The Perfect Salsa Dance Classes & Course!

The following situations happen quite often on the Salsa dance floor: a man used to dance Salsa in circles gets frustrated because of the follower not being able dance outside of her straight lines, or a Latina gets frustrated because of the leader turning a beautiful Son into a Cha Cha Cha dance.

Perhaps the time has come for the whole Salsa Dance community to start designing the perfect Salsa Classes & Courses for Salsa instead of trying to copy the manners in which Latin and Ballroom Dance teachers instruct.

The following list is based on the idea of all Salsa and Mambo dancers being able to dance with all dance partners worldwide. The commercial implications of these teaching methods and curriculums have not been taken into account.   

Beginner or Level 1 Classes with Music Recognition & Musicality

Dancing starts with knowledge of Music and Rhythm. The best dancers are in fact ‘Masters of Rhythm’.  Main theme of the first Salsa dance course intended for educating international Salsa students should be learning to recognize and differentiate the most popular music played in Salsa clubs worldwide: Merengue, Son Montuno, Salsa, Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha, Bachata, and Reggaeton. Subsequently, all Salsa students should learn the ‘proper’ way to dance the basic dance steps of all of these forms of music. Musicality, dancing on and to the music, would the red cable defining the dances. Modern technological appliances such as the Salsa Rhythm Machine Software (the article can be read here http://www.onlinesalsa.com/news/review-salsa-rhythm-machine-software ) and links to websites & YouTube movies containing information on the history of the different dance styles are excellent aids for the students and the instructors.

Dancing from Slow to Fast

Dancing starts from the centre going out, and from slow to fast. The Salsa Dance instructors will start their Beginners or Level 1 dance classes with a good warming up using Cuban Rumba, Reggaeton, Merengue or Zumba Freestyle Dances to practice Body Movements and Isolation. The students must learn to know their bodies and to master the wide spectrum of body movements. Dancing comes from the body; the feet are mere vehicles for transportation. It is better to keep the rhythm with the body instead of depending entirely on what the feet do. The first warming ups should be done starting slow and by gradually speeding up the pace.

Many instructors worldwide start with Merengue for Partnering Dance because it is easy for the students to learn Turn Patterns without having to struggle with the ‘Quick Quick Slow’ basic. However, a great percentage of Salsa Dance teachers use fast Merengue - Merengue Ripiao – thus missing the whole point. The best way to learn Salsa dancing in general is to start dancing the Bolero or Ballads and continue with the Cuban Son Montuno ‘Contratiempo’ & ‘A Tiempo’. Dancing while travelling around comes before breaking, which is going out and back to your centre. Mastering this basis will make the faster Salsa dance styles easier to learn. The following video is a show of a group of students dancing Son Montuno 'A Tiempo' (On1) in Madrid, Spain. They start with the basic and gradually use more Turn Patterns.

Salsa Dance Etiquette and Changing Dance Partners

Salsa Dance etiquette should be instructed by role-playing. The students ask each other to dance, etc. Changing Dance partners will be an integral part of the classes. The philosophy behind this method of teaching Salsa would be that all Salsa dancers, the followers as well as the leaders, should be able to adapt to the dance styles and the dance levels of their dance partners from all around the world.  The last class of a Beginners or Level 1 Salsa Dance course would end with a ‘Salsa Simulation One’: all the couples dance in a corner of the dance floor, and they are forced to dance close to each other by putting chairs in half a circle at the border. This is an excellent way to practice Salsa Ethics while dancing on a crowded dance floor.

One major implication of applying all of these techniques and methods is that the students will not learn Turn Patterns until after they master the basics. The dance instructors will start teaching Turn Patterns in the next dance level.

Everyone is welcome to comment and submit his or her own ideas on how a perfect Salsa Beginners Dance Class or Course should be.