SalsaFrenzy Blogs Web diaries (blogs) by Salsa dancers. Anyone can post or comment.

In mid-July, Jeff organizer of Havana Club nights, announced on the SalsaFrenzy Forum a weekly Tuesday night at Ryles. I had learned of this a couple of days prior and also learned how it had come about. Jeff had approached Ryles with the interest in moving his Friday night there (after it didn’t work out at the Greek Ballroom in Central Square) without informing Suzanne and April, respectively organizers of Temporada Latina on Thursdays and Wepa Sundays. I thought it was an unfriendly move on his part and wrote to him privately pointing out that he had built his nights in part with the support of fellow local promoters and for him to move against their interests was problematic and that the success of any salsa night is ultimately a function of the goodwill extended to it by the community.

He didn’t respond and a week later he announced on the list the Friday night and the Tuesday nights at Ryles. I replied to that publicly making the same points.

I had been an active supporter of Jeff’s efforts to date and in particular his attempt to launch a Friday Salsa night in Central Square. So I’m disappointed that his business scruples are other than what I had expected and what he had represented to me. To be clear, my point of contention is that he would seek to host nights at the same venue as that of two other promoters and to go behind their backs in dealing with the club.

I doubt Jeff would be happy if another promoter (say April for the sake of argument) surreptitiously approached the Green Street Grill (venue of his Monday nights) about having a Tuesday night there and promoted it to her Monday and Tuesday class students next door. I would have had the same opinion of it as I do of Jeff’s conduct and would have been similarly vocal about it, however, I know for a fact that April would not entertain acting that way. Why? Because she’s passed on such opportunities in the past for exactly that reason.

And the response?

Jeff’s reply (only one to date) was providing an email address where he can be reached “If April or Suzanne would like to set up a meeting” and that he “will not engage in public disputes.” Seems a little backwards and a little late given that he should have been doing the contacting prior to and not after the fact.

I got private feedback from a friend to the effect that airing dirty laundry was a bad idea, pushes people away from the scene, and people just want to dance. On the one hand, I can see their point. I’m sure that my own enjoyment of dancing in other towns is enhanced by blissful ignorance of any issues that exist among constituencies there. On the other hand, a practice of keeping people in the dark is an invitation for bad behavior.

In a similar vein was a reply that what mattered was the quality of the service provided (convenient time and location to dance with friends, etc.). Yes there are consumers (probably the majority) who don’t care how a service or product they use came about, but there are those who do care how the coffee they drink is grown, how the shoes they wear are made, etc. I guess the activist in me puts me in the latter group in this instance.

That was it by way of substantive feedback. And then Salsa in Boston’s 800 pound gorilla, Olaf weighed in with a missive short on substance and long on scattershot rants. Stay tuned…