Salsa-deprived unite

MacMoto said:
After the highs of SOS, I'm coming down with a big bump. The Wed night social in my town is closed for summer holiday (:shock: shock! horror! holiday *from* salsa? unthinkable! :mad:), which means until the end of August it's down to one night a week, and that's just a latin club night with 50% salsa if you are lucky :( I don't know what to do with myself...
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London Latin Fest...? :raisebrow:
 
londongirl said:
MacMoto - please, do you know if this congress in Holland in December is any good? (because no-one my way has heard of it) Site= extremos.nl/Anniversary/
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I honestly don't know since it's a brand-new event. The venue is very central and convenient, the DJ line-up looks promising (not that I'm putting any pressure on GuyDC or anything :raisebrow:), and if the Dutch dancers all come out to party, it will be a good event. I'm certainly going :)
 
MacMoto said:
I honestly don't know since it's a brand-new event. The venue is very central and convenient, the DJ line-up looks promising (not that I'm putting any pressure on GuyDC or anything :raisebrow:), and if the Dutch dancers all come out to party, it will be a good event. I'm certainly going :)
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Okay, that explains it. Well it's not so expensive right now, and not so far to travel, so I'll go for it.
Thanks! :)
 
Ok my little Salsa 'city' is just weird :P

A decent collection of follows at various levels, with a few 'up and comers.'

A paucity of leaders, with 1 at a 'higher' level, a handful of others who are stagnant, and no obvious 'up and comers.'

A decent number of people in the city who really like Salsa and latin dance, but a much smaller number who turn out regularly.

Me keeping trying new promotions, ways of including new people, securing lovely class venue with some success, but not really gathering momentum as I would have hoped, but hope springs eternal!

What I don't get is the guys, especially. I mean where does the disconnect come in between really enjoying/liking the dance, wanting to improve and then actually not doing much about it ie not social dancing, not taking the chance of classes that will move them on etc.

Who knows?! Salsa life in non salsa cities is a strange business!
 
WB, trust me i've seen my share of that in NYC as well so its not just your city that has that apathy, or better yet, that let me just barely do enough to almost get decent..then let me forget about it or act as if i've reached the promised land....
 
wildbill20056 said:
What I don't get is the guys, especially. I mean where does the disconnect come in between really enjoying/liking the dance, wanting to improve and then actually not doing much about it ie not social dancing, not taking the chance of classes that will move them on etc.
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Disconnect I think can come when their is an abundance of follows running lessons above their level and not improving (often when a place will only run a beginner and intermediate class but not an improver level), the guys get sick of dragging women through their paces and stop trying to make the classes... then the good follows start trailing off cos there arent as many decent leads... cue vicious cycle

however possibly not your scene's problem...
 
*sigh* I guess I'm deprived. I'm in a new scene and it frustrates me. It's much smaller than LA, and I had sort of prepared to start my salsa hiatus if needed. But I've been getting teeeeeeeased if you will. I see that there are enough good dancers here to have a good night, but the promotion aspect is no bueno! way too many different options for such a small scene that it lessens the concentration of good dancers at any one place. their DJ per capita number is too high and the scene would do well if some of said DJs would find another hobby so the scene could build some reliably good nights. :rolleyes:
 
Brownskin818 said:
I see that there are enough good dancers here to have a good night, but the promotion aspect is no bueno! way too many different options for such a small scene that it lessens the concentration of good dancers at any one place.
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I'm sure they'll start to follow you whereever you go. just let them know where will you be ;)
 
olamalam said:
Brownskin818 said:
I see that there are enough good dancers here to have a good night, but the promotion aspect is no bueno! way too many different options for such a small scene that it lessens the concentration of good dancers at any one place.
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I'm sure they'll start to follow you whereever you go. just let them know where will you be ;)
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Yup, all you need to do is to let all those good dancers know where *you* are going to be ;)

Brownskin818 said:
their DJ per capita number is too high and the scene would do well if some of said DJs would find another hobby so the scene could build some reliably good nights. :rolleyes:
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I soooo feel for you! The number of DJs we got in my town is ridiculous for a scene this size... :roll:
 
Bleurgh, though it will pass I have lost my Salsa mojo for the moment. I will get it back by the weekend, but for now eurgh.

