social salsa
Dance and feel the heat of others around you...
Why do some motivated Paso dancers become incredible, and some disappear into the great abyss?
Not enough skill?
No. Most of our all-stars now and in the past began as horrible to mediocre dancers. In fact, the less skill in the beginning, the better.
Not enough time?
Nope. Paso attracts almost nothing but artists, intellectuals and professionals. And some of our best had the most demanding/time consuming jobs that required working INSANE hours. Next.
Not enough social dance time.
Yes. What ties together some of our past heroes, is that they all spent time dancing socially in their early learning stages. Consistent social dancing was more important than lots of it.
Social dancing may not teach you new movements but it helps keep you hungry and MOTIVATED.
What ties together the Paso MIAs is that they almost never dance outside of class and never quite get to feel the social aspect of Salsa dance which is a social dance. Say that a few times out loud! The essence is missed and dance becomes nothing but training sessions. Boring.
If I could have everyone suddenly dance solely for self-expression I would. This takes a while.
In the meantime, dancing outside of class will keep you keep you learning and in class.
Related posts:
- The social dancer’s guide to leading.
- what makes a good social dancer?
- but no one asks me to dance!
- salsa magic on YouTube
Your web designer did a wonderful job designing this site. Was it you? Always enjoy your dance commentary. I continue to encourage you to find an avenue for your creative writing spirit where you can share with other dancers, not just your Paso distribution list. Now who’s hiding?
I really want to dance more, but my health is presenting some challenges at this time which I hope to overcome very soon. So I’m not really MIA…………keep up the good motivational commentary.
I couldn’t agree more! Social dancing is key. Real progress and improvement (when it comes to pretty much any thing) requires putting what you’ve learn’t to good use.
Ex. People who travel to a foreign countries to immerse themselves in a language vs those who never take it outside of the classroom.
The dance floor is a great place to get creative, get motivated & to experiment.
A lot of people become self conscious when it comes to social dancing.
The typical thought process i often come across is “Someone might laugh” or “I’m not ready yet” or “I’m afraid ill mess up & get embarrassed”
Contrary to the popular belief, no ones watching them!… at least not the ones who really know how to dance. The real dancers are focused on their own dance & getting lost in the moment/music.
As for the “I’m not ready yet” & the “I’m afraid ill mess up & get embarrassed” my response is :
“Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order.” ~Samuel Beckett
EVERYONE messes up all the time. Its inevitable, no ones perfect.
A “wise leader” once told me to “go in expecting to mess up, that way… when you do, you can just shake it off & keep moving … and if you don’t mess up… then hey, consider yourself lucky”
Lastly, a lot of people forget that going out to dance stems back to the main reason why they came to Paso in the first place … & thats to have FUN.
Alta, you know Paso does ALL of the design by ourselves. Not just because we don’t want to spend the money -that’s part of it- but because it’s very difficult to translate your energy to another programmer and have them get it right.
Alta, I was just talking about you last night before heading out to the concert. You are everything but MIA so don’t think for a second that was referring to you!
Health problems happen. You know you did an amazing job of pushing yourself as a dancer at Paso and you probably have MORE social dance time than most of our twenty-somethings. Kudos. I was blown away when i finally found out your age and I am glad i found out later otherwise I may have went easy on you.
What I learned from you was that age means something…but that something is very little.
See you soon!
Mehran, I love that quote. Dance first, think later. EXACTLY.
Bro, this has so many implications that I would be writing forever if I were to attempt to address them all.
Dancing first not only refers to initiating your dance, but all the way through to completion.
Throughout your dance you really are not thinking. Feeling yes. Thinking no.
And if you feel you have to think, than you do.
“Either you can or you can’t, either way you are right.” – Henry Ford
Though it does not teach new movements, social salsa motivates and keeps you on your toes to learn more about its intricacies.
First, I would like to commend you guys on your excellent dance commentary. Next, there are a few of us Paso MIA’s that have remained hungry for to improve our dance technique and have attempted to go out social dancing to remain in practice during our hiatus. Some of us have even delved into American StyleOn 2 a bit so we won’t be wallflowers. However, after each dance session we go to, we end up with the same scenario: the dance cliques abound and they only seem to dance with dancers that attend certain dance schools/social outings in the area, the “On the Floor” dance instructor that you have mentioned in previous emails/posts exist, or the focus in the dance becomes about showing off instead of developing a dance connection with your partner for a few minutes. Could you guys please offer some tips on how follows can deal with these sometimes difficult situations, and also recommend some additional social venues in the area with the Paso stamp of approval to practice social dancing. Thanks, and as always, keep up the great work!
i can think of lots of pretty strong reasons that can keep on off the dance floors:
–social anxiety. it’s a legitimate medicalized condition. it doesn’t matter that “no one is watching” what one does on the floor. social dancing requires overcoming several levels of that kind of anxiety. it’s not something that should be dismissed by fans of the social scene, any more than falling out of a boat might cure a fear of water.
–time. if one is already out of the house one or two nights a week taking classes, club time has to compete with other needs that have to fit into the other 5 nights, including time one just needs to spend at home. this is further complicated by a lot of local venues hosting only monthly events.
