the cuban salsa blog

**Follows: It is imperative that you feel the exact speed, and type of turn through your lead’s arm. In the Cuban style of Salsa, the arm in the air is not a visual signal to let you know a turn is coming. It is a line of communication and all details are contained in your lead’s fingertip pressure. You have to listen with your body.

A guest post by Joe

In class we spend a lot of time working on connection and how to lead and how to follow. The fundamentals.

Eduardo and Stephanie have devoted several blog entries to connection and our roles.  And as a lead I have a lot of things I need to do.

Sometimes it seems overwhelming.

I need to react to the music, keep tempo, keep my follow safe, remember the turn pattern that I am about to lead, and not bore her just to name a few things.

A follow with intuition that recognizes when something is not quite right and can recognize what we leads are telling her through physical connection is just…super.

All of the above hit home for me recently during a dance at Cuban Revolution.

At one point in the dance I had a lot of space available on the floor and wanted to start a turn pattern, as soon as I started to prep her, I noticed another lead hop into the space right behind her that I was about to lead her into.

If we kept on going my follow would have had a hard collision with another lead, and she couldn’t see it coming.  Since screaming “look out” didn’t seem appropriate my instincts said to lighten up the prep and not to move my arm much.

Without missing anything she recognized not to step back very far and when I continued to lead she continued to do the turn pattern.

She understood something was wrong, and what I “said” to her, when all that was going through my conscious mind was look out, and OH NO! Here comes a chain reaction of collisions on the dance floor.

Follows, we leads appreciate you and what you do.

In my case, a light prep and my arm not moving much told my follow, “Warning! Danger! There is something behind you, don’t move back very far.”

When considering that one simple gesture said so much I recognized the importance of connection at that point more than ever.

Dance is discovery, discovery, discovery. -Martha Graham

A guest post by Reed Colver

Six months ago, I discovered that I was stepping backward in my basic walk at a time when I should have been stepping forward.

Apparently, I had been for quite some time. Lots of work subsequently followed to fix that particular issue.

Then, a few days ago during class a glance at my feet yielded a new discovery: my second step wasn’t going anywhere at all.
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“Oops. i’m sorry!”

“Did that feel ok?”

“Actually you should do XX when I do XX”.

The nervous laugh and look around.

Sounds like an adolescent make-out scene. But step out of memory lane for a second.

All of the above are examples of what we call validating gestures or VGs for short.

Validating gestures do just that, they validate or confirm, that what you just did was in fact OK to do.

In the land of dance, leads and follows both can easily fall prey to VG, excessive apologizing, stopping the dance,  or looking around after executing any pattern to make sure it was ‘ok’.

In my opinion, you should remove all validating gestures from your pool of habits. I can almost promise your dance will be more fulfilling.

There is no need to apologize unless pain is involved.

You don’t need to laugh nervously after each move, and you don’t need to stop dancing and apologize if you think your turn pattern was screwed up. And you definitely don’t need to talk crap if she fails to read your lead.

It’s so un-latin.

When you are out on the dance floor, doing your thing, and being yourself,  there is no wrong or right, and you don’t need to validate anything!

Last night in our beginner 3 class, I pulled the plug on all validating gestures for one song.

It was amazing how much was accomplished when we didn’t allow dancers access to this safety net.

The creativity was flowing, mind and body were focused, and there was no comfort zone to latch on to. Students performed movements and that was it. No discussion, no apologies and no validation.

If you are confident in what you are doing, you won’t feel the need to validate yourself.

I think it works the other way around: if you stop validating yourself, you’ll probably become more confident in what you are doing.

Give it try.

We all have a narrative, or a story we tell ourselves that dictates what we do in various situations. Though this little story keeps us on a behavioral track and safe from outside “threats”, it’s almost never accurate!

When it comes to dancing, you also have a chapter from your narrative that’s being played over and over again in your mind anytime you are dancing either with a partner or by yourself.

What loop is playing in your head?

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All good follows are blind.

Here is a good question that follows who are new to the Cuban style of Salsa often ask me:

“When my lead is doing all that crazy movement and improvisation with his body, what should I be doing?”

