I can't hold this pose for more than 3 seconds rooted on my right foot but I can hold it for 2 minutes or more rooted on my left.
And, in a rinse-and-repeat of old news, I am still super-clumsy in the intermediate salsa class. I am just not fierce enough. Anyone know of extreme bare-hands/knife street-fighting classes in the city? I vaguely remember seeing a small sign quietly saying "extreme"-something between the Chinese eatery and the tattoo place on the west-sidewalk in the block between Utica and Bryant on Elmwood. Wonder what it was...
I finally went to my first breakdancing (not equivalent to hip hop) class taught by Shane "Depree" Fry yesterday at Verve Studio. It was an overview class and we learnt a couple "top-rock" moves and a couple floor moves and how to transition from one to the other. I don't know if this is a positive sign or a sign that I didn't do it all correctly because I didn't feel any sore muscles after the class. Apparently, the class usually has a core-body workout which was not included yesterday.
In comparison with the Hip Hop yoga on Wednesday, it was a rather mild class. The Hip Hop yoga left me really sore. The muscles on the back of my legs felt like someone had accidentally run a heavy iron roller on them on Thursday morning.
I also chatted with Heather (e:fellyconelly's boss. :-)) who runs the marketing aspect of Verve Studio. The studio is planning several new classes in March - Hatha Yoga, Hip Hop and Popping - all of which are extremely interesting to me. I am specially interested in the Hip Hop class. Unfortunately though, the Hip Hop and Popping classes are on Thursday nights - directly conflicting with my Salsa schedule.
Apparently, everyone else who has expressed an interest in these classes will only come on Thursday. Haven't they heard of the super fabulous salsa classes? Come to think of it, Tango classes in the city are also on Thursday nights. It's like a big conspiracy to make you pick a dance of choice - pretty annoying if you are interested in expanding your dancing repertoire without having to travel TENS of miles to some suburb in the boonies.
There is a positive and negative side to all these classes I am taking. Salsa is amazing because I am in love with the music and the dance is very refreshing. I have decided to just freestyle in the intermediate class when I don't feel like partner-dancing with any lead. Yoga is great because it allows me to reach that sense of balance I need for salsa. The breakdancing class is something completely new for me. Yesterday, Shane was teaching us a jazz/salsa inspired move called the "Charleston". It resembles the basic salsa step but does not involve alternate stepping with two feet. I just could not do it right and kept breaking into salsa-mode. I think I have developed some unconscious muscle memory with my salsa classes. So maybe it's a good thing that I retrain my muscles and keep them in the "un-memorized" state.
The negative aspect to all these classes is that I can't commit to any more social meet-ups or just non-essential stuff at all because I definitely need the non-class time exclusively for school work and research. Not that I had too many social commitments earlier but now I will just have to tell people that I have somewhere else to be... I suddenly seem to have an expanded non-school life.
I am going to try and learn the moonwalk and how to spot the salsa rhythm this week. Quite strangely, they are very similar in nature though completely different on the surface. The prominent effect of each is just a facade to what is happening underneath.
There are actually several rhythms to the salsa all vying for attention. The most prominent is the cowbell racket, which serves as the metronome for the whole track.
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &. 1...
Following the law of contrariness, it is the least useful for dancing the salsa. The Conga and the Clave are perhaps the most useful for dancing. Their relation pretty much stays the same in most songs:
The conga is the muted low "DU DU" with the high "tu". In around 80% of the songs I have heard thus far, it sounds at:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &.
1 & tu & 3 & DUDU & 5 & tu & 7 & DUDU
The Clave rhythm can be interpreted in two main ways (and I am sure, a million other ways). Simply, it's a beat that goes:
Pa Pa, Pa-Pa-Pa
In the west coast LA "On1" style (and in my class) we choose to hear the clave as a 2/3 Split:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &.
1 & Pa & Pa & 4 & Pa & 6 Pa 7 & Pa &
But NYC chooses to hear the clave on a 3/2 split or the "On2" timing which is just the reverse of what the west coast does. So typical! 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &. Pa & 2 Pa 3 & Pa & 5 & Pa & Pa & 8 &
Put together, all of it roughly sounds like:
Pa Pa DUDU Pa-Pa-Pa(DUDU) - LA "On1"
or
Pa-Pa-Pa(DUDU) Pa Pa DUDU - NYC "On2"
Isolating this thread of the conga/clave rhythm in the cacophony otherwise known as salsa is really quite complicated, especially with songs that have more instrumentation and variations than... well, a simple clave and conga struck together. The montuno or the piano melody is sometimes helpful because its repetition helps spotting the initial Pa Pa.
