I always look forward to being part of the biggest and best monthly salsa dancing venue in the UK which is El Grande at Scala from 21:30 to 05:00 – 4 rooms for salsa, cubana, bachata & kizomba – often attended by more than 1200 dancers! Entry is £12 whether you do the lessons or not. The venue is Scala just a few hundred yards down the road from King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube Station at 275 Pentonville Rd, Kings Cross, London N1 9NL. There’s always somewhere to park for free in the surrounding roads – you just have to drive round until you find somewhere.
I usually arrive around 9:30pm and do the improvers lesson and then dance the night away until around 3am when I am usually ready to leave because my salsa soul has been fulfilled or sometimes because I have overheated, have run out of shirts or am knackered!
Please see the facebook event on the El Grande London page for details for this particular night but the usual timetable is:
- 09:00 Doors open
- 09:30 Lesson at various levels for each dance genre in the 4 rooms
- 10:30 Social dancing
- 01:00 (approx) Performances
- 01:15 (approx) Social dancing continues
- 04:55 kizomba, cuban & bachata rooms close
- 05:00 salsa room closes and time to go home
FACEBOOK COMMENTS – click a date to see the original posts
Love: Lisi Gutierrez; Like: Leoncio Caicedo, Philip Frost, Gabriella Ricci, Pugger Lander, Sofi Cook
Philip Wake The improvers lesson provided by Lewis & Andrea was the best I’ve attended for a long time – not only was the sequence easy to learn but it was very lead-able and I found myself incorporating several of the moves into my repertoire later. I then had some brilliant dances but of course the best was with my Bulgarian Princess Gery who I haven’t seen for ages. 💘
The performance by L.D.U Ladies Styling Pro-Team was impressive with one of the most talented and attractive team of ladies I’ve ever seen on a stage, the performance by Lewis & Andrea sent out waves of energy which engulfed the audience and the performance by Oscle and Lisi was brilliant – that man did more with his legs than most men do with their arms! 💘💘💘
Having realised there were more men that ladies tonight, I started moving more quickly to my next partner at the end of each dance and got more dances after 1am than I had had before! Around 2:30 I danced with a lady I shall call Miss Abdominals which went very well indeed – an energetic yet sensual Salsa Romantica – which I decided was a perfect last dance for me. 💘
Love: Gery Vakufova, Andrea Ardila del Toro; Like: Philip Frost
Andrea Ardila del Toro Philip Wake thank you so much for attending our class, I’m glad you enjoyed it and for your very kind words ! 🙏🏼🤗
Love: Philip Wake; Like Philip Frost
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Philip Wake The Improvers’ Lesson:
1. Basic
2. Basic
3. Cross body lead
4. Clockwise turn lady with your left hand
5. Right hand to lady’s right and lead a cross body by turning your body 1.5 anticlockwise against her arm
6. Right hand to lady’s right over, left to lady’s left under and turn her clockwise
7. Comb lady’s hair with your left hand, comb lady’s hair with your right hand
8. Comb your hair with lady’s left hand and lead a cross body with you left hand on her right shoulder giving her 1.5 anticlockwise turns
9. Basic
10. Cross body
11. Left hand to lady’s right, right hand to lady’s left, turn her anticlockwise with your left hand dragging your right hand on her waist past her left hand, turn her again and catch her left hand with your right
12. Back step the lady and turn her 1.5 clockwise with your right hand
I didn’t try to memorise the lesson – I pictured it in my mind just now and described it – not bad for a 74 year old man eh! 😉
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Philip Wake I nearly forgot – I danced with one young lady who said she had just had her first lesson and after a while she asked me how she was doing. As she asked I had to tell her that she was bouncing too much – so much that it was almost impossible to lead her but I didn’t say that. I demonstrated the waiting for a bus technique for weight transfer – see www.wake.co.uk/my-salsa – and she got it very quickly. We started dancing again and magically she was dancing smoothly and I could easily lead her to do basic moves and the smile on her face grew bigger and bigger as she realised she was actually salsa dancing! 💘