I won't Change Partners, and I want my Money Back!

There is a lot of frustration going on during Salsa Dance Workshop given at International Salsa Congresses. People are reluctant to switching partners because of many participants not meeting the basic requirements for joining instructional classes meant for a particular Salsa or Mambo Dance Level.

The problem is the worst in the Advanced or Master Class Instructional groups. Being confronted with Advanced Dancers who are not able to keep the basic can be quite frustrating when the instructors are doing their very best to teach their most flashy dance moves. The Salsa Dance professionals will lower their instruction level if the average level of the group as a whole is lower than required. It is the most logical action to take, but it is not fair for the participants who are real Advanced dancers. Therefore, Advanced Salsa and Mambo dancers started to choose to attend the parties only instead of following the Dance Workshops. This development had two consequences: the congress organizers deciding to introduce higher instructional levels such as ‘Super Advanced’ and ‘Master Class’, and the connection of dance levels to minimum instructional time. Someone could call him or herself an Advanced Salsa Dancer after 2 years of continuous instruction in a particular Salsa Dance Style. 

But this system will not work if there is no control mechanism installed to check the reliability of the participants’ own convictions. Most congresses work with a ‘Responsibility Policy’, which states that everyone is free to attend any dance workshop he or she chooses to by using common sense and responsibility as guides. The reasons for the organizers to install rules without regulations and penalty clauses are economic and competitive in nature.

Source of the Problem

The source of this problem lies in the freestyle nature of Salsa Dancing and Salsa Dance Instruction. The dance is not standardized, and anyone can call himself or herself a Salsa Dance Instructor. There are no prior requirements needed for teaching Salsa. So the instructors themselves have different Dance Levels to begin with. Most of these ‘self-declared-instructor-freestyle-dance-amateurs’ classify their own dance level as being ‘Advanced’, thus creating different levels based on their own assumptions. One of the consequences of this hiatus is students having an Advanced Dance level by one instructor being classified as Intermediates by others. The indexation of the dance levels with numbers (Level 1, 2, 3, etc.) does solve part of this problem. The difference between the dance levels, the didactical skills, and the sense of logic & analytical thinking of the instructors makes them have different content in their parallel instructional groups. A Level 2 student of one teacher masters the Cross Body Lead while a student with the same level from another instructor knows the Cross Body Inside Turn, but executes it horribly.

The different dance levels in Salsa and Mambo are cheap imitations of the dance levels in Standard and Latin American dancing. It is not only cheap because of the big difference in time, money and energy Salsa and Ballroom dancers spend to become professional Dance Instructors. The period needed to completing the dance levels in Ballroom/Standard/Latin is also longer than Salsa or Mambo Dance Courses. Most Latin and Ballroom Dance Instructors have also achieved a string of high rankings from attending many Dance Competitions before taking on the lengthy process of becoming a certified Dance Instructor. 

Solving the problem of Salsa and Mambo Dance Classes not having the same dance levels or the same content is nearly impossible without Salsa Dance Instruction having a worldwide Salsa Standard. This standard, with formal accreditation by the World Dance Council, has to be coupled to a compulsory/formal education for Salsa Dance Teachers. Standardizing Salsa is something most Salseros and Salseras are not ready for (yet). There are (international) Salsa Dance Teachers who developed their own programs for becoming Salsa Instructors. But the diplomas they issue to the instructors they have educated are practically worthless without the official recognition by the WDC. All Salsa and Mambo teachers are free to use the program and the didactical skills they have received only as a basic guideline for their own interpretations and beliefs.

Conclusion: having different Dance Levels in Salsa and Mambo dancing is only a cheap and commercially driven way to have students with the same dance capacities together in one instructional group. The ‘true’ dance levels of these students cannot be determined without prior testing done by following the standards Dance Instructors and Salsa Congress/Festival organizers have chosen to uphold.