September 27, 2001
Rose.
Ive been in Spain for a week now & to pick up where I left off last
at Sevilla let me give you a quick rundown of the salsa scene here.
We found the only indoor salsa club in Seville right beside the Lope
de Vega theatre. The 2nd floor was suppos-edly totally dedicated to
salsa & latin music. Let´s just say we had a good hour after
we arrived at 1.15 am before we got swamped by unintelli-gible Spanish
rock tunes that last till we left at 4 am. During that time I danced
with a girl who was really good & followed almost everything I did,
incl. the NY style I slipped in here & there. She went with a guy
& 2 other girls & I´m sure they´ve taken lessons
by the way they danced. Can´t say whether they´re Spanish
or not -- they´re taller than the average build & have a generic
European look. I spoke Spanish with them but it was so loud in there
I couldn't figure out their accent.
Next stop at Malaga-- Went to a club called "Candela" on Sunday.
Really small place. Small crowd. We danced with the waitress & her
friends/ regulars. They followed well... but no NY style. The best of
them managed to follow my NY & told me she´d only being dancing
for a few months & had learnt from guys leading her. Two other Morrocan
girls there didn´t know how to dance.
Next stop Granada -- most rewarding stop so far. Went to Calle Socrates
on Tuesday & checked out 2 bars there. Had improved since the last
time I was there 5 years ago. Both were running classes when we arrived
at 11.30pm. We danced with the instructor´s assistant at "Salsa
Pub". She´s got flair. They make a very good pre-NY style
pre-United Salseros "Berlin" champion couple.
The bartender Antonio was who gave me my thrill of the night... But
make no mistake -- the only guy I dance with outside of United Salseros
is Branko, my travel mate. Antonio is a good dancer himself with training
in the Cuban style. Both he & the instructor gave me the impression
that someone dances the Rueda in Granada. He further told me to go down
the street to "El Malecon", where the waitress there danced
really well & that I should ask her to dance & use his name
as my referral.
Well -- I ended up dancing with a group of 3 girls & I dare say
they kicked the asses of some of our dancers in Toronto in terms of
technique & connection. In 15 minutes I taught each of them how
to dance NY & let me tell you if they started going to Tequila Tuesdays
they could easily become some of the top female dancers in Toronto.
They are regulars at the club & one of them told me she´d
only been dancing with the Cuban instructor there for a few months.
They were also very interested in the North American salsa scene &
if I did not have to take the night bus to Gandia later that evening
I would´ve told them everything about Toronto. But I did offer
them my card so they could write for more info if they wished. And of
course I did not at all forget to tell them to go check out Tosalsa.com.
I´ll find you their names later so you can post them up on your
travel page.
Next stop Valencia -- Will write you again soon!!!
Ciao!! Art
September 22, 2001
Rose. Howdy? I´ve been in Spain (Seville) for 2 days now and
2 days in Portugal. I was at a seaside resort in Portugal called Lagos
and obviously there´s no nothing there in terms of salsa... One
small bar played some salsa & cha cha music but obviously none of
the Europeans knew how to dance... We´re gonna go back to Lisbon
to check out the clubs on the way home in 10 days....
The Seville
page from Salsaweb hasn´t helped so far since it´s been
raining like hell in Seville & last night this put a damper on things
since most of the so-called salsa bars are outdoors.... Nothing was
happening as no cool-headed Latino would wanna walk out in the rain...
We drove by a supposedly hot club & there were teenagers and I stepped
on a foot deep of water for about 5 mins... I was swimming!
Tonight
we´re gonna check out this other "5-bar salsa complex"
(ha ha).... Keep my fingers crossed....
Tomorrow
we head down to Malaga... Have a contact there... Should be fun... Hope
it works out.. We´ll see.... Arthur Yuen
February,
2001
Barcelona clubs -- a quick and limited view of the Barcelona salsa
scene. As you may know there is no Salsaweb page for Barcelona but if
anyone you know is going this will help.
