Question: Which are the things you must respect (do) as a girl and as a boy when you social dance with a new person?

“Melissa- As a social dance follow, I’m always alert to try to give him a complimentary connection in my follow. He’s probably use to dancing one way and sometimes he wants show me his moves, so he’s going to give me all he’s got. GOOD! I LOVE IT! BRING IT ON PAPARRIN! I want to connect with him to try & try to make sure he’s going to have a fun time dancing with me.

Yes, I want my lead to respect the space and not throw me around or into other people. Catalin & Alina, you’d be surprised how many people just don’t care about spacing. Sometimes I feel like we’re in a Batman Movie. POW! BANG! YIKES! SORRY! HA HA HA But sometimes its just that they don’t know about spacing. No one has ever taught them. They just tried to duplicate combinations from youtube & they probably never stepped into a real salsa class with an instructor who goes over ’spacing’.

Luis: I think its cool when the girl lets loose and becomes a little wild and outgoing. I LOVE IT! But like Melissa said, connection is whats going to keep me coming back to you to ask you to dance. I like a girl who knows how to have fun on the dance floor. THIS IS WHAT SALSA IS ALL ABOUT!

For me, it doesn’t matter if she’s a beginner or an advance dancer. If she can keep her basic, I’ll lead her into the moves. If she’s advance, I’d love to see her get creative with her feet but still know how to carry her weight and what I mean by this is not to put her weight on my hands. Some girls weigh 50 kilos but they feel so heavy when they spin or follow so I’ll only spin them once. I’ve danced with girls that weigh a lot more and they are so light becaue they know how to carry their weight.

Luis & Meli: NO MATTER WHAT, have fun & be safe on the dance floor. Don’t forget you’re dancing with dance partner, so connect with them! Ladies: Don’t be looking at another man while dancing with your dance partner…OK! OK! Only if he’s drop dead gorgeous, then you have my permission & you could even blame it on me!!! HA HA HA”

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_(dans)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_(dance)

DVD’s

- An excellent series of DVD’s for learning salsa is the one from Jami Josephson. New York based dancer and teacher. There are four DVD’s. The explanation is very clear, both for men and women. You’ll get a step by step explanation, first from the basic moves, then going to more and more complicated combinations. They first show the move ‘on 2′, but then they show the same thing on 1 too. Best salsa DVD I know …

 Books

- Rough guide to World Music: giving you an extensive overview on musicians, styles (salsa but also other Caribbean genres). Excellent if you finally want to know what’s salsa, rumba, mambo, merengue … and where it all comes from.

- Situating salsa (edited by Lise Waxer): scientific approach; collection of essays about salsa throughout the world. Interesting but you’ll have to keep concentrated …

Please let us know what you know about salsa dvd’s and books …

There’s probably an awful lot to say … Let me say first of all that this will reflect only my personal taste and the coincidences (of the musicians i got to know and others not). If you want to have something more serious, objective and (much more) complete, the “Rough Guide for World Music” is a good choice. There are tens of pages about styles, musicians, evolutions …

Voices
Let’s start with the voices. Some of the remarkable voices in Latin music are Hector Lavoe, Cheo Feliciano, Ruben Blades. Then there’s also Herman Olivera, Celia Cruz, La India.
Hector Lavoe had a voice that you -once you know it of course- will recognize easily. Lots of soul, of personal engagement in the singing. He had several nicknames, like ‘El Cantante’ or ‘The man that breathes under water’ or ‘El Rey de la Puntualidad’ (he used to come very late to his concerts). Anyway, great great music, often together with Willie Colon. His music has disappeared a bit but it might just come back with the release of the movie ‘El Cantante’ (with Marc Anthony and la Lopez; should be out shortly). It’s not always easy to find his music in the stores, just download it from the net (lots of videos on YouTube too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ9R3XmT398. Hector Lavoe, ‘El Cantante’, fantastic song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpqaI3lMHrY. Hector Lavoe, ‘Mi gente’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsY6oUii_k8. Hector Lavoe, ‘Periodico de ayer’.

