One of my favorite things to see when I’m out social dancing or watching a performance is a woman who can lead or a guy who can follow. I think there’s a bit of pride, maybe a bit of machismo (sorry guys) and a bit of apprehension (sorry girls) when it comes to changing the traditional lead and follow roles and I think that’s really a shame. For one thing, learning to follow if you’re a lead or vice versa is so helpful improving your skills. You get insights into the job of your usual partners that you just can’t get any other way. For another, I love to see salsa that’s off the beaten path - whether it’s from fusion with another dance (Swing Guys, anyone?), themed performances, or doing a little lead/follow switcheroo.
Take a look at the next few videos. In the first Jorjet leads Jennifer Stein, in the second, David Stein leads Jayson Molina (sorry this one is rather dark), and in the third, two brothers perform a tango routine (note the repeated change of lead/follow - so subtle and so awesome).
In all of these examples, the lead and follow are the same gender, but that certainly need not be the case. I dance with a rueda group and we’ve got girls who lead and a few guys who follow and we like to mix it up. We even have a move called “ladron” (the thief) so that we can change up who leads mid-song. This keeps things interesting and audiences love it. The more options you have, the better, right?
So the next time your out at the club, ask a friend to indulge you in a salsa experiment and see how it feels to dance the way the other half does. If nothing else, you’ll get a good chuckle and who knows, you might learn something, too.
With that said, most of the comments I got were: “I like your YouTube videos“. And I realized that the way I danced in those videos is wwwaaaaayyyyy to old. So, thanks to Allan, he captured me dancing with the wonderful Jennifer Stein from Majesty In Motion Dance Co. Enjoy!
What’s the sweeter bonus? A weekend in beautiful Palm Springs, CA? Or a salsa congress and bootcamp in the 2007 Salsa Summer Splash? Maybe it’s a draw. Regardless, I had a great time at the event. Palm Springs gets very crowded with salseros in the months of July and August. Al Espinoza’s event somehow pulls a large following, despite the fact that his party is the third event (in 8 weeks) in the desert oasis. Both the workshop/bootcamp portion and the performances/parties were well attended. Want a reggaeton class? Check. Bachata or salsa shines? Yup. I’m trying to recall if there was a zouk workshop. Wanna talk about some great instructors? John Narvaez and Liz Rojas from Salsamania taught an intermediate/advanced on2 pattern class. The bay area team broke down the pattern thoroughly, and even split the class between guys and girls to get their respective pieces down. John also took some time outside of the class to help me with a difficult section. Anthony and I really enjoyed the session.
In addition to meeting Sir Anthony Persaud of San Diego for the first time, I met Pauline (Miss Flare), Karlos, and a bunch of other salseros from the Bay Area, LA, San Diego, etc. Great company. On the performance tip, they started pretty close to their scheduled time, within a half hour. Some of the standout routines included Majesty in Motion, John Narvaez and Liz Rojas, Pretty Boys and Girls, Salsabor y Cache. Click on some of the images below for a sampling of the videos. Thanks to Anthony for doing the interview with Dave Stein and Majesty in Motion. Keep the podcast going for the community! Continue reading ‘Nuevotec Salsa Summer Splash 2007 Video Dance Review’
So, most of you know that I ended up learning salsa by myself and watching videos online (one of the reasons I started this website) - trust me, there is not enough salsa in Ames, Iowa. However, I have to give full-credit to the instructors that have improved my salsa skills (hopefully they think I’ve improved). They are the founders of Majesty In Motion - San Diego’s #1 Dance Team - HANDS DOWN! Here is a video of them doing their Orlando Salsa Congress performance.
