Noel Noche at the Crofoot

Last Sunday was one of several first: A new venue, a new promoter and a return to a town that has been dormant on the salsa scene for three years. Noel Noche at the Crofoot was the first Salsa event by DJ Mis.Match and it was the first salsa event at the Crofoot a newly restored club and concert venue in Pontiac. There were four questions I had in my mind... One -- would enough salseros turn out? Two -- who they dress up? Three -- would they put together a quality event and Four -- and maybe most important -- would it be the start of an expanded salsa scene? The first three were pretty clearly answered. Of course the salseros showed up to the opening. The die-hard salseros will literally travel anywhere they need to go to dance. We all love openings and new venues so even though for a second straight Sunday, the weather gods conspired against us with snow and cold -- we turned out and made it happen.

It has been a few years since there was a venue or an event in Pontiac - the last being the now defunct club Heat where I spent many a Friday night taking the free lessons and doing my best to stay on beat. So, I was pleasantly suprised to walk into the Crofoot which has been renovated into a sleek stylish nightclub. The wood floor is absolutely first class with a smooth finish, lots of unobstructed space and lots of ventilation. The Crofoot is nothing if not impressive: they have an excellent sound system big open dance floor and more area in an upstairs loft for those who want to get away from the dancing. Although I can't imagine a salsero that does, so the prospect of paying more for that privilege seems remote.

On arriving, guests were greeted as they entered and after some chatting in the smoking area where people were hanging out before things got going we checked our coats in made our way into the main area. DJ Roberto Ayala was already up on the stage spinning his music and I have to say it was pretty good. His mix included a lot of stuff I've never heard and other than a couple of tracks such as the Stevie Wonder cover that never really picked up, I enjoyed them all.

Recently restored, the the layout at Crofoot is very nice -- with a large stage, lots of standing and dancing room downstairs and an upstaris VIP area that looks down on to the dance floor and stage. A nice feature they have is the smoking area is up-front before you get into the main club area so except for a brief smokey interlude getting in and out, you can avoid the smoking all night. At the bar, even with two and three bartenders, the bar service was a bit slow and they ran out of red wine by 11:00 PM. It may seem like a small thing, but how can a bar run out of drinks? It would have been nice if they had a selection of wines too as the house cabernet was not very good and I would personally have paid a buck or two more for a better selection.

Dressing up is a funny issue with salseros. Its a really good idea -- bring a bit of class and elegance to the regular routine. If you go to the slick clubs in New York or LA -- you will see guys dressed in an imacculate three piece suit sporting a hat and high gloss shoes donning an embroidered hankerchief and putting on the moves. I'm not one of those -- I love jeans for dancing and for many of us dancing is as much sporting event as it is art. So the prospect of putting on nicer clothes -- especially dry clean is daunting to say the least.

But as it turns out - you can do nice 50-50 with the dress up crowd and jeans crowd. Hopefully we never have clubs that turn people away for dress codes. Dancers wear shoes that they can dance in. For some that is 3 inch heels for others, dance sneakers and for others sneakers. Salsa is a street dance at heart and the dance gear for salseros will always vary. In the end this worked out - the people who were so inclined got to look great and the people less inclined - or for that matter less able to find comfortable formal clothes were not deterred or hassled.

Towards the end of the night, DJ Mis.Match took a moment to introduce herself, thank the people for attending, express her desire to promote the music and dance she loves and acknowledge the people who made it possible. Having done much of the promotion at the YA Salsa Social, on the website and at the with Harem, she was gracious enough to acknowledge that fact and certainly its good that she has recognized that YA and Sky Mambo provide cooperative opportunities - hopefully all the clubs and studios will see this and recognize that every advancement of the salsa community is a benefit to everyone. Statements about her commitement to helping the development of the salsa scene were welcomed and hopefully future promotions will extend well outside the esablished dance scene and get more buy in and support for the clubs themselves. Anyone who can bring a bit more synergy between the clubs, dancers, club goers and bands will be loved here!

In the end, this was a fun night and from a dancing perspective very satisfying. There probably wasn't enough of a turnout to call it an unmitigated success, but there was enough to call it a good start. We eagerly await what comes next.

ya

Photos courtesy of Ken White.

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