Ruben Blades is another of my favorites. Latin music with a lot of personality. Great voice, intelligent man (I guess), using all kinds of styles in his music. Listen for instance to a recent album called ‘Mundo’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DQampmHoyQ. Ruben Blades, ‘Primogenio’ (from Mundo).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMW28fQYdVA. Ruben Blades, ‘Todos vuelven’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu3uLJEsIDY. Ruben Blades, ‘Sicarios’.

Cheo Feliciano: great, very recognizable voice. Still have to discover his music better really …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GG5wimsSIE. Cheo Feliciano (and many others), ‘El Raton’: classic song.

The magical trio from the seventies
That’s a term one could use for Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon and Ruben Blades. They’ve started somewhere in the seventies, making great music (often together) that has great personality, great tunes, all kinds of complex rhythms, strange sounds and arrangments typical for the seventies … Very little to do with the commercial salsa romantica that came up in the eighties … Willie Colon and Ruben Blades are still alive and kicking, still producing music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfmg6g4d_0M Willie Colon, ‘La murga’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeTN4wT2–U Willie Colon, ‘El gran varon’

Other music from the seventies
There are was a lot of great salsa being produced in the seventies, so if you happen to find compilations of that period (New York salsa for instance), that might be a great idea.

Big jump to this century
As I said this is not an objective, complete article on Latin music, it’s just about what I happen to like and to know. So I jump to …
Jimmy Bosch … Jimmy Bosch! Trombonist (just like Willie Colon, both are also Puertoricans living in New York) that has become bandleader and songwriter. He’s produced three albums till now, the three of them are great and contain many ‘favorites’ of the last ten years. ‘Otra oportunidad’ is maybe the most famous example. Great music, great musician. This is contemporary ’salsa dura’, produced in New York. This means very sharp arrangments, very modern sound … ‘Sharp’ is really the word, quite different from Colon, Lavoe, Blades. More an occidental feel, even though it’s still salsa, no doubt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kIIfV5TQ0 Jimmy Bosch, ‘La cacharra’

Sharp is also the word to indicate Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Marketed as the ‘New York answer to Buena Vista Social Club’, they’re a band formed around Oscar Hernandez, with lots of great musicians, three lead singers … Lots of uptempo music, this is not the good music to use as a background when you’re having a dinner or something …

Other music that I like
Issac Delgado: subtle music, great voice (could have mentioned him under ‘voices’ …), this Cuban makes some really great music …
Ruben Gonzalez: from the Buena Vista Social Club crew. This is already much closer to the ideal music for your dinner background … Great piano based music, check it out!
Buena Vista Social Club: this is mostly the more ‘traditional’ sounding ’son’ (one of the ancestors of salsa), but this music is still great.
Que mas? Yuri Buenaventura is producing some strong music these days. There’s Manolito y su trabuco.
If you go to other Latin music, there’s of course Juan Luis Guerra. This is a musician I would certainly place amongst the greatest (which are Lavoe, Blades, Bosch, Spanish Harlem …) producing mostly merengue and bachata. Great texts (if you understand Spanish), great great songs. Too bad he’s ’seen the light’ recently producing a kind of a ‘Christian album’ … There’s a lot of other great merengue that is often completely neglected (at least on Belgian dance floors). Merengue is just used as a small break (just like bachata, zouk and chachacha) in between two salsa sets, so no one really pays attention to it. Elvis “Suavemente” Crespo makes very good and very commercial merengue.

Fusion!
A very good commercial trick -and sometimes it gives also great artistic results- is to bring styles or sensibilities together. As salsa (and Latin music in general) is still something ‘exotic’ there are musicians bringing these rhythms closer to the ‘occidental’ styles and sounds. A band like Orishas for instance brings a great mix of Latin sounds and rhythms with hiphop. There is Sergent Garcia bringing a often fantastic mix of salsa, reggae and ragga! There’s Salsa Celtica bringing a mix of Scottish and Latin music. There are of course also Latin artists that integrate every once in a while ’strange’ elements into their music: Ruben Blades for instance presents on his wonderful album ‘Mundo’ elements from flamenco, from oriental music, from the Scottish-Irish tradition … In merengue lots of bands mingle the merengue tradition with other styles (sometimes for artistic sometimes for commercial reasons, sometimes for both). A Latin style that is almost synonymous with ‘fusion’ is reggaeton. Very popular these days in Latin countries and neighbourhoods it presents in general a very ‘modern’, occidental sound and image on a tipical reggaeton rhythm. You may know the hit ‘Gasolina’ already but check out also Don Omar, good reggaeton as far as I’m concerned.

