Dancing Alone

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esa negrita...

I'm a 25 year old female and I've decided to switch my workout to 40 minuntes of dancing salsa every day. I only know a few steps and basic turns and am wondering how I can get better dancing alone. I've gone through level 1 of the Quick and Dirty guide to Salsa DVD and go to a local Salsa night once a week. Any tips? Is it possible to improve dancing alone?

Also, after going through the DVD and running out to try out my newfound moves, I discovered that learning "routines" on a DVD and dancing with actual salseros (I live in SoFlo, so we have a lot of Cubans, Puertoricans and other Hispanic nationalities) seem to be two different skill sets. Should I give up on the DVDs? I'm more interested in social dancing than, say, competition, but I still want to be very good at it one day. Thanks all!
 
Hi Esa Negrita! Welcome to Salsa Forums. :D To be honest, since Salsa really is a partner dance, it is best that you learn with a partner in my opinion. They best way to remedy this is to find a good instructor with group classes in your area. To me, DVDs are good but as a supplemental training tool, not as your primary source of training as you have found already. Again, welcome. Happy to have you here. :D


Anyone else? :)
 
I LOVE to dance alone, some of the greatest choreographers in salsa love to dance alone (Frankie Martinez, Juan Matos, Grisselle Ponce, and many many others) But their secret to doing it is not such a big secret

It's done by really listening to the music and going with some instincts on how your body wants to move. Pick instruments or sets of instruments (drums, clave, bells, brass, bass guitar...) to emphasize with your arms, your hips, your torso, your footwork, your shoulders, and then just dance, flow, groove. It can be quite a workout depending..

Exposure to a wide variety of dance styles will also help guide you if you're not comfortable at first. When I dance solo I draw from my expereinces with hip hop, afro cuban dances (rumba, orisha and santeria movements), west african dance, brazillian samba and more. So the DVDs are good exposure too, watching others shows what is possible

And over time you come up with more ideas or favorites that maybe based on what you see other dancers do, or images in your mind or whatever

Being good at dancing alone will also make it possible to do shines without having to learn and remember too many steps from a class while partner dancing, it also helps you look confident and natural in any dance setting
 
I totally agree with Africana on the aspects of dancing alone, it is essential to the development of your dancing however, if you're expecting to dance with a partner, it is equally important to practice the specifics and the mechanics of partner work. Let me also add and this is totally my opinion, most (not all) of those who are masters at shines and solo work are a bit to be desired when it comes to partnerships. So it really depends on what you're looking for and desire in your own dancing. 8)
 
peachexploration said:
Let me also add and this is totally my opinion, most (not all) of those who are masters at shines and solo work are a bit to be desired when it comes to partnerships. So it really depends on what you're looking for and desire in your own dancing. 8)
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I think it's more a personality issue and and level of the partners (at getting the music) rather than a characteristic of "most" solo dancers. Again, there are many examples of good soloists who also excel at partnering.
 
Just go with what resources you have now, practice the basics, become comfortable with the music. Everything else flows from there
 
Re: Thanks!

esa negrita... said:
You all have given me some great direction...now I just have to find a guy that's 6'3"+ and I'm good to go! :D
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6'3"+ guy? Good luck finding one. I think even a 5'10"+ guy might work.
 
Re: Thanks!

esa negrita... said:
You all have given me some great direction...now I just have to find a guy that's 6'3"+ and I'm good to go! :D
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Glad we could help, Esa Negrita. I'm sure others will have more thoughts on this issue. Stay tuned.... :)
 
I love dancing alone AND with a partner--and I find both things add to one another. I've learnt a lot from DVDs (of which I have 14) and thousands of video clips, and I find I'm able to put in many many things learnt from solo moves into partner dancing. In fact I find, at a dance party, this is what makes my dancing look different.

I think that DVDs will help with partner work, but obviously only to fine tune and supplement it or give you new moves. I've tried out, for eg, a new move just going through the ladies part of it, and then have easily taught it to my partner who has less time to spend on learning salsa. Plus, revisiting basics and known moves all also helps--even helps you to imrpovise on them later on the dance floor because they now come so easily.

All the shines and solo work can also give you great material for freestyle dancing, or putting in a bit of extra flavor into partner dancing. Eg, you get sent off on a free turn or two and are not holding hands, you stop to do a tiny shine-let before getting back to your partner for the next step.

The DVDs have one other real nice aspect--they carefully teac you styling. There are some really nice ones I've used for ladies latin styling.

Maybe I'll write a detailed review of these.......

