Racism affecting Salsa and Latin Dance Scene

to generally use RACISM as an excuse is not only an exaggeration, but a self-serving concept.
Are there some that will think in that way?..surely ! In any large group (i.e. population) there will be all types, but I would not paint it as the majority.

A lot of people who have never danced in 1 or in 2 have probably been dancing longer than some have been alive. There is a difference between social dancing and professional dancing,
to condemn social dancing because it is not UP TO YOUR STANDARDS is arrogant and does not benefit the music or the culture. Dancing is about the fun and interaction.
So they do not dance to your standards..that's OK, and "you do not have to like it", but you also should not pass judgment so quickly. It is the judgment of people like you that keep some people off the dance floor...and possibly away from the event all together.

NATIONALITY does not create a good dancer, nor does it create a bad one.

I get the concept, but this is not racism. Racism defined: the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races. What you describe is arrogance and ignorance, but not racism. I only point this out b/c as a person who has had to experience real racism, I do not like the term thrown around loosely.

Yes many Black and Latino people think we "know" how to dance and don't want to take lessons and yes it is silly. I take lessons from ANYONE who can teach me AND I am an awesome dancer and dance instructor who happens to be Black.

I am an asian dancer and my boyfriend is hispanic. I love salsa and danced it ever since I accidentally took a class at my gym and since then I have been dragging my boyfriend and friends who are from hispanic and black ancestry to classes to share my joy. And I must admit not all but many of them do have a confident attitude toward learning salsa and think they already know how because they have been raised on the music and culture since they were little. And once they start to take the classes and see what is involved; my boyfriend cited that he was not "feeling" the music or that he did not like the teacher's way of teaching and many other excuses. As a result he stopped taking the classes after one class and cannot lead me in a slow simple song. All because he could not put his pride aside and just learn and enjoy the experience. So I go dancing by myself and he gets upset but I tried my best to get him involved.

I am a Blatina who just started taking lessons after dancing socially for 10 years. There is a BIG difference between the social scene and the "lesson people" as I call them. In my class I am regularly complimented on my sense of rhythm and interpretation of the music, especially when I dance with my instructor (who is from PR). I think this is because I am more familiar with the music (as in i listen to it outside of class) and have been dancing for a long time. I do still have room for growth though. I joined to improve my spins and break some bad habits I've formed. Plus,the experience of dancing with multiple partners of different heights, ethnicities, styles only makes me a better dancer. However, as comfortable as I feel dancing I notice that if I go to a social at another school you get that salsa mafia attitude as people feel their style is the only/best/right way. Maybe I'm unfamiliar with a turn pattern or don't read the cues they're throwing off, but there are some nasty people within this world. At any rate,I dance to the music...point blank. If there's a break in the music or they speed up in the chorus so do I, however some of the salsa studio folks are more rigid about the count or choreography. I don't think these things are confined to a race or culture, but I do notice that when I go out socially I have an better time dancing with other people of color regardless of skill level. Too often the Caucasian guys I dance with seem like they have something to prove and throw in every move they learned in class that week instead of enjoying the music. Now I split my time between clubs to have fun and salsa socials to improve my technique, but there is a difference...

In short, maybe dancing salsa to some people isn't about copas, grapevines or suzy Qs. Just because you can do a quadruple spin and have great "ballroom" technique doesn't mean you should discount others' ways of dancing. If you spend time at a Latin social event (BBQ, wedding, etc) you don't generally see the range of moves you would at a school...I always thought it was because many moves in salsa are taken from other ballroom dances...but that's just my $0.02!

This is bull written by a white person... whaaaa! Shut the hell up. Can Latinos have something before you take it and make it american. You can have country. Can you imagine a Puerto Rican singing country and saying he is the best at it? You whities would flip. besides Mexicans are the real Cowboys. Please find your own culture and leave ours alone. Go back to being flopish dandies with the thigh high white socks. Go start another war or something. your end is near!

Where did you get these figures that white salsa dancers often are rejected from gigs because they are white? And if that is just some figure extrapolated from your own experience then the actual promoters tell you that they are not hiring you because you are white? What made you think that your being white was the reason?

As far as racism in the salsa community comes from the increasing imposition of Western standards of ideals of dance onto salsa dancing (a non-Western dance). Since when do we have to look ballroom in order to win competitions? Salsa competitions often have non-salsa dancers (ballroom dancers) judging. Why? Do you think ballroom competitions invite salseros to judge their prestigious competitions?

And maybe you should not get offended when a Latino stops going to classes and assume because they think they already are great salseros. Maybe they just don't like a particular teacher and even the reason "not feeling it" is a legitimate reason.

Anyway, take a good look at the teachers of salsa worldwide and you will see a lot of them are not latin@s.

This is not to say that you have not encountered discrimination being a white salsera. That is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what we have to encounter in the salsa world and in our everyday lives.