Sometimes followers can be so passive that the only way to move them is to physically lift them off the ground. Ladies, there are two things that you can do to put yourself in a state of readiness.
Check your posture. Make sure that you are poised and in the proper form for the salsero that is leading you.
Slouching into the ground will make you heavy and difficult to move. Raise your carriage and be ready for the direction to start. This will have the added benefit of making you look thinner and much more elegant.
Be sure to maintain tone in your arms. This is true even when doing the dancing in a closed or open position. Maintaining a degree of resistance in your arms will help you to quickly respond to changes in the leader's body movements.
Remember that following is not a passive activity. You must be actively involved in receiving information from the leader and responding to his cues.
Tips For the Beginners
Master your basic step, right & left turns and cross body leads to music of different rhythm and timing. Learn to dance in the slot to all speeds of music. Club DJ's have no sympathy for the new beginners.
A. Cuba established its identity by combining the influences of its entire population -- white, black, and mulatto. Music played an important role in the formation of such an identity. The genre that was to succeed in creatively fusing equal amounts of white- and black- derived musical features
was the son, which subsequently came to dominate the culture not only in Cuba, but most of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean as well.
The son originated in eastern Cuba during the first decades of the century. From the start it represented a mixture of Spanish-derived and Afro-Cuban elements. The basic two-part formal of the son has remained the same from the 1920s to the present, and the vast majority of salsa songs (which Cubans would call son or guaracha) also follow this pattern.
Another development that occurred in the 1940s was the invention of the mambo. Essentially, the mambo was a fusion of the Afro-Cuban rhythms with the big-band format from Swing and Jazz. Although bands in Cuba like Orquestra Riverside were already playing Mambo-style in the 1940s, the invention of the Mambo is usually credited to Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado, who spent most of his years in Mexico and elsewhere outside the island. Band leaders like Beny Moré combined Mambo formats with son and guaracha (a similar up-tempo dance genre). The Mambo reached its real peak in New York City in the 1950s, where bands led by Machito and the Puerto Ricans Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez incorporated Jazz-influenced instrumental solos and more sophisticated arrangements. With Prado based chiefly in Mexico and the New York mambo bands developing their own styles, Cuban music had begun taking a life of its own outside the island and the stage was set for the salsa boom of the 1960s.
"Amongst Latinos, we believe that we can walk on the dance floor and we just do it because we're Latinos, we're born with this. This is just not true."
Eddie Torres
Salserodalante y Jose Alberto "El Canario"
Salseros try not to get caught up in putting ladies in pattern after pattern after pattern. Separate combinations with rotating cross body leads, back spot turns, reverse cross body leads, open breaks with styling andcross body lead stops. Let the ladies play a little more within the song.
Salsa and Spirituality:
The Adventures of a Salsa Dancing Priest
I am passionate about dancing salsa.
I can't give a very good answer why. I've thought about it a lot, but one single, unanswerable answer escapes me.
It could be because I've met an eclectic group of people - editors, executives, students, bodybuilders. Maybe I love dancing salsa because I meet rumberas from throughout the world. I've danced with lovely women of every age and size from Norway to Malaysia to Korea to the Dominican Republic. Perhaps it is the rhythm, the contagious beat of the clave and timbales. It could be that, in an age of computerized music, salsa relies on real musicians. Maybe just because it's fun.
My spirit soars when I am dancing. My feet are moved for me, as though I'm floating in the music, my arms sometimes cradled around another dancer, communicating playfully something primal. My stomach lifts. I am barely in control. I can't describe it. Which is why I use the word "spirit."
Some have told me that there is nothing spiritual about dancing. One woman told me that Salsa is about sex - "a vertical expression of a horizontal desire" she quoted. "Man and woman. Nothing more. Of course it's fun. It's been programmed like that. And you shouldn't be going out dancing so much. You're not supposed to."
I suppose, in a liberal and tolerant society, such a statement might seem odd. But lots of people think like her. You're not supposed to. Because I'm a priest.
I'm an Episcopalian priest, however. The word on the street is often a blank "huh?" when I say this, but individuals in the know make the comment that we are "Catholic-lite," or "liberal Catholics," or "Catholics after a bong hit." They know that private confession is optional. I can get married. The church has women priests. Many of our clergy are in open, monogamous same-sex relationships. This is, of course, controversial, but this essay is about salsa dancing.
Like Catholics, however, we have the seven sacraments. We have monks and nuns and bishops and deacons. And I "say mass" every Sunday. One woman asked me if I confess salsa as a sin. I don't. I love it, and I've never felt guilty for it. For me, dancing salsa is a gift. It is a gift I share with other dancers. And when I go to a salsa social, it is almost like church for me - a blessed event for the purpose of celebrating joy. I enjoy the sensuality. I enjoy the presence of bodies. And in the faith I inherit, a Body represents God. Confess about salsa? I give thanks for salsa!
I've been dancing for several years, but for the last two years I've been dancing for at least once a week. I'm at a level where I'm tolerated by some, and even enjoyed by others. I sometimes do double spins and syncopated shines. I know enough of the music to play with dancing occasionally. I love salsa, and I talk about it. And I have strange adventures on the dance floor. Because, in part, I'm a priest.
by Gawain Leeuw
For those who have closely followed and watched the growing dance scene for the past few months the name Bernard Sazama should ring a bell. In my book he is definitely a salserodalante! He is a TRUE salsero who dances to the level of the person that he is dances with and has a very good lead. If we only had 10 Bernard's, the dance floors would always be packed with great dancers. Congratulations to a job well done!
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DJ's Playing Garbage
It drives me crazy to see salseros paying a cover charge to hear JUNK! Salseros judge you on the amount of danceable music you play!
Mixing music - Dancers like to hear the whole damn song, dance musicality and finish the song with a nice dip and thank the ladies for the dance. They don't like when you change the song before they can get the ladies to the dance floor.
Loud music - If you see salseros putting in sponge hearing protection the music is too damn loud. Dancers should not have to yell when asking someone to dance or when buying refreshments.
Merengue, Bachata and Reggeaton - Are awesome to get people who are not dancers on the floor and give the salseros a break. But an hour of this is TOO MUCH!!!!!!
Turbo Salsa - Don't play salsa that you can't dance too! Salseros like to style when on the dance floor.
Garbage - Pop, Rock and hip hop is for Karaoke
You call yourself a salsa DJ? WOW!
Cha Cha Cha - Salseros love S L O W cha cha cha and will take that over Garbage hand down!
Salseros you are the majority in the clubs and it is you who make these venues possible. Don't be afraid to let club owners know how you feel about the music. If you continue to bite your tongue it will definitely get worst.
Salsa Addiction
A man goes to a salsa club and sees a very pretty lady sitting at a table all by herself. He finally gets his chance to dance with her, and when the song is over, he says, "You're such a great dancer! But I'm kind of surprised to see you're alone".
She says, "Well actually, my husband and I used go dancing at different clubs several days a week. Unfortunately, he died and this is the first time I've gone out without him".
"Wow, that's really sad. But don't you have any friends or relatives that would want to come along?", the man asks.
"I suppose", she replies, "but they're all at the funeral".
Chistes
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