Students Quit due to Salsa Dance Level being Too High!

Salsa dance teachers around the world are facing a growing problem: their students complain that the level of their Salsa classes is too high and 'threaten' their instructors with quitting the Salsa courses entirely.

So, what causes this problem and what are its possible solutions?

A fellow Salsa dance instructor wrote the following message in an email she sent to her students. She starts by saying that not everyone was present during the last Salsa classes of the season. The Salsa dance teacher continues, “I understand that many students plan to stop with their Salsa classes on Thursdays because they found us to be too strict on technicalities, the program is too difficult and they lost their fun for dancing. We are very sorry for that. However, the higher the level gets, the more effort we demand from our students. But – of course - this does not mean that we are not allowed to enjoy ourselves during the process.”

As said at the beginning of this article, this is a problem many Salsa instructors around the world are facing today. You can read the article 'Mc Drive' Salsa Dancing  for more background information on the roots of this problem.

Possible Solution: Educational versus Recreational Salsa Dance Classes!
The Salsa dance teacher offers a solution, “We have opted to introduce (name of Salsa dance course) on Thursdays. In that case, we will not continue to teach our structured program, but we will instruct nice Salsa Turn Patterns consisting of dance techniques you have already learned supplemented with some new stuff. But, we will not be focusing any more on dance technicalities. It will be more of a “Fun Salsa instructional hour” with – if  interested – some Bachata and Merengue incorporated in the classes.”

This is what I call a “Recreational Salsa Dance Course”, with the main prerogative being “fun” instead of “progressing in Salsa dance level”. The opposite, which is a Salsa dance course mainly focused on the students progressing in levels of difficulty whilst having fun at it, would be an “Educational Salsa Dance Course”. The Salsa dance instructor goes on by saying that she already heard some positive reactions to her new approach. She gives her students some options and asks for their choice in order for her to decide her next course of action. And, she also said, “It can be that we decide to continue with the (regular) Semi Advanced 1 course on Thursdays after one or two seasons of (name course), but only if the student group as a whole decide they are up to it.”

Watch this video clip of Baila Society showing an intricate Mambo turn pattern and some of the Salsa students having difficulty executing it in par with the rest.

Students following a Recreational Salsa Dance Course will not (and do not care to) advance in their own Salsa dance level, so the consequence is that they will stay in the same level for more than one season. Experience learns that most Salsa students will do anything to get to a higher dance level as fast as they possibly can. The wise instructor said, “We can arrange the instructional groups based on your answers and therefore pinpoint the exact hour in which you take your classes.” “We want to keep thinking actively, in order for everyone  to maintain his or her own pleasure during the Salsa classes,” the considerate Salsa teacher added.

Depending on the outcome of the teacher's inquiry, this type of 'collective hijacking' of a Salsa instructor can be seen as “Salsa students exploiting their rights”, but it can also be considered as “Mc Drive Salsa students gone mad”.

You can write your opinion, or other possible solutions below.