There are so many other things, musicians and styles that I still have to discover myself. So I guess a good idea would be to download Latin music from the net (on Ares for instance) or finding compilations or finding stuff from the artists I just mentioned (hoping that you won’t be disappointed of course).

Always need to look for a good, provocative title to present a text, right?
Anyway, technique … Often as a teacher you see that people (especially the ones from my gender) like combinations and ask for that. Other people ask for styling. All of these questions are perfectly respectable and understandable of course. Technique on the other hand is sometimes considered to be boring … which it maybe is sometimes. The thing is though that if your technique is poor your combinations, your styling and your dancing in general will never be fantastic, it’ll always be 90%, 80% or less … The difficult part about technique is that it’s not always that easy and at times it is … well … technical and dry. Skipping techique and only learn combinations is short-sighted to my opinion, your level will remain at a certain level (just because your technique doesn’t allow you to ‘grow’). Technique can be difficult, can be boring and some things take a lot of time to learn really well. Difficult topic in an environment like the salsa scene in which some just want to have fun and are not ready to ’sweat’ for a moment. Well, I guess this whole posting just means to say that it takes sweating sometimes to become a nice butterfly (this is not my best metaphor of the year) …
Carl

spotting:

-> very interesting webpage: http://www.ballroomdancers.com/Learning_Center/Lesson/2/Default.asp?Page=5

- “head leaves last but arrives first”: this means 1) look at your partner as long as you can. Your body is already turning (shoulders, torso, lower body) and now 2) the head and neck comes after with a whip movement (faster than the speed of the rest of the body)
- spotting will give you balance when turning, will avoid dizziness (your brain isn’t registering all things around you and that same brain has a point of reference in the space around you) and it looks nice (because of your fast head movement it actually looks as if your spinning is faster than it actually is; if you know what i mean …); it’s really the ‘finishing touch’.
- to spot correctly you need to separate neck and head from the rest of your body. Your body starts turning already, your head (and neck) is waiting. At a certain moment the extension has reached its comfortable maximum and … the movement of neck and head starts. In fact it’ll go faster than the rest of the body and it will even arrive first … The story of the rabbit and the tortoise so to speak … So one could divide the spotting into two parts: first you need to look as long as possible at your spot (in couple your partner); secondly, there’s a whip movement in the neck to go back with the eyes to that first spot.

Tips: 1. choose a spot; 2. when you start to turn keep on looking as long as you can to that spot; 3. make an acceleration in the neck and head ‘because you want to go back as quickly as possible to that spot’

The double (right side) turn:
The same things come back from the principles that are listed above, once you’re good at a single turn, the double turn (and then triple) will come quite easily. We just have to work on a couple of things and also learn how to lead a double turn well.

Here we go: “the New York prep”. On 1 you step backwards (talking to the ladies now) as usual. On 2 you don’t step but turn your right knee into your left kneehole. Your weight is almost entirely on your right leg, that is bent. Your body is rotated to the left. Thighs together, body is compact. Find a very good balance on your right foot. Try first without partner, use the arm-elbow-shoulders-swing to give you the momentum to rotate. The idea is that you should be able to turn on your own. The job will then be much easier for the leader to make you do a double turn and he’s not doing it right you’ll do a double turn anyway …
When do you turn? I said already what you do on 1&2. On 3 nothing happens. On 4 the movement starts from elbows and shoulders which makes you turn, on 5 you have finished a first turn. On 7 you’ve done the second one.
Now you can do two things. In the beginning it is probably better to use your ‘other foot’, in this case the left foot. So your left foot touches the floor on 5 and then again on 7. Make sure there are no strong accents, the left foot on the floor is only there to keep the turn going in one continuous movement. After a while you’ll see that is even easier not to place the left foot but just do a double turn only on one leg (the right one in this case). The left foot is kept close to the right and in slight contact with the floor (for your stability and to brake when you’re done)

