This is by far one the most common question I have gotten through the years as a dance instructor. Luckily, I have finally come up with some pretty good answers after teaching hundreds of students. The one thing I have definitely realized is the answer is the same for everyone I teach, and the solution applies to everyone trying to learn salsa.
Is salsa hard to learn? Yes! Ofcourse! But it doesn’t have to be! Knowing what aspects of the dance to focus on and what patterns or moves you should learn first will make all the difference in the world. It is so common for my students to focus on all the wrong elements of the dance and get caught up in the amount of moves or patterns they know. It’s not how many moves you know! It is how well you can execute them! Quality first and quanity second. If you can keep this in the forefront of your salsa journey you will not only learn the dance in a much easier way, but become a very skilled salsa dancer. I am going to talk about exactly what elements you need to focus on while learning salsa. You don’t have to struggle with learning this dance. If you keep it simple, and stay focused on what is important, You will be successful!
Keeping it Simple, Keep it Small, and Keep it Natural
One of the most common mistakes I have with a new student is that they walk in the studio door and stop walking in a natural way once they start to dance. They instead start to stop to what they interpret the dance to be. This is a huge problem. Its important to understand that all the steps that you will learn in salsa are natural walking movements. They are extremely simple steps that are arranged in different patterns that make up “moves”. But at the end of the day, every movement you make with your feet in a salsa pattern could be related back to something you do on an everyday basis, like just stepping out of someones way or turning around to talk to someone. One common mistake made, is that a student stops transferring 100% of their weight onto their foot when they take a step in salsa. A natural walk has a 100% weight transfer for each step. This is also true for salsa and any other partnership dance. Keep your steps natural! Another mistake is taking too big of steps. This is extremely common in my new students and sometimes even in my experienced students. The steps that you take should be very small. Think small and lazy when stepping. Its much easier to go bigger with your steps when needed than to try and make your steps smaller when needed. Again, it is so important that your steps be small and natural. This will keep your foot patterns simple.
Master the basics
Everyone always wants to learn some elaborate salsa moves. But you have to understand that these elaborate moves are all made up of basic movements. Your basic movements are the key to success with everything you do in salsa and every crazy awesome pattern you learn. To build a beautiful house you need a lot of basic wood. But if this basic wood is warped or cracked, the likelihood of building a beautiful house is nil. This is the same for dancing salsa. Master stepping naturally and then master the basic foot patterns. I know I sound like a broken record but this is what will make learning salsa much easier. Its about taking one step at a time and mastering each of those steps. Then you build on those perfected steps and start to learn patterns. When you learn these patterns you need to perfect them as you did those steps. Learning this way will streamline your learning and you will feel like you are improving. Its important to have these successes. This feeling will be the fuel and motivation to keep you moving forward.
Basic steps to Master
- Basic in place
- Focus on the basic timing and transferring your weight naturally and 100% of your weight to each foot every time. The basic transfer of weight and being able to maintain the timing for a whole song is the “basic wood” to your “beautiful house”.
- Forward and back basic
- Focus on small steps and 100% weight transfer to each foot. Focus on the timing and maintaining it. The common mistake here is to place your foot in front of yourself or behind without actually transferring your weight. Keep your steps small and lazy!
- Side breaks
- Focus on your body leading this movement first. The body initiates the movement first. Allow your body to lead the way. Move your body to the left and then allow your foot to catch your weight. This is the body’s natural way of moving. Do the same on the other side.
- Underarm turn
- Men: Focus on maintaining natural footwork and simply raising the ladies hand for the turn . Do not try to turn her. She does the turn all on her own. That is right gentlemen, she makes us look good, not the other way around! Ladies: Focus on rotating your upper body throughout the whole turn and allowing your feet to fall underneath you. The body leads the turn, not your feet!
- Cross body lead
- This pattern is everything in salsa. Almost all your awesome moves will stem from a cross body lead. You must master this! This will eventually be your new basic rather than the forward and back basic. I cannot say this enough. Know the cross body lead really well. Make sure and focus on the leading aspect of this pattern and keep your footwork small. Ladies, allow yourself to feel the lead and try not to anticipate the move. Allow yourself to actually be led. You are not trying to race across him, you are merely being led gently to another location. A location that is determined by his lead and not where you think you are suppose to go. Be an expert at the cross body lead!
Repetition is the mother of skill
To be good at anything you must do it over and over again. Salsa is no exception. Learn your basic steps and practice them often. Get good at these basic figures. It happens way to often that my students will practice moves that they should not be practicing yet. Again, the better you are at the basics the better you will be at the more challenging patterns and they will come to you much easier.
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Practice at home
- Throughout my dancing career I have probably put in the same, if not more hours at home, than I have at the studio. Pick one thing to work on and obsess over it! It doesn’t take long to get good at something, but you do need to put in the time. The problem with the dance studio is that you will probably be working on multiple elements and not focusing on one thing. This is where practicing at home is key to fine tuning all the elements you have learned at the studio. Take one element and obsess over it until you have mastered it and then move on to the next element. This would be an extremely effective way of improving your salsa and moving yourself forward very quickly.
Lead and Follow
The dreaded lead and follow! This is something that most students have a really hard time with. The men generally want to pull their ladies around with their arms as opposed to leading with their bodies. Ladies tend to anticipate what lead is coming next instead of relaxing and allowing themselves to feel the lead. This is something that you have to be proactive in learning. Ladies, allow the gentlemen to lead you. Be patient with him if he is new. The more you feel a lead, the better you will be at responding to it. Every time you anticipate a lead and jump the gun, you are truly working against your self. Gentlemen, you are to lead with your body and not your arms. When you rotate your body the lady will respond very well. If you use your arms without using your body it will send her confusing messages. The cross body lead is the first figure you will learn that has some significant lead and follow. Practice the cross body lead relentlessly and focus on the lead and follow aspect. Remember, keep your steps small and natural. Your body leads the steps, not the other way around!
Conclusion
Learning salsa does not have to be difficult. It is made up of really simple steps that eventually turn into simple patterns that eventually turn into jaw-dropping moves. It is entirely up to you how difficult you want to make it. The key, once again, is to keep it as simple as you can. Focus on making the steps small and make them natural by letting the body lead them. Keep them small! Practice your basic elements as much as possible until you have mastered them. Know the timing to the music and keep the timing without having to think about it. Slowly build your tool box of perfected basic elements and the challenging patterns will become much easier to tackle. Practice your basic elements at home! Before you know it, you will be an awesome salsa dancer.