Here are all the bits and pieces I’ve meant to write about salsa lately! First, an update: the next Salsa Republic at Manchester’s Chorlton Irish Club will be on Saturday 20 February (NOT 6 Feb) – this is because Lorraine got stuck several extra days in Cuba (poor girl!!) owing to snow at Gatwick causing flight cancellations.

Late last year, just before my phone and internet were cut off and the UK disappeared under a blanket of snow, I recorded a piece about salsa for the BBC World Service, in conversation with Miami Cuban Emilio San Pedro. The studio people mixed in a few good tracks and we had some fun. And a few important points about the spirit of salsa were raised.

It seemed a pity for this to disappear for ever – it’s long gone off the BBC i-player – so here it is as an audio file. I hope you’ll enjoy it, if you didn’t hear it first time around. And please feel free to comment!

Conversation with Emilio San Pedro

Meanwhile, Yanet has -sadly – been voted off BBC’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. She had a bad night last Saturday: she looked exhausted and stressed-out from the moment she started and something was clearly wrong. It was bad luck, too, that the dance she had to do was the Lindy Hop – a dance that’s both very difficult and extremely ungainly. No chance to show off her ballet skills or body isolation there: Lindy Hop makes people bounce around like manic toddlers, without grace or dignity. But there was more to it than that.

My guess is that there were other, personal problems in the background. Yanet, unlike other competitors, was thousands of miles from her family. Moreover, there are special problems about being Cuban – layers of difficulty most of us can’t even imagine, economic, social, political. Being an exiled Cuban doesn’t remove the difficulties, it just changes them a bit. But Yanet will remain a star and her teaching will be in more demand than ever. Let’s forget ‘So You…’ and take a look at her as she is, so often, at her best:

Finally, don’t miss the excellent LATIN MUSIC USA series on BBC 4 TV. It’s at 10 pm Fridays and this week – 5 Feb – they are doing the history of SALSA. The trailers showed the Fania All Stars with Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz so this is going to be legendary stuff. To make it even better, the programme is immediately followed on the same channel with broadcast of a great live salsa band LA EXCELENSIA playing at the Barbican, and after that is a documentary about Celia Cruz herself. At last someone has come up with a TV channel that’s worth watching! As a preview, here’s a nice, funky, atmospheric clip of La Excelencia:

All this TV won’t turn you into a couch potato, because if last week’s similar viewing on the same channel is anything to go by (history of Latin music up to Santana, followed by salsa Paladium orchestra, followed by documentary on Carmen Miranda) you will be dancing around the room all evening. Enjoy!