Your upper body. Your right arm (double turn can be done with left arm too but we’ll start with right arm) is in a 90° hook and there is good tension in arm and the rest of your body. Now the momentum, the energy will come out of the leading arm of the leader. If you’re too relaxed in the arm, he’s just moving your arm, not the whole body. If you make sure you are a perfect pencil (compact, knee bent, counter body preparation, tension in arm and shoulder, good stability on the axe) then it’ll be easy for him to make you turn (twice and then even three times). Make sure that when you’re turning the arm hook stays in place (90°), as I said … compact! Make sure you spot as well, now it’s on your partner, that should be easier, you have a human being to concentrate on …

The leading. On 1 you bring her right arm down and to the left, on 2 you bring that same arm up and to the centre (the ladies’ arm is constantly in a 90° hook). You have placed her now in the ‘New York prep’ situation (also known as Santo Rico, from the people who ‘invented’ this technique). She’s holding your fingers, not to the other way around. To lead a turn it’s easy to offer just a finger or two, the middle ones as they are the strongest ones. The leader doesn’t step, instead takes a strong parallel position. On 4 the movement starts out of your arm. The lady has to face you on 5 and then again on 7. Very important principles: don’t be too rough in your leading (you might destabilize her instead of making her turn); make it a constant leading (without strong accents on 4&6 for instance), just a continuous turn; make a little circle on the ‘crown’ of the lady, that’s your turn. So no big movements, it has to be small and on the crown (just above her head) of the lady and a continuous leading.

Well, that’s about it … try! And try again. And talk to one another (leader and follower I mean), help one another.

Possible ways to hold hands leading a double turn (there are others, this is a start)
Hand shake hold: classic.
Hand shake :first turn normal, second with pizza.
Double hand hold: right over left, there’ll be a wristbreaker.
With leader’s left hand.
First turn with left hand, second with right.
Open hand hold, holding two hands. Leading with left hand. You’ll have to let go of the right hand, and catch it back right way (she’ll be in hammerlock).

Here are some general principles for turning:

- you turn around an axe, can be your left of your right axe (line going through left or right part of your body). Make sure you know which axe you’re turning around. Make sure this axe is stable and stays stable
- bend the knee of the leg you’re using to turn; the lower you’ll go, the lower your centre of gravity, the better your balance
- when you’re turning on your own, use the impulse coming from elbows and shoulders; make a counter body movement to prepare and then swing to the side you want to turn to; don’t make it that strong that you destabilize yourself
- the lower body should be very stable, if you have a good position (you’re like a pencil! Hence the name ‘pencil turn’) there isn’t much energy necessary to make you turn. Of course good shoes, a good floor can help. Remember: lower body is stable and standing up like a pencil. Be compact (like a pencil). The movement will come from above, hands, arms, shoulders.
- Spot! When you’re spotting you’re giving your body information about one point (the point you’re spotting at). This becomes a good point of reference for your body as it turns. Because of that your turning will become more stable too (because now your body knows where it is in space!).
- Another principle for turning would be … practise! Just do it regularly at home, on your own, on your socks, try half a turn and see if you’re in control. In the beginning this is the most important thing: be in control! Turn in a stable way, doesn’t matter if it’s just half a turn in the beginning. Don’t start right away to a double turn, that’s useless. When you’re practising and you get dizzy, stop. No need to do it for hours. Just a couple of turns every day will make you improve! The dizziness will disappear as your stability gets better, as you’re starting to spot better (and it’ll also go away just because your body gets used to turning).
- Work on your stability. Stability on itself is already important for turning well. Stand on one leg. Stand on one leg and bend the knee. The same thing but standing on your toes. Other leg. Both legs. Etcetera.
- The ‘momentum’ as they say, the movement comes out of the elbows and shoulders (certainly if you’re turning on your own), not so much out of the pushing off with your feet (as I said the lower body should be stable). Bring your elbows up and out on a horizontal line. The wider you’ll take them the more stability. Once your stability and general technique will be better you can bring them in, you’ll turn faster.
- You’re turning around an axe, around one foot. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lift the other foot. On the contrary, leave it down and close to your axe. It’ll help you for your balance. You can also use the ‘other foot’ to brake and to stop exactly where you wanted to stop.
- It is important that your mind knows exactly what your doing! I mean by that that you have to know ‘Ok, I want to make a single turn which means that my foot is going to be put down here. Or there. If your goal is clear to you, it’s more probable that your body will execute just that.
- Relax! Even there should be some tension in your body of course, don’t think this is something extraordinary you have to achieve! Relax, do it calmly, not too wild, in control.

