I finally did it! I finally made it to LA for a weekend (4/3 - 4/6) I started dancing salsa in June of 1997 and have been communicating with Edie, The Salsa Freak since September of 1997, and have been dying for the chance to experience the LA salsa scene. Well, I travel quite a bit with my job (management consultant) and I was finally able to work a trip with a weekend stay in LA. I had been telling Edie that I wanted to meet her for a long time. She assured me that she would give me a good tour of LA, including the hottest salsa clubs! I danced in NYC a couple of times before going to LA, and was anxious to see the difference in styles. So here’s the story, but be warned, it’s kind of long! I dedicate this to Edie Lewis, the BEST FRIEND a guy could ever hope to have.I arrived late Thursday night and left Edie a message to let her know that I was in the hotel. She called around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning and was raring to go. She met me in the lobby of the Hacienda hotel on Sepulveda Blvd. I was a bit overwhelmed when I saw her because she was actually much prettier than I expected. I had seen all her pics on salsaweb and I knew she looked ok, but WOW!! When I saw her I couldn’t believe how BEAUTIFUL she was. I was expecting to see this innocent girl who liked to dance, but what I saw before me was a STUNNING WOMAN! We drove to a nearby Starbucks so she could get her venti nonfat latte (a daily requirement, I later learned.) We sat and planned our weekend over coffee. Edie wrote out our agenda on a Starbucks napkin while I watched with anticipation. The weather was nice so Edie took me to Venice Beach first thing where she insisted that I remove my shirt and shoes to walk along the water. I was wearing dress slacks, so it felt a little weird, but hey, I was game to walk on the beach with a beautiful Latina! And besides, I quickly learned that anything goes on Venice Beach. She showed me around the clothing district where I bought a dark turquoise spandex shirt (Edie wanted to ensure that I had something appropriately "LA" to dance in.) We then toured Gold’s Gym and a couple of other local landmarks around Venice. From there we took off up the coast. Edie wanted me to experience the drive along the ocean and to also see all the recent mudslide damage. What a mess! We drove for a ways and then turned around and headed back. She took me to a Mexican restaurant called Topper’s for lunch. It’s on top of a local LA hotel and has an incredible view of the Pacific. From there we drove up to Mulholland Drive to see the Hollywood sign. I never spent any time in LA, so she wanted to do a few of the "touristy" things, and I LOVED IT. It started to rain in the afternoon so we spent a lot of time cruising in the "Freakmobile" and generally just enjoying each other’s company. The most extraordinary thing happened while on Mulholland Drive. There is a small area along the roadside where you can stop and get an excellent view of the entire valley. Well, Edie and I both were a little upset because it was raining when we got there. We parked anyway and walked around sharing Edie’s tiny umbrella. Everything she has is tiny by the way, her car, umbrella, and even her clothes! I have to say that the one exception is her heart, which is anything but tiny. OK, back to the story. We got back in the car and began to pull away when the greatest thing happened. In an instant, the rain all but stopped and the clouds broke apart just enough to let the sun shine through, and before us was the most beautiful DOUBLE RAINBOW! We had to stop the car and just gaze at it. The moment is so clear in my memory. While looking at this beautiful sign from above, Edie asked me what I thought it meant, and I said "I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s gotta be something good!" And as if a rainbow was not enough, at that very moment one of our favorite songs came on. Edie has a multi-disc player in the Freakmobile and just as we were admiring the colors in the sky, "Persona Ideal" by Los Adolescentes started to play. We both love that song. It was such a special moment that it was all I could do not to kiss this beautiful woman!! The irony is that the chorus of the song is "Me tengo que ir," which means "I have to go" and that was bittersweet for me because I knew I only had a couple of days before I had to leave this beautiful place. Whew! Let me catch my breath…OK, back to the story: The rainbow was followed shortly by a gorgeous twilight and Edie continued the tour by taking me to Beverly Hills. We were running short on time (had to be at the Sportsman’s Lodge to dance by 9 p.m.) so we decided to have fast food. We found an In and Out Burger and decided to stop. While inside, we