Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Tuesday at Callaghan's

Hi! I’m a Spanish Salsera and I have to say that I really enjoy the nights in Callaghan’s, yes, they are a little informal but they’re free, and that’s why I like it. They are doing two lessons at the same time so the music has to be in the background, and then, when the lesson is finished the music comes up and you can try out what you’ve learnt before. The people there are very friendly too.
I’ve never been into Andy’s lessons but I went to Bar Cuba sometime ago and people are too obsessed with trying to dance perfect salsa and they look at you up and down to see if you are good or not. That made me really uncomfortable.
That’s why I like Callaghan’s, because is more like being with friends.

Dear Alun,

Thinking back, I don’t remember having seen you in any of my classes but, due to your comments, you must have been to on some occassion.

Criticising behind a nick is too easy so that, whenever you want, I’ll be very glad to meet you and have a chat (face to face).

Haven’t got anything against Andy, let alone his method of teaching salsa, although it’s clear (because of your messages) that you are his most fervent disciple.

Don’t know if you’ll know it, but I remind you that classes in Callaghan’s are FREE, and what we do there is simply for the sake of fun, because we like salsa and because we want people to spend a good time with us.

There’s a huge difference between the classes in which you pay in order to attend and those which are for free; let me explain this: if Andy charges people for his classes, it’s obvious that people really commit themselves and are constant as far as attendance is concerned. On the contrary, Being free in Callaghan’s, do people not take classes seriously. We can’t go further if people miss lessons continuously.

In spite of the fact that you think our classes are not professional enough, I can tell you that the NY style and the Cuban salsa are completely different. What’s more, I guarantee that 50% of the people who regularly go to Callaghan’s have learnt to dance the Cuban style and bachata. By the way, bachata was practically unknown in Cardiff and WE started to teach it. Now, thanks to us, people can dance a new kind of style. I remind you that, some time ago, when bachata was played in a pub, people were staring at us without knowing what to do.

Well mate, hope you don’t take this personally but what really puzzles me is that you are underestimating our 12 years’ experience.

Regards and c u in Callgaghan’s.

MARIA

PS. Next time you come round let me know and I’ll be more aware of YOUR PRESENCE.

Alun certainly has attended you classes, I’ve seen him there. Also, his criticism was invited and was well thought out and accurate, in my opinion.

Maria, yes I’ve been to your class, but haven’t seen you for a while. You’ll know me by sight, but not by name.

I tried to be balanced in my comments, and did say that I enjoyed Callaghan’s and that it was a good night out. I just concentrated on something which I thought you’d be interested in getting feedback on.

I think you’ve made a good point that because it is free (which I also mentioned), that probably affects attendance, committment and how seriously people take it. It also demonstrates that you are doing it out of your love of salsa and that any comments made be me or anyone else shold be read in that context. On the other hand, you’ll have to accept that a lot of people will (or should) choose to pay if they want to serously improve their dancing. There probably is something significantly different in the different nights because of this.

I haven’t seen you teach bachata, but would be interested in learning more. I’ve only just been able to pick up the basics from watching, and have a feeling that a lot of people locally would (or should!) benefit from a few lessons. Perhaps you could use this forum to advertise when you’re doing some in the future? Same goes for rueda, which I’ve found to be the most productive classes you do. I think it helps to impose some discipline on the class if everyone has to think about keeping the circle together, doing the same thing at the same time as everyone else, and this is probably a good means of teaching people cuban style at that level.

I don’t agree with hiding behind a false name while making critical comments, which is why I use my real name here. Next time I see you I’ll introduce myself properly and hopefully you’ll still dance with me.

Naaahhhh!!!

Bachata has been in Cardiff and the West country for ages.

It used to be taught in The Toad as a change and Nigel does it in Bristol too.

I’ve given a little “crit” on Callaghan’s in the past and I recall being very complimentary. I don’t get a chance to come to Cardiff much any more (too busy with work) but on my last visit a group of spanish speaking mates of the instructors were there - here lies the problem.

All night you just did your own rueda (some of which was off time) and spoke your own language, now I’ve got no problems with this ’cause I was there to dance but anyone there who wasn’t in the “gang” was ostricised by the Latinos and I distinctly remember one spanish bint actually be quite rude to me because I couldn’t understand the “calls”... Not that I couldn’t do the moves, but I couldn’t understand/hear/translate what the hell was being said. I got so pi*sed off that I left and said I wouldn’t go again.