Try with half a turns, then full turns ….

The double turn. It’s really not that complicated, you just need to think on a couple of things (and then forget them again but execute them!).

First of all, don’t forget some general principles for turning:

- you turn around an axe, can be your left of your right axe (line going through left or right part of your body). Make sure you know which axe you’re turning around. Make sure this axe is stable and stays stable.
- bend the knee of the leg you’re using to turn; the lower you’ll go, the lower your centre of gravity, the better your balance
- when you’re turning on your own, use the impulse coming from elbows and shoulders; make a “counter body movement” to prepare and then swing to the side you want to turn to; don’t make it that strong that you destabilize yourself
- the lower body should be very stable, if you have a good position (you’re like a pencil! Hence the name ‘pencil turn’) there isn’t much energy necessary to make you turn. Of course good shoes, a good floor can help. Remember: lower body is stable and standing up like a pencil. Be compact (like a pencil). The movement will come from above, hands, arms, shoulders.
- Spot! When you’re spotting you’re giving your body information about one point (the point you’re spotting at). This becomes a good point of reference for your body as it turns. Because of that your turning will become more stable too (because now your body knows where it is in space!).
- Another principle for turning would be … practise! Just do it regularly at home, on your own, on your socks, try half a turn and see if you’re in control. In the beginning this is the most important thing: be in control! Turn in a stable way, doesn’t matter if it’s just half a turn in the beginning. Don’t start right away to a double turn, that’s useless. When you’re practising and you get dizzy, stop. No need to do it for hours. Just a couple of turns every day will make you improve! The dizziness will disappear as your stability gets better, as you’re starting to spot better (and it’ll also go away just because your body gets used to turning).
- Work on your stability. Stability on itself is already important for turning well. Stand on one leg. Stand on one leg and bend the knee. The same thing but standing on your toes. Other leg. Both legs. Etcetera.
- The ‘momentum’ as they say, the movement comes out of the elbows and shoulders (certainly if you’re turning on your own), not so much out of the pushing off with your feet (as I said the lower body should be stable). Bring your elbows up and out on a horizontal line. The wider you’ll take them the more stability. Once your stability and general technique will be better you can bring them in, you’ll turn faster.
- You’re turning around an axe, around one foot. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lift the other foot. On the contrary, leave it down and close to your axe. It’ll help you for your balance. You can also use the ‘other foot’ to brake and to stop exactly where you wanted to stop.
- It is important that your mind knows exactly what your doing! I mean by that that you have to know ‘Ok, I want to make a single turn which means that my foot is going to be put down here. Or there. If your goal is clear to you, it’s more probable that your body will execute just that.
- Relax! Even there should be some tension in your body of course, don’t think this is something extraordinary you have to achieve! Relax, do it calmly, not too wild, in control.

The double (right side) turn:The same things come back from the principles that are listed above, once you’re good at a single turn, the double turn (and then triple) will come quite easily. We just have to work on a couple of things and also learn how to lead a double turn well.

