the cuban salsa blog

Believing in magic is fine. But don't let Salsa illusions on video get the best of your common sense.

Johnny has been browsing YouTube all evening looking for that “cool move”.

Johnny finds what he is looking for and now wants to try it out in real life.

Sarah is Johnny’s partner.

They get together one sunny afternoon for some Salsa practice, and Johnny is totally excited about what he saw on YouTube. Johnny then proceeds to try out what he learned and not before long, is telling Sarah exactly what she should do in order to look like Carmen, the current Salsa-champion-belt-holder on YouTube and get the move “to work”.

He just knows that she is not doing something right. “NO NO NO”, he spouts. “You have to hold out your arm HERE, and turn THIS way when I do THIS!”

Sarah is skeptical, but wants to make the move work. She does want to be a good follow, right?

After a long and taxing session, they get the entire movement down-packed and tight.

Song after song, Johnny easily glides through the slick pattern with Sarah always remembering her part and doing the right thing and the right time.

Now everything was great until one night Johnny went out and danced with Jenny, a good Salsa dancer. Or so he thought. Johnny proceeds to subtly ignore the music and pull out his very best turn patterns to impress the onlookers, saving his best for last.

BUT WAIT! Something really bad happens here. Jenny doesn’t react the way Sarah did. He tries over and over again.

“Perhaps she just messed up.”, Johnny thought to himself. “Let’s try it again.”

Nope. Johnny tries explaining it to her verbally, waving his arms in the air like a conductor. “No, you see, you are supposed to do THIS!”

Jenny is never dancing with this clown again.

Now here are some pointers that will help you avoid becoming Johnny:

1. Understand the difference between social and stage dancing. Also be aware when instructors teach moves that are “hybrids” of stage and street dancing.

There is little overlap between the two. Being good at one does not make you good at the other. They are completely different beasts with different goals. One is to impress the eyes of an audience, the other to express complex music. Social dancing has utlilitarian concerns, the moves must WORK. Stage dancing tends to be choreographed so the movements don’t need to actually function in order to look good.

Both are great things. But I think there is a LOT of confusion between the two.

There are some common movements taught in Salsa classes that derive from the stage and require a partner to “be in the know” regarding their execution. Most new students have no clue, so naturally they assume that memorization from a follow is cool.

They grow up, and without much time on the streets, get some performances under their belt, and one day begin teaching others moves that are based on a performance style and the cycle perpetuates over and over again. I think this is a very interesting phenomenon that I would love to write more about in the future.

Pure social dancing requires little memorization on the part of the follow. Movements are spontaneous and are created as the music unrolls.

2. YouTube is cool. But keep in mind that no one posts an unsuccessful execution of a Salsa turn pattern. Follows will compensate on video and to the new student, this can be very misleading.

If it’s on YouTube of course it’s going to appear to work. That doesn’t mean all is real. Try it out, but if you find yourself explaining the follows part, just keep in mind that it may not work the way out so well on the dance floor.

3. One thing at a time Johnny. Social or stage, don’t let them bleed over into each other. And avoid the hybridization, please.

A strong separation between the two makes for a better dancer. Understand the different objectives of social and performance dancing. And keep in mind that performance dancing is not a progression from street dancing. If you think this way, you will naturally try to dance “better” by using performance type moves on the social dance floor, ignoring the real challenge of social dance: -interpreting music on the fly while improvising creatively.

Related posts:

1. social salsa
2. Timba vs. Salsa
3. real salsa requires a real connection
4. But I couldn’t find a partner who could dance X style..