Becoming a Salsero

This is the second article in a series of 4.

In Learn to dance salsa - part 1 I looked at learning salsa by taking lessons.

Today I will look at another way to learn salsa, namely by going to clubs.

So what are the advantages of going to clubs?

• Usually clubs offer a free class before the party starts
• There are a lot of great dancers in clubs and you can learn a lot just by watching and copying them
• There will be a lot of different partners for you to dance with
• You can dance as long as you want. Unlike in a organized course there is no time limit

Like with lessons the advantages sound pretty good.
Let's have a look at the disadvantages as well.

• The free class is often at a low level. This is ok if you are just starting to learn dancing but you will quickly outgrow the class.
• The dancers are at the club to have fun, not to teach you things. They most likely will not take the time to patiently talk you through each and every move
  
• You won't have dance partners assigned to you like you would at a course
• Most dancers will be at a much higher level than you are which can be very intimidating
• The dance floor is often crowded which makes dancing harder, especially if you're still learning

As with learning to dance salsa by taking lessons, learning to dance salsa in a club is not an end all solution. There are both positive and negative points and you'll have to work out for yourself how important they are for you.

In Learn to dance salsa - part 3 I will look at the advantages and disadvantages of learning to dance salsa by watching videos.

Why cameras are better than mirrors.


Whenever I am at a festival, congress or workshop I am always impressed with the amount of attention the stars there get.

Sometimes it seems like they have more cameras pointed at them than the average movie star. And for good reason. Their performance, whether it is a show or a demonstration of combinations that they taught earlier, is often amazing. Not capturing it means losing out on a chance to not only admire it but to learn from it as well.

But only using our cameras to tape the stars is such a waste of that wonderful technical invention. Why not use your camera all the time to tape yourself dancing instead? Or if not all the time than at least start using the camera when you practice at home.

Even more so than by looking in the mirror you will see things that you may never have been aware of. Don't get me wrong, I think mirrors are great. Especially the full size mirrors they have in studios. Unfortunately they have a downside. They don't come with a rewind button.

If your focusing on your arms when you look in the mirror you will not be able to see what happens with the rest of your body. If you look at your legs, same thing. You will never be able to see all of your body movements at the same time. Our vision just does not work that way.

What happens is that our eyes take lots of pictures. At the same time our mind processes all those pictures and turns them into a streaming movie. As it is though, our mind is also an editor.

While it is combining the images it gives most attention to what we were focusing on and starts cutting out irrelevant pictures. This means that a lot of pictures do not make the final cut and we miss out on the information that was in them.

Another downside is that looking in the mirror is distracting. When you are looking in the mirror, trying to spot what you may be doing wrong, you focus less on dancing. After all, you are already focused on looking in the mirror.

When you use a camera though, things are different. You can place the camera in a corner of the room, feel self conscious for a minute or 2 (ok, maybe that is just me) and then forget all about it. By the time you are done it will have recorded for as long as you had tape/disc space/memory and you have footage of yourself dancing. In my case 3o minutes of it.

30 Minutes that I can look at over and over again. If I think I missed something I can even rewind. 30 Minutes of myself dancing that I can use to correct myself. 30 Minutes of footage that I could even use to ask others for feedback if I was so inclined. Currently I do not see myself facing the YouTube critics just yet though so that will have to wait for now.

And last but not least, 30 minutes of video that I can store and watch again whenever I feel like it. In my opinion there is no better way to notice if. and how much, you have improved than by comparing 2 videos of yourself that were taken some time apart.

So let's quickly glance back and see what the advantages are of using a camera rather than mirrors:

• You can see all parts of your body at any given time
• You can pause or rewind to have another/closer look
• You can focus on dancing instead of focusing on yourself
• You can keep the recording and look back on it at a later date
  

Even if you do this only once a week you'll soon be able to correct any bad habits you might have.

So get your camera out now and start dancing. Before you know it you will be the star that is admired. Who knows, maybe at the next congress I will be there pointing my camera at you wishing I could dance like that.

Don Baarns at The Unlikely Salsero, wrote a post about bachata earlier this week in which he says:

"I'll go on record as saying bachata will share equal time with cha-cha-cha, and probably take the number two spot in many scenes over the next year."

That line took me by surprise. In Europe, or at least here in Germany, bachata is played a lot more than cha-cha-cha. There are definitely more people that can dance bachata than there are people that can dance cha-cha-cha.

Bachata is so popular that it has actually become a pet peeve of mine that workshops always seems to be in the smallest room at congresses. So far it has been one of the most popular classes, if not the most popular one, at the congresses that I have attended. The room was always too small for the number of dancers but everybody tried to squeeze in anyway.

I would expect that congress organizers would pick up on that and use a bigger room instead but that has not happened yet. Then again, they are organizing salsa congresses and not bachata congresses so maybe I should be more forgiving.

Don also mentions that "Many salsa dancers look down on bachata" in the US. This was something else that surprised me. I have yet to meet anybody here that does not like bachata. I am sure there must be some people that feel that way but our paths have not crossed yet. If there is a dance that is looked down upon than it would be merengue, not bachata.

Another thing that I found interesting is that Don mentions "and the hip/leg-kick stuff can look downright feminine if a lead is not careful. Not a look most guys want."
Maybe that is true, it is not something I have ever paid attention to.
However, when I read it the first thing that popped into my mind was 'who cares?!'.

Ok, looking feminine on the dance floor is definitely not one of my goals. And perhaps I will not be able to get the hip stuff down properly. And maybe that will even make me look feminine while dancing but, why would I worry about that?*

I am secure enough in my own masculinity not to worry about what other men think. If they have a problem with the way I look on the dance floor then I would feel bad for them but, it would be their problem. Not mine. And I specifically said 'other men' because whenever I am in the US I get the impression that only the men spend time worrying about things like this.

It is not just with dancing but in other areas of life as well. Let's take fashion for instance.

The last time I was in the US I apparently broke all the 'rules'. I went to a club wearing white jeans and a fitted shirt. While I received a lot of compliments about my outfit from girls that night all the guys had a go at me. Comments ranged from 'did you turn gay?' to 'a real men would never wear anything like that'. The last comment especially made me laugh as to me a 'real man' is a man that is confident enough not to have to worry about the opinion of other men.

But back to dancing.
When I am dancing with somebody there is only one thing that I worry about. I want to make sure that my partner is enjoying herself. Aside from that I won't worry about anything on the dance floor. Sure, if I were to dance a show then I would pay more attention to the way I look but social dancing is not a show, and it is not a competition. The only price to be won is the smile on your partner's face and she'll be too close to notice the hip movement.

In spite of the tricky hip movement though it seems that bachata is rapidly gaining in popularity in the US. Going by what Don wrote it has taken the dance floor by storm over the last 6 months and it looks like it will continue to do so. I hope he is right. I would much rather dance or watch bachata than merengue. Don for one is definitely not letting himself be held back and he is diving head first into learning bachata with some DVD's** made by Edie and Jorge**

And as always Don offers good advice.
Bachata is a sensual dance and can be danced very close. However, comfort levels differ and not all women will like to dance close. Paying attention to your parter is important. If she is uncomfortable then it is time to put some more distance between the 2 of you. Switching to an open position might the best idea.

In case you don't know any bachata yet but and want to start learning, here is a video explaining the basics ***





Today's disclaimers:
* I don't think Don is one of the people that is worried about this either.
** This is a sponsored link. However, I have seen the DVDs from 'the world's best leads' series and thought the quality was very good compared to other DVDs that I have seen.
*** There may be better videos on YouTube but this was the first one I found.