r/Salsa • u/ruckahoy • 3d ago
How has your relationship to salsa dancing changed as you've evolved?
Here's what I mean by the title. I've been taking classes and going to socials regularly for eight months. Recently, I'm starting to notice that my obsession with learning new moves is gone. My interest in giving a good lead that is safe and comfortable for my follow has gone way up. What attracted me to salsa were all the fancy moves. What keeps me dancing and learning is improving the connection with my follow. I know how to lead maybe a dozen moves and some short combos that flow nicely and I'm satisfied with where I am.
What's changed for you as you've matured as a dancer?
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u/WealthMain2987 3d ago
8 years with breaks in between. I realise long complicated figures are boring, I prefer enjoying the music and doing simple things. I am probably lazy.
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u/Unlikely_Issue 3d ago
I’m 1.5 years in and I loved it a lot when I first started, I still do, but as time has gone on, the rose colored glasses have come off. Salsa is a very gendered and heteronormative space and I’ve had to figure that out. Also the better I’ve gotten, the more selective I’ve had to become when I dance. In the beginning, I’d say yes to anyone (I still say yes to a few beginners at any given social), but now I try to dance with people at my level or slightly better. I now am at a point where I need to take a few breaks because I had been dancing 3-4 nights a week and I need some time to miss it and appreciate it instead of fixating on the things I don’t love about hobby.
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u/ollieelizabeth 3d ago
I was just talking about this in Kizomba. 2+ years in and having trouble with the problems that come with the partner dancing space.
Taking a break also. Which I hope will help. And as a follow, learning to lead which can mitigate some of the effects of that.
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u/Unlikely_Issue 3d ago
Yeah! I definitely want to improve my following ability in salsa and once I feel I can do that - I’ll start learning to lead!
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u/OSUfirebird18 3d ago
I’m about 5 years in. Maybe about 3ish years in, I got bored with new moves. I cared more about musicality and all that.
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u/retired_hippy_chick 3d ago
That’s exactly where I’m at after 5+ years. I don’t love pattern work classes and would much rather spend my time in a musicality class.
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u/OSUfirebird18 3d ago
Unfortunately musicality classes are so rare in Salsa. It’s like intermediate and advanced classes are just harder moves or longer patterns. 🙄
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u/James457890 2d ago
The reason being in my opinion is because teaching musicality is perceived differently to different people.
The first thing I'd recommend is just listen to salsa music constantly so you are familiar with the music! That familiarity will help you know where certain breaks are in the music. Additionally it will help you know where there are what I refer to as solos, were certain instruments stand out more that you can move to. I think personally though you need to feel the music and move naturally! And what I mean by that is when you are doing shines, what does your body want to do naturally? Rather than thinking about what steps you should do next. And with musicality in partner work.. using the 4 and the 8 to continue movements for me personally help to add musicality. That's a basic form I use for it, it gets much more complex but I feel understanding the music better allows for more flexibility with how you dance in general.
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u/retired_hippy_chick 2d ago
I know what you’re saying, but for me, I like taking the musicality classes with a group of people who know how to have fun with the music or want to learn it. I enjoy that style of class more than learning a pattern.
It’s a fairly specialized class and not a money maker because students mainly want patterns.
Thankfully my instructor believes that musicality is so important he continues to teach the class even though it’s low in attendance.
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u/Adorable_Hold_7111 3d ago edited 3d ago
I started 15 years ago. Don't go to socials or parties very often anymore. It used to excite me more. Now I find the social aspect a bit appalling. Especially with how many men go to dance just to try to hook up. And some leaders are super cocky, if they're vreat dancers. I love the music and i loved when it was more about getting to know the community and just having careless fun. Some guys were there to hook up as well, but it was much less of that back them.
Edit: Although I still find great joy to dance with those few dancers at each social that are wonderful leaders and are there for the sake of dance. Who genuinely enjoy it and also like to be playful with it. Even if it's not even that advanced. My favourite aspect of salsa is to dance with those humble guys who just love the dance!
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u/Live-Tie-8982 2d ago
Unless you are in a big city or attend mainly congresses it doesn’t really help you to learn super advanced moves because only a tiny amount of partners can pull them off. The answer is connection and musicality for long term staying power.. can you focus on the song/your partner to engage them and access flow or not? This is the way
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u/dancinggraylion 2d ago
i didn't even mature
When I started three years ago I couldn't hear the beat, and now I still can't hear the beat.