were having an intense conversation about some of the content on the Freak page when another crazy thing happened. We were talking about the proper type of underwear for men to wear while dancing. Well, I was telling Edie that you have to have good quality boxers that give support. The objective being to protect weak men who otherwise can’t control the "broomstick between the legs effect." I could have a whole discussion about that, but that’s another story. Anyhow, I told Edie that I would show her the proper type later that evening back at the hotel, and she proceeded to ask me if I was wearing them at that moment. "Of course" I replied. So Edie said, "Let’s see ‘em!" I am not one to show off my boxers in a restaurant, but something came over me and I just unzipped my pants like it wasn’t anything! Edie laughed hysterically as I showed her my Tommy Hilfiger boxers through the fly of my slacks. One thing’s for sure: A few innocent bystanders got more than they bargained for that night at In and Out Burger!! After all that excitement, we finally made it back and got changed for my first LA salsa experience. I didn’t wear my new spandex "machismo" shirt because I wanted to get a feel for the scene first, and boy am I glad! I was no where near prepared for what was about to happen. Read on… We left the Freak’s place and picked up Jeff Camillo, a.k.a. Lord of the Board (Salsaweb chat board.) Next stop: The Sportsman’s Lodge. We got there around 9:30 and the place was packed. It is an actual lodge with a huge ballroom, including a colossal dance floor and stage. I was a little bit overwhelmed at the sheer size of the place. After all, the salsa clubs in Atlanta are hard pressed to fit a couple of hundred people! Sportsman’s is huge!! Edie introduced me to Albert Torres at the front door. He took time out of the six or so conversations he was involved in listen to Edie give me a world class (and totally unexpected) introduction. It went something like this: "Albert, this is Curtis Clark, the Atlanta World Correspondent for Salsaweb Magazine." I had never heard that title until then, and that was the intro Edie gave me to each and every person she knew that weekend (about a million people!) Talk about fun! Albert took several minutes to give me his official welcome to LA and just talk salsa in general with Edie and I. He is very nice, but also very focused on his promotion business. He told us that he didn’t want to take time to talk business, but he had a hard time not talking about all the exciting events he is working on. Either way, it was clear to me that he enjoys his work very much and I really appreciate that. Once inside, Edie continued to introduce me to a number of her friends including Janette Valenzuela, a.k.a. "Salsera Con Shoes." She is a real sweetheart and as I later discovered, an awesome dancer. Once we got past a few more intros, we headed for the dance floor. The moment of truth had arrived. I was so nervous that I could hardly hear the SERIOUS salsa that Johnny Polanco was playing! I am only an average dancer at best (remember, less than one year of experience!) and the moves that I saw really blew me away. In front of me were Francisco and Johnny Vasquez of Salsa Brava, along with a steady line of salseras waiting for their turn with the two pros. The first thing I noticed was that the moves are a lot flashier in LA than NYC. In New York, dancers are really enjoying the social aspects of salsa dancing and seem to have a real connection with each other. In LA, it’s almost as if everyone is competing! I had never seen so many dips and multiple turn combinations in every song. The quality of the dancing is phenomenal, but also very intimidating for someone like me. It was obvious to me that many of these people are trying to be discovered. I decided that my objective for the night was to try my best NOT be discovered!! Well, that was impossible with Edie escorting me to the floor. All the regular salseros in LA (and around the world for that matter) know Edie and when they see her, they start lining up. Enter Curtis Clark, a white guy who no one had ever seen, now with the Salsa Freak on his arm. To make things worse, Edie had been introducing me to her friends as "the best salsa dancer in Atlanta," which couldn’t be further from the truth. Talk about pressure! I have not had that kind of performance anxiety since the last time I was asked to close my eyes and touch both index fingers to my nose (again, that’s another story!) We started to dance and I could barely stay on beat. I was SSOOOOO embarrassed. Edie was ready to get her fix, and I could not even come close! I could see the sympathy in those gorgeous brown eyes of hers. I did not want to be her sacrifice