How to deal with taking Salsa Dance Classes together with people having a lower dance level

Attending a regular Salsa Dance Class, Dance Course or a Salsa Dance Workshop at an international Salsa Dance Congress can be very satisfying if and when all the participants are of the same dance level as yourself. But occasionally quite the opposite is true.

A solution to this problem is to have a fixed dance partner to practice with, and to avoid changing partners while taking the Salsa Dance Classes or Salsa Dance Workshops. But there is one fundamental error when choosing for this approach: Salsa dancing is a Social Dance Form in which all dance partners are expected to adapt to the Dance Level and to the dance styles of all their (potential) dance partners. The Salsa dance level of the dancers will only increase if their level of adaptability also increases. The reason for this lies in the very versatile nature of Salsa. An Advanced Salsa Dance leader is a master in the art of  ‘Cutting & Pasting’ individual Salsa Dance Techniques, Dance Combinations, Turn Patterns, Styling and Footwork (Shines) at his or her own will. A Salsa Dance follower is like a chameleon reacting and adapting accordingly to what the leader indicates. And both the leading and the following Salsa Dance addicts are practically ‘slaves’ to the intricate structure and evolving forms of  Salsa Music.  Therefore it does not make much sense to practice Salsa dancing with only 1 person and memorize fixed turn patterns together.  

The main reason for Salsa dance instructors having people of different Salsa dance levels taking their dance classes is for the most part a commercial one. The evolution of social Salsa dancing into more standardized forms has made it easier for more people to take on the profession of teaching Salsa dance. The lack of officially accredited and recognized international  Salsa Dance Education organs of regulation and control in many countries makes it possible for everyone to appoint themselves as Salsa dance school owners and instructors. They create their own curriculum's, and they also decide for themselves the selection criteria needed for the admittance of  their potential students to their different self appointed dance levels. The fierce competition between the growing number of Salsa dance ‘professionals’ make some of them decide to not always adhere to their own set of rules. The Salsa dance schools with the most students are more willing to have a stricter selection than their colleagues and competitors running smaller Salsa instructional groups. The risk of these large dance schools losing their clients to other dance schools is substantially smaller.  

But the root of the problem is the failure of many Salsa dance students to be realistic about their own dance levels.  The small group of students which is not able to keep up with the general progression of the Salsa class usually blames the teacher for its own ‘failure’.  So the dance schools choosing to admit these ‘Salsa Drop Outs’ into their higher level dance classes are doing it out of pure necessity.  This necessity also stems from the fact that the group of women taking Salsa dance classes is (still) much larger than the men’s. The male Salsa students with a lower dance level will be admitted to a higher class much easier than their female counterparts.

One of the solutions to this problem is for the student with the right dance level of the instructional group to be patient with the fellow students having a lower dance level. This patience will eventually pay off in excellent dancing. Another solution is to convince this student to take private Salsa dance classes (the so called ‘Salsa Privates’). Following lower Salsa dance classes as a support is a proven strategy for Salsa dance success. But the best solution should be for the Dance instructor to tell the truth to this student  and not let him or her progress to a higher dance level if he or she does not master the minimum requirements of that level.