How did you become an amateur/professional salsa instructor?
- Thread starter azzey
- Start date
sweavo
Changui
Well for me it was like the bear and the running shoes. I didn't have to be perfect, just better than most. So after learning "NY style on 1" and pretty much maxing out on a local scale on 1, I got offered to lead a bunch of taster sessions run by a rural arts initiative. Out of that someone requested a regular class and that's how I started. Then my teachers and the whole school switched to the 2. I followed suit, but my advice to my former self would be not to, as now I'm not able to teach on 1 without it becoming some big political statement.
/edit I just realized that sounds like I mean TheBear and Salsashoes. I mean the story where the hiker packs running shoes for a hike:
"what are they for?" asks his buddy
"In case we meet a bear"
"You'll never outrun a bear even with running shoes!"
"I don't have to outrun a bear, I only have to outrun you!"
/edit2: and I don't consider myself "professional" but "amateur" in the positive sense - one who practices and explores the pastime for the love of it! I don't teach above improvers if I can help it!
/edit I just realized that sounds like I mean TheBear and Salsashoes. I mean the story where the hiker packs running shoes for a hike:
"what are they for?" asks his buddy
"In case we meet a bear"
"You'll never outrun a bear even with running shoes!"
"I don't have to outrun a bear, I only have to outrun you!"
/edit2: and I don't consider myself "professional" but "amateur" in the positive sense - one who practices and explores the pastime for the love of it! I don't teach above improvers if I can help it!
I'd been dancing a while and showed up at a class one week to find the main teacher (Nicolai) was unforseeably and unavoidably absent. The lady he taught with (Caroline) was able to run the first two classes herself, then when it came to an "Intermediate/Advanced" class, she asked me if I knew a routine she could teach. I started showing her one I'd picked up on a holiday when she said,
"Er, yeah, why don't you teach it"
The class went ok despite me being terribly nervous, and a few weeks later Nicolai asked if I could fill in again the following week. Over the next few months this happened more and more frequently and when nicolai was present he kindly allowed me to help him and Caroline and we'd often do a "half each" double act. A few months later, Caroline and I were pretty much running most evenings between us, at which point Nicolai said he was happy to officially pass the class on to us. So he did.
A few months later, a friend who had taught an 8 week course in a local town and asked me if I wanted to take over as he was off to Argentina to get married. Caroline was unavailable on the evening concerned so I asked Mrs. Bear to join me and we've been teaching together since.
While I'm here - I'd like to say that Nicolai Vigneswarren was (and still is) a massive source of inspiration for me and I'd like to publicly thank him for encouraging and supporting me through my first salsa teaching days.
"Er, yeah, why don't you teach it"
The class went ok despite me being terribly nervous, and a few weeks later Nicolai asked if I could fill in again the following week. Over the next few months this happened more and more frequently and when nicolai was present he kindly allowed me to help him and Caroline and we'd often do a "half each" double act. A few months later, Caroline and I were pretty much running most evenings between us, at which point Nicolai said he was happy to officially pass the class on to us. So he did.
A few months later, a friend who had taught an 8 week course in a local town and asked me if I wanted to take over as he was off to Argentina to get married. Caroline was unavailable on the evening concerned so I asked Mrs. Bear to join me and we've been teaching together since.
While I'm here - I'd like to say that Nicolai Vigneswarren was (and still is) a massive source of inspiration for me and I'd like to publicly thank him for encouraging and supporting me through my first salsa teaching days.
I am still not a pro instructor, but I imagine I will be someday, and here is the path I am taking...
I've been a part of our university salsa club since it was founded a little over a year ago. We knew at that point that our main instructor would be leaving this year, so I paid special attention to how instructors explain things so that I would be ready to take over when the time came.
I have also done a few 'private lessons' in the last few months to teach and help friends of mine so I can get more teaching experience.
I've now been teaching a group intermediate class for about 6 weeks, and while I'm not the best teacher in the world or anything, students generally pick up the patterns pretty well, and I think they have a good time. Just being a 'teacher' now has done wonders for my confidence while I social dance too.
The moral of the story...even if you don't have a university club or anything like that...there are opportunities everywhere if you are willing to teach for free...I've even thought about putting up posters in my building for free dance lessons.
I've been a part of our university salsa club since it was founded a little over a year ago. We knew at that point that our main instructor would be leaving this year, so I paid special attention to how instructors explain things so that I would be ready to take over when the time came.