Altogether, all of this is driving me nuts... I was chanting the Pa Pa DUDU Pa-Pa-Pa DUDU all of today morning and realized that it was a good way to look like I had lost some marbles. I should have just added my moonwalk efforts to make it more dramatic and completely asylum-worthy.
I stomped into class all ready to walk out after the beginner's class but could NOT pull myself away from the oh-so-cool steps that Sean and Sarah were teaching the intermediate class. Energy-beam Mariposa made it 5x more fun than it already was. As a result, I am still in both classes and danced every step of my way home today.
I still can't find the correct beat in the music, still can't do any body isolations and rolls and still can't follow intermediate steps. In spite of all these glitches, dancing with Sean and Sarah is probably my most favourite 2 hours in the 168 hours of the week. My spins are improving with the new shoes though.
What is it that these two have?
Magic? It certainly feels like it. I am so hopelessly in love with their classes :-)
PS: Come to Salsa for the Soul at Configuration Dance Studio (Lexington and Ashland) and experience pure salsa joy with Sean Ortiz and Sarah Hooper on Thursdays:
at 6:30 PM: For the rocket-launcher absolute beginner class.
at 7:00 PM: For the advanced beginner super fun class.
at 8:00 PM: For the intermediate insanely creative class.
I went to Hip Hop Yoga at Hand to Heart Yoga with Erin today. It was a very interesting experience and not at all what I thought it might be. By yoga standards, it was a very intense and very aerobic one hour. I don't know where it stands by hip hop standards. I will probably take a sample class of real hip hop at Verve this Saturday afternoon and report back.
I broke out into quite a sweat. Some of the exercises pushed the isotonic limits of my puny muscles and I could actually feel my muscle fibres and bundles twitching out of sheer disuse. Maybe this is what Neo felt like in the first Matrix movie before he learnt to fly 60 minutes later. But everyone knows that only happens on celluloid. Because 60 minutes later, in real life, I bought swiss cheese slices and ate it on toast. I really like swiss cheese. It has a whopping 20% calcium and 8g protein in one serving.
I also love Celia Cruz.
And I sorely, no, make that VERY SORELY missed her during the class. My muscles probably ached for her because I didn't dig the soundtrack to my exertions so much. I am not sure what the other yogis in class thought. Quite inexplicably, all of them were named "Sarah". Not that replication of names has anything to do with musical tastes... The point is, for me, without Celia's clave, everything was slightly off tune...
Apart from reservations about the music selection, I really liked the class today. I am not entirely sure if it's hip hop, though. It could be... but to my untrained senses, it seemed more like a hybrid of yoga and aerobic dance. I will go again next Wednesday and see if my muscle endurance has improved any. Meanwhile, I am going to have to increase my consumption of egg whites and cheese if I keep up with all this dancing and hurrying about in knee-deep snow. Not an entirely unpleasant side-effect... :-)
I came home to these strangely attractive eccentric-looking extremely light shoes today. Their passing resemblance to football shoes is deceptive. Instead of the turf-gripping evil field spikes, the soles of this pair of Gabellini "The Fly" are layered with salsa-smooth suede instead.
They fit me like a glove. I am seriously floored. The floor feels like an alternative padded universe through every inch of their suede soles. Balancing on the balls of my feet feels very natural and my turns feel almost effortless compared with every other shoe I have ever worn or tried out... But I guess their real test will be in class. Can't wait to try them out! Come and see them in some salsa action at Lexington & Ashland, 7 PM Thursdays with Sarah Hooper & Sean Ortiz! :-)
I currently have ZERO skills at isolating body-sections and then moving them in staggered-cohesion. Add to that stick-like everything and you have a winning insect combination.
The Salsa diary for this week reads:
10. I finally realized that I like dancing the salsa because I am fascinated by the music, its variations and the whole culture surrounding the music and the dance that has evolved with this music. It is to me, a study of an unspoken yet a well-enunciated language and its often-surprising dialects.
