Balancing dancing and life

S

Sonny

Changui
Hello everyone,

so I've seen that some of you dance a lot, as in go out a lot in a week, not just dance with a partner. How do you do it?

It seems like it would be expensive to go out to 2-3 socials a week plus take a couple of lessons a week. Am I misunderstanding you guys?

How often do people dance here?

Has dancing overtaken your life or do you find that you still have other major activities (other than work)? Are most of your friends dancers at this point?

Just curious.
 
In my experience most people go through phases. The most intense usually lasts around 2 or 3 years, when they are going out three or more times a week and taking lessons. In that phase most of their social life revolves around salsa friends. This is especially true for those on the dance teams that practice few times a week. But also true of people who have got into salsa in recent past. And then there are those evergreen dancers whom you still see out dancing even after 5/8/10 years.

At least in my scene I see most regulars plateau after 3/4 years. Either they get into relationship, work responsibilities increase, they find other things to do. You don't see them out as often as before. But then, they are replaced by a whole new crop of dancers who go out 3-4 times a week. The cycle continues!
 
I don't have much time to go out normally. I try to make a point of getting out on Friday nights as often as possible as it's the most workable option. It's hard, but I simply make the most of the nights I have.

What I do is organise 2-3 salsa holidays or salsa weekends each year, e.g. a trip to somewhere like Sydney or Tokyo, or the upcoming Melbourne Latin Festival where I put all else aside and focus on dance for the whole weekend. At these times I dance every night and only salsa is on the brain :D . I can't tell you how much I enjoy these trips!

However, yes, the majority of my friends are salsa people :) .
 
Haha... it's funny you should raise this question... I was asking myself this last night...

I am in the midst of another dance marathon... I've done 10 nights in a row. Number 11 is tonight... and I can foresee #12 happening too... I intend to stop for a break after that though... I think.

Having said that, that is not the norm... I am making up for some lost time... I hadn't danced much in the previous 2 months - like maybe less than once a week on average over that period.

I am travelling about at the moment, so yeah, all the new people I meet at new venues/cities are all from the salsa dance scene.

I don't even want to think about the amount of money I spend on dancing. The way I try to think about it is, it gets me active, it's social, it's exercise, it's fun... there aren't many other things that tick all those boxes at once for me.

I don't take studio class lessons, as I can't commit to them whilst travelling... drop in sessions tend to be expensive and uneconomical for me. I DO need some lessons though, I would like to learn some new material.

Once I stop travelling then I will sign up for some regular lessons, but also I want to take up a new hobby too for difference and variety sake. I do find salsa is perhaps the best hobby for me whilst travelling.
 
Wow. Thank you for the perspective. I wasn't sure. I live in upstate NY and there is a bit of a scene but I am just now joining it, but I do other things and don't think I can go out 2-3 times a week. My partner and I are practicing 2-3 times a week + we've agreed to take one studio session (class) together so I was just wondering what it's like out there.

I am just trying to get a feel for how others progress through their salsa experience.
 
Sonny said:
I am just trying to get a feel for how others progress through their salsa experience.
Click to expand...

When you say progress, do you mean 'improve' and get 'better'?

I'll be repeating a lot of other threads will have said: you MUST dance socially... all the lessons in the world won't make you better until you start applying it. I think of it as homework... Class lessons is just the theory, you have to do the homework behind it too! :) Except this homework is FUN! :eek:
 
Hello Suitz, I meant progress as in experience over time, nothing to do with improving. I just meant to say how do people experience their life as salsa(latin music) dancers. That's all.
 
Just treat it as an exercise. :) I try to have two nights in the opposite sides of the week and the rest is bonus.
 
Sonny said:
Hello everyone,

so I've seen that some of you dance a lot, as in go out a lot in a week, not just dance with a partner. How do you do it?

It seems like it would be expensive to go out to 2-3 socials a week plus take a couple of lessons a week. Am I misunderstanding you guys?

How often do people dance here?

Has dancing overtaken your life or do you find that you still have other major activities (other than work)? Are most of your friends dancers at this point?

Just curious.
Click to expand...

Back in 2009-2010, I used to go out to salsa clubs at least 3-4 times a week, sometimes even 5,6, or even 7 times. And I was taking classes 1-3 times a week on top of all that. Yes, it is expensive :)

Nowadays I have a new job that doesn't allow me to go out social dancing on weekdays like I used to, so now I only go out dancing 1-3 times a week. But I've started taking more lessons now, 1-2 group lessons per week, plus a private lesson sometimes. And I've recently started taking up West Coast Swing, Brazilian zouk, and Samba de Gafiera dance classes as well, so when you put all the social dancing together with the classes, I'm literally doing some kind of dancing of one form or another for pretty much 6-7 days per week. Yes, it is expensive :)

My life revolves around dancing. It's what I love to do. Yes, most of my friends are dancers :)
 
I dance 2 to 5 evenings per week depending on work, DJ playing and just what's available in any given week; usually 3 or 4 nights. Nights cost from 3 to 8 euros. There is normally large bottles (litre) for 4 euros.

I take 2 classes a week. I think that's better value than a gym membership for example.

I think salsa is cheaper than a lot of hobbies or at least no more expensive, and def cheaper than just going out somewhere with your friends. A salsa night where I am is much less than the price of a movie or going to a bar and having say 2 or 3 drinks/cocktails (I'm talking London or big european city prices). I find it an affordable and fun way to go out in the evening when I am travelling for work too.