1. Do not go to the 'Salsa clubs' on the water front in Mare Magnum
(at the bottom of Ramblas the main street) unless you like Ricky Martin,
the latest version of the Macarena and lots of really bad dance music.
I went to four "Latin" clubs in this area and I think I heard two Salsa's.
It was definitely for non-dancing tourists and was worse than Flamingo
on Saturday night (a huge disappointment!). Actually I haven't been
to Flamingo on Saturday in 2 years so maybe I shouldn't say that.
2. The two real Latin music clubs I did manage to attend started to
get going after midnight on a Saturday and were still rocking when I
finally packed it in at 5 AM (literally danced to death!). Spaniards
people LOVE salsa and at both clubs that is almost all they played.
They played a (one only) Cha-cha, Buchata, or Merenque about every 10-15
songs, and then back to Salsa. It was great. My first Dance was at 'Antilla'
(I will list the addresses below) and the woman actually asked me to
dance. After that it was non-stop and the women literally were lining
up (ok....I'm stretching it a little.... but I had at least 20 different
partners in 3 hours). Whomever I looked at would almost always be my
next dance. Amazingly enough, I think they thought my style was kind
of unique ( OK weird....slightly off beat...same as people think in
Toronto!!) but really I had the time of my life.
The average age at Antilla was probably early 30's and at the second
club 'Salsa Buenavista' probably late 20's but equally as fun. Because
I am an old man now (40) I kind of liked Antilla a little better, but
I would highly recommend either for the diehard Salsa fan. Both were
clean and well managed with wood or tile dance floors. Drinks were about
$9 CDN but there was no cover (while actually they do the drink ticket
cover thing). They were in the same general area about an $8. cab ride
from the downtown core.
Here is the info: Antilla Barcelona Arago 141 T. 93 45145 46 Salsa Buenavista
Rossello,217 T. 93 237 6528 y 65 696 13 37 Happy Salsa! Randall
August,
2000 - Mallorca, Spain
(Greg Pintilie)
In August
2000, I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful island of Mallorca
in Spain. This is the country where salsa is more than a competitive
form dance, it is where people dance it because the rhythm is in their
hearts. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a club in the popular
club strip 'El Maritimo' called Arthuros, with a beautiful set-up of
lights and colours, and where the dancers seemed to know their salsa
and merengue moves really well. There were two dance floors from what
I remember, one at the entry which seemed to be the more popular one,
and another one a few feet lower down towards the back of the club.
A bar-rail between the two allows spectators to watch the impressive
moves of the dancers below.
I was even
more impressed when a circle of casino dancers erupted into a fit of
synchronized dance. The crowd was very pleasant and salsa-enthusiastic.
The many other clubs in the area is sure to attract the less-so outgoing
populace. Just when I thought the intense sunshine, sandy beaches, and
tropical island scenery had already soothed my senses, this club really
took it one step further.
June
2000 - Madrid, Spain (Valerie Imperial)
Keros (Calle Ventura Rodrigues near Plaza de Espana)
Keros does not get started until 1:30am on a Tuesday. I don't know how
the Spanish do this on a workday!!?? (Fortunately I was on holidays...)
I went to Keros on a Tuesday with a group of non-salsa dancers so I
took the initiative of asking a guy to dance. He was surprised that
I could dance and asked me where I'd learned salsa - so I said 'Canada!'.
Turns out he knew one of the salsa instructors in Madrid - a guy named
Giovanni - so he introduced me to him. It was great because Giovanni
is a great dancer and a nice person too. He further introduced me to
other salseros and I got to dance all night! Once I broke the ice on
the dance floor, I found the salseros in Madrid to be friendly and open
to dancing with a foreigner (in their local salsa scene, that is). I
did not get home until 5 am - I had a great time!! I was also told that
there are many more happening places in Madrid, but unfortunately I
did not have enough time to visit them! Next time Madrid!