dance, but it’s all I could do just to stay out of everyone else’s way. It was SO SAD. Luckily, the song ended fairly quickly. The band then played a cha-cha. Well s__t, I know even less cha-cha than salsa! Another embarrassment. At this point I was just thanking God I didn’t wear the spandex shirt!! I decided to give in to the now large and impatient group of guys who were waiting for their chance with the Freak. So I stepped aside to observe. Watching Edie dance put me into a trance. She is the most amazing dancer I have ever seen. I literally had to sit down because my knees became weak! She will be embarrassed to read this, but I don’t care because anyone who achieves that level of expertise in anything deserves to be recognized! I have seen many great ladies in NYC (maybe one or two in Atlanta) but at THAT MOMENT I learned what a woman is supposed to look like on the floor. Ladies take note: If you lack good styling, then please go out and get it, because IT MATTERS!! It gives a man a high that can not be described with words, and the Salsa Freak is the epitome of it. With every move she is tossing that beautiful hair and pointing her hands with more grace and poise than I have ever seen! To be fair, I know there are other salseras in the same league as Edie, it’s just that I had never seen any. Over the course of the weekend, I met several more ladies who have great style, particularly the women of the Salsa Brava dance company. I danced the last dance of the evening with Janette and even though it was a sacrifice dance for her, she still danced with style and I really appreciated it. Thanks for that dance Janette. It meant a lot to me! I think I would have cried myself to sleep that night had it not been for you. We closed the place down at 2:00 a.m., which I liked very much. They open at 9:00, which is nice. The clubs in Atlanta don’t open until 10:00 p.m. and close at 3 or 4 a.m. So all was not lost Friday night. I got a full night of dancing in and had my first taste of LA style. Most Everyone that I saw danced on 1 or 3, which is not the case in NYC where many people are 2 dancers thanks to the heavy mambo influence of people like Eddie Torres. LA has a full range of dancers. At one extreme you have people like the Vasquez brothers who are wide open dancers with all sorts of dangerous moves and at the other end of the spectrum you have the cool likes of people like Sir Harry who hardly moves while letting the lady do all her stuff. The major difference that I noticed is that a lot of people are really trying to impress bystanders rather than just enjoying the dance. They are constantly scanning the sidelines to see who’s watching, and that’s a major turnoff for me. I just want to enjoy salsa and could care less who’s watching. But that’s my opinion and to be fair, there are plenty of people in LA who feel the same way. Not everyone is trying to "perform." There is definitely a difference in attitude as well. Men in LA seem to be really picky about who they dance with. It’s as if they are above dancing with someone who can’t "hang" with them. Again, maybe it’s just me, but people in NYC just seem to be enjoying the dance more. Well, after going back to the hotel with my tail between my legs, Edie promised she would practice with me to get me up to speed and that made me feel a little better. What a night! On Saturday morning, we found ourselves at a place called The Kettle on Manhattan Beach for breakfast. It was excellent! Edie had a lot to do to prepare for her first organizational meeting for the upcoming LA Salsafest, so I helped her out with some administrative stuff. The meeting was at 2:00 in Hollywood, and I tagged along to watch the Freak in action. She is an extremely focused individual and I love to watch her work. Her personality is so infectious that when she talks about doing something, everyone around wants to get involved! She is the perfect ambassador of salsa. After a successful meeting, we did more sightseeing, had dinner at a Hollywood diner, and then headed back to El Segundo to get ready for the evening. The night’s agenda: Dance at the world famous Mayan. We drove to the Mayan (I still could not wear the shirt by the way!) and parked nearby. The first thing that I noticed is that it is a very tall building. I just figured that the dance club is the bottom floor or something. We walked in and Edie showed her I.D. to the guy who gave her an extremely warm welcome. I didn’t know what was going on, so I asked. Edie told me that she gets in free because she is one of the past winners of the famous annual Mayan salsa competition. I had no idea! That made me feel even more honored to be with her. She escorted me in and again, I was totally blown away! The place