the cuban salsa blog

The follow’s game is a psychological one…

Here are 4 simple guidelines that we believe every follow should ponder on before getting out on the dance floor.

1. Keep your head out of the game.

Easier said than done, right?

Figuring out your lead is not your responsibility. Once you truly accept this, your dance will change. You will become flexible.

If your body does not understand the lead, compensating with logic and using your “head”  is bad business. You can’t think your way through a dance, and although many of you have tried, you probably learned by now that it doesn’t work.

2. Don’t stick to your style.

When social dancing, let go of your ideas and preconceptions about what Salsa is and isn’t. If you dance Cuban and your lead is NY, congratulations, you just became a NY follow, and vice versa.

“Now what if I don’t know X style of dance, and my lead is trying all these moves that I don’t understand?”

Choices:

A. Learn to dance like your lead so that you can “follow” him.

B. Try your best to guess what the lead is trying to do.

C. Do only what you physically felt compelled to do.

Choice A is just plain backwards, learn for the love of the style. Choice B is what most follows do and the results are usually horrid. A follow hopping around through her own moves is just not cute.

The answer most beneficial to following is C.

3. Avoid commitment.

Think twice before taking that big step, literally.

This is the only technical advice that is applicable in most situations. Do not commit yourself to any one direction with large steps. It’s kind of hard to take them back.

I see it all the time.

New follows taking step sizes well over the length of their foot and going everywhere but where their lead intended. It looks awkward and goofy. Salsa is a spot dance, save the large steps for accents.

It’s much easier to recover from a small misstep than a big one. Taking smaller steps is the fastest way to improve several aspects of your follow.

Keep the length of your steps somewhere around the length of your foot and avoid radical deviations. Minimize your commitment ladies, and always keep your options open.

Preferences are fine, but if a partner who dances a foreign style of Salsa renders your lead limp and impotent, it's time to improve your clarity. No excuses.

“I didn’t dance much  because I couldn’t find any good dancers that could dance XX style Salsa.”

Sorry to say this guys, but there is no need to find a partner that “knows” your style be it Cuban, On1 or On2.

We speak the same language, just with different accents.

All forms of Salsa derive from the Cuban Son, which comes from the Danzon. With slight variations -negligible with sound lead- we are all dancing in 4/4 time with a 3-step rhythm.

Translation: On a fundamental level our dances are not that entirely different. Most of my social dances tend to be with beginner-intermediate dancers who have never danced Cuban. It requires a solid lead and a good imagination, not advanced patterns.

When I  dance with X style follows, my moves don’t work!

Ah. Then you need to make your your lead more clear. Hard reality.

You didn’t notice that in the studio your partner was helping you make those movements work?

It is NOT  your partners job to figure out what you are trying to do.

Depending on our follow to  fill in the blanks of our lead will reap disastrous results -especially if they speak Salsa with a different accent!

Translation: When you are dancing with follows who do not understand your accent, be it Cuban or American, you must make your lead 10x more clear to remain effective.

But I learned this move and the follow puts her hand HERE on count…

Stop bro.

It ain’t going to work in real life unless she knows it.

Instructors must take responsibility and breed leads who are hard-nosed and skeptical about turn patterns.

Pulling this crap out on the dance floor confuses follows and makes them follow the next lead horribly -trying to guess what the lead is doing and screwing up the next man.

Translation: Choreo is fine. But we as teachers need to give our students healthy doses of hard reality about what can be led intuitively and what requires a follow to “be in the know”.

Leads, let’s kill the excuses in 2010.

If it’s not working on the dance floor, either you didn’t say it clearly enough or you said something too complicated.

But never bring someone on stage who isn’t familiar with your magic trick and try to make them disappear.

You might be quite embarrassed once the smoke clears -and they are still standing there!

Be careful what you tell yourself. You just might believe it.

Let’s talk about one of the most prevalent barriers and dangerous forms of self-deception that we as dancers face…

“Tango? Nah. Not my cup of tea.”

“Cuban Salsa?  Whoa guy. Too much movement, not for me.”

“Mambo? Too many spins, On2 feels off. That doesn’t really interest me.”

“Ballet? Not me.”

“African dance? Uh..a little too crazy for me.”

“Improvise? I’m happy with just the turn pattern.”

I’ve heard these sentiments expressed in and out of the Paso community.

Usually, it’s total bullcrap.

Ten years ago, when I first heard Timba music I used the “it’s not my thing” shield. But in all actuality I found the rhythm overwhelming and difficult to interpret.

It was tough, so I turned my nose up at it. Wrong answer.

A more honest approach would have been, “I don’t like Timba because I don’t really have movements to interpret it. It feels off and dancing to Puerto Rican Salsa was just easier.”

How often do you dislike something you have the ability to do well?

Stripping away the deceptive layer and being honest with myself would allow me to tackle the truth, which, I later did.

Once you begin using “it’s not my thing” to cover up for inability, you will begin using it over and over again, turning your nose up at different dances and drawing yourself into a corner.

This doesn’t mean you have to like everything! Just be honest with yourself.

If your rhythm or coordination is not strong, body movements will be no fun. If you find yourself making excuses because you can’t do it, stop and make changes.

If you can’t spin, simply say “I suck at it, and I don’t like it.”  Then either leave it at that, or work on it. But don’t just say, “It’s just not me”. You have no clue what “me” is because it changes every week.

If a particular dance or movement is “not your thing” ask why and be clear and honest with yourself.

Taking this reality-based approach will expose any weaknesses in your dance and allow you to either fix them or simply be content with having them.

But don’t use opinions as a shield. You are only protecting yourself from getting better.

Following these 4 points will go a long way in making your social dance experience a little more fulfilling for both you and your partner. And isn’t that the whole point of social dance anyways?

1. Start slowly.

No matter what, accelerate slowly.

Take it step by step, feel out your partner’s capabilities and for the most part, stay within that range. Cheat a bit, but keep it to a minimum!

For example, if all your partner can do is walk to the music, you must work all of your magic within that walk. Take what they know -basic steps- and create a dance from her basic steps. Be creative and understand a tight lead can do wonders for even the most inexperienced dancer.

2 . Indicate that you are going to indicate.

Always lead early.

If you lead early, and she follows slightly late, there is plenty of time for musical play. Keep this in mind. Don’t just give her a prep, give her a pre-prep! This means an early indicator of an early indicator. How about that?!?

3. Keep secrets.

If she “messes up”, smile, smooth it over and make it a secret between the two of you. Don’t flinch. If you mess up, it never happened.

4. Use the minimum force required by your partner.

Use only what you need. This is totally dependent on your follow, and the song that the two of you are expressing together.

Please work to apply at least ONE of these points to your social dance. And that means you have to go out and actually dance.

Professional training + dance floor experience = tremendous dancer.