Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Latinos

I thought Sunday was great - the only thing that worries me is that it might get too crowded like the Toad once everyone hears about it. Could do with some fans downstairs - it was hot! Andy's intermediate and advanced classes were excellent - good moves, not too many of them, and a focus on how to dance them in a precise and controlled way.

They're taking trouble to avoid level creep (ie improvers hanging around for the advanced classes) by requiring people to state what levels they're going to do when they arrive, and not letting anyone do more than two levels. Gender balance wasn't bad either, unlike Andy's classes in Life where you used to get about 10 women to every man. I'd forgotten quite how energetic his warmups were, though (still had aching legs two days later, though the 60km of hilly cycling I did earlier in the day might have had something to do with it!).

Thanks and congratulations for making the first post on the forum, Tom. I hope it's going to be a useful resource for creating and maintaining interest in salsa in the Cardiff area.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments, with regards to the space getting to crowded, we have the option of opening upstairs (Latinos) if we get to many people so we can have dancing on two floors. The air conditioning is something we are discussng with the venue... :) Always a difficult one.

Thanks again.

Looks like Latino's are back to their old tricks, telling Andy and Neil that they couldn't have the downstairs when they arrived last Sunday (being messed about like that is the reason John Pamplin moved to Bar Med). And the floor upstairs was filthy - like dancing on flypaper. It's frustrating, particularly when the teaching is so good and a lot of thought has clearly gone into organising a good night.

Does anyone have details of the timings for JC's new night at O'Neills?

Hi Tom,
I have put details on O'Neills in a new thread.

Hi folks,

Thanks for your comments, as Tom pointed out the owner of Latino's is giving us some problems althrough the night Manager is very supportive of us.

With regards to the upstairs floor my own frustration is reaching boiling point, to be fair the manager is trying very hard but as usual they have done a cheap job in refurbishing it and are suffering the consequences. The floor is not just a problem for us but also on their other nights.

Neil and I were very happy to get this venue as we felt the venue was an ideal location, and with having two floors felt that there was a good opportunity for people to dance downstairs without having to wait for the classes to finish. As the venue was extremly quite on the Sunday night we also felt confident that there wouldn't be any problems... How wrong can one be! The owner (Gio) has suddenly decided that he wishes to tempt the crowd from Life and Bar Risa, quite why he hasn't done this before is a mystery.

Anyway we are in negotiations with them at the moment and also with another venue, as soon as this is finalized we'll let you know.

I'd like to thank everyone who comes along and helps make the evening a very chilled out event. See you Sunday!

Thanks again.

Very sorry to hear this, Andy. Committed management that doesn't breathe down you neck on the slow nights early in a night's development is a great advantage. It was sniffy management and unfriendly staff that helped to doom the Bar M venture by Steve & Co from Bristol. I can't understand why a club called Latinos, that's a nice size for salsa, doesn't try to move heaven and earth to get a successful salsa night going.

Speaking of floors - one might mention the hole(s) in the Life Club - I'm forever trying to avoid these,

I spoke to a woman at the Life Club - and she told me that something was being done.

I haven't been to the Latinos club - might be worth a look.

Hmm, I haven't noticed any real holes in Life. Where are they? I too have heared that they're going to improve the part of the dancefloor that hasn't been done yet.

Life is a great venue tho, in my opinion: roomy, clean, reasonable sound, not too dark so you can see what you're doing, no flashing lights, and plenty of comfortable places to sit if you need to.

Hi Guys,

This is to let everyone know that the Sunday night is now back.

Classes upstairs from 7pm
Dancing downstairs from 9pm until the last of you leave, roughly 12am.

We would like to thank everyone that perserved with us through the dodgy floors etc, this has now been rectified.

Andy Witt and Neil Marcus