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Originally posted on Salsaweb NY on 10/99 On "2" with San
Francisco Addie-Tude This month I give my impressions of Addie Diaz's October 1999 trip to San Francisco -Manny
This past October 1999 I returned to San Francisco (SF) with NY Mambo Instructor Addie Diaz. It was our 4th trip together to this west coast city. Addie has been periodically traveling to SF over the last few years to teach NY style mambo workshops to local salseros. These events are organized by the equally lovely Audrianna Correa. Audrianna is a well known local SF Mambo Instructor who is responsible for flying in outside Dance Instructor to the Golden Gate City. She teaches at her Mambo Elite Dance Studio and is the Director of the SF Mambo Elite Dance Team. Its always a pleasure for us to visit the SF salsa scene. Audrianna has become a part of our family and treats us royally every time we go there. For those of you who don’t know, SF has a budding salsa community that has been steadily growing over the last few years. I see more and more people dancing Salsa/Mambo there with each visit. Much of this interest in part is due to the efforts of local instructors like Audrianna who spread their knowledge of dancing to anyone who is interested in learning. This trip proved to be a hectic one for Addie and I. We were suppose to fly in to SF the night before and hit the Friday night club scene, but our airline canceled our flight, so we were stuck at the airport overnight. Early the following morning we finally managed make our way to SF. As usual Audrianna was there at the airport to meet us with her close friend, dance student and associate Juan. Our hectic day was only beginning, as you know airplane food sucks and after a 5 hour flight Addie and I were starving. Audrianna drove us to a local IHOP for a quick filling of the food tank. We left IHOP and headed straight to Audrianna’s new house. Like a proud mother hen, she gave Addie the grand tour of her new home while Juan and I unloaded the luggage from the car (it figures 8-) ). There was no rest for the weary. Due to the canceled flight, we flew in only several hours before Addie was schedule to teach her workshop. So with the tour done and the luggage unloaded, we got quickly changed, hopped into a car and drove off to Club Cocomo where Addie’s workshop was to be held. Club Cocomo is a very popular salsa club in the SF area. Audrianna has made arrangements with the owner to have Addie’s workshop taught there. I’ve met with the owner several times and in my opinion he is a really down-to-earth dude who knows how to treat his customers. This is probably the reason why he has such successful Salsa spot in SF.
Arriving at Club Cocomo, I realize how much I love to travel with Addie whenever she is teaching one of her workshops. Being that she can’t really share in my career as a Stunt Coordinator/Stunt man, her workshops give me the opportunity to share in her career as a Salsa/Mambo professional. I think that over the last couple of years we have developed a good working relation with one another. There is chemistry between us. We like working together and people notice. I think because of our mutual collaboration Addie has been able to develop classes that are not only detailed and informative, but also fun, challenging and entertaining at the same time. They convey the essence of what NY Style mambo dancing is all about. That’s why I think that she keeps getting "repeat" students to her SF workshops. These people have told me that they love how her classes are broken down and how much attention is given to detail. It’s the main reason they keep coming back for more. After another successful workshop we were packing our gear and getting ready to head back to Audrianna’s house. This particular weekend was Audrianna’s birthday and little did she know that Juan along with several other of her students were planning to give her a surprise birthday dinner party at a well known local restaurant by the name of CRUSTACEAN. With a lot of hurrying, sneakiness, help from Audrianna’s two lovely daughters, Addie, and myself; Juan managed to get us to the restaurant on time. Needless to say that Audrianna was surprised by the party, the choice of restaurant and by the close circle of people who had gathered to celebrate her birthday. I know that the restaurant was "da bomb" because Addie and the other woman present couldn’t stop praising their seafood`dishes. Being mainly a land-lover myself (rice and beans...what can I say I’m Puerto Rican), they made me feel like I had missed out on something exquisite.
After dinner, we continued to celebrate Audrianna’s party by going to "THE" Saturday night SF Salsa hot spot ....... Club Cocomo. The Club has both an indoor and outdoor area, a decent size dance floor with live and DJ music. The DJ of the club (like the owner) proved to be a very cool dude. He was very pleased to meet Addie and was happy to see that she was hanging out at the club. The dance crowd there seemed very nice and friendly. Most dancers dance on "1" with a smaller contingency of dancers breaking on the "2" (courtesy of Audrianna’s efforts). I even saw a couple dancing with a Miami Casino Rueda style of dancing. The level of dancing at the club is getting better and better with every visit I make there. Its really cool to see the people of SF gradually getting into Salsa dancing. I know I had a great time dancing with Addie, Audrianna, some of Audrianna’s students not to mention a couple of other local dancers who wanted me to dance with them. Like I said, the crowd at Club Cocomo was a friendly one.
We decided to spend out last day in SF enjoying Audrianna’s company. So after getting up for breakfast (late breakfast that is....now that I think of it, it was more like lunch...8-] what can I say.....we had a late one the night before), we spent time talking to Audrianna, her kids and Juan. We laid on the grass in her back yard, enjoying the warm rays of the sun. Eventually we went out to see a movie (Three Kings), got some StarBucks Coffee (what can I say I’m Puerto Rican and I love my coffee) and made it back to Audrianna’s house where she cooked some dinner for us. The rest of the night was spent kicking back at her home. We sat back viewing some video tapes of Audrianna’s Mambo Elite Dance Team performing some gigs. I was really happy for her. She’s come a long way since I first met her. Putting together a dance team, organizing a number, getting gigs and performing them is no easy task. I know, I see Addie go through this first hand. Who knows maybe one day Addie’s and Audrianna’s dance groups can perform together some day. The remainder of the night was spent with the girl’s in Audrianna’s bedroom talking away about dancing, Addie’s wedding plans, the kids, etc.....while Juan and I stayed in the living room watching TV and exchanging ideas on turn patterns and floor shines.
Early the next Monday morning Audrianna drove us to the airport. We said our goodbyes. We were sad to leave, but looking forward to the next opportunity for us to hook up again. The year 2000 is already providing us with plenty of excuses to get together. We have The Salsaweb Convention in Toronto, The Congreso Mundial de la Salsa in NY, LA and in PR, Addie’s next Addie-tude Workshop in SF*and of course the Wedding (Audrianna is part of our Wedding party this coming May 2000). In the meantime I look forward to my next Addie-Tude workshop visit to SF. *Footnote: It was during Addie’s 1st visit to SF that we coined the term "Addie-tude". During breakfast at IHOP everyone was commenting on how Addie dances with "attitude" and with a slight play of words "attitude became Addie-tude".
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