OK Boys & Girls... BRACE YOURSELVES
Firstly... The name Salsa given to the dance we all know and love was not coined without a reason, as it is a rich sauce made from a cocktail of ingredients.
Salsa is a street dance... That’s what it was from its inception, that’s what it is right now and for as long as it remains as a dance form, I imagine that’s what it will be... A STREET DANCE, a free dance, one that is organic and that, belongs on the street and in CLUBS
And it is really important to get to grips with that concept before you go off on one, about who is a professional teacher and what qualifications etc. They possess.
You need only go to any advertised class once to decide whether or not they are offering value for money and if the class gives you exactly what it is you are looking for... Worst case scenario is that, you’ve lost a couple of quid.
Anyhow you should be very wary of qualifications held by teachers because in reality they mean very little. What professional body do you suppose issues them and what global authority do you imagine they have over this most GLOBAL of dances. They’ll mostly be scams to extract money from people who fall for them, often for insurance cover and various other reasons. Think of the certificates you see in, for example Indian restaurants, that claim the food is of an excellent quality ‘the best in the west’ etc. Which will be the same as the certificate in the restaurant next door, which amazingly will also be the ‘the best in the west.’ Frankly I would give about as much credence to a certificate for a Salsa teaching qualification as I would for a certificate on the wall of the local Indian takeaway.
There are no true professional teachers in Salsa so don’t kid yourselves that there are... And don’t let them kid you either! There are however, many teachers who take a professional approach to what they do and I would certainly include the two Cardiff teachers mentioned the most in this thread so far, namely John Pamplin and Andy Witt. In my view there are few teachers who can better the dedication, commitment and professionalism in their approach. So I repeat there is nothing wrong with the quality of teaching in Cardiff.
As for the variety of teachers and the content of the classes on offer, well this is where we need to take a reality check.
Remember when you first clapped your eyes upon a group of Salsa dancers; you probably thought they were amazing... Or at least most of them, even those with only limited experience, would seem like experts. For the first few months of the classes you attended the lessons were fresh and exciting with plenty (too much probably) to take in. But as you progressed the people you once thought were very good began to look distinctly average and even the experts would probably make occasional mistakes which you could recognise. At a minimum you probably began to recognise moves that you would see repeated with some sort of regularity. Consequently you would probably start to become bored and uninspired and this would be true of any teacher and their repertoire of moves, any Dj and their collection of music etc. Etc. It is a natural process and occurs because no one person could possibly add to their repertoire and content at a faster rate than your ability to learn, remember and progress.
Think about your favourite two CDs no matter how much you love listening to them, after a while, you want to listen to them less and less even though you’ll probably always love them and still want to listen to them occasionally.
The bottom line is, that as you reach a certain standard the only way to be inspired and to progress further is to expand your horizons... And your original teacher, whoever they might be will probably encourage you to do so.
Another analogy for you is that some people at the club I run complain that I play the same old tunes, which I don’t. I promise you I add a few new tunes regularly I rotate them often, not playing the same tune for a couple of weeks, months or even years, but because they get to know many of them, they sometimes think this is the case. People coming from out of town (Djs included) tell me that my collection is current fresh and diverse. So there you have it... Familiarity breeds contempt as they say.
Remember Bristol is bigger than Cardiff and yet to keep things fresh I have to bring in teachers from outside Bristol. Only because we attract so many people to the club (not all wanting lessons I might add) can we afford to finance this range of teachers, as it is hugely expensive, and would be very difficult if not impossible to do on a similar basis in Cardiff. And this is where it gets interesting and where I leap to the defence of Andy, John and anyone else for that matter offering classes in your fair City.
Let me preface this next section by the following statement... I believe in every one’s right to free choice, as you’ll have noticed from my previous posts (for example on smoking) and so what I’m about to say is in no way a criticism of anyone! Just a fact that might help to explain why things are the way they are.
Some of you have said kind things about the nights we used to run in Cardiff and I can tell you that we all enjoyed the time we spent there and do miss coming over; but there is a reason why we had to leave and this thread gives me the opportunity to explain why and at the same time might help to answer the pertinent points.
Coming from outside of Cardiff as we did, naturally it wasn’t cheap for us, but we kept the cost of entry to an absolute minimum, I think it was £4 if my memory serves me correctly and although most people didn’t complain about the cost, some people did... A lot. I managed to pay all the wages and meet all the costs, but for the last six months I personally came over and worked once a week for nothing, for a jolly. So basically the pressure to keep prices down made the journey and the night we ran untenable.
But cost wasn’t the only pressure; there was also the unrivalled enthusiasm of some people in Cardiff to start their own night and compete with us even to the extent of running a night on the same night as ours. Most of these people don’t, as we do, run Salsa as a business and remember my mortgage being paid, depends on my business being viable. For them it is often a hobby, a jolly with little consequence if the venture doesn’t work out.
*** Please don’t lose sight of the preface to this section. ***
So anyway most of these short lived ventures into running a Salsa business came and went as you know, yet because of the effect on numbers, this caused our night to stagnate and even dip to the point that we had to make the regrettable decision to pack up and leave for good. It was a classic case of cause and effect.
It probably sounds like a major whinge, but I can assure you, it’s just an observation and is the best way to explain to anyone who needs the original question answered... At least one of the reasons for the lack of variety that now exists in Cardiff.
So I have no problem with fair competition or even unfair competition for that matter, as I’m confident that we do a reasonable job in running a kickass Salsa Club night. But as I said previously, I believe in free choice and if people decide to checkout other options as is there right, then naturally when there is a limited amount of people as there are in Cardiff with relation to the Salsa scene; and at the same time a preponderance of Salsa venues then the consequence of the numbers being spread thinly, is that some venues won’t survive. In the event it was our club night that had to go and sadly it now seems that there are not enough quality nights to satisfy the salsa hungry crowd.
Apologies then, for cutting and running, but those of you who remember our contribution to Salsa in Cardiff will remember that we did give it our best shot.
Hope that answers your question chippy... Take a chill pill and get out more.
