GBSEx

Well, did a couple of hours rehearsal with my partner, Jose, last Sunday for P&G's got talent last Thursday. Did an hour and a half on Monday night, 2 and a half hours on Tuesday night, 2 - 2 and half hours on Wedneday night and then the dress rehearsal on Thursday morning. We came 4th and I was very nervous!

On Friday, went down to Manchester for the GBSEx (Great British Salsa Experience)and wrote me car off on the M62 on the way at Rochdale! I now have a Mercedes A150 courtesy car.... Thankfully we all escaped relativeley unscathed, just a bit of whiplash. So on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday night there were performances by professional dancers worldwide - USA, UK, Spain, Argentina, Holland, Italy etc etc and social dancing afterwards till gone 5am most nights (we didnt last that long).

On the Saturday during the day, I did a turn patterns intermediate/advanced on-1class with Pablo and Diana from Argentina and Colombia respectively. I had a ladies styling workshop with Susana Montero (originally from Madrid but represents Britain at Internatonal level and is AMAZING - she did a show with Inaki and Leon Rose on Sunday night which was WOW!) I had another turn patterns intermediate/advanced on-1 class with the Cobo Brothers from North Carolina, and a performance skills class with Irene Miguel, who's a famous dance group director, performer, actress and choreographer.

On Sunday, I had a lifts, tricks and dips workshop with Pablo and Diana (with scary, proper lifts and twists - all taught very safely, of course). I had (supposedly) and intermediate/advanced turn patterns on-1 with Eider and Caterina from South America/Dubai, but really it was improvers level and not really turn patterns! Theyre famous Argentine Tango dancers, who happen to teach not-so-great salsa classes at congress, it seems! Then I had a shines class (on-1) with Robert Charlemagne, who I think is British, and finally an introduction to reggaeton with Elisa Aloe who is half British/half Italian who has been on TV documentaries and all sorts working with offenders in the criminal justice system, teaching them dance as part of rehabilitation.

There were wow performances from Hacha y Machete, los hermanos, the Cobo Brothers, Mamboleo, and many many more whose names I forget!

Tonight I'm off to the Cumberland Arms (was going to go to salsa, but I can got ot salsa anytime, and there's some performance by Tom and Nicks's uni tutors on tonight at the Cumberland Arms, so I'm going to that instead. Almost finished Lost season 2!