By: fallen angel

About 2 years ago, met a online friend and he introduce me to the world of salsa. From that day on, it has turn into another of my obsession. Especially when it comes to dancing. Woohooo! Ever since i relocate back to Asia, can’t seem to find anyone that’s passionate about dancing. After introduced to the salsa world here, i find that people that’s in salsa are very passionate about dancing. Well… at least at the beginning before they fade out of the scene.

Salsa, salsa, salsa

My friend took me to a club that has salsa night on every Thursday. After that I decided i want to take some lessons. Before that i did some latin dance class when i first flew back. So i was a little stiff on the legs cause in latin, your legs has to be straight at all times. It is very technical. While salsa you got to be soft and agile and not so technical at all. Salsa is a social dance unlike latin which is cater for competitions and performances.

Basics, doing the “mambo”

Girls start with her right leg stepping backward and then move back in the middle, left leg forward back to the middle. Guys will start with the opposite. Right leg forward, back to the middle then left leg backward back to the middle. So you would be like walking back and forth together with your partner. In salsa, there are 8 counts and 4 & 8 are silent. I’m going to try to explain this in detail but it might get confusing, but i’ll try my best. So it’s 1,2,3( 4 )5,6,7( 8 ) 1 is when you start 5 is when something happens 8 is when it’s finish. Since salsa is a partner dance, both have their duties. 1 is when it start, 5 is when the guy leads, 8 is when the girl comes back. When the girl steps behind and the guy steps forward on 1, then 2,3 the guy leads which could be a simple turn by the time the girl turns it’s on 5 when she finishes the turn it’s on 8. They are simple leads to follow. It could be a tap or a gentle push on the hip or the shoulder and the most common ones are when the guy raise his left hand means it’s a right turn, left hand means left turn. These actions are leads while dancing. These are the basics of salsa.

As it goes on you will learn more routines but the counts are the same. Before you know it you will be dancing. Most importantly is to have good basics. It takes you a long way and it will affect your dancing, if you want to be good or have a better understanding in the future. A good example is, before you can run, you gotta walk right, if you can’t walk right how do you think you’re gonna run? Know what i mean. Don’t be too anxious and get the basics right.

Shines

After the first lesson of basics and partner work moving along i was introduce to “shines”. What are they? They are a set of steps for individual to dance when the guy lead to a “shine” or you can “shine” by yourself (as in dancing by yourself). Everyone start their shines with the foot forward first, they call it men’s time. Which means you start your step like the guys, moving forward first. A shine can be done by both party facing each other doing their own steps. Which means when you are dancing half way with your partner and he lead u to a shine so that you are able to dance by yourself and he shine by himself. Each set of shines are in counts of 8 and you can combine them together and have a few sets of shines. You will shine until the guy picks u back up which means, while you are dancing by yourself he will come back in the position and bring you back into his arms. This part the girl has disadvantage. If the girl can’t do a lot of shine and the guy keep on dancing by himself, oh god… it can become a awkward situation. That is why the guy should be a gentleman and knows when the girl is done shining or is not comfortable with shines and just pick her up and continue doing partner work. It’s a partner dance, why would you want to leave your partner dancing by herself for so long .

Hm… i hope i make sense cause it’s not easy to break it down into words. Would be easier if i did a video clip. Better than a thousand words.

Till next time…