has Mayan architecture throughout. For some reason, I never associated the Mayan with actual Mayan décor! Duh! Anyway, the place is beautiful. Remember what I said earlier about the tall building, well, the whole thing is the Mayan. The ceiling must be 100 feet up! It has two dance floors (both huge) and an area upstairs with seating for competitions and such. Edie again introduced me to everyone she knew (that would be every person in the place!) using my larger than life "Salsaweb Atlanta World…" title! She even continued telling all the salseras that I was the best dancer in Atlanta despite my pitiful performance at Sportsman’s. What a sweetie! We danced the night away and had a great time. I met Mitch Zinn, Salsaweb’s San Diego correspondent, and numerous other friends of Edie’s. The Mayan is a lot of fun. I was even fortunate enough to be there during their annual competition. It was one of the last preliminary rounds and all of the best dancers had already qualified for the semi-finals. Nevertheless, we did see some good routines. Local salsa princess, Josie Neglia, hosted the competition. I’ve got both of Josie’s Hot Salsa videos that she made along with Pedro Otero (who I met on Sunday.) Josie, I love your tapes but I gotta tell you something girlfriend: For me as a beginner, your 1-2-3 4-5-6 counting technique had me screwed up for a while there. Not to worry though, I finally got straightened out! We stayed at the Mayan until well into the morning. At some point it got packed like sardines and they started playing hip-hop so Edie and I decided to bail. We were both starving so we had Mexican food at a little place across the street from the Mayan. It was cool because their food is set up on the sidewalk and they even have salsa playing! Another awesome night, with the exception of my dancing being far below the average LA salsero. That’s OK though, because it gave me something to work towards. On Sunday, we had brunch and discussed Salsaweb business. Edie was upset all morning because she checked her mail and found the first $1000 web-hosting bill for Salsaweb. The service had changed their pricing scheme to one that would be based on amount of data transfer, number of hits, etc., and Salsaweb has grown so much in popularity that the data is really moving with 1.6 million hits and 50,000 different monthly readers! It is so ironic because we want to have as many people visiting the site as "humanly possibly," but the more you get, the more you have to pay. By the way, Edie does everything as much as "humanly possible!" That’s one of her favorite phrases and I LOVE to hear her say it. Edie called an emergency meeting with Ben Rappaport to discuss the issue and I took off for the Dance Factory in Long Beach for a 2 hour private with Luis Vasquez. My dance lesson with Luis was an incredible experience, albeit a bit awkward at first. He arrived a couple of minutes after me and we went in together. He asked me what I wanted to work on and I told him that I needed everything, but only had two hours. So Luis instructed me, "OK Curtis, dance with me." I didn’t quite follow what he meant. I have always had lessons with women and this was a NEW thing for me, so I asked, "Uh, what do you mean there buddy?" in my most innocent southern accent. A couple of others had come in at that point and my question provoked a few snickers that DID NOT help my confidence any. So Luis continued in a very calm manner, "I need to feel how you dance so I can see where we are, so just lead me." I reluctantly agreed, while looking around to make sure I was not on candid camera! He put some music on and we "assumed the position," so to speak. I lead him into the basic and then a few turns, and then something very unexpected happened…I started having a pretty good time! He was putting so much style into every move that I could not help but enjoy it. I felt like I was dancing with a little Edie! He was kicking around and throwing his head back better than most women I’ve danced with! This man can follow! Thank God no one was video taping this little escapade. Although I was enjoying myself, I was a little bit relieved when the song was over, because more people were starting to show up for their lessons. I like the lifestyle in LA, but it will take more than 1 song for me to get used to dancing with a man! Luis gave me the best feedback that I’ve ever received on my lead. We broke down all my moves (didn’t take long) and made every one better. He then showed me several new shines and partner turn combinations. