Line ups/ Animations

F

flowrite

Changui
When I first came onto the salsa scene there used to be a warm up of shines in lines at the beginning of a party night or just after classes. Today at least in my area it's been extended to sometimes two or three the first one starts about half way through the evening. I don't why at half way through, I'm already nicely warmed up thank you very much.
I find these line ups an interruption. Just as I've got into the swing of things and managed to get a few dances to tracks I like, having passed on some, (I can't dance to anything), it's time to sit down again for the line dancing interlude.
Reggaton and now Zumba has made this situation worse imo.
What is particularly annoying is when you get a teacher who drops in (not his venue), has a word with the promoter or dj and takes over the floor and we are all supposed to hit the floor ourselves lining up behind him/her.
Unfortunately most dancers seem to like it, so it's here to stay or get worse.
 
I see these quite a lot when a load of the Cuban teachers are at a party night. They all line up and come up with something and everyone else has to try and follow. It always makes for a good laugh.
 
Animations, if not overdone, are an invaluable part of producing a great atmosphere at a Salsa Party.

They are great for getting people who may be new or recalcitrant on the dancefloor, and if you go straight into a good song after, often people are milling about and form natural couples. Hey presto you just upped the social side of your party.

They aren't warm ups per say, that's for class. They just are another way of bringing a different dynamic to your party.

Mmaattt is dead on, when Casino teachers/Cubanos get on this, it's a laugh, as it gets harder and harder :P

I'd say 2-3 is reasonable over 3 hours or so. More than that I would find tedious.
 
I find such animations very annoying. To me they only have a role if not enough people are dancing and mostly when the majority are beginners. If the floor is full then I assume that the animations only serve to stroke the ego of the leading person.
 
SalsaGipsy said:
I find such animations very annoying. To me they only have a role if not enough people are dancing and mostly when the majority are beginners. If the floor is full then I assume that the animations only serve to stroke the ego of the leading person.
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My thoughts exactly. They are being overdone these days. I'll go further and say that many salsa nights are becoming Latin nights with a bit of Angolan thrown in. Not only too many line ups but all the other dance forms as well. The decline of salsa? Maybe.
 
wildbill20056 said:
Animations, if not overdone, are an invaluable part of producing a great atmosphere at a Salsa Party.

Mmaattt is dead on, when Casino teachers/Cubanos get on this, it's a laugh, as it gets harder and harder :P

I'd say 2-3 is reasonable over 3 hours or so. More than that I would find tedious.
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We have plenty of Cubans here and we only do one animation per night, maximum. Sometimes none. It usually goes with a specific track, so as long as the DJ doesn't play it, we just dance in couples as normal.
 
Hmm I've seen plenty in the Edinburgh Cuban Scene, and I have absolutely no trouble with it.

Sure it might only work out to be 1-2 in a night, but I think it's a nice touch.
 
I've seen some good animations and dozen of crappy ones. The good animators did not require different music, they adjusted to existing soundtrack and used existing free space on the dance floor. Bad ones start with stopping the music, doing some shoutouts in the microphone, put on inappropriate music (like reggaeton, or merengue/kuduro). Animators don't pay attention to other dancers and animation often falls apart when they run out of steam. Often they are heavily intoxicated.

To me it seems that rueda de casino is similar to animations and what makes good rueda would be similar to what makes a good animation. Also downsides are similar.
 
There's a venue that interups the social dancing after the class THREE times in the first 30 minutes with these things...I don't go there now :eyebrow:
 
Interesting...I've not heard the term "animations" before. This does not happen in my dance scene. I think this would be useful for times that there are a lot of beginners or an imbalance of leaders/followers. I would be interested in seeing some examples of animations/lineups that are done to specific songs.
 
sagitta said:
Interesting...I've not heard the term "animations" before. This does not happen in my dance scene. I think this would be useful for times that there are a lot of beginners or an imbalance of leaders/followers. I would be interested in seeing some examples of animations/lineups that are done to specific songs.
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I think they do it a lot in France because that's where I have most often seen the term used. When I was dancing a lot I can't even recall it happening once in Stockholm at clubs. But I do recall it being done twice at private parties, i.e. twice in 11 years. Of course I have not attended every house party or every night at every club.

I've seen it done at the Latin festival in Copenhagen but I think most of the people there were beginners because everyone was hiding out at the edges of the dance floor until the animation started and then they all came out and danced behind the leader.

I think I would find it irritating too if they happened several times a night at a club and everyone was expected to stop partner dancing and join in. But if people do it out of the way and I can keep dancing with y partner if I want, then it's fine with me.

I think in a situation where there is a big discrepancy in the leader/follower ratio it would be quite natural for these to arise spontaneously, but then I'm thinking of just salsa suelta not some sort of organized animation that everyone has to do.
 
I've seen this sort of thing a few times, its definitely a turn off as a social dancer to have your night interrupted multiple times. I think the class has a rightful spot at the beginning.
 
Smejmoon said:
In the context of salsa scene it's appropriate once every 5 years. And animators should serve free drinks half an hour before.
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To be fair to the local venue where this sort of thin happens most, the Cuban guy who teaches the class is a Reggaeton performer and the pre-class warmup's are Reggaeton based (really great body isolations), so it's quite in context!

Still if it happens at all, it will be once in an evening.
 
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