Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Tuesday nights

Heard last night that a Spanish couple are planning to start a new night at Callaghan's, opposite the castle.

Anyone got any details?

I'll try to find out. It will be ironic if salsa returns to that venue, because that's where salsa started in Cardiff, in the original Toucan Club. I wonder if there's enough space for salsa now. I haven't been inside since it went Irish, but glancing through the window on passing it sure looks cluttered.

If it is to be on a Tuesday it probably won't last long; it seems that nothing can survive against the 800lb gorilla that is Cuba on a Tuesday.

Now there's a couple of things which puzzle me.

I've only been to Cuba once, having had enough of being swallowed up in the bar scrum and avoiding fag burns in the back of my neck while trying to dance. Is it still like that?

And secondly, The Toucan is the one place in Cardiff where you'd expect to see salsa (after Journeys' good intentions crumpled in the face of more pressing concerns). Any reason why nobody runs a night there? Did the original night stop when they moved, or for some other reason?

Mmm... It's not that Cuba is any good, it can be frankly hellish. It's just that only so many people are "out" on any one night. If, say, only 20 people who might go to another Tuesday night class go to Cuba instead, that could spell doom for the other class. As happened to Steve West & Co when the Bar M night moved to Tuesday.

For some reason, the Toucan Club management is positively anti salsa. When they were running their Friday Latin House nights in the summer, I remember, part of the publicity read, "No cheesy salsa classes".

I phoned Callaghan's and apparently it's been running for a couple of weeks already; Tuesdays, 8.00pm - 12.00. I'll go along tomorrow to see what it's like.

I don't think being anti 'cheesy salsa classes' makes the Toucan management 'anti salsa' - it would actually be pretty good to have a regular night that was just for dancing. I saw a great Cuban salsa band there a few months ago. Hardly any of the salsa gang there - as the only active male dancer there I was kept busy : )

Be interesting to hear what's going on in Callaghan's.

I went along to Callaghan's last night and had a good time; there was a respectable crowd for a new night but there was the old problem of not enought presentable men.

It's planned to run from 8.00pm till 2.00am every Tuesday and it's free at the moment 'tho I don't know for how long it will remain free. The teachers are Lenny, Sarah, Maria and Manuel.

There's not as much space as there used to be but it's not too bad, the polished wooden floor is excellent.

A lot of the music was way too fast, very ineptly mixed and sequenced, with too much merengue for my taste.

With more atention paid to the presentation of the music this could be an excellent latin night, apparently the Holiday Inn management are supporting it, and it's always a great help when the management is behind you.

What kind of lessons are they offering, and is 'Lenny' Leynard?

'Way too fast' sounds like fun if there are good dancers there, though the mixing and the merengue sound worth avoiding.