alvinthethird
Son
I cannot speak for the UK scene but London is fantastic right now
Anywhere I can go and attend a cha cha social, gets a gold star from me!
Has your local salsa scene contracted over the last few years?
- Thread starter DJ Yuca
- Start date
Anywhere I can go and attend a cha cha social, gets a gold star from me!
toan-hoang
Son
Very true, London has a population of 8 million people as well as a old and established scene. With the amount of continued growth and endless recycling of instructors and schools I cannot really imagine things declining
But then again I thought this thread was not for comparison but more a report on the state of affairs of the scene that you are in.
toan-hoang
Son
MAMBO_CEC
Son Montuno
Would all of you who say you're going to miss Cocomo's please come tomorrow night? I'll be there!
Would be amazing to fly to San Fran for a night of Salsa!!! Seattle is not that far by plane!!Real shame about Cocomo's!!!!
Desafinado
Son
I'll be there -- though it's not that big a deal anymore. There're other better places to dance in the Bay Area.Would all of you who say you're going to miss Cocomo's please come tomorrow night? I'll be there!
Right - I'll be expecting you
Yes, but I won't be at them, which puts them at a disadvantage
Please listen out for the Aussie accent and save me a dance
Desafinado
Son
Sure. And if you are still around on Saturday, go to the Yerba Buena social, one of the best in the Bay Area.Yes, but I won't be at them, which puts them at a disadvantage
matty
Son Montuno
sounds like there is room for DJ Yuca to start up a weekly Salsa night somewhere
IMO, sometimes the scenes start to dwindle because of a percieved inaccessability to the public. salsa socials often only get promoted to a fixed crowd (through facebook etc.) who have gone through the 'mill' of dance workshops, and at a cover charge which is prohibitive to the curious. you end up with a stagnant social scene with fewer and fewer new faces. we had a dip in our scene a couple of years back and i percieved this to be the problem.
a weekly salsa bar for free entrance might be just the thing your scene needs.
Though I don't go to Cocomo much, I think it is a fixture that will be hard to replace. It is only place with 3/4 nights of salsa dancing in a week, with at least three nights of live band and big enough space. It is hard to imagine any other place so dedicated to pure salsa nights on regular basis. Other places are mostly socials which rent out places.
Cocomo Thursday night use to reign social dancing in bay area till few years back. Even if many regular hardcore dancers have turned their back on Cocomo (i.e. going out every week), it still attracts a large number of casual dancers. Very hard to replace an institution like Cocomo.
salsamarty
Son
Would all of you who say you're going to miss Cocomo's please come tomorrow night? I'll be there!
I will be there but you've already danced with me
And will again - if you don't ask me, I am liable to attackI will be there but you've already danced with me
Cool - hope to meet you! However, I have arranged this trip so that I can spend Saturday night in Tokyo
DJ Yuca
Son Montuno
sounds like there is room for DJ Yuca to start up a weekly Salsa night somewhere
IMO, sometimes the scenes start to dwindle because of a percieved inaccessability to the public. salsa socials often only get promoted to a fixed crowd (through facebook etc.) who have gone through the 'mill' of dance workshops, and at a cover charge which is prohibitive to the curious. you end up with a stagnant social scene with fewer and fewer new faces. we had a dip in our scene a couple of years back and i percieved this to be the problem.
a weekly salsa bar for free entrance might be just the thing your scene needs.
You may well be right. Weekly or monthly. There is a scene here, but it's all based around timba music, so personally I don't participate. However a lot of local dancers are equally happy dancing to salsa as to timba, so perhaps I should try to find a venue. Free entry would mean I don't have to find and pay a teacher, which makes life a lot easier.
Isnt that, by the very definition, a "comparison " ?
DJ Yuca
Son Montuno
Which prompts the question: do you do something like this in your locality?
SnowDancer
Son Montuno
That's a good idea. Another thought is to have it be all-ages. I notice that one place has a cover of only $3 and doesn't check ID. And lately, it's been getting a huge influx of college students. While most are over 21, I think it helps them go as a group when they know that their friends aren't excluded.
(And even better for my lead-heavy town: they're almost all women...
)
matty
Son Montuno
yep, thats what im doing
matty
Son Montuno
i can identify with this, here the majority of people dance cuban style , but are as happy or quite possibly more happy to dance to classic salsa music.