I wish I had a genuine teaching partner to share the load with, so many more things would become possible.

The thing that gets me most is the amount of inertia on the part of the longer standing dancers. Why would you want to be stuck as an 'Improver' forever, and keep going to an Improvers class that will never ever progress you?

I wonder whether I do things more harm than good by supporting the other classes. Maybe it's lost on many of the people in those classes how much more progressed I am as a dancer.

Sure I'm no great shakes, but I'm not stuck doing Titanics or interminable inside turns.

Why oh why do these people not want to dance, but keep going to class? :(

I am rambling I know. Blah Blah.

I think I need to get stricted on classes in terms of timing, but on the other hand, week to week I have no idea who/how many/when they will turn up. In a way I wish people would just not come so I could go home and tell them all to get stuffed.

That sounds bad, but I suppose what I am saying is outside of 1 other person I don't feel there is anyone else in the city committed to getting anything done or realising that in a small scene every single person's attendance counts, and no coming next week isn't useful.

Why is it ok for me, not making a profit, to commit every week to providing opportunities for people who claim to want it, but are totally unreliable? Do they think it's fun for me to turn up wondering if anyone will turn up?

Yet you bet your bottom dollar if I said I was stopping I'd get harassed to go again by all sorts of people. Bah.

Ah well sorry for ranting. Ignore by all means :)
 
wildbill20056 said:
Yet you bet your bottom dollar if I said I was stopping I'd get harassed to go again by all sorts of people. Bah.
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It's the summer: take a vacation and announce prepaid boutique class series. :) Travel somewhere and then claim that you've learned some secret magic which will be only taught in these classes and only to the dedicated dancers. If they're not sure of their readiness, they can take a private from you.
 
wildbill20056 said:
The thing that gets me most is the amount of inertia on the part of the longer standing dancers. Why would you want to be stuck as an 'Improver' forever, and keep going to an Improvers class that will never ever progress you?
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Is it possible that someone in the group is being looked up to by others so if he/she chooses not to progress everyone else things there not ready either... have you tried suggesting in one on one conversation these individuals try a harder class, something along the lines of 'your really looking good in your class now, you could easily handle level x, dont you find the level y class a bit too boring now you have progressed so much'

wildbill20056 said:
Sure I'm no great shakes, but I'm not stuck doing Titanics or interminable inside turns.
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just curious why you call them interminable?what is it you dislike about them?

wildbill20056 said:
Why oh why do these people not want to dance, but keep going to class? :(
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Im not a teacher and I often ask myself the same question about people that turn up to lessons... usually followers who have been going for years and still cant seem to manage a smooth step through turn or single/double spin...
 
Wow, I am a bit overwhelmed...

The practice sessions kept going for a few months and we kept getting 1-2 new curious beginners every time. Even though we didn't advertise at all, just messages to the mailing list of people who are already into salsa.

And then the summer finished and it was time to pick it up a bit more seriously. This time with more promotion, website, proper course, no more drop-in classes, 2 separate levels - in a nice little studio in the city centre.

We had to limit the numbers to 20 people per group because it's not possible to fit more in the room. We gave it a bit less than 2 weeks to spread but we started getting registrations almost immediately. Within a week level 1 was full and more registrations kept coming in. Drama ("I'm on the waiting list??? Noooo..." and "No, no, no, I want level twooooo") and hassle until the last moment and finally yesterday we had the first lessons. Almost everybody showed up and some more last minute drama with people who showed up without registration. And then within 10 minutes all were grooving to merengue!
:banana:

Now we have to make sure we keep as many as we can and if all goes well at the end of the course we can have a partyyyyyyyy! :D
 
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