March Madness = Ryles Jazz Club

Dance Floor at Ryles

This weekend’s adventure was to the Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge and we were accompanied by my sister Allison and her friend Kristin who are visiting from Penn State University. I had done extensive research before the evening to find a place where not-quite-21 year olds would be admitted. Ryles had advertised a salsa/swing night for ages 18 and up. They also had the phrase “dress to impress” on the website, and naturally we were excited about this because we already aim to dress to impress on our adventures. Therefore we all selected shiny, sparkly, or patterned dresses with heels. After some cocktails at home we tromped off to the club which is a little over ½ mile away from the Central T station. The club has a downstairs restaurant where a live band plays and the dance club is upstairs. When we entered we paid our cover charge and we were not carded. We were also not carded when we got upstairs to the club, so we ordered some more cocktails. The upstairs has a good size dance floor, a small bar, and a sitting area near the bar with a bunch of tables. So overall the venue was nice and cozy but the drinks are a bit pricey… what’s new.


When we arrived it was around 10pm and they were still holding the introductory dance lesson to learn some basic salsa steps. Men were lined up on one side of the dance floor and women on the other. Naturally Rachel and I were excited to learn the dance so Rachel lined up with the men and I joined with the women. A man near Rachel politely pointed out to her that she was on the wrong side and Rachel answered equally as politely that her partner was a woman. We learned our basic steps which sounded a little like back, back forward, quick, quick slow, turn to the bar, and to the stage. When the music began Rachel and I started to practice our new steps together but we were quickly cut in by a gentleman who asked me to dance. I made sure to tell him that I had never really salsaed before and I wasn’t really a good dancer. He seemed to take well to his role as “teacher” though and I have now learned that the salsa is a back back forward step, meringue (my favorite) is like marching, and swing is a hop step. I was also watching his feet most of the time and we may have smacked heads once or twice. Meanwhile as I was dancing with my new teacher Rachel and Kristin were out on the dance floor booty bumping and grinding together (aka dancing) as other couples around were VERY serious about executing the correct steps. At this point let me also state that we were some of the only people in dresses, most of the other women were wearing jeans. And I was the ONLY person in a loud street-walker type pattern… I don’t know why, I mean it was salsa after all! So by this point in the night we had already committed many faux pas, more were on the way. Of course everyone’s favorite song came on a few minutes later, Shakira’s She Wolf. So that got us all ‘dancing” pretty wildly, even my new partner. The music was a very interesting mix of traditional salsa and swing songs with a few top 40 hits thrown in every once in a while.


We took a break and sat down for a few minutes when Allison spotted her ideal dance partner from a far. He was definitely at the age where he would be offered the senior discount, wearing a shiny blue shirt the same color as Allison’s dress ensemble, and legit dancing shoes. Allison boldly walked up to him, asked him to dance, and they swung around the dance floor for a song. Rachel was also asked to dance by a gentleman named Doug but did not have quite the same experience as Allison or I. Her partner was constantly directing her moves, criticizing her technique and generally being an ass. Unfortunately the dance instructor form earlier in the night came over and gave Rachel a classic Dirty Dancing tip, “You have to follow his lead”. Well we know this doesn’t work well for Rachel who is used to being the lead herself, so she returned to the table with little excitement about trying another salsa. I continued to dance with my partner and I am ashamed to say I never got his name because it was so loud. But he did ask for my number and remembered my name. I think I must boost his confidence as I am so clumsy at something he excels in. We finally left the club around 1:15am which means that GASP, we took a taxi home!

Overall I would say that the place was fun because we made it entertaining for ourselves by not being stuck up with all of the etiquette. Some may say that we were obnoxious at times. If you are a serious dancer then the place would probably be a big hit and I would be interested in going back if there was more of a “beginners night” or if I was just with another group of fun people.

P.S. I apologize for any double posting on this entry. I know blogs are supposed to be fool proof but the technology got the better of me this time!