Arm tension…
For women, the tension never comes from the arms
but rather from the fingertips and the shoulders by keeping them in a locked
position. A good
way of illustrating this action is when you place two tennis balls under your
armpits; the action automatically locks the shoulders but not your arms, the
technique that allows women to follow flawlessly.
For men, it is solely from the fingertips.
|
| | | | |
Leading a move…the count….
For the not so experienced dancer, he must bear in mind where the woman’s
momentum is taking her. On 5, the lady is in a forward moving position, making
this the ideal time to lead and execute a move. Always think 5 to lead the
lady into the direction you want her to go in and on 6,7 and 1 to execute
and complete the move.
|
|
And if you start to lead a move too late…
Firstly, you want to avoid leading a move too late, but I guess it’s
too late for that!!
Don’t try to complete the move by going faster; instead, stop from
an open break into a closed hold position (think of the Tango scene with the
rose in the mouth position). It’ll make you look like you did it intentionally,
and you might even get your partner to smile and get into character herself!
There are many variants but this is as simple as it gets.
The more advanced dancers will usually send their partners off into a free-spin
and start doing some shines before coming in to continue the dance together.
|
Holding your partner’s hand to lead effectively…
There are many ways to hold your partner’s hand to lead effectively.
One that I emphasize is to pretend that you’re holding a camcorder
with your left hand. Now, the men will bend the two middle fingers facing
the ground in a complete vertical line and the women will bend their fingers
far enough so as to create that fingertip tension mentioned earlier on.
|
Tamambo and Susana Montero
@Salsa Chillout, Chelmsford.
photo courtesy of Solent Studios | | | |
Women anticipating moves…
The counteraction of anticipation is done by following the tennis ball
technique already described. It is probably the fastest solution to anticipating
issues. |
When ladies pull on the arms (because they are tired….)….
Ladies should always think to keep their elbows in line with their shoulders
and in front of their body at all times. If you are tired and cannot keep
to this, just have a rest and sit down for a while…..
|
Dancing slower to faster tracks…
The easiest way to dance slower to faster tracks is by dancing to the core
beats. i.e. 1,3,5,7. You can skip all the beats in between, making it a
lot slower on the body and your partner. Do not do this every time though,
your partner will get bored of you pretty soon…..
|
Sometimes men can get stuck in a rut just concentrating on leading
and forget to dance themselves….
The reason men forget to dance is simply the lack of practise, making reactive
dancing hard to achieve. Reactive dancing is going with the flow of what
is happening at that particular moment, and how you are positioned as opposed
to planning what your next move is. The only way to counteract this is by
practising three or four variations of a turn pattern that you learned that
week and play around with it by changing the beginning, middle an end bits.
They will see that pretty soon they’ll be improvising on the dance
floor like pros!
|
Spinning…..
I once heard how Edie the Salsa Freak mentioned something about practising
in confined spaces (how small is your toilet?!). By practising in confined
spaces, you are very aware of hitting yourself against objects, thus keeping
you more in control of what you are doing. Always use the spotting technique:
initiate and complete the turn head-first, then allow your shoulders, then
the rest of your body to follow.
Women should never hold onto the man when spinning; a woman should never
depend on a man to complete her spins. I’ve seen it go very wrong
on the dance floor….The woman should be able to complete her spins
even if the man has let go of her hands halfway through!
|
Don’t just worry about the next move, enjoy….
Relax, it’s not a competition! You’ll have probably realised
that some women return to their table after having danced with an advanced
dancer thinking that it was the most horrible dance of her life and she’s
the worst dancer in the world! The dance is not about you or about her;
it’s about the both of you. If you both do not leave with a satisfied
feeling, something has gone wrong.
Ladies do not like to be thrown around; all they want is to have a good
time. Whilst the rollercoaster ride is having a good time, they would not
do it all night!
|
The challenges men face when learning partner dancing and How
To Lead…..
Men get frustrated because they see how fast women are progressing. They
need to understand that they are on a tough learning curve because they
are essentially being taught not only how to move, but also how to control
their partner’s movement. After they have done all this, they then
need to learn how to communicate with their partner on the dance floor;
i.e. where do I want you to go, what hand do I need, what I need you to
do for me, etc. Because talking with the music banging out of the speakers
in the background will make you look really stupid, the best way is to use
your arms and body language to interact with your partner.
If you can live with the fact that you’ll have a frustrating
six to eight weeks, you’ll be on the road to eternal joy and fulfilment!
|