9. Took a couple on-2 classes in NYC and fell in love with the variation. I am just as terrible at dancing on-2 as I am at dancing on-1. But somehow, I could relate to the music much better with the on-2 style compared with the on-1 style. But alas, no one teaches the on-2 style in Buffalo.
8. I am not very thrilled about wrestling everyone else (apart from Sean, Sarah and those rare beginner leads who don't have a very large height differential) in class. And because I am so horrible at following people, I am seriously considering practicing just the solo shines and ignoring the fact that it is a partnered dance. After all, I make my own damn rules for anything I like so much.
7. Just look at what kind of awesomeness you can achieve with solo salsa:
Fine! That's the super-goddess of on-2 salsa. Probably imbibed on-2 skills in-utero.
6. Something is holding me back from hip-hop classes. It's not a concrete something but it's definitely some non-concrete vague thing that I haven't figured out yet.
5. I took a structured approach to yogasanas over the weekend and earlier this week and found that my balancing powers are very asymmetric. No wonder I am always stumbling on my quick moves and spins.
4. My made-for-salsa shoes arrive Tuesday. No heels. All suede. I am thrilled beyond words. I don't think ANY pair of shoes have ever generated such anticipation... well maybe those spongy slippers in 2nd grade decades ago, but nothing after that. I spent a couple hours at Capezio's flagship store on Broadway, prancing about in every single "latina" heels they had. They made me dread spins, and I can't take that kind of dread for something I really like.
3. I wish I lived in NYC.
2. I wish I lived in NYC.
1. I wish I lived in NYC.
You can go ahead and hate me for the 1-2-3 now but I can't help it.
"Really? I don't see you moving to salsa?"
(Silent me: Good to know you don't have an eye disorder.)
"Really, you don't look like *that* type."
(Silent me: I will wear a T-shirt that says "that type" prominently on it, next time.)
"Really? I would never have thought!"
(Silent me: Yeah, thinking was never your strong point.)
"Really? When are you starting?"
(Silent me: I guess listening is not your strong point either.)
"Really? You can dance?"
(Silent me: Well. You have seen me walking...)
"Really? Surprising."
(Silent me: What, exactly?)
"Really?!!!!"
(Silent me: REALLY!)
Oh, and the worst...
"Really. Hmm (up and down doubtful body-stare)."
(Parkinson me: *annoyed pout*)
It's a weird feeling to receive all these comments. It's the same way when I tell people I love 80s and 90s heavy metal. My dance class (and for that matter, love of heavy metal) is an outlet of tons of fun for me, not some competitive salsa world championship entry practice (or an entry point to a "metalhead" lifestyle).
PS: I usually invite all of them to Configuration dance studio on Lexington and Ashland to Sarah Hooper and Sean Ortiz's salsa lessons on Thursdays (TODAY!) starting 7:00 PM. You could salsa too if you wanted, regardless of how many "Really??"s you get. :-)
I stayed on for both the beginner and the intermediate salsa-for-the-soul classes today. Only, it didn't turn out quite as smooth on my soles. And I mean that in a very literal sense.
I was a whole 15 minutes late for the beginner's class because the HSBC ATM on Elmwood and Utica was out of order. Why does it have to be the one day that I forgot to withdraw cash in the morning?! So I ran around in the snow looking for another ATM and found a random one at some sleazy bar that charged me $2.50 extra for the money. I think the patrons at the bar got a kick out of all my hurry to get the money out and some of them were shouting "welcome to (whatever that bar was called)" as I rushed out. I swear it sounded like welcome to hotel california! So weird. I should have chosen the one at the petrol pump.
It sounded like a good temporary fix for sticky shoes and thus, better spins in theory. Alas, the ridiculously fancy-looking tape reverted and stuck to the floor as I danced. So I had to peel it all off in the end. I am sure I annoyed Sarah and Sean with all my deranged flitting-about near the studio door.
To add to the general stickiness of the dance floor, someone else in the class, quite unfortunately, came in with their street boots (I did not!!) and there was water on the floor near where I put my dance anchor down. As a result, spinning, on the whole, was a disaster yet again. I tried wiping the water off with the tissue I had but some wet spots remained. Thankfully, Sarah took care of them later.
