E & C goes Salsa dancing to London Aug. 05

Text and photo: Erik og Consuelo 25.08.05

SALSA in the UK

 

2005 has been a great year when it comes to travelling for us. Just 3 weeks after our round-the-world tour, with the last week at the salsa congress in Puerto Rico, we went to spend the last week of August in the salsa capitol of Europe, London. The trip could not start better as we on our first day met Imelda, one of the most hard-core salsa-dancers in London. One thing we have learned this summer is that we never have to worry about being strangers in cities like Saigon, Boston, Mexico City, or San Juan. Knowing salsa, it is easy to get to know people and make friends, all we need to do is find a club playing that that latin beat.

We got to know Imelda during our stay in New York this summer. Like us, she spent some weeks to get training by the masters of mambo/salsa, and to go out and get that experience of salsa that only the streets of New York offers.

Imelda hooked us up with great people, and provided us with a detailed plan of how we should get the most out of our stay.

As a summary, we would first of all say that salsa dancing has become extremely popular in London. Londoners are serious about having fun: They party every day and they have discovered salsa. We had never expected salsa to be one of the most popular concepts among the biggest night clubs. No matter what culture and background people have they would fill up the dance floors and dance their heart out. Compared to any other place we have been, London offers an extremely friendly salsa-scene. There seem to be no separation between different styles, different teachers/personalities, or even different levels of dancers. Complete beginners and more advanced dancers all have a blast together. It seemed like dance level was one thing, another thing was to dance with the heart - that's what salsa is all about!

FRIDAY
The first night which was on Friday, we went to the famous MamboCity-club run by Robert & Jean White. (They are a famous couple here in London because they are great instructors and dancers, and they arrange spectacular salsa events). This club is located in an old beautiful building called Ealing Town Hall. The club had 3 dance floors on different levels, a bar with cheap drinks, fantastic music, and dancers of all levels.

Even international salsa celebrity Super Mario was there both dancing and Dj'ing. Really amazing atmosphere. Everybody was incredibly friendly and we danced and had fun with a lot of people from complete beginners to professional dancers. There was also a salsa performance by some local dancers that was great entertainment.

Consuelo and I got ourselves some great dances and for some reason, Mr. Robert White himself came to us between two songs and asked if we were from Norway and introduced himself. A proof that the salsa world is small, and very friendly. We went home really tired, but pleased - we got our dose of salsa.

SATURDAY
The next day we went crazy shopping for salsa music before we went out. London is almost as good as New York when it comes to finding good Latin music. We had almost 30 new albums before we came to our senses and stopped shopping.

Saturday night was the start of the "London Latinfest 2005", a week long annual event.
We went to the "Salsa Central @ Latin Square". This turned out to be like a regular busy nightclub, except the music was salsa, and people were mostly dancing in couples (a few were dancing solo, and some were even dancing in trio's). This club turned out to be exactly what we plan for our club in Tromsø - iL Mare. A great location for those who only want to have a drink in a cosy atmosphere, great music, and a dance floor that is not the centre of the place, but discretely located in the corner.

SUNDAY
SOS, is the name for the main London salsa events on Sundays (Salsa on Sundays). The guy organizing this event is none other than Leon Rose, perhaps most famous salsero of Europe. We always meet Leon on our travels, so we knew that he was a very popular instructor in London. However, we had no idea that he is London's version of Jimmy Anton from NYC. Wow! His dance-event was huge! In a huge hall in something called Mary Ward House hundreds of people were dancing to fantastic music provided by Dj Sylvester.

Dj Sylvester - Expert of Mambo and Latin Jazz

Leon Rose and Super Mario.. :)

The audience loved him, even though most of the songs were unique and new to the crowd. His selection of Latin Jazz is fantastic, and it was amazing how one tune after the other would just suck people on to the dance floor.

Leon and Consuelo busting out on the dance floor.....

..... Together with hundreds of others

 

Leon: always goofing around when not dancing

At this event we could also see how the different teachers and promoters of salsa come together as a big group of good old friends. This was something really unique. This night was definitely one of the best we have had anywhere in the world regarding dancers and music. We felt like people took us right into the family!

MONDAY

Do you think we took the day off from dancing on Monday? Off course not! Imelda had told us to go to "Salsa!" , a club hosted by Super Mario and Susana Montero. We thought Sundays was the best salsa night in London - we were wrong. Monday nights are just as good! This night went on until 2 am and it was PACKED!

 

It was a great surprise that even a Monday night could be so busy for salsa. This club was made for dancing, with one elevated dance floor in the middle, and stairs on each side leading to two others. Mario played a great mix of music satisfying both those who like the international, New York sound and the more traditional Cuban salsa sound. It is fun to see how this music reaches also those who are not trained in salsa. At the end of the night some hip-hop dancers could not resist the beat anymore and started dancing hip hop and spinning on their back. We think the bar did well that night...

Tuesday
The next day we headed to a dance studio where we had arranged to have a private-lesson with Europe's premiere instructor Leon Rose. This is something we had been looking forward to since we met him in Puerto Rico in July, and he did certainly not disappoint.
Leon proved to be an exceptional instructor with amazing focus on details, and gave us a lot of valuable hints both for our own dancing and teaching.

In the evening we were ready for our last night out. In the centre of London on Leicester Square you will find the biggest night clubs. That night we found out that one of the biggest nightclubs turned out to be a salsa nightclub - right next to the commercial night clubs.

The door man/bouncer gave a friendly warning to curious people that this was a salsa club. Still, behind the doors we found a huge club with 4-5 different dance floors packed with people - and that's on a Tuesday!

Clearly, the Londoners have really understood that dancing can make you score on the floor. Nothing beats salsa when it comes to "flirty dancing" it seems. It was really striking to observe how most people has no idea what is the text of the songs - they just HAVE to move to this music. With so many people it was very hot though and since it was our last night, we did not stay long.

Consuelo @ "SOUND"

Instead we spent the last hour of the night just walking around the quite so crowded Leicester Square, enjoying the atmosphere. We are definitely looking forward to go back, and would highly recommend you to visit London even with salsa as the only reason.

 

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