Commentary

That was one crazy social!!  Once again we would like to thank everyone for coming out to dance and have a good time with us. The official numbers are not in yet but we can safely say that over 400 people turned out for our first social in 2010.   I think back to the days of our first few socials when there were only 40 or 50 of us at the salsa social.  We had a great time then just as we do now and it is always exciting to us when more kindred spirits find us and fall in love with the same music and dancing as we have.

The January social was definitely one of our best! There is no substitute for the energy that live music brings to the dance floor and Orquestra Ire truly delivered.  They did a fantastic job and it was great seeing all the facebook messages complementing them on it.  What most people probably don't know is that it may have very well been Bobby Guzman's last performance with his band.  Much to our chagrin, he has decided to hang up the spurs for a while.  Hopefully not forever!  If you see him out and about, be sure to stop, give him a hug, and let him know that his presence on stage will be missed!

January 9th in Ypsilanti was the scene for by far the best night of salsa ever dedicated to one person.  That night 250+ people came in from all over the Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Ohio to pay tribute to one of Detroit’s icons of the salsa community.  In short, the Dance Pavilion was the place, salsa was the dance, and the guest of honor was of course Mama Nellie!!

It became clear very early how many people would come out to honor Nellie.  The open dancing didn’t even start yet and the salsa class was packed!  It was a great start to what would be a memorable evening.  Following the class people began to fill the 2800 square feet of dance floor and it was on!!  The dance floor was as a giant whirl of salsa. Beginner, advanced, On1, On2, On whatever…  it was all there. The place was jumpin’ while DJs Marc, Koki and Samer kept the music thumpin'.  There was no way you could not feel the heat and excitement of this night.  Then came the moment we were all there for the tribute to Mama Nellie.

Do you remember playing this game as a child? It involves sitting around in a group of kids and telling the person next to you what you heard, usually in a form of a short story. And as the message returns to you, it's accuracy and fidelity slowly but surely becomes lost. The word Donkey suddenly comes back as Monkey, the dog jumps over the moon suddenly becomes the dog and cat got into a fight, and etc. You get the point, the story morphs into a whole another story on it's own as it makes its way around the group, exposing the fallibility of communication.

This vignette points to the two basic components of communication, the Transmission (you saying something), and the Reception (you listening to something). So, how is it that there is "story morphing" going on in the multiple act of Transmission/ Reception performed in a circle? The answer is whatever connects the Reception and Transmission aspects of our mind is very complex, but in simple terms, the Reception and Transmission are seldom in lock step with each other, often muddied by our Cognitive perception of life put in place by our past and the ensuing messages we internalized from them. But let's stay light here and simply accept the Reception and Transmission may appear to be in bed with each other, but they most likely fantasizing about different people. They have the appearance of being united by geography (happening within your head), but they hide the often lack of fidelity to each other.

When we ride a bike, the act of pushing down on one pedal while releasing the other results in the bike and us moving forward as one unit. If we want to continue this forward movement, we repeat this same process of pushing and releasing on the other side of our feet. Thus, the foot that once was releasing is now pumping, and the foot that was once pumping is now releasing. Motion is only possible when both feet behave in this cooperative manner viewed as interplay working in an interdependent way. Both feet are not seen as opposites but complementary to each other. The common crank joining both feet via the pedal arms allows such interplay. And within this interplay, the left foot cannot begin to pump until the right foot finishes pumping. When the right foot is at the bottom of it’s stroke the left pedal raises past the highest point for the left pumping to start, so there is interdependency. The left foot needs the right foot so it can be most effective, and vice versa.

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel is about how humans in their quest for heavenly salvation built a spiraling tower. They believed that the higher it got, the closer they were to God, and the better chance they would have in making it into heaven. In the end, the Tower crumbled onto itself, and God divided the people by giving them many languages and casting them in many directions. This punishment was for building the Tower in glory of the builders and not for the glory of God. The bible uses this fable to teach its readers that celebrating self image is a false path that does not lead to personal liberation.

Have you ever found yourself in awe with an artist work so much that the hard crust of cynicism- an armor built up from having to drudge through years of hokey commercial art- lies in a puddle at your feet? This is exactly what happened to me at the Ann Arbor art festival when I found myself staring at this one photographer’s booth, mesmerized by the honesty in her photographs that summoned my attention much like oxygen to a drowning person.