To this I say, “Do you want the long story or the short?”
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Whenever given the chance, I like to listen in and hear how different individuals experience Salsa dance.

Usually, with beginning Salsa dancers I hear things like:

“…..and I was trying to make sure my arms didn’t get too stiff.”

With more experienced dancers:

“I was just about the execute XX combination when she…”

“I was trying to figure out his lead but he kept…”

Even at the higher levels, it can become more about avoiding mistakes than actually creating a compelling dance that inspires others.

Turning dance into damage control.

Next time you go out there, break it down, get sick, let yourself make mistakes, and see what happens.

And get some business cards printed up, because no matter who else is on the dance floor, people are going to want to know where you came from.

Return to the beginner's mind.

A guest post by Jill Powell

Back in the summer of 2007 I had my first salsa class.

The bug bit hard and in addition to going to class and practicing with friends outside of class, I spent nearly all my free time pursuing social dancing opportunities. Live shows, festivals, every “Latin night” in a 30 mile radius, even trips to other cities in search of more chances to dance.

Just like with anything new, there is a peaceful lack of history.

Men in the room were just “leads,” and I was simply a “follow.” I saw a sea of nameless dancers and would always graciously accept the numerous invitations to dance the night away without passing any judgment.

Then I learned a little more.
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A guest post by Reed Colver

As a follow, there are so many things I must be aware of simultaneously, that I can’t ‘think’ about any one of them. I have to let my mind go and sense everything until they really are no longer individual pieces. The moment I think or focus too hard on any one piece – the music, my feet, what the lead is doing – I lose all the pieces. It’s a bit like trying to grab a handful of water. Try it – you’ll see what I mean.

One of the most insightful moments as a follow came – as they usually do – almost as an afterthought. One of those ‘try this’ moments when several things fall ‘click’ ‘click’ click’ into place and end with a quiet – ahhh. I was working on feeling the lead through my arms  – creating that tension at just the right moment, while keeping my arm loose the rest of the time, but yet always keeping it slightly bent and not to let it go beyond my shoulder.

I would find  the tension, but then loose the the looseness. Or remember to keep my arm loose, and then forget about the bend.

Remember grabbing that handful of water? Yeah, it was one of those classes.

Just about the time I started to wonder why I hadn’t taken up knitting instead, we tried something different.

“Stop thinking about your arm. Just focus on the pressure of your fingertips against the lead’s fingertips. Feel the movement through the fingertips.”

‘Click.’

Suddenly I was feeling – feeling – the lead in an entirely new way. And I stopped thinking about my arms and focused on allowing my fingertips communicate with the lead’s fingertips.  And, amazingly, my arm seemed to follow more naturally.

‘Click. Ahhh.’

This requires me to feel, and not think, about the lead. To sense the lead’s movements through my fingertips, and allow the rest of my body to follow. It allows space in my awareness for music, rhythm, and for that to become part of my movement.

I find it creates a direct connection with the lead that, in its subtly is infinitely more powerful than gripping the lead’s hand or thinking about my arm.

I’m not saying it’s the magical answer that suddenly solved all those problems. (I’ll admit, I still have moments when I contemplate the benefits of knitting). But when I lose that connection and start thinking too much, remembering my fingertips brings me back to that place of awareness.

That handful of water? It’s possible. But only by gently scooping it into the palm of your hand. Try it.

Good performers reveal a private truth in a public situation.
- Lorna Marshall, The Body Speaks.

This revealing of “private truth” in a public situation is what both good actors and good dancers do.

In other words, through their dance they express emotions that, on a day-to-day basis, are not normally expressed in public.

I think authenticity is what makes dance deeply satisfying for many people to watch.

Authentic emotion in both actors and dancers can be touched, felt, and absorbed as your own.

When a good dancer or actor expresses the “private truth” of their anger and passion in public, you can FEEL it. You can relate to it so closely, that for that moment you almost become them.

And I think this is what makes great dancing and great movies so incredibly addicting. As human beings, even for brief moments, we love to become someone else.

Real dance allows someone else to become you.