Here we go: “the New York prep”. On 1 you step backwards (talking to the ladies now) as usual. On 2 you don’t step but turn your right knee into your left kneehole. Your weight is almost entirely on your right leg, that is bent. Your body is rotated to the left. Thighs together, body is compact. Find a very good balance on your right foot. Try first without partner, use the arm-elbow-shoulders-swing to give you the momentum to rotate. The idea is that you should be able to turn on your own. The job will then be much easier for the leader to make you do a double turn and he’s not doing it right you’ll do a double turn anyway …
When do you turn? I said already what you do on 1&2. On 3 nothing happens. On 4 the movement starts from elbows and shoulders which makes you turn, on 5 you have finished a first turn. On 7 you’ve done the second one.
Now you can do two things. In the beginning it is probably better to use your ‘other foot’, in this case the left foot. So your left foot touches the floor on 5 and then again on 7. Make sure there are no strong accents, the left foot on the floor is only there to keep the turn going in one continuous movement. After a while you’ll see that is even easier not to place the left foot but just do a double turn only on one leg (the right one in this case). The left foot is kept close to the right and in slight contact with the floor (for your stability and to brake when you’re done). You’ll see that turning without placing your left foot is easier, but first you need the technical skills and the balance to do that.

Your upper body. Your right arm (double turn can be done with left arm too but we’ll start with right arm) is in a 90° hook and there is good tension in arm and the rest of your body. Now the momentum, the energy will come out of the leading arm of the leader. If you’re too relaxed in the arm, he’s just moving your arm, not the whole body. If you make sure you are a perfect pencil (compact, knee bent, counter body preparation, tension in arm and shoulder, good stability on the axe) then it’ll be easy for him to make you turn (twice and then even three times). Make sure that when you’re turning the arm hook stays in place (90°), as I said … compact! Make sure you spot as well, now it’s on your partner, that should be easier, you have a human being to concentrate on …

The leading. On 1 you bring her right arm down and to the left, on 2 you bring that same arm up and to the centre (the ladies’ arm is constantly in a 90° hook). You have placed her now in the ‘New York prep’ situation (also known as Santo Rico, from the people who ‘invented’ this technique). She’s holding your fingers, not to the other way around. To lead a turn it’s easy to offer just a finger or two, the middle ones as they are the strongest ones. The leader doesn’t step, instead takes a strong parallel position. On 4 the movement starts out of your arm. The lady has to face you on 5 and then again on 7. Very important principles: don’t be too rough in your leading (you might destabilize her instead of making her turn); make it a constant leading (without strong accents on 4&6 for instance), just a continuous turn; make a little circle on the ‘crown’ of the lady, that’s your turn. So no big movements, it has to be small and on the crown (just above her head) of the lady and a continuous leading.

Well, that’s about it … try! And try again. And talk to one another (leader and follower I mean), help one another.

Last thing: aren’t there other ways to do it? Other techniques than the Santo Rico (or New York prep)? Yes, of course there are many many other ways, this is just one that I like …

Possible ways to hold hands leading a double turn (there are others, this is a start)
Hand shake hold: classic.
Hand shake :first turn normal, second with pizza.
Double hand hold: right over left, there’ll be a wristbreaker.
With leader’s left hand.
First turn with left hand, second with right.
Open hand hold, holding two hands. Leading with left hand. You’ll have to let go of the right hand, and catch it back right way (she’ll be in hammerlock).

-Sunday 9th of March, La Stanza (Wandelingstraat 8), info meeting on the salsa stage we organize this summer in Italy (“Salsa in Toscana”). The meeting will go from 5 to 7pm. Let me know if you would like to attend the meeting, just to have an idea of the number of people to expect. It’ll be a meeting for all interested people in which I’ll give more details about program, concrete things, etc and answer all your questions. More info on www.salsaintoscana.com.
- Saturday 15th of March is the date for the LeuvenSalsa! party in Sportoase. The doors will be open at 8pm and we’ll start with a salsa workshop by David Maes (www.la-salsa.be) from Gent. He’ll give a workshop that is meant for everyone who has had some classes. Just come and try, it’ll be fun. A great dj, dj Cisko, has accepted to be the dj of the evening. And like in the other parties in Sportoase we’ll make sure that everyone dances by proposing every half an hour to invite someone you’ve never danced with. The party itself is in the Jupilerzaal, a big dance hall with a great floor see attached picture). Hope to see lots of you there, also for the workshop. Of course this party is not just for LeuvenSalsa! students, it is open to everyone. Entrance is 5 euro as usual.