Questions & Answers

I’ll post some ‘questions and answers’ here, not because I think I have all the answers (unfortunately that’s not the case) but because people often ask similar things and here I can try to answer as precisely as I can. Feel free of course to disagree and to leave comments if you like. Carl

- Can I really enroll without a dance partner?
- Yes, no problem. Everyone enrolls in the group he or she wants and then, before the start of every class, I’ll calculate how many men and women (or leaders and followers) there will be in each group. When there are more ladies than men in a group, I’ll invite men from other groups to participate in that class. For those ‘guests’ it will be a free extra exercise. This system works quite well, of course it’s important that people let me know (by mail or phone) when they can’t make it to the class so that my calculations are correct …

- Do we have to change dance partners in the classes?
We will indeed regularly propose in our classes to change partners. When you’re only (or almost only) dancing with one partner, the follower will quickly know the movements of the ‘leader’ by heart. The risk is that the follower starts anticipating and … starts losing concentration (as it is not necessary anyway). The follower will not really be following, she (’she’ as the followers are mostly women) will just go with her dance partner into well known figures. The leader will never be sure he’s actually leading well, he only knows that with this one partner he can do these figures (because you lead her to do it or because she knows what’s going to happen?). The real test is always to dance with a lady that you don’t know, possibly a lady who’s not from your class and try to dance with her, lead her …
On the other hand, this is just the theory. It is clear that it is also very important to have a good dance partner and that you can learn a lot with one partner. And on the other hand as well, we will in our classes only propose to change partners, we’ll never insist or force anyone. People who prefer to dance with their own partner should never get the feeling they are ‘being complicated’. So there’s absolutely no problem if you prefer not to change partners!

- Can I take more than one class a week?
- Yes. Because of the ’system’ that I just explained, I often invite ‘guests’. Most of the time we need extra men (or leaders), but it also happens regularly that we need extra ladies (or followers). You just need to let me know that you’re interested in having more classes (for free of course, as ‘guests’ don’t pay …). This way there are people taking 3, 4, 5 classes a week (and paying only once for the class in their ‘own’ group) …

- Can i recuperate classes that I’ve missed in my group?
- Yes, you can. Preferably in a parallel group (same level as your own). You have to recuperate the missed class in the period that is running though (period=the 10 weeks that overlap one series) which means you can’t ‘take’ missed classes to a next period (because that’s just not controlable for our administration).

- Can I also take individual classes instead of paying for the whole series?
- Yes again. You’ll be asked to pay 9 euro for an individual class (the fee for a series of ten classes is 70 euro, so that’s a bit cheaper). This can be interesting if you know on beforehand that you’ll miss many classes or if you just want to try one class (we’ll organize free try out classes before new starting moments -September, October, half of November, etc- but those are meant in the first place for absolute beginners).

- What’s the “language policy” of LeuvenSalsa!?- In general the classes are taught in English, just because there are almost always people that don’t understand Dutch. It’s the same reason why most of the texts on this site and on the publicity are in English. Of course it’s absolutely normal that (for Flemish people) you feel more comfortable to speak or write in Dutch: so if you prefer, please do so (during the classes or on this website). We will then translate to English if necessary.

- What is a ‘fast’ group?
- A ‘fast’ group is a group that will have two classes a week (instead of one for all the other groups). I believe a ‘fast’ group can be interesting -if you have the time for salsa twice a week of course- because you will remain more focused on the material we see in the classes. If you follow one class a week, it might be that -for instance if you didn’t practise at all during the week- you come to the class and you forgot 50% of what you’ve seen the week before. This is less likely to happen in a ‘fast’ group. Of course if you do practise during the week, you solve that ‘problem’.

- What are ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’?- As salsa is usually danced in couple, there is usually someone who’s leading and someone else who’s following. You might try to both lead, could be funny … (to do and to watch). But again, usually there’s a person leading and another person following.

- Does a ‘leader’ necessarily have to be a man and does a lady necessarily have to be a ‘follower’?
- No, of course not. An important thing is to make clear before the dancing starts who’s leading and who’s following. Of course, usually the men are leading and the ladies are following, but there is no ’strong’ reason for this. The only ‘physical’ reason that I can imagine is that men are often (most of the time …) taller and stronger than women and it is true of course that it’s a bit more difficult for a short lady to lead a huge man. But not impossible at all! So why do men lead and ladies follow? Mostly a question of tradition and habit, I guess … And as you know traditions and habits are there to be changed. A good tip I think is to change parts, you’ll have fun and you might learn a lot about the dancing. Because if you think about it: how can a leader ask a follower to do certain things (crossing, turning, pivoting, etc) if he has no idea what that really is, if he has never done it himself? And for the followers it’ll be interesting to try to lead: you’ll see that it’s not so easy. And in the end everyone will hopefully turn up to be more tolerant for the other … And don’t be afraid, you won’t lose your masculinity because you’re following or your femininity because you lead …

- Is it nicer to lead or to follow?
- I think both parts can be great, it’s just different. The dancing will be nice or not depending on other things (such as the music, your partner, the floor, your mood, etc etc). And don’t forget: dancing salsa is not just about leading or following, it is also about dancing …