Mala

Why walk when you can dance
 
peachexploration said:
Hi Esa Negrita! Welcome to Salsa Forums. :D To be honest, since Salsa really is a partner dance, it is best that you learn with a partner in my opinion. They best way to remedy this is to find a good instructor with group classes in your area. To me, DVDs are good but as a supplemental training tool, not as your primary source of training as you have found already. Again, welcome. Happy to have you here. :D
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Ditto! :D
 
I love to practice at my local community center...they have mirrors all around, and are ususally really nice about letting me play my music too. It can actually be a little intimidating to watch yourself at first...at least it was for me....because you can see when you look silly! But that's great....you can watch yourself without worrying about looking vain, and you learn what you look great doing and what you should practice more.
 
dancing alone at a venue

Searched for dancing alone.

Great thread. If I may add another element.

Who dances alone at venues sometimes?

Generally between partner dances whilst waiting to find a partner?
Practicing shines?

I noticed a lot of this in Singapore (practicing shines) and VERY well received and encouraged!

Here, I find one night there are few followers to dance with thus I mess around at the back of the club by myself a bit before asking the same girls to dance. (do not want to overload). I tell the girls that I will be doing my own thing and to grab me whenever the would like to dance again (I know most of them as not many that night).

Anyway, first felt SUPER uncomfortable but just LOVE moving to the music. Really fun to practice but weird in front of others. I try to always remember:

‘dance like no one is watching’

Funny stories:

- One getting stared at and sent bad vibes like I am a weirdo. Made me feel REALLY unwelcome. But also motivated me to LIVE for me and not let the fickle people in this world hold me back like their closed minds limit them
- Two. Last Sunday having a guy come up to me and say ‘AWESOME’ can you show me. And so I showed him some basics and he loved it. Maybe he starts now. Hope so
- Three: Same night. Some dude came up to me staring all the way in a steal your energy kind of stare. Felt REALLY uncomfortable/violated. Then he started making the cuckoo sign with his finger and his head and pointing to me like I was crazy. The best part was I just ignored him and danced like no one was watching. LOVE THAT!!! Such a gift from dancing
o Oh, later went to the toilet to find that dude passed out on the floor from drinking WAY too much. Told the manager to help him out but must admit, did laugh a little at the scenario of which one of us looked a little more silly
o I did not know he was super drunk when he made the cuckoo sign to me so took it a lot more seriously. Then he spoke (slurred) something unintelligible which showed him was VERY drunk

Any stories guys? Any thoughts on this?

* I must admit, it would be cool to dance in front of a mirror at home/in private but I spend the time at the dance venue so why not make the most of it I say :) :) :)
 
Good for you, Smiling28! Don't let the drunken haters get you down or spoil your vibe! They're just too insecure to even try to learn it themselves, and therefore are trying to ruin your good time. And every moment that you're practicing/dancing is one more step you're improving even more. Meanwhile they're not progressing at all.

One of my best friends cuts loose like this. Just starts moving his body like a madman when he hears a fav song (not necessarily salsa). Props to him as he seems to attract a lot of female attention when he does this (e.g. at a wedding reception back in May). :)
 
you're right smiling, there's a huge amount of people in Singapore that dance on their own.

People don't seem to do it at all here, maybe I should start a trend :)

Only catch is sometimes it means you get asked to dance for the song that you are happily shining to, not that I should complain I guess, but as was just said you often shine to songs you really like and the person that asks you may not be the dancer you'd pick for that song....
 
Geez, don't you guys ever need to rest between songs?

If I'm not partner dancing I am sitting DOWN. I can dance on my own anytime.
 
smiling28 said:
Who dances alone at venues sometimes?
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I do -- I'm passed caring. :lol:
There are even times when a really great song comes on and I would rather dance alone than have a mediocre dance with an uninspiring partner... (I wouldn't say no if someone still asked, but I avoid eye contact and move around dancing to make it hard for guys to ask :roll: )

noobster said:
Geez, don't you guys ever need to rest between songs?
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I don't :roll: -- as long as I've got ready access to water, I would happily dance without any break. I don't like sitting down unless my feet hurt desperately -- when I sit I cool down too quickly, and when I've cooled down, I'm slow warming up again.
 
I practice a lot in front of my mirror ( I got 3 of them next to each other- for this purpose) it is hard to practice without a partner but sometimes is the only way to get some learning done, and with the time you get better at visualizing and being able to do shadow dancing as a friend of my calls it. it sure works too do it enough times and you can learn a whole pattern that you can later use in the club.

About dancing by myself in the club I have tried and while I feel weird a bit, I hope to get completely over it, I think as my solo dancing skills improve then I will feel better after all who cares about the people who may thinking I am cookoo :)
 
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