The Psychology Behind Modern Salsa Dance

Edie the Salsa Freak wrote a couple of years ago that most people who started to dance Salsa has had a psychological problem in the past. It is time to analyze this claim and see how it affects Salsa dancing on the social dance floor, in Salsa show teams and at congresses. This is a tale which most Salseros and Salseras will recognize. The secret is how to deal with these issues accordingly.

Hate versus Love

According to modern psychology, all human emotions can be divided into two primordial or basic emotions: Love and Fear. We all need these two emotions to ensure our own survival and that of our species. The secret is to find the right balance between the two. When we translate this to Salsa dancing it means that Salseros and Salseras have to find the right balance between caressing their own egos – by 'standing out' or being better than the 'competition' - and taking care of their fellow dancers. I find Edie's statement to be not entirely accurate. For example: the international Salsa dance instructor and performer Jazzy Ruiz from Norway started dancing Salsa because his mother, originally from Guatemala, had a Ballet dance studio and is a Latina, so she taught her son Ballet and Latin dances at an early age. She did this because she wanted to share her love with her son. And, most Latinos grow up listening to Salsa music, so the reason for them to learn the dance does not have to be the compensation of a psychological defect, but they want to express their love for Salsa music and the way they feel it in a 'proper' manner.           

A Way of Life versus Salsa Criminals

The basic combinations of 'fear' and 'love' which are commonly found in a growing number of Salsa dancers aspiring to get to a higher dance level are:

• The quest for power or recognition: the means to ensure the love of many and a fear of losing it.
• A hunger for undivided attention: the rush of feeling coveted (loved) by many and the fear of having to share this love with others.  

The main goal of common criminals is to gain more wealth or power (love) at the cost of others (fear). The same “criminal” behavior can be seen on the social Salsa dance floors when dancers force others to give them the space needed for getting the attention from the ones who are watching at the side of the dance floor by “creating” dance space on a crowded floor or by (intentionally) hitting other dancers in the process.

This behavior is the opposite of Salsa dancers who consider Salsa dancing as a “way of life”. These dancers have a 'real' love for Salsa music, culture and dance, so they adhere to the social and ethical aspects whilst dancing on the social dance floor.         

There is also a number of Salsa dancers who are 'mentally ill'. They start dancing Salsa while having a  minority or inferiority complex. These “Salsa Lunatics” can be quite unpredictable in their behavior on and off the dance floor. The everyday struggle of people – including Salsa dancers – is to build upon their strengths and to minimize their weaknesses. Everyone has the capacity to do good or evil, so it all falls down to morality and choice. 

This video clip shows Chris Linnares “Diva Dance” lectures of gaining self esteem through dance. The article above shows some consequences of taking her sound advices to the extreme.