–it’s quite possible that one’s “social dancing” bug is satisfied by class time. there’s a lot of dancing that goes on in class, plus free time before or after. and contrary to some assertions, it’s not necessary for class time, all by itself, to be boring.
–stupid door policies at clubs. separate lines for men and women? really?
–cover charges. 10 bucks to dance to a dj playing a bunch of CDs in more or less arbitrary order? clubs might as well load an Ipod and leave it on shuffle.
–smoke from other people’s habits.
–noise. invariably, dj’s set their systems up to play at volume levels appropriate for spaces easily twice the size of the place they’re spinning at. that’s unnecessary. i was at this club in wilmington once, and 7-9 there was a meeting of the local tango club. they ran their music through a portable stereo, which played at a really comfortable level, even for the 40-50 people there. people could talk, dance, no problem. the latin djs showed up with 4 refrigerator-sized speaker boxes and two rollaround crates of gear. it got loud enough to make ice cubes jump in a drink glass, all for what was at best a 900 square foot dance floor.
Rich, I agree that good reasons do exist for keeping people off of the dance floor.
But I want to introduce our readers to the possibility of ignoring those reasons on occasion in order to experience something different.
For example:
Medically diagnosed social anxiety disorder. Believe it or not, I am all too familiar with this one personally. Falling out of the boat won’t cure your fear of water, no. But by being trained to swim, encouraged to jump in, and even helped to stay afloat once in the water, you can deal with it and ultimately succeed. You may never completely feel at ease, but your suffering will be a little more compartmentalized -manageable- and you may find some happiness in your suffering.
Time. Tough one. But I advocate making time on occasion. If you really want to do anything, you will find a way. If you don’t it’s probably because you just really didn’t want to go out. I know there are exceptions -NOC shifts etc.- but what are most of us doing at 12am on Saturday? Sometimes I will find reasons not to go out. But I try to re-catalog it more accurately under “the night sucked and I just didn’t want to go.”
Class time shouldn’t be boring, no. We try. And yes, we we’re discussing this the other day. Not to give out excuses but by and large Paso students get a more intensive class experience when compared with other schools. After Sueltas, patterns, lead, follow, they are ready to roll over and go to sleep.
We try to make the experience more and more intensive, but it becomes more physically satisfying and people don’t feel the need to get out as much. This is both good and bad I guess.
Pretentious clubs. Again, I am with you. We don’t live in the 90210 zip code. If you want to filter your crowd, use your brain and change the noise coming out of your speaker. Dress codes make no difference if what you are playing caters to who you are supposedly trying to avoid admitting in the first place.
Perhaps they are mostly concerned with a plastic appearance. “It doesn’t matter who I let in, just as long as they are wearing slacks.”
Djs. If you notice, most of them out here are very young, with very limited and homogeneous selections of music. “Rough Guide to Salsa Volume I: The Generic Years” comes to mind.
I would like to give kudos to the DJ at Mosaic who plays quite an eclectic collection of world music/Salsa mixes. On several occasions, I have found myself saying, “wow, I have never heard that before” and it was a good thing. When a DJ can shock the ears with fresh music, he is showing himself to be a fresh and innovative artist worthy of the name. It’s quite obvious to me that he truly expresses himself through his work.
Noise. Again, they seem to think that louder is better. Or that the louder the music the more hyped the crowd will be. Actually, not too many human beings can enjoy having their ears hammered, as crazy as it sounds.
So on most points I agree. Yes, most of the clubs are tailored for the masses who like to stand up and wiggle around a little bit and call it dancing.
For those of us who like to BREAK IT DOWN, -sick style- we have to be a little choosy, but try to keep a positive attitude about the scene. Support the good places or they will positively die. Act as if the others don’t exist and hope they fade away with time.
Mocha,
It sounds like you are deep behind enemy lines. Radio in if you need some reinforcements, ok?
Why does Salsa clique?
Cliques are usually based on some sort of fear or insecurity, so we must first watch ourselves to make sure that we are not doing the same. Hanging with your group is one thing, excluding others because they are not part of it is another. So recognize that what you see out there is largely based on a dance community full of worries and fears.
What can we do?
In short, be nice. Don’t let their cliques push you into one. Many of these clique members were once like you but decided that is was “safer” to join the ranks. Don’t be deterred. Keep your openness.
And what can we do in practice?
-If you see a dance floor instructor, avoid dancing with them. They all around suck and until they learn the connection between dance and SELF-expression, they will be eternally lost.
-As a follow learn to lead, unless you really want to stand around and wait for a lead to bless you with his sublime presence. This is now a mandatory in Paso.
Even if it’s just the basic closed position, have fun with your girlfriends -you did bring some?- and be careful not to have a “waiting on them” mind state.
Be proactive from the JUMP or you will be waiting on them until the club closes.
Paso approved events:
-Mosaic Wine Lounge every 3rd Thursday.
-Live ones. Get to them whenever you can.
-Carmen’s Colombian night. Not a bad night. Not too corny. Good amount of Salsa last time I went.
-George’s Garage. Though they are philosophically polar opposites to Paso, the Cobo’s do a good job and are very attentive and professional in their handling of the night.
Hope this helps!