Am I The Only One That Gets Annoyed Salsa/Non-Salsa Dancers Say Salsa is "Easy" To Learn?

O

OneDanceToRullThemAll

Changui
I mean, in my opinion, Salsa is one of the MOST -- if not the most - difficult dance to learn, because to be good at it, you need to be good at:

Complex Salsa Turn Patters
Various Kinds of Basics (full weight transfer, lazy steps, etc.)
Pachanga
Afro-Cuban (Rumba & Santeria)
Some Cabaret (if you perform)
Athletic (if you perform and compete)
...which means some training in Jazz, Ballet, etc. will be useful
Body Isolations...

just to mention a few...and not to mention that there are at least 5 major Salsa styles, and each of them have known variations under them...

If you take timing, musicality, leading and following technique, athleticism, etc. and take it to an advanced level, I find that Salsa demands more than most partner work dances in my opinion.

Not saying that the rest of the dances are easy either...of course.
 
If a non-salsa dancer says that I'll get annoyed: Why don't you dance salsa?

If a good salsa dancer says that as encouragement I'll be smiling: But, are you kidding? Show/teach me! Tell me your secret.

If a bad salsa dancers says that I'll get annoyed: If it's that easy, why don't you dance any better?
 
With regard to social dancing I won't say salsa is the most difficult. Each dance has it's own challenges. Hard to compare. ;)
 
True enough, Winston, but for example, if you take on Ballroom dance (let's say Jive), both dances will have to learn (just to streamline it for social dancing at a high level):

a) Turn patterns - how would you compare the difficulty and complexity of current Salsa turn patterns vs Jive?
b) Same applies to shines with a)
c) Would you have to learn Afro-Cuban or Pachanga as the music changes to these beats?
e) Leading and following also takes on a whole meaning to Salsa as there are 13 instruments in the Salsa orchestra, and although one simply follow the percussive instruments; you could just as easily dance to the lyrical ones wherein you will have to follow or lead the music with a kind of partner-work improv where the dance is beyond 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, and can come in and out of that structure?
d) The degree of how all of these are mixed together in the social dance? To be even good at Pachanga, let alone Afro-Cuban, already is quite challenging by its own right, as they are challenging dances by themselves.

Even when you compete, you will need to train just like everybody else with core strength, flexibility, aerials, etc., all done in one of the fastest music in partner-work dance!

I am not trying to put down any dance...I just think people fail to realize this. For example, an advanced follower will never be able be surprised with a Bachata turn pattern because most Bachata turn patterns are borrowed from Salsa, and at that speed, it is unlikely that she will find that as challenging as advanced Dominican Footwork steps that she wants to match...
 
OneDanceToRullThemAll said:
I mean, in my opinion, Salsa is one of the MOST -- if not the most - difficult dance to learn, because to be good at it, you need to be good at:

Complex Salsa Turn Patters
Various Kinds of Basics (full weight transfer, lazy steps, etc.)
Pachanga
Afro-Cuban (Rumba & Santeria)
Some Cabaret (if you perform)
Athletic (if you perform and compete)
...which means some training in Jazz, Ballet, etc. will be useful
Body Isolations...

just to mention a few...and not to mention that there are at least 5 major Salsa styles, and each of them have known variations under them...

If you take timing, musicality, leading and following technique, athleticism, etc. and take it to an advanced level, I find that Salsa demands more than most partner work dances in my opinion.

Not saying that the rest of the dances are easy either...of course.
Click to expand...


Its not the most difficult to learn, BUT, probably is promoted as such, by many. .

T/Arg. has as much complexicity in its basic structure, and has various dance styles ,and different styles of music within the genre; recognising the differences can be very difficult.

Teaching, both , my quicker successes are always with salsa. A very limited amount of variety, may get one out dancing fairly quickly, not so with T/Arg.
 
