Salsa night, July 1, 2010.

Thursday, July 1, 2010, 8 p.m. onwards. Our place.
Bring some chips, comfortable shoes, chewing gum and you best dancing mood ;)

Second to last class

Last night was the second to last class, and our first after a two week absence. Did not really learn a lot of new things, but it was good to review some basic stuffs.


Oh, I managed to finish the shawl, last piece of the ball costume during the trip to Germany.  And since I've decided, and tried out, to wear my new pair of black dancing shoes (with the risk of having my husband trampling all over them) for the ball, I wouldn't need to work on the shoe laces.


I would have liked to learn Foxtrot and Quickstep, still, but I guess I have to wait and see if people come up with follow-up course, sometimes in Fall.


And this weekend the ladies decided to meet up and compare gowns....ouch.... And the guys are ORDERING their tails.  Wow... now I know why I kond of dig latin dance more than 'classical' one.... I guess 'dress to kill' dresscode is soooo much easier than "ballgown and tails".

May Salsa Night

May Salsa Night was last Wednesday.  Kudos to my brave husband for surviving through the evening with his cold....


We sent the invitation from Istanbul, and we barely touched Sana'a ground when we had to start moving furnitures, renting disco light and connecting the sound system.  It was all fun.  The change of room seemed to bring better effect than the first attempt at organizing a salsa night.  But of course there is much much much room for improvement.  I am thinking of setting up a 'first-hour' curriculum, for some basic steps, but of course, my dancing partner and I should learn how to teach them first, don't you think? hahaha...


Hopefully we will have time to rest before the next salsa night, hopefully by end of June.... I know it's wishful thinking because it will all be exactly the same scenario, except it will be Germany, instead of Turkey.


Besos.

Ballroom gathering (5)

Wow, it's actually the 5th week of ballroom gathering attendance? Kudos to ourselves ;p

The ball is scheduled on an evening where there is a break during the coming season of the World Cup, yeah...July, baby... And last night *nearly* everybody was excited with practising for the opening of the ball, including the walk down the winding staircase for the ladies, the sets of 'compliments' to different people, bowing like a lady and all that.

I have to be honest that I admire the elegance of ballroom dance, and all those scenes from the movies.  But on the other hand, it also felt a bit artificial to be in a group of really beginner dancers, organizing a ball, and really want to do it right up to the minuscule details of it.  I thought having a dance ball is for the purpose of having a ball, a great time. I did feel like a grownup trying to play a much belated princessy dress-up.

I tried to get an update on the shopping sphree which was supposed to happen on Sunday, but apparently, they did not make it to the cheaper area in town and only one lady managed to buy something.  They sticked to better shopes, and even stopped checking out a shop because 'the quality was not good'.  And some people turned out to already have a gown in their closet. I began to wonder whether the dresscode will hold.  I don't think so. If quality is of a concern, then definitely tacky dress is not an option, and I don't think any of these ladies will already have a tacky dress in their wardrobe that they would relocate with them several thousand miles across the globe.

In any case, I've got my gown, too.  And if I turn out to be the tackiest at the ball, they'd better have an award for me for that... LOL

Second (possible) Salsa Night

Almost a month since the last salsa night... so we're thinking of organizing the next one... 

Head to Salsa Sanaa blog or write to salsa.sanaa[at]gmail[dot]com if you happen to be in Sana'a, Yemen, around end of May 2010, and are interested to meet up for some salsa (and merengue, bachata, and reggaeton) dancing.

European Samba ??

Last night I went solo to the weekly ballroom dancing session, and we learnt a bit of the Tango Promenade (this time it's everywhere all over Youtube), and European Samba.

Come again? Yup, european samba.  The european samba is the one in which you dance with a partner.  Found some videos on Youtube, but as usual, I am in a kind of a hurry.  So, links will be on next posting(s).

Oh, and there will be a BALL in July, and all the ladies are planning to go shopping next Sunday.  But I will be having my BIG German test then :((  But I have some ideas already, and I am planning to work on some existing dress and skirt, and make some adjustment and accessories to go with the theme "the tackier, the better" LOL.

PS: The clue is "Wear something you would never wear again."  The problems are, (1) I feel conflicted on spending money on things I would only wear once, especially since nothing is THAT cheap, and going secondhand ~ ehemm... I mean pre-loved~  is not a real option around here. Not to mention all the waste involved in doing it. (2) I would have to live with the photos of that night, so I don't really feel like going all the way tacky-tacky.... will have to find a way to look tacky-cutey...LOL.

Tangoing through the night...

Last night was the third ballroom dancing meeting we attended, and we learnt a bit of Tango.

What's interesting was that today, I had been trying to find tango instructions on Youtube, but none of the clips showed the basic steps our teachers showed us last night... I tried Tango, Ballroom Tango, Argentinian Tango/Milonga.... and all sorts of keyword to find it,  but so far, I still could not find the exact same footwork with what they did.  Curious....  I have to admit it looks much more complicated online, so maybe our instructors came up with a simpler set of basic footwork...oh well, who knows... 

I will post some Youtube links when I have more time.  Ciao

First salsa night @ our place

~ sending out invitation - check
~ renting disco light - check
~ checking whether the sound system is compatible with the laptop - check
~ getting enough supply of water - check
~ compiling various playlists - check
~ moving furnitures - check


And finally... people started coming... YAY! Though some people who said that they would definitely come finally didn't show up, some strangers had heard about it and came knocking on our door.  All in all, it was fun, and we should definitely do that again. Though next time, there should be more dancing... LOL.  People enjoyed talking so much, many ended up socializing instead of working a sweat.


Oh well, will be better next time.  At least now I have a list of e-mails and phone numbers to work on... yay!

Spoiler... First salsa night @ our place in Sana'a

Since next weekend is a long weekend, we decided that it's a perfect weekend to parteeeee!!!  Wednesday evening we're invited for the Queen of the Netherland's Birthday Party at the residence of the Dutch Ambassador, Thursday will be a housewarming party with the Germans... and Friday, first salsa night at our place.  Can't wait.  Hope it works out.  Nervous.

First attendance at the Ballroom Dancing group...nice!

Wow, it's Sunday already... time to catch up on a post I had wanted to write since last Tuesday.. (yeah... I am big procrastinator....not proud of that, but that's me, alright...).

Apparently, there is a ballroom-dancing group that meets up most Mondays, and finally, we got invited :p  So there we were, spending around 2 hours for some cha-cha, slow waltz and jive.  I left with a seriously sore right-calf muscle, and several days to recover before the next meeting.  And voila, next meeting is tomorrow already.

Here are a couple of links, with beginner Waltz and Jive instruction from Youtube:

Beginner instruction to Waltz 

and

Beginner instruction to Jive

PS:  It was really funny when B asked the 'instructor' to show me the basic footwork of slow waltz, he said "Oh, but it is very similar to the normal waltz!"  Hehehe.... come again? Normal or "abnormal", sadly, I just didn't know waltz, Sir... LOL. I guess it comes within the territory, once a European assumes you can dance, you can definitely dance waltz...