At a salsa event last month in Austin,
a salsera turned down the dance request of a long time Austin
salsero. The next day, the salsero’s
anger boiled over into an attitude spill, which he shared in a long, convoluted
FB rant about the current state of the Austin
salsa scene. The responses to his post
were many and varied. Here are my
impressions.
First, he characterized various Austin
salsa groups as cliques. (https://www.verywellfamily.com/a-clique-or-friends-how-to-tell-the-difference-460637)
My response: Well,
yeah. If you take any large assembly of
people, and have them mingle, they will naturally sort themselves into groups
of like-minded people.
Examples: On 1 vs. On 2 vs. On 4 styles; New York vs. LA
styles; Caribbean vs. continental Latin American styles; Anglo
vs. Latin styles; Mexicans vs. everybody else.
I have a Latino friend who claims he can identify a
stranger’s country of origin by how they dance cumbia.
Then, the poster claimed that some Austin
salseros were elitist. My response: Well, yeah.
Here again, in any large group of people engaged in a common pursuit,
there will be natural ranking of skill levels from low to medium to high. Get used to it. I try to dance with people who share my skill
level, so as to not overwhelm beginners, or bore the experts.
A third critique of his:
That some Austin salseros
were showoffs. My response: You think?
When I read this comment, the flashback of a talented showoff showing
off that night popped into my head. I remember
my reaction. “Gee, I wish I could do
that.”
Finally, he postulated a possible source for what he
characterized as obnoxious behavior: Expatriate
Californians. Now this one hadn’t occurred to me. His
speculation in turn caused an actual expatriate Californian to boil over. In a long and articulate rebuttal, she
defended the absolute right of any salsera to turn down a request to dance from
any one for any reason. My guess: Based on her response, I’d bet she’s the one
who turned him down. My response to her
rant: You bet.
All of this commotion caused me to go hummmm: What is salsa for? Who is salsa for?
My response: It’s
custom-made for showoffs. Look at
me! Look what I’ve learned! Look what I can do! Look what We can do! Oh, yeah, watch this! Look, look, look!
The poster claimed he was going to boycott Austin
salsa, but Saturday night he was at SalsaMania, cruising the floor, looking for
someone who would dance with him, so he could show off. As was I.