Travel to venues further away is my biggest current cost, and the only thing I don't really like having to shell out for.

And congresses :) I decided this year to sacrifice savings and go to a lot of congresses instead.

And surviving the next morning gets easier leaving at a sensible time or with practise and a strong cup of coffee. Actually having a job helps get up, when I am on holiday it is suddenly 100 times harder to get up and stay energised. Weird :)

Yes, salsa is pretty much all I do outside of work. Yes, where I currently live all my friends dance. Yes it's awesome. :D
 
As londongirl says, it's not too expensive a hobby. Until I quit just over a year ago, I used to spend £150+ a month on smoking. This easilly covers my 3/4 night a week "habit" in London where classes with socials typically cost £5-8 and a pint of beer around £3. I'll soon be trying out for a fifth night a week for a few weeks as I'm restructuring my class / socials balance in the spring. It is pretty hard getting up for work - sometimes I'm up at 0500, but I don't have to stay until the early hours of the morning......
 
Flying Donkey said:
As londongirl says, it's not too expensive a hobby. Until I quit just over a year ago, I used to spend £150+ a month on smoking. This easilly covers my 3/4 night a week "habit" in London where classes with socials typically cost £5-8 and a pint of beer around £3. I'll soon be trying out for a fifth night a week for a few weeks as I'm restructuring my class / socials balance in the spring. It is pretty hard getting up for work - sometimes I'm up at 0500, but I don't have to stay until the early hours of the morning......
Click to expand...

Wow. I'm impressed, that is quite a heavy smoking habit to quit. But hey, salsa is a way more fun addiction :D

I binned the gym when I took up salsa; I am less toned now despite all the dancing, but the swop was worth it.

Actually I forgot one cost. Clothes. It just crept up on me without me realising, but suddenly I was buying clothes only with salsa in mind. And nail polish for toes in many colours. Frivolous spending! :)
 
Flying Donkey said:
Until I quit just over a year ago, I used to spend £150+ a month on smoking.
Click to expand...

Wow, congratulations on quitting smoking. I've never smoked, fortunately. But your story about taking up salsa instead of smoking reminds me of my story - giving up Microsoft for a Mac, then getting hooked on Latin music via iTunes. ;)
 
londongirl said:
I binned the gym when I took up salsa; I am less toned now despite all the dancing, but the swop was worth it.
Click to expand...

My life pretty much revolves around my dancing activities. I have kept up my gym routine as, guess what, it really helps with my dancing :) . My gym instructor asks me what my goals are, and I always tell him the same thing: posture, balance, upper body, core and glutes strength, all to help me be a better dancer. Perhaps a bit obsessive, but I enjoy it and you could have worse obesssions :cool:

azana said:
Yes, I have a large collection of those! Cool, colorful glitters from Japan, combine them with solid colors...fun :D .
Click to expand...

Ladies, as a performing bellydancer I have reached new levels of costuming, hair, makeup and toenail BLING :o. I recommend the Minx nail foils - you can get complete shiny metal finishes that lasts for weeks. Mine are now shiny gold :D
 
apart from club entry, class costs and dance shoes nothing is mandatory.
you dont need to drink if you dont want or no need to dress up if you prefer not to.
so, salsa is a very economical and healy hobby compared to other hobbies and of course much more enjoyable.

in london, well it's almost all I'm doing but when I go back to Turkey, I'll have a more balanced life. as you can imagine, almost all my friends are from salsa but it's not the case in turkey and I love to spend some time with my non salsa friends.

I received a nice email from one of my salsa friends who is leaving london soon and she called me one of her most memorable friends. I felt flattered but also sad since we havent spend time outside of salsa at all.

Today we get together with TNT dance team in one of the members house for teacher training. people introduced themselves and it was surprising to see that all those people that you know "very well" (including myself for them), we are actually different people outside the club.

regarding gym, salsa cant replace gym unfortunately. if you have some goals about your fitness, you should spare some time to it.
 
Interesting. I enjoy dancing and I want to continue improving but I am not too crazy about going out 4-5 nights as week. I am working on other things so time is definitely a high commodity but it's amazing to see the amount of time that members are dedicated.

As for the gym, I go 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, all together about 10 times a week, so if I get my dancing to 3 times a week of practice + 1 class + social, that'll do it for me, but we'll see.

What kind of work do you guys do? I am not asking for company names if that's sensitive but your line of work, your responsibilities? Are most members 9-5 or are you on call at times, or things like that?
 
I work 11-12 hours a day on average at a financial services company (9am-9pm, though I usually finish work earlier on Fridays). I currently go dancing five-six times a week, usually Friday-Saturday-Sunday at socials (sometimes two in the same night) and two-three nights during the week at clubs. Dance nights at clubs here don't really get started until 10pm (I take my dance gear with me to work and go straight from the office to the salsa club :)) so that means I get home around 1-2 am, meaning only about 6 hours of sleep when I go dancing on a weekday. It is naturally a bit tiring, especially when you do this two-three days in a row (I went dancing four nights in a row this week--Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday), but often the energy I get from dancing--especially on a night with lots of great dances :)--keeps me going the following day. I usually sleep a lot on weekends.

I haven't taken any classes since November, I will start going to some next week, which will mean less social dancing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top