I have also done a few 'private lessons' in the last few months to teach and help friends of mine so I can get more teaching experience.
I've now been teaching a group intermediate class for about 6 weeks, and while I'm not the best teacher in the world or anything, students generally pick up the patterns pretty well, and I think they have a good time. Just being a 'teacher' now has done wonders for my confidence while I social dance too.
The moral of the story...even if you don't have a university club or anything like that...there are opportunities everywhere if you are willing to teach for free...I've even thought about putting up posters in my building for free dance lessons.
azzey
Son Montuno
Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! Still waiting to hear from Flex, Lara, Terrence2, rjoe and anyone else who teaches or has taught in the past...
Flex, you can change the names, places and details to mask your true identity if you want. :lol: or you can just talk about how it felt to change from dancer to instructor.
Flex, you can change the names, places and details to mask your true identity if you want. :lol: or you can just talk about how it felt to change from dancer to instructor.
sagitta
Changui
For a while, a couple years back, I was a teacher's assistant and then would instruct the class when she couldn't make it.
Then I was part of a rueda group. Some people expressed an interest in learning rueda and using those moves to partnered salsa dancing. They noticed that I did that so kept on bugging em about it. So I took the intermediate/ advanced beginner rueda class one person was teaching and had a separate session where I taught them how to convert rueda into partnered casino dancing.
Then I've done privates for two people who really liked the way I danced and wanted to learn from me, even though I suggested others.
Not a formal instructor or even advertised myself. If an opportunity presents itself I do it and leave it at that, for now.
Then I was part of a rueda group. Some people expressed an interest in learning rueda and using those moves to partnered salsa dancing. They noticed that I did that so kept on bugging em about it. So I took the intermediate/ advanced beginner rueda class one person was teaching and had a separate session where I taught them how to convert rueda into partnered casino dancing.
Then I've done privates for two people who really liked the way I danced and wanted to learn from me, even though I suggested others.
Not a formal instructor or even advertised myself. If an opportunity presents itself I do it and leave it at that, for now.
azzey said:
LOL - OK.
I haven't entered this thread as I'm not a 'professional' salsa instructor. Strictly amateur, strictly unpaid, strictly occasional and usually reluctant! How things came about? - well, I had minimal dance background prior to salsa and found it a difficult challenge, but great fun. It took a while to become moderately competent and I guess after a couple of years I got seriously interested in issues of leading and following, and what principles (if any!) lay within them. As soon as I began to discern some principles I began to spot inconsistencies - some of which I considered errors or important omissions - in the way different individuals taught them, so I also became interested in observing teachers and what/how they taught their classes. I guess you might call me a salsa analyst LOL.
Then I got to trying out some of these things on followers in the margins of club nights, and got very positive feedback. I suppose gradually my dancing was improving at the same time, though I'm not a natural mover (lot of hard work gone into trying to rectify that!) and I'll never think of myself as potentially a 'professional dancer.' I developed a wide repertoire of moves (from attending so many classes LOL) and a reputation among followers for being able to lead them clearly through an interesting and fun dance. So then I was asked to teach occasionally. Occasionally I agreed. I am reluctant to get into any regular commitment, or to be paid. I do it for interest & pleasure and I don't want to be bound in any way. Sometimes if I see a nice person or couple who is clearly very taken with salsa, has decent rhythm and wants to improve, I'll volunteer a few privates. I know at least one other fellow round here who feels the same way. He's a very good lead and a good teacher when he can be induced to take a class - but he's not for hire either.
Of course, the above may be entirely fiction and my real name might be Marchant Birch. You decide!
Seriously - Marchant is a great dancer and teacher but I've never known him to offer the depth of insight that you frequently share with us here on SF.Flex said:
The Salsa Life
In a nutshell, my partner and I were pestered into it. In a good way! We would simply got out to have fun in the UK and abroad and then repeated got asked for lessons. The last straw came one day when a new Salsa band had their debut and we were asked to dance specially as part of their act. They played and we dance and afterwards we were deluged with requests and decided to give it a go.
It was not easy but we soon got addicted to seeing absolute beginners transformed into fine dancers.
As a professional salsa instructor, life is pretty tough. I have seen many very fine instructors give it all up and there are too many rubbish ones springing up all over the place. Not too many people recognize the difference between a fine dance and a good instructor. One does not equate to the other.
