any famous dancers that you think are extremely over rated?

Chris_Yannick said:
Turn patterns.

Here is a clip which contains a few things I learned by watching Terry.


The move starting at 0:30s. He has Magna in some kind of neck wrap. He unwraps her, but does a very quick hesitation move to have her face him, does a pizza turn at 0:32s (a nice touch is him using the back of his left hand against her forearm to guide her through the turn), switches his hand (twice!) behind his back, does a half turn to the right, moves out of the slot and gives her a free spin to end the sequence.

That whole sequence is choke full of these subtle cues, which are very leadable and smooth when done right.

A lot of moves I see Terry do are misdirections, which I started to use intuitively in my social dancing. I did not think to learn his patterns in a canned way, which is how most teachers teach patterns. I realized I was using his moves automatically because they are so intuitive.

Check out the sequence at 2:18. It starts with a right-to-right double spin and ends in a free spin (led very well by Terry), but what Magna does at 2:21 is AWESOME. Instead of spinning mindlessly down the slot as most followers would do, she executes genius footwork to dissipate her momentum. You see them afterward share a laugh and even Terry is impressed by what she did.

But my favorite move in this video from Terry starts from 1:24 to 1:28ish. It's an epic wind up, followed by an absolutely freaking ridiculous traveling turn with tons of elements I can't even begin to dissect.

A lot of the big moves require the leader to be moving around the follower constantly, else there just won't be enough momentum necessary for those big finishes. This is what Terry excels at. He generates so much momentum and power. But even if you tone down the power level and keep moving around the follower, you can still execute the same moves, and that is what makes all of these moves leadable.

There's a lot more in the video, but would take me eons to break everything down.

I'm not saying this is a good social dancing video. It's full of mistakes. They stop many times mid-dance to reset. But with two great dancers who are obviously having fun and experimenting and testing their limits.
Click to expand...
She is a great partner for him. Her musicality is elite and she adds alot to the dance...
 
First time I watched Terry live back in 2012. One of those dances was with Magna and I was really amazed with the dance. Someone actually recorded that dance, I found the clip somewhere and posted it here.

After that, I watched him on 5-6 congress parties during last years, probably something like 20 dances in total, with usual congress crowd. Unfortunately, out of those, only 1-2 were a kind of nice, other were really pain to watch ... confused followers shifted all over the place and at the end, with a kind of happy face that they did a kind of well by surviving the dance ...

All other megacelebrities had way better