I guess I will need to pick my dance spot carefully next time, move away from anyone wearing street boots and wear heels with suede. I am done wearing flat boots and feeling like.. well a flat waddling duck. This probably means wearing dress socks under the wool socks I usually wear, and then maybe I will look like a duck with boots on?
Anything for salsa!!!!
Apart from all the sticky sole drama, the beginner class was a blast. I met this really cool person who had a lovely name that I just can't remember now. Mariposa? That Alzheimer's must be creeping up on me faster than I think. Thanks to my diminished faculties, we will henceforth refer to her as Mariposa. I think her name was really quite different and I am losing my touch here but let's not squabble over scrabble and get on with the story.
So the point was, Mariposa's whole being invigorated everyone around the studio. I wish I were more like her and less like loony here-but-not-really-there me. I LOVED her energy as she danced... darn it, I wish I could remember her real name. She lighted up the proceedings and at one point, while we were dancing, suddenly swept me off the floor - I honestly have no idea how she did that!!?! Maybe she has trained in martial arts? Apparently, my stick-like forearms and frame have no weight at all and people can't even feel them.
Now, that is some cause for concern - to be so unsubstantial as to be weightless. Maybe I need to do some weight-training and put some muscle on? I wish I had some of the muscle of that enviable wikipedia salsa woman.
Which brings me to another little hitch in my dancing technique. Salsa is very much about dynamics and part of the dynamics are developed through a push-and-pull kind of movement. It's almost like you and your dancing partner are on opposite ends of a huge elastic band and you take turns at pushing and pulling the band as you dance. The beats that accompany salsa music also undulate and then tighten. The music and the synchronous dance steps are the basis to the elastic push-pull-push rhythm of salsa. Something like this - pay attention to the hands..
(Yeah, I don't have a clue what they were on about, either.)
The thing is my push-pull-push technique is frankly, quite awful. I annoyed the hell out of another student in the class, who has been dancing for a while, with all my ineptness at the "elastic band" moves. When Sean or Sarah is leading, I hardly feel as if I am a bad follower but my lack of skills as a follower are magnified with everyone else. This is probably why I can't dance effectively outside of class, yet. I am hoping that things get better with each class... I have faith that they will but dance is like a language. Without immersion and practice, it's going to be an uphill task.
Oh and I learnt this absolutely awesome 70s disco-like move where you almost moonwalk sideways by alternately pivoting with your left heel and toe as you move sideways to your right. It was so cool to be able to do that step that I wished that salsa didn't have to be a partnered dance. There is definitely some scope here for "salsa battles" with individual dances. Maybe I should join the hip hop class and incorporate salsa moves into it. There are some interesting possibilities to where I want to take my sudden interest in salsa. I just feel that, with no current or even future practice partners, my partnered salsa will never really get better - so why not work more intensively on an individual style...
PS: I guess the salsa class drawing-muse theory isn't working. My mad drawing skillz are worse than a 1st grader. Pfft. On a positive note, at least they are accurate. If someone is desperate enough to ask me what I look like on film, I can comfortably point at my strikingly-lifelike self-portrait here.
PPS: I also danced with Sarah for a bit today and found that not all people have a hair texture like a street-sweeping broom. I am so used to the texture of my hair as I comb it with my hands everyday that it comes as a sensory surprise when someone's hair feels like silk. Her's does. It took me by surprise so much that I actually said it out loud. And I winked back at Mariposa across the studio a minute later. Two completely unrelated things... that are bothering me slightly right now. Maybe I shouldn't care so much.
My classes start once more this new year and I have missed them so much! I have a rather ambitious new year resolution of getting really good at Salsa.
Well... not as good as this pair... but you know what they say.
If you aim for the stars, you will at least put your boots on and get to your roof, or something to that effect.
PS: There is something so amazing about that wikipedia photograph of salsa. I love that pose they are striking. The expressions on their face, as they dance, are so charming.
PPS: Come to the Salsa for the soul class at Lexington & Ashland today at 7 PM for the beginner's class and 8 PM for the intermediate class or stay for both. Super-awesome Sarah Hooper and Sean Ortiz will be gliding and shining you into some Salsa awesomeness.
PPPS: You KNOW whatever is on TV or wherever else is so not worth missing Salsa lessons! :-)