The gang at Callaghan’s are most welcome to have a “laugh with friends and enjoy the salsa and music” that’s not the point of this comment - it’s your night, it’s free, it’s not a problem... But when you encourage people from “outside” to make the effort to attend by promisimg blah blah blah, then you can’t cancel the lessons, do something different or simply dance rueda and speak spanish with your mates!!! It pisses us off! Have a nice day :-)

PS - I did express my comments to the beautiful tall spanish lady with red hair who’s english was excellent. Her reply was that she was simply the interpreteur for the lessons and the night was not her’s to change. Fair enough... So I spoke to Manuel who to be frank didn’t understand a word I said to him!

HI THERE, Wizzy, due to your comments I can see you have not been to Callaghan’s for a long long time. For me, every single person who attend to the classes is my friend, easy, ask them. On the other hand, I remind you that “la rueda” is a Cuban dance, so it is in Spanish and we have to do it in Spanish, however we translate some words to make easier for most of the people who don’t understand, for you it is difficult to understand some words in Spanish. I will speak just for me, for me is much more difficult to speak the whole night in a language that I’ve learnt in one year and a half, “English”. I really enjoy doing it, is not easy, but I try to do my best as I enjoy, dancing, talking (English or Spanish). You are very right when you said “laugh with friends and enjoy the salsa music”. EVERYBODY who goes to Callaghan’s is our friend and I have a laugh with everyone there, that’s why Callaghan’s is there (enjoy, learn, dance) and that’s why we are there.

CHEERS

EDUARDO

I have to say I’m with Wizzy on this one Eduardo - I have been to Callaghan’s recently, and I certainly didn’t get the impression of the “friendliness” you are talking about.

In addition, the problem with la rueda is NOT that the calls are in Spanish, because that’s the whole point but:
1. that you call them so quietly no one can actually hear them, and
2. That you call the moves without first explaining what each one is!

Now I know that inexperienced dancers (of which I am not one) should not be dancing in a rueda if they don’t know the calls, but there were several moves in your rueda I had never done before, so demonstrating CLEARLY, so that everyone can SEE and HEAR what the move is like would have made a hell of a difference.

Couldn’t agree more with CC and even Wizzy... Rueda takes lots of practice as there are literally 1000s of calls. Anyone teaching a rueda class must run through the ones to be used so that everyone can enjoy the dance without messing up.

Also, I think it’s brill that free classes are offered, but they should end at a set time so that the ‘free dancers’ can strut their stuff... And just to be fair all round, if the free lessons over-ran by up to 20mins, I’m sure no one would mind.

PS I don’t know of anywhere else in the UK that offers free classes, so well done Eduardo!

Perhaps I’m a little premature in writing at the moment, but it seems relevant. I’m a real beginner at Salsa, although I’ve danced all my life - “standard” ballroom classes, folk dancing for many years, then Arg. Tango.

After looking on the net and finding these pages I was reminded how I felt when hearing the different views of teaching styles, and the styles that were being taught, when I started Tango. I was very confused, and there were certainly huge variations in the different venues.

I’ve now been to Bar Cuba, Callaghan’s and Toad.

On this (very!!) small sample, I agree with the comment above about Andy Witt at Bar Cuba - probably one of the best dancing instructors I’ve experienced; very clear, plenty of time to ‘groove’ a particular move, gradually increasing the tempo until the moment that it was danced to the music and the speed then wasn’t an unpleasant shock.

The Toad was (obviously) very similar and the lady teaching the beginner’s class pretty much followed Andy’s routine of teaching. A bit more difficult for her because she had to shout at times, whereas Andy’s miked up at Bar Cuba.

Both these venues used music for the lessons that had an easily recognised beat and was not too fast.

Callaghan’s was very different - but no less enjoyable overall. I say overall, because although it is always difficult with a very varied range of abilities in a class, the one thing that was missing was a gradual increase in speed up to ‘real music’ tempo, so the routines were quite difficult to put into practice when the music started. We did some Rueda which was enjoyable as well.

One point was common to all three venues - I found each one friendly, with Callaghan’s being perhaps the friendliest. Yes it is easy to feel excluded when a group of people is speaking in a different language than your own, but there was a real sense of willingness by the experienced dancers to help the raw beginners like myself in the period after the class ended. (Although to be fair there was a little of that at The Toad)

In the end beginners will probably try a few places before tending to stick to the place that suits them - this is certainly easier in a place like Cardiff where there seems to be a good range.

On the timing of the lessons, by the way, it was obvious that the crew at Callaghan’s are really trying to get people to come earlier as we were asked to be there by 9 next week so that the lesson could start promptly.