Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » New in Cardiff, best place/night to dance?

Hi, I’ve just returned to Cardiff after 6 or 7 years. Am a salsa addict - all styles, LA, New York, Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan... dance on 1 and 2, dance salsa, merengue, bachata.
What can you recommend as the best place and night to go to dance with friendly people who just wanna dance for fun - no stress, no showcasing...

There’s not a lot of stress or showcasing in Cardiff - all the nights are pretty friendly. For the most fun I’d recommend La Tasca on a Saturday night, though this week may be quiet as there are two competing events. It doesn’t start till 11 but has a good mix of music and some nice dancers including Spanish people and Latinos. (It also attracts non-dancers and can get hot, smoky and very crowded, but you can’t have everything).

Hi pp111, I’m new to this scene and therefore I’m probably not the best person to recommend a particular place as I haven’t yet checked out all the venues.

But if you read my thread “Addicted to Salsa”, I was really impressed by the after class dancing at Cuba on Tuesday night.

Thanks. I’m gonna check out a few places. Maybe will give this week a miss if crowd will be split and next week give it a go.

By the way pp111, all those Salsa styles, you must be a real authority on the subject, and sounds like you’ve have travelled around a bit too.

Hope you don’t mind me asking, and without going into too much detail what’s generally the difference between say the original Cuban and the North and South American styles?

Hi Dai

I learned the styles by dancing with different people - not necessarily in their countries. I am no authority, but in my opinion the N American styles are a bit more structured - dancing in a line on the 1st beat and there is a whole lot more show casing with arms everywhere. Cuban is on a different beat with more circular movements between couples and also in the rueda (group dancing). Colombian is something indescribeable but full of energy - not sure quite how I picked it up, but had to try for a long time cos I love the way it looks so much - think I hunted out colombians to dance with. Colombian and Venezuelan are my favorite because where you have the high energy of Colombian moves, the Venezuelan is subtle and relaxed. I’m not sure you would want to go to the rest of s america and say that cuban is original salsa. You might find yourself in a bit of a sticky pick. Having said all that, it’s been some time since I’ve done regular dancing and I’ve probably forgotten everything... I hope not!!!

Thanks pp111, for taking the trouble reply to my enquiry about the various styles of Salsa. I’ll watch out for the Columbian it sounds fun!