crazy for dancing

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Ok I just need to get this out of my system first.....I am a dance maniac and I have to dance my head off every weekend when I come up to Sydney. Some recent dance events that I have been to was the Tres Mambo night at HQ on Parramatta Rd Camperdown every second Monday. Tres Mambo bring together budding salsa musicians and give them a place to practice and eventually perform at a venue like this.....and where there is Salsa Music there will be salsa dancers, so there I was. I was a great night and the style was mainly Cuban which suits me down to the ground. there was also a large Rueda crowd in attendance which meant we could get a couple of cirles going - if you don't know what I'm talking about just google it darlings....

Oh yeh and there was also the recent tango Chamionships at the Opera studio on the 12th June. the lucky winners got the go to Buenos aires to compete in the semi finals. there were two categories of salon and stage. taking photos of people dancing is incredibly hard as the photos always look lousy even though the dancing is exquisite.

and along the tango theme now I had an amazing evening when on friday i got a call from Sally in Hong Kong telling me that she would be arriving in the evening at sydney airport!!! alas my long lost friend whom I have not seen for two years was coming to town. And indeed it was she who first introduced the idea of tango to me in the first place. what a night Sayhankor and family would also be arriving that evvening too but my super orgainised twa Kor had all that in hand and I was able to swing by and sweep sally off that night to go straight to a Milonga (a tango social dance). the venue was the Paddington Church run by a groupd called the Music Cafe who keep that venue and the live music scene ...well, alive. there was a live tango band and it was organised by my tango school called "Newtango". we saw some great dancing heard great music and had a great dance or two....Not a bad way to spend your first few moments in australia!

OK OK one last dance story and then I'll shut up...well sort of. the following day I have a farewell party for Luda and Oliver who are the current world salsa champions. I also do salsa at their Latin Motion Studio in Sydenham. Luda and Oliver will be going overseas to teach and perform for 6 months so this was a farewell and also a chance to let all the students of various levels strut their stuff on stage. Me and Elizabeth got there at 8pm and waited till 9pm for the p[erformance to start. so to keep us amused we took zillions of silly photos of ourselves. i have one photo of the dance performance but really it's just to hard to capture even a fraction of the vibrancy. After the show we did't stick around to dance much and headed off to have something to eat and a hot chocolate before home. By that time the silly photo game was starting to become an obsession and sally had now joined us to be our very own photogrrapher.

It took and eternity to find a park in the Cross to go to Hernandez but we finally did and entered the iconic cafe to rub shoulders with the best of the Sydney's night creatures. there was Mr serious Polish novel to my right and the biggest Italians I have ever seen sittin behind Sal, who after living in Itally for the past couple of years must've had a great time eaves dropping. the 21st century Hemmingway character sitting by the piano was making faces at his notebook as he tapped out some torid novella and the jacketted smokers garlanded the outside tables. the oil paintings on the walls weren't Carravagios but their shear size and amature zeal was something I always admired. I'm sure they have joined in the conversation on many a night but this was not one of those nights. i knew what I wanted and ordered it for Elizabeth too. tortilla and hot chocolate.

got home at two and faced a telling off from Twa Kor but since the appropriate people to appologise to were asleep i did likewise. he he.... tomorrow another new day.... Zzzzzzzzz

so that's all for now....I hope I have dropped enough names and places for anyone interested in dancing or visiting Sydney to follow.

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Photos

Tortilla and hot chocolate at Hernandez
Hernandez in Kings Cross is one of those Sydney institution cafes and I took my cuzzin there. we are frozen still so Sal could take this photo without a flash. this is the only photo where we actually do have an excuse for looking wierd. he he

Me and Sal at Hernandez
My dear friend Sal all the way from Lecce vai Hong Kong. we are really soaking up these moments before she has to see zillions of other friends in australia....but at least I can say I was the FIRST!

Comments

[WeiLie]

Belated msg
Hey Pi Wei, Good to see that you are still in touch with Sally! Just want to drop this line and continue to view the rest of your travelblog. WeiLie