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 hours and hope to be able to do it again soon. Thanks Luis. Afterwards, I drove back to the Freak’s place and managed to cheer her up a little with my dance lesson story. We practiced a little and prepared to do some afternoon dancing at the Boathouse on the Santa Monica pier (another great Albert Torres promotion.) Edie had told me that they have outdoor salsa from 2 to 10 p.m. on Sundays and I couldn’t wait to check it out. We drove down and had a slice of pizza on the pier before hitting the club. Upon our arrival, I immediately recognized some of the regulars because I had just met them on Friday or Saturday. This was my favorite dance spot of the weekend. I felt very relaxed and was actually able to dance a little better thanks to Luis working me hard in my morning lesson. It was TOO COOL to dance salsa with my sunglasses on! Edie was dressed in one of her typically HOT outfits and that just made it that much better for me. The DJ played seriously hot salsa and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Something I REALLY like about LA is the music mix. There is none of this 50/50 salsa/merengue mix like we have to suffer through in Atlanta! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the occasional merengue, but a 30-minute set kills me!! LA DJ’s play 6 or 7 rocking salsas and maybe 1 merengue. After that you might get 1 cha-cha and then it is back to salsa. Perfect! LA salseros take note: Don’t take it for granted. Show your appreciation to the DJ’s because you don’t know how lucky you are! While dancing at the Boathouse, I met Pedro Otero (from Josie’s videos) and got to admire his unique style of dancing. I also spent some time talking with several of the regulars. This is a very cool place. There were not any "performers" there to show off. Everyone was just enjoying the music and the sunshine. I found a certain peace there. We danced a couple of hours at the Boathouse and then we had to take off for Long Beach because Edie had dance practice with Salsa Brava from 6 to 9 p.m. I drove us over and stayed to watch the practice. I really enjoyed meeting the team members and watching Luis teach them a new "casino rueda" routine. I even managed to get some work done on my laptop while the team was breaking down all their new patterns. After Edie’s practice, we headed for Steven’s Steakhouse for dinner and my final night of LA salsa. Steven’s has excellent food and the dancing is just as good. Once again, I ran into several of the regulars who were actually starting to remember my name, thanks again to Edie for all the intros throughout the weekend. My dancing was OK, but fatigue was starting to show from the action packed weekend. I enjoyed Steven’s. The floor is a bit too small for the crowd that they get, but hey, at least you have salsa on a Sunday night! What’s up with Atlanta?? I danced the first dance with Edie and then some guy named Alex took over and made me look REAL BAD! I hate that! That alone has motivated me to get to the next level. I will not rest until I can give Edie her fix with one dance! I can’t believe the level of some of these people! It is just incredible! How long have they been dancing? It is so intimidating, but I’m here to tell all the beginners out there that we have to carry the torch. Don’t get discouraged! I am learning that it takes blood, sweat and tears to get there, and in my first weekend of LA salsa, I experienced all three (more tears I think!) If you don’t have a fire in your belly, then you will NEVER get to that level. As far as NY versus LA, I like both, but the NY style suits me a little better personally because I am not much of a performer. That’s not to say that either style is better because there are awesome dancers in both places. It is totally up to your personal taste. I just like the pleasure of dancing salsa and becoming one with my partner. Who cares about the people on the sidelines? The fact that they are on the sidelines and not dancing suggests in my mind that they have a problem to begin with! I mean who can resist the power of the clave? OK, I need to finish this before I get on a soapbox. Edie and I danced until midnight or so at Steven’s and then headed back to the Hacienda for good-byes. She had to work Monday morning and I had an early flight back to Atlanta. I thanked her for the most amazing weekend and told her that I would count the days until I could see her again. What an incredible woman! She took three days out of her crazy life to show me LA and what a great job she did. I LOVE YOU GIRLFRIEND!!! Special thanks to everyone who treated me so well during the weekend, especially Janette and the other salseras who gave me a sacrifice dance. I will not forget you! And for those who may be wondering, the answer is no, I never wore the spandex shirt. However, it is in my closet awaiting its debut. I just have to practice a little more first! |