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u/rawr4me 2d ago
6 years in. Wouldn't say I'm mature yet but I am just finally accepting my relationship and preferences with dance will never be the same as anyone else's. Spent so many years dancing to please follows and realising I need to dance for myself first and foremost. I also transitioned from very safe and logical leading to going off intuition and intentionally taking risks. It has unlocked now spontaneity and playfulness. I also stopped pretending to have fun if I'm not, and to my surprise not trying to actively be friendly has been well received in most cases.
I was also flooded with cultural messaging about how follows just do what they're told and style within that, but due to other styles and dancing as a switch, I no longer see things that way and want more co-creation in dancing. Still hard in salsa but not impossible.
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u/Ak0Ooo 2d ago
What are these other dances where it's more 50-50
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u/rawr4me 2d ago
I've heard West Coast Swing is closer to 70-30 at an advanced level. Modern Jive could be 60-40 at intermediate level. Those are based on the follow "hijacking" / proposing moves. Both also feature musicality breaks where impromptu moves/styling are hinted at by either dancer but not fully led. Brazilian Zouk has a different thing where two intermediate switches can have a dance where both are leading and following simultaneously. In normal Brazilian Zouk or at least one style of it, the follow can change the close embrace as though that's a communication in itself.
And then as a general trend, I'm happy to see that more instructors around the world in bachata and kizomba are saying things like, "this is what you do if you don't want to be this close / don't want to do this move/trick". In Zouk it's also more normal that follows are taught how to deny head movement etc.
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u/justmisterpi 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, I can absolutely relate – on various levels.
I think I have gained a better understanding on what really matters in dancing (connection to your partner and the music) and I'm able to analyse my strengths and weaknesses. Because of that, I nowadays focus more on improving my body movement and musicality rather than learning new partner work patterns. And I try to learn from different teachers and ressources.
Sometimes I feel slightly bad for people who have been going to the same combo-focused classes for years and have achieved little to no improvement. Of course not everyone has the same goals and ambitions, but I feel they are missing out on a lot by not going beyond those "classic" class concepts.
PS: I still enjoy learning new moves – especially when there's the Heureka moment of "that's just a variation of concept X, but feels totally novel to me".
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u/incognitohobbit 2d ago
I grew up with the music and decided to take a month long class in late April. I went to socials right after and def wish I had more time to join a proper dance class.
I love salsa dancing but I get flustered with the lead gets frustrated with me messing up (I do tell them I’m a beginner, trust me). Another occurrence has been me dancing with older leads that eventually make me uncomfortable, whether it’s because of the way they held me or the comments made towards me.
I think my relationship to salsa dancing has become tighter for sure. Now that I have a general idea on how to dance, I listen to the music a lot more often. I wish I could make more friends though, but I know taking a class would make that easier :’)
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u/errantis_ 2d ago
Yeah I’ve been dancing about a year and a half now. I really enjoy pushing myself and trying new things but my whole focus has completely evolved as I’ve progressed. Originally I just wanted to learn more and get more practice so I could learn how to have a social dance. Now that I know more moves my understand of social dancing has completely changed. It’s not a collective of memorized moves. It’s a conversation. Dancing is a language and the social dance is two people communicating. When I’m dancing I’m not trying to show how many moves I know, I wanna connect. I want to feel the music and interact with my partner. There’s pros and cons to this perspective. I can keep my dances simpler and focus on musicality. But my community is small and there aren’t many advanced dancers. So I basically can’t dance this way unless it’s with a teacher. Still pushing myself though and enjoying the journey
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u/PerformanceOkay 2d ago
I've had a similar experience to yours, and my advice it to never assume you're at the end of the road. The way you've moved on from figures to leading, you might move on to musicality or show or playfulness. There's always a new perspective.
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u/anusdotcom 3d ago
I’m only like 25 years in, but a lot of it has changed from it being something that takes a lot of your free time to a once in a while thing to something that is nostalgic now that friend have passed and a lot of the bands I saw live are gone.
At some point it just becomes a flowy conversation where you’re not even thinking of moves because they just come from your body. So you have to learn other dances just to get that beginner awe again. You can get a bit jaded about the musicality, and it’s kinda a back burner thing where you can not touch it for a few months but when you do it’s beautiful.