Addicted2Salsa : Salsa Dance Videos

To tell you the truth, I find dancers (female) very sexy. For some reason most of them who end up being hardcore dancers are in amazingly great shape. Of course you can notice from the waist down on how their legs are just completely toned (and other parts too). Now, I think to myself how much dancing does one have to do to make it a complete fitness exercise? Well, I'm no doctor so I won't answer that question. However, I sometimes think it is false advertising when you say 'salsa aerobics' and they don't really put at least some of the fundamentals of salsa into the workout. Why do I say this? In some of these videos, they end up doing the salsa workout to merengue music. Of course, I'm very picky and because I am an evangelist (or purist), and therefore it drives me crazy when they do this. I sometimes worry that people watch these videos and end up thinking that this is what REAL salsa looks like… 

Now, this is what I consider a real salsa workout. Try and move your feet this fast and to the flips/tricks this fast and cleanly - and you are on your way to loosing a couple pounds. (Disclaimer: These statements have not been approved by the FDA or any other institution that can protect my liability).

Actually - this is a forum post by Swannie. She did a good job of selecting a set of videoclips for people to understand that there are different styles of salsa (and salsa music). Just pick your favorite weapon and stick with it.

Cuban: Osbanis (a native Cuban), is big (considered one of the best) Cuban style teacher based in London:

Colombian Style:

PR Style: Tito y Tamara

Anthony added: Jason Molina from PR

NY Style: Eddie Torres, the man himself:

LA Style: The Vasquez Brothers , credited with popularizing LA style:

Anthony added: Alex Da Silva (the LA celebrity):

Victor and Gaby (Mexico Style):

So, there I was. Standing in line on a Chipotle and some teenagers start talking about how they are going to a movie this Friday night. They way they conversed with each other about the movie hinted to the fact that they were not too enthusiastic about it. Then I started thinking…. when was the last time I actually went to a movie theater?

It used to be that Fridays and Saturday nights were movie night in my life until salsa came along. Now, salsa is almost every night. That lead me to think - what else have I stopped doing because of salsa? I reduced my drinking (not that I drank that much anyways). I stopped eating as much, since I have to fit into my 1MX shirts. I stopped working longer hours (note the 'er' - now I just work long hours ). I stopped going to theme parks. I reduced the number of books I read. I cook less often. I stopped playing other sports (not even Magic The Gathering if you call that a sport). I stopped listening to almost all non-salsa music. Funny - I used to be a huge fan of OASIS, Gipsy Kings, and Eros Ramazzotti (and other alternative music). While I might listen to a song here and there - it is not as it used to be. I think the biggest change was the fact that I decided not to pursue another 4 years of PhD work. I realized I was not passionate about what I was doing. Life is too short not to do what you love.

So what have I started doing? Well, this is a much longer list which I will not get into here - but it includes addicted2salsa.com . Who would have thought I'd still be doing this website even after I left Iowa. It is amazing how things change. Fate has it - that I am now an interface designer for the company I work for. However, I would not have thought about this profession if it wasn't for my desire to create a good salsa website for the community. I was not hired because of addicted2salsa, but because of the skills that I acquired because of it. I had so much passion for salsa and this website, that I forced myself to learn how to do things (countless hours on the monitor) to make my idea come true. If you saw the original version of the salsa website - you'd probably laugh. If it wasn't for salsa, I would have not built the website, I would not have learned that I had a passion for design, and would have been stuck being a network security (cyber forensics) engineer. Therefore I can definitely say that salsa has changed my career path implicitly. 

Now, do not get me wrong, I do not regret not doing such things that I mentioned above. It is just interesting to see how one's own lifestyle changes because of an 'addiction' to something called 'salsa'. After waking up from my mental diversion and ordering my carnitas burrito, I started to wonder - how has salsa changed other people lives. The people we date. The people we associate with. The way we dress. Our confidence. Our communication skills. Our health. Our families. Salsa, in some cases, seems like both a gift and a curse.

It is amazing how something so simple as salsa affects the outcome of our lives and binds us to a totally different destiny that we might not have otherwise looked at. And if life is about the journey, and not the destination then how do you think salsa has affected your ride ? 

It is very interesting to what happens to a newly enamored salsa dancer. One ends up thinking about salsa so much, that you end up daydream dancing. I'm not really sure if that is what its called, but that is what I will be calling it…

Now, I think I end up daydream dancing mostly in the car. I put my iPod in my "Current Favorites" playlist and just let it go. While I'm driving down a highway (some straight road), I end up thinking how I'm dancing with a follow and start performing patterns to the track that is currently playing. The interesting part is that i'm not really placing my virtual self in any specific club (maybe a congress setting), but its more about what I am doing with my partner. I guess going back to the Matrix (The Movie), it is like placing myself in virtual club that has the perfect setting. It even has the ideal dance partner. 

However, the setting has one uncontrollable variable - me.

I start dancing to the song with my partner doing some of the patterns that I already know. However, as I get grooving to the song, I start mixing some of the patterns. Example, maybe instead of doing a simple hammerlock turn, I'll try do a double spin for the ladies into a hammerlock position while I quickly turn to the right to catch the hammerlock hand. Yeah - its a big upgrade from just doing a simple hammerlock. But because this i a virtual matrix dance scene in my head I can force myself to see how things can come out (without injuring the girl).

The funny part is that even while I'm daydream dancing I will still make mistakes. The main reason is that after I have warmed up my brain with my known patterns, I'll try to improvise OTF (On-The-Fly) my moves based on the song. I'll try switching the left hand with the right hand, adding my extra turns, doing hammerlocks myself etc. Now, because I keep track of the beat and I have a pretty good idea how long it takes me to turn and do specific styling, I will be able to tell if I stay on beat. If I screw up, I try OTF to fix my timing by coming up with some weird step or body styling pause. Also, I may come up with some complicated patterns (hand positions, leg locks..etc) that might end up not working and will have to literally learn to figure out how I could get out of it OTF. In some cases, I'll have to let everything go because I know I can't fix it.

Now the main reason to daydream dance is really more about your mind than anything else. Half the time, its not that your body can't do the movements in time; its really that your brain has a hard time keeping up. In dancing, your brain has to be always ahead of the game (or music). It has to know what you'd like to do before you actually do it. Of course, it also has to perform lots of calculations: your steps, your partner's steps, your hand connections, the beat in the music, the surrounding couples dancing, the dancing slot..and so on. Training your brain to think OTF will help improve the quick decision making required in getting through some of the dances. In the same fashion that you would force your muscles to lift more weight than they can so they can grow. Just like the matrix, it is really about making your brain be faster than you think it is. It is another great exercise to become better in your dancing.

I recommend that if you are sitting at your desk, with your headphones on, and jamming to a good salsa song - give it a try. You might end up coming up with a new pattern all by yourself.

DISCLAIMER: I don't recommend for you to daydream dance, especially in a moving car…