Imagine yourself in that salsa club for the first time: the music is loud, upbeat and with great energy and everyone is dressed in a fashionable way. As you walk in, you approach the dance floor. Here is when you are truly introduced to the world of salsa. You stare at the dancers as you see dancing, executing all these amazing turns; how they dance with passion, the sexiness, and then again, the turns! The never-ending, fun turn!!
Sound like your experience? It was definitely mine, so right away I knew I had to learn how to dance.
Once I started dancing, the better I saw myself dancing, the more I noticed that some girls did not enjoy dancing with me or they’d just flat out say no every time I asked them to dance. Why? After all I was doing all the turns and dips, the sexy patterns, the fun stuff – you know, the works.
It was after some time that I truly learned what makes a guy a great dancer:
“ When you dance salsa, you don’t make the girl do the turns, you guide her”.
This observation alone is very general, but it opens the door to help you understand dancing in a new way. Leading is the key to being a great dancer. Let’s dive in to see how you can improve the way you play your role on the dance floor as a leader.
Salsa Dancing. What is it that makes it popular today? Why is it that people who salsa seems to be happier, in better shape and in a better mood compared to others? From these questions we see that there are two major roles dancing salsa plays in people’s lives: they are healthier and they have a great social life.
We all know, having heard or read somewhere, about the health benefits of dancing. Here are some of the more prominent ones to be considered:
It’s a great cardio activity that is fun; it’s a lot easier to spend three hours dancing than it is to spend forty five minutes on the treadmill.
You burn 450 calories per hour while dancing. Isn’t that amazing?
Your balance and posture improves.
You loose weight.
Your flexibility increases.
It helps develop better circulation.
You will have better coordination.
You gain long-lasting energy as your metabolism increases.
It helps you work through or reduce other major health problems (e.g., depression).
Esteban Conde
So if these reasons alone aren’t enough to understand why people pick up salsa dancing, let’s analyze the social aspect of it. We all come from different walks of life; some better than others, but for the most part the one thing people mutually seek is the feeling of being important, of having a purpose and belonging somewhere (e.g., to a community or group of people with common interests or goals). That is where dancing comes in: the means to a better end, building confidence and a sense of self that will drastically improve your quality of life. So how does salsa dancing help fulfill this ultimate goal?
Salsa at the Club Iguana on 54th Street, where the “Mojitos Sundays” make it the after-party spot for the city’s socials.
There are two snapshots of our beloved Magnita. Like always, she manages to catch everyone’s attention. Lastly, yours truly and Scarlet Mambo were also quoted.
Frankie Martinez often says that “if Salsa is the man, then Cha Cha is the woman”. Cha Cha can be so delicate like the smell of a woman’s hair and as emotional as the jealousy of a girlfriend. There is an incredible addiction to dancing Cha Cha that is not very apparent at first, but very powerful.
Maybe it is because of its catchy and light Cha Cha Cha rhythm, or the marked accent of the 2 and 6 beats. Maybe it’s the carefree and non-hurried feel of the dance. Cha cha is so slow compared to Salsa that it feels like there is almost an infinite amount of time to develop and execute body isolations. Moreover, because Cha Cha is slower in tempo, we tend to pay more attention to the rhythmic components. The tumbao rhythm becomes so apparent in a way that it takes control of our body. The connection of the steps to the percussion of the music is remarkably easy to feel.
Perhaps its attraction rests on the opposite feel of its components, the cha-cha-cha (4 and 5 or 8 and 1) part feels subtle and natural, and the 2 3 (or 6 7) feel so determined and exact. And it is this contrast in movement that allows us to experiment with our bodies.
In terms of technique, the Cha Cha teaches exact timing and definition of steps. The Cha Cha rhythm is easy to hear and dance because the music is so slow that we can internalize the connection of the steps to the percussion beats. Initially, beginners dancers find it difficult to stay on the Cha Cha beat because Cha Cha’s tempo is so slow compared to Salsa. After a while the “cha cha cha” part of the beat jumps out from the music and it becomes crystal clear, taking hold of one’s sense of timing.
Cha Cha is precise in way that salsa cannot match. 10 milliseconds of discrepancy in a Cha cha step makes the body feel out-of-tune, whereas the same discrepancy in Salsa is the expected standard tolerance. ChaCha has very little room for timing error, but lots of freedom of in movement range.
So next time that the DJ plays a Cha Cha, do not take a break. Instead, grab a partner and use that opportunity to experiment with some isolations. Better yet, try to dance Cha Cha with perfect timing. After a while, there should be a noticeable improvement in your Salsa dancing.
NJN, a local public television station, hosted a documentary in its Imagenes Series called “Golden Age of Dance”. It aired on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6:30 pm
If you ever wanted to know how Salsa and Mambo got so popular, now you can watch a 27-minute documentary that focuses on the Palladium Ballroom Era (1950’s) in New York City.
This episode focuses on all aspects of Mambo/Salsa music around the 1950’s in New York City. In fact at the end of the video, a typical Palladium night is recreated along with dancers, instructors, performers and a big-band Orchestra.
So grab a comfortable chair and a drink and watch this whole Mambo documentary. It is worth it!!! It mentions famous Salsa dancers, musicians and instructors.
This one is for the ladies. Most of us associate dance-especially Latin dance-with femininity: because dancing can be so sensual, it imitates the mating ritual, highlighting the masculine/feminine duality. Some of this happens naturally, and a lot of it is taught, in the form of movement, posture, footwork and style. It varies from place to place, with some styles emphasizing ultra-feminine hand placement and “daintier” footwork. The differences even carry over to salsa culture, where in some areas it is popular to find make-up, sparkles, fashion, and high heels.
With this traditional element of femininity within modern culture, I wonder: how does it fit in with other aspects of modern culture that are not so feminine? After decades of women’s rights and title IX allowing women to have university sports teams, and girls who now grow up playing rough sports, how do we merge the femininity of the old times with the athleticism of today?
Sound like your experience? It was definitely mine, so right away I knew I had to learn how to dance.
Bloch is carried here as well,...
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