This is definitley one of the toughest things about dancing you are going to learn. After years of teaching Salsa and many other partnership dances, I have had many students struggle with turning or spinning without losing balance. But with the right focus, you can be successful with this.
How do I spin or turn without losing balance in salsa? When turning or spinning in salsa, there are key elements to focus on when trying to execute them. The following is a list of these key elements. Master these elements and you will master your spins and turns.
- Your center must be grounded to the floor
- Your posture must be in optimal alignment
- You must get your weight to a standing leg
- You must spot the path you are traveling
- Foot work must be executed well
Spinning and turning in Salsa can be quite challenging. I have taught many students these key elements that are needed to execute these spins and turns well.
It definitely takes practice but eventually it does become second nature. I promise you! You will get there!
Now I am going to go over all of these in detail and explain what needs to happen in order to do them right. Its important that you take your time learning these and definitely don’t be hard on yourself. This is not easy stuff!
Perfecting Your Posture
Posture is actually a very tough element to master and then to actually maintain it throughout your dance is a whole new challenge. When I am teaching dance, posture is something I am constantly correcting on my students.
Your posture should be very straight the whole time you are dancing for the best look, but it is absolutely imperative that your posture is perfect during your spins and turns. If you do not maintain a straight posture during your turns you are guaranteed to get unbalanced.
I always tell my students to stretch there posture right before executing a turn. Get used to pulling your sternum up and keeping your chin level with the floor.
A great way to feel this is to take a big deep breath and feel your sternum rise up. Now release your breath and keep your sternum at the same level. This is generally where you would like your chest to be.
The next thing you need to do is to make sure that your abs are flexed so they pull your pelvis straight and level with the floor. You can see if you are straight by looking at your belt and seeing if it runs parallel to the floor.
So those are three things you need to focus on when trying to improve your posture. Your chin should be level with the floor or raised slightly. Your chest and rib cage should be level and not drooping.
Take a big deep breath and pull that chest up straight. And finally, flex your abs in order to bring your pelvis underneath your spine.
Your head, your chest, and your pelvis should all line up straight like boxes stacked on top of each other.
Grounding Your Center
Once you have your posture in check and you have those three blocks lined up, your head, your chest, and your pelvis, you can then recognize and find your center.
Your center is located just above your pubic line and runs up just above your belly button.
Underneath your center you will want to soften your knees and allow the feeling of heaviness pulling down to the floor from your center down.
Your knees should feel soft and absorb the heavy feeling that your center presents. Your rib cage, chest, and head should feel as though they are stretching upwards to the sky.
Imagine holding a suitcase in each hand that is pulling your arms and shoulders down and feel the stretching of your chest, neck, and head stretching upwards.
This is the grounding effect you need to maintain while dancing and most definitely when you try to execute your spins and turns.
Foot Placement
The next thing you need to think about is the placement of your feet. This needs to be done in a calculated manner and very deliberate.
Its important that you place your foot in preparation for your weight and the rotation that will follow.
You cannot allow your feet to just flop around without any sort of mission without direction.
Find the direction that you will be moving in and place your feet exactly to navigate in that direction.
Think in terms of directional steps. If you are going to be completing a half turn, then your next step will be geared towards a backwards step or foot placement.
If you are doing a full turn with three steps, then your foot work would go as follows; forward step, backward step, ending with forward step.
Make sure and step deliberately towards a direction and place the feet according to the direction that you are turning.
It takes time to master this. You will have to do this very slowly at first, but eventually you will speed the process up and your foot placement will eventually become automatic.
Spot Your Turn
This goes hand in hand with foot placement.
Your toes goes where your nose goes!
Make sure and look or spot the direction that you are moving in.
Once your eyes are on the target direction you will then allow your whole body to turn while maintaining your head in the direction that your are moving.
Once you can no longer hold your head in that direction due to your body rotation, snap your head around to that same spot that you were looking at.
This is very tricky and will take a lot of practice.
Just start out with one simple turn. Slowly speed this up and once you feel fairly confident with that single spotting action, go ahead and add another turn.
You must always take it as slow as you can while you are practicing. Be precise and as accurate as you can in your execution of the spotting.
The speed will eventually come.
keep in mind, if you practice bad habits, you will get good at bad habits. Take it slow and be precise.
Get Your Weight To A Standing Leg
This is something that you hear a lot in the ballroom dance world. This applies to all dancing. It is a fundamental of dance and body physics for allowing clean balanced rotations of the body.
Its important that you allow your weight to get directly on top of the leg you are going to turn on and then initiate rotation.
You do not want to throw yourself on top of a leg because you will fall off the leg due to momentum. The key is to get your weight to the leg without momentum.
Once you have placed your weight on top of the leg, you can initiate rotation with your weight directly on top of the leg.
Once our weight is on top of the leg we allow our hip and our upper body to close into a hug like action in order to initiate rotation.
Initiating rotation is not done by pushing off of the other foot. This is a common mistake for beginners.
The rotation is done by the body being in an extended or open posture and allowing the body to go into a closed posture which will initiate a rotation.
The most important thing is that you do not throw yourself onto the standing leg or push off of the other leg.
Its all about stepping to the standing leg and allowing your weight to rotate evenly on the leg without momentum in any direction.
You are to rotate your body around the spine.
Again, this is something that will take a lot of practice but you will definitely get it. Just be patient with yourself and start slowly.
Related Questions
How Do I Spin A Dance Partner?
Initiating a spin or turn has to be done very carefully and in a gentle way. The biggest obstacle to spinning a partner is first allowing your partner to find there own balance.
Once your partner has found there own balance you can then initiate rotation. Its very important that you stay directly above their center so that you do not throw them off balance.
Spinning a partner is very tricky but way more tricky for the p[partner that is actually spinning.
When it comes to turning your partner, its more of an invitation for them to turn. You can invite them to turn, but most of the energy in the turn is manufactured through them and not you.
You can only compliment what they are already doing.
How Do I Spin Without Getting Dizzy?
The only way to spin or turn without getting dizzy is to spot your turn.
You have to find a spot that you can stare at and hold your head there.
Allow your body to continue its rotation until you have to move your head. Snap your head around to that same spot.
This is very challenging! This will take a lot of practice!
Even after you get the spotting down, it is common to get a little dizzy still.
The better you get at it the less dizzy you will get.
It will take time. Keep practicing!