OneDanceToRullThemAll said:
True enough, Winston, but for example, if you take on Ballroom dance (let's say Jive), both dances will have to learn (just to streamline it for social dancing at a high level):

a) Turn patterns - how would you compare the difficulty and complexity of current Salsa turn patterns vs Jive?
b) Same applies to shines with a)
c) Would you have to learn Afro-Cuban or Pachanga as the music changes to these beats?
e) Leading and following also takes on a whole meaning to Salsa as there are 13 instruments in the Salsa orchestra, and although one simply follow the percussive instruments; you could just as easily dance to the lyrical ones wherein you will have to follow or lead the music with a kind of partner-work improv where the dance is beyond 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, and can come in and out of that structure?
d) The degree of how all of these are mixed together in the social dance? To be even good at Pachanga, let alone Afro-Cuban, already is quite challenging by its own right, as they are challenging dances by themselves.

Even when you compete, you will need to train just like everybody else with core strength, flexibility, aerials, etc., all done in one of the fastest music in partner-work dance!

I am not trying to put down any dance...I just think people fail to realize this. For example, an advanced follower will never be able be surprised with a Bachata turn pattern because most Bachata turn patterns are borrowed from Salsa, and at that speed, it is unlikely that she will find that as challenging as advanced Dominican Footwork steps that she wants to match...
Click to expand...

There are not always 13 instruments in a Salsa orch. Salsa is played by small groups and even quartets .

And, pretty much ALL your salsa variations come from other dances, particularly american style " swing ". Have you ever watched how complex WCS is ?. It has quite a range of music styles and speeds .
 
Nah.. I don't get annoyed. It may be an opportunity to educate. Just say... "here... let me show you the basic step" Now you do it:rofl:
 
salsa is not easy at all! i had a friend quit her class in just 1 week! all she told me was " ima just go with the flow forget all that" haha
 
terence said:
Teaching, both , my quicker successes are always with salsa. A very limited amount of variety, may get one out dancing fairly quickly, not so with T/Arg.
Click to expand...
I'd have to agree - its much easier to get new people to a level where they can dance socially in salsa than tango.

Makes me think the initial statement isn't as simple as it might appear. I think salsa is one of the more accessible dances in that for most people it doesn't take too long to get the basic steps and to a level they can dance socially. However, I think that can fool some people into thinking it is a simple dance. I'd guess most dances are hard to get *really* good at, but the steep bit of the learning curve may in different places.
 
I would say that most fields of human endeavour can be taken as far as you want to take them. Anything is hard when there is someone who has dedicated their life to the art to measure yourself against.
 
To answer a bit more seriously…I've heard this before actually. It did annoy me somewhat. But I did try to explain a bit about the dance.

The thing is that there are many people out there enjoying salsa dance that don't really dance. This could very well give the appearance that salsa is easy.

Winston said:
If a non-salsa dancer says that I'll get annoyed: Why don't you dance salsa?

If a good salsa dancer says that as encouragement I'll be smiling: But, are you kidding? Show/teach me! Tell me your secret.

If a bad salsa dancers says that I'll get annoyed: If it's that easy, why don't you dance any better?
Click to expand...
 
If there is something in the world I am not annoyed about, it is about trivial matters like this.

Like I care what another person thinks of something I like :rofl:
 
There are different aspects of the dance that have varying levels of complexity. Because salsa has an eight-count basic (a "cycle") and because the partner connection is less complex, it is relatively "easier" to get started and feel like you're dancing. In a dance like Argentine tango where there is no basic, the connection is more complex because there are so many more movement options in a given point in the music.

Further along in the learning process, I believe the eight-count basic structure of salsa makes improvising within it more complex than improvising musically in Argentine tango, but it seems like most salsa dancers prioritize learning various turn patterns instead of learning how to improvise the basics and extend that into turn patterns that are truly creative. I'm not saying that turn patterns aren't complex and difficult to learn, but it requires more muscle memorization than intuition and intelligence when the turn patterns are imposed on the connection and the music instead of arising from them.
 
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