

This unfamiliarity throws the pressure onto the Welcome Session where things are explained, people are made to feel comfortable and an alliance is formed between the group and the teacher to help each other to stay on track. I believe this alliance is the antidote to the cliques and snobbery that damage feelings and make people not return.

Blend arguably requires more discipline than traditional classes. People aren't the best time keepers so the teachers have to set the boundaries and stick to them. The old fashioned word for this is professionalism.

Shift:

Notice the shift away from absolute beginners towards improver and intermediate levels who receive the majority of the content within the evening. This is significant as it recognises a trend in salsa away from absolute beginners towards a group that have some experience, possibly one or two classes or  those who have learnt some related content e.g. salsa footwork within Zumba. There is also a significant trend towards beginners having studied online prior to their first offline class. Post covid, I can only see this trend increasing. The time is coming where there is no such thing as a beginners class. The message will become 'Don't come unless you can do this much first.' Hopefully it will combined with 'And here's a video to get you there'. We're not there yet, but soon. First will see the demise of the 'Absolute Beginners Class'. Along with its passing will be the passing of huge amounts of unintended humiliation and embarrassment.

Conclusion: 

Blend is new, exciting and potentially highly beneficial to the dance teaching industry. It could open up new venue opportunities and offer choice to dancers. 

This paper is unfinished! Perhaps it always will be as every time I revisit it there's some new aspect to Blend to write about. I look forward to the time when there's a group of us developing this. Perhaps it would span across many genres of dance and many locations. If this idea excites you, please get in touch.

enjoy :)

Coronavirus

Re Coronavirus (as of 13/03/2020)

Last night the government indicated that their response to the coronavirus pandemic had changed from ‘Containment’ to the ‘Delay’ phase.
I thought I’d update my position regarding the Salsa Rapido Intensive Salsa Courses.

Salsa is a self selecting group of healthy and energetic people. There is nothing about partner dancing that puts us at greater risk than any other social activity. Like other activities, we do all need to take one or two simple precautions in the light of coronavirus.

We all have to balance our personal needs with those of society and I imagine no two positions are identical. Here are mine, and I promise to respect those whose views differ:

All courses will go ahead as planned unless I am prevented from running a course by:

• Government restrictions, which I will follow completely and any imposed by the venue.
• My personal ill health. I promise to self isolate immediately.
• Lack of demand.

At the course:
Please take every opportunity to wash your hands thoroughly upon arrival and during the day. I do :-)
I cannot guarantee hand sanitiser will be available, please bring your own if you wish.
Please understand that the balanced numbers will not be guaranteed, but I assume the bug affects men and women equally. I can guarantee you’ll have fun and learn loads.
Wearing face masks will not be allowed whilst dancing.
Couples may not stay together all day as per my usual T&C.

Before the course:Should you feel unwell due to Coronavirus symptoms in the days before the course please contact me and confirm you are self isolating. I will transfer you onto a holding list, where you can rebook at a later time. No transfer fee will be charged. All other reasons for transfer will be dealt with as usual.

My experience tells me that it’s highly unlikely that you will wake up on the morning of the course feeling unwell, so I ask you NOT to leave it until then. Ask yourself if you’re 100% well and decide. Everyone's health depends on people making honest decisions to self isolate sooner. Saying “I’m not sure if I'll be able to....” does not help anyone. You’re either coming or not!

In the event of a course being cancelled by me, I will offer the choice of holding your booking or a full refund. I will make every effort to contact you by text and email, please help by confirming you’ve received cancellation messages promptly.

As per the usual Terms and conditions: ‘No shows’ i.e. those who do not attend without prior notice will not be transferred or refunded.

I hope these precautions are reasonable and proportionate and I look forward to seeing you on the dance floor.

Regards
Alastair 07939012231

Troll!

A few days ago a nasty little creep under the handle ‘kemronirons’ commented on a Youtube Clip I’d posted of people dancing to live music in Camden.


‘Kemronirons’ posted:

“Can't imagine paying for a salsa class and ended up dancing with an 80yo lady who can't move. Obviously, nothing against the lady as we will all get old but from the man's perspective this will really slow him down in learning”


Here’s my reply that I haven't posted yet because I want to know what anyone thinks first.
You’ll understand why I haven't linked to the clip.

My reply:
Kemronirons your comment is offensive and although I doubt you’ll understand my comments I'll try to explain:

It’s obvious this isn’t a clip of a class but freestyle dancing to live music.

Saying “nothing against the lady” does not allow you to be offensive to that lady.
Imagine if that lady was showing some friends that clip and saw your comment? How upset would she feel?

You seem comfortable publicly shaming an older lady who I assume you've never met simply because of her age.

Who gave you the right to judge what is an acceptable age to dance? No one forces you to dance with anyone you don’t want to, so why comment on others choices? Is attacking others the only way you can be heard?

It's easy being offensive when you haven't signed into YouTube with a real name ‘kemronirons’!  Standing behind your comments is something real men do, try it.

I doubt you would have commented on an older man. Do you only attack women?

At least she’s out there in the real world, living, laughing and enjoying a social life where as you have nothing better to do than troll other people’s lives.

Shame on you ‘kemronirons’!

End

Let me know what you think?