- I have difficulties in finding the good rhythm when I dance. What can I do?
- Some people ‘hear’ or ‘feel’ the rhythm more easily or quickly than others. That really doesn’t mean that you can not
learn this! First of all it is a question of habit. I think you can help yourself by starting to listen to salsa at home. You’ll get used to the rhythm and you can exercise trying to find the ‘1′. Lots of people also don’t dance on the rhythm because they are just not listening when they dance! So that’s another possible ’solution’: remind yourself to listen to the music when you’re dancing. It’s no use doing a combination when you’re out of the rhythm, it doesn’t look or feel fine anyway … For me the principle ‘The execution is more important than the complexity’ is very important. You can do very simple things but they look great. If you ‘feel’ the music, if you enjoy dancing with that dance partner, if you’re just enjoying yourselves. And on the contrary people often do very complex stuff and it just looks … complex.

- What is the ‘1′?
Salsa music gets divided in 8 beats (two measures of four). The first beat is the strongest one, it has the strongest accent in the music. Solos normally start on that ‘1′, singers start to sing on the ‘1′, the chorus starts on the ‘1′, etcetera etcetera. The ‘5′, the fifth beat is also quite strong but the ‘1′ is more accentuated still. Which means that if you dance on the ‘5′ (happens often if you’re not paying enough attention), it’s not ‘wrong’ or something (the term ‘wrong’ in dancing sounds a bit stupid anyway, it’s all about enjoying, so where’s the ‘wrong’?), you’re just dancing ‘against’ the feeling of the song. The strongest ‘accents’ in dancing salsa are the ‘breaks’ (‘breaking’ in dancing means that you change direction, so that’s when you change from going forward to backward and viceversa; in our style of salsa (called ‘on 1′) we ‘break’ on 1 and on 5) so it is ‘logical’ that the accents in dancing (the breaks) corresponds with the accents in the music (the 1 and the 5). In our style of salsa (LAstyle) the convention is that the leader ‘breaks forward’ on the 1 (meaning that the follower breaks backward on the 1).

- What’s the difference between the ‘1′ and the ‘5′?
- As I just wrote, the difference is that there’s more accent on the ‘1′. If you’re ‘dancing on the 5′ (so that means that the leader is breaking forward on the 5) and you keep that rhythm, you won’t have problems dancing, you’re just dancing a bit against the melody, against the song, but at least you’re keeping a regular rhythm. This implies that it is very important to keep a regular rhythm: if you dance on the 5, or on the 3 or 4 or 6 or whatever, you should stay that way, otherwise your dance partner will be lost (not forever). So let’s say the worst thing to do is to dance first on the one, then on the 6, then again on the 3 and so on … It is a possibility but certainly not for beginners, to my opinion …

- What’s the confusion with all those different names: LA Style, NY Style, Cuban style, On1, On2, Rueda? Can’t they just agree on one name?
- Well, not really, because those are not just different names, the ways of dancing are different too (not always 100% of course, but there are differences). Salsa music comes from different cultures, different areas in the world, in the meantime it has become an international phenomenon, so there will always be differences, new styles, regional variations … There are many more styles of salsa like the Colombian style, the Miami style, the Venezuelan style and others that I forget or that I just don’t know.

- Thank you. Now what’s the difference between those styles and which one should i choose?
- Let’s just give some aspects of the more common ones (at least around here let’s say). LA Style (the style I teach in LeuvenSalsa!) is danced on 1 (meaning leader breaks forward on 1) and is mostly danced in a line. On the contrary New York (the other coast of the States) Style is danced on the 2 (breaks on 2 and 6). In Cuban style dancers turn around each other (so they don’t care about a ‘line’ like LAStyle does), their basic step is usually (as for Rueda) breaking backwards on 1 (both dancers) and breaking forwards on 5 (both dancers again). In Rueda (meaning ‘wheel’ in Spanish), people dance in couple but they change partners very often during one song. The couples stand in a circle, facing the centre of the circle. There is one ‘caller’ who shouts names of combinations that the couples then execute; those combinations often end with a change of partner so that the dancers go from one to another like in a wheel. Which one should you choose? Difficult question, also because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings … There are many things to consider like for instance your personal taste or the answer on the question ‘what do most people dance in your area?’ There is also the fact that, to my opinion, it is certainly more logical to start dancing salsa on the 1 (it’s already difficult enough sometimes to find the ‘one’ in the beginning) and then afterwards, when you have quite some experience, to try an On2 style (although I guess some of my colleagues teaching On2 will not agree, please feel free to leave your comment). In our area it is quite clear that most of the salsa dancers dance LAStyle (or something similar). Of course there are also dancers dancing Cuban style and New York style or Rueda. I really think it should not be ‘or … or …’ but ‘and … and …’. Those styles don’t have to be in competition, they can stimulate each other and give new input or creativity to one another. Will you have ‘problems’ if you dance with someone who’s used to dance another style? That might happen, but in the end you’ll ‘find’ each other …