It is a very hard life when the music stops and the bills fall on the mat, but I would not give it up now.
In a nutshell, my partner and I were pestered into it. In a good way! We would simply got out to have fun in the UK and abroad and then repeated got asked for lessons. The last straw came one day when a new Salsa band had their debut and we were asked to dance specially as part of their act. They played and we dance and afterwards we were deluged with requests and decided to give it a go.
It was not easy but we soon got addicted to seeing absolute beginners transformed into fine dancers.
As a professional salsa instructor, life is pretty tough. I have seen many very fine instructors give it all up and there are too many rubbish ones springing up all over the place. Not too many people recognize the difference between a fine dance and a good instructor. One does not equate to the other.
It is a very hard life when the music stops and the bills fall on the mat, but I would not give it up now.
TheBear_CanDanceToo said:Seriously - Marchant is a great dancer and teacher but I've never known him to offer the depth of insight that you frequently share with us here on SF.
Well, Bear, thank you for a mighty handsome compliment, which I don't deserve. There are many here who offer very interesting observations, questions, insights and perspectives.
I have theories about dancers and teachers, one of which is that really good, natural dancers swiftly become very proficient at salsa and can lead / follow brilliantly - but they can't often explain exactly how they do it. Or they've been doing it so long they've forgotten how. Toilers like me have to puzzle it out and it remains fresh - often raw LOL - in the mind.
On Marchant: I rate him very highly. Perhaps you've taken his classes mainly at congresses, where the ambience can be more remote, but certainly in his regular and long-standing classes where he gets to know students' capabilities he offers very good insights indeed. And when partnered by the likes of Miriam or the exquisite mover Davina there is no better value in the UK. Outstanding.
I am continually amazed at Marchant's perennial enthusiasm and richness of material. You can see him exploring new variations on favourite moves all the time. Right now I am looking at how to lead one of his recent moves. Of course, he can lead it, and so can his class once it is demonstrated. But leading it freestyle on an unsuspecting follower is quite another matter, so whenever I get hold of some patient female I am trying different aspects of it. My goal is to be able to lead it most every time on any intermediate follower. Some principle may emerge.....
I am not a professional instructor. I prefer to keep my real job and keep Salsa as a passion. I only teach privates to people that ask. I don't advertise and I only teach On2. I only teach followers. I do not teach leaders (unless it is a couple) because although I technically know how to follow I have never physically done it. Since I live in an On1 city I don't teach that often.
I do not consider myself a professional level instructor though.
Technically, my basics, turn patterns and understanding of energy and flow of momentum are excellent. Footwork is very good. I am good at breaking things down and teaching since I taught Martial Arts for many years and I am always teaching people in my job (engineer).
My spins need more work. Doubles are good but triples are 50/50. Body movement is OK but plenty of room for improvement. Dancing to the music is only at the beginning stages. I feel these areas need to be significantly better before I would even consider being a professional instructor.
Girls that have done privates with me like how I teach and always want me to teach group classes and put myself out there. I have been reluctant in the past but recently have been considering it because I would like to see the On2 social dancing get better. Here, On2 is limited to performance teams. This would also give me more people to dance with at the clubs.
I do not consider myself a professional level instructor though.
Technically, my basics, turn patterns and understanding of energy and flow of momentum are excellent. Footwork is very good. I am good at breaking things down and teaching since I taught Martial Arts for many years and I am always teaching people in my job (engineer).
My spins need more work. Doubles are good but triples are 50/50. Body movement is OK but plenty of room for improvement. Dancing to the music is only at the beginning stages. I feel these areas need to be significantly better before I would even consider being a professional instructor.
Girls that have done privates with me like how I teach and always want me to teach group classes and put myself out there. I have been reluctant in the past but recently have been considering it because I would like to see the On2 social dancing get better. Here, On2 is limited to performance teams. This would also give me more people to dance with at the clubs.
Flex - you go for it!
The best teachers are also great learners. You certainly have what it takes to become a good professional, if you ever choose to. Find someone you admire and work under their wing, then get out there and join the brave few. You're half way there already.
The best teachers are also great learners. You certainly have what it takes to become a good professional, if you ever choose to. Find someone you admire and work under their wing, then get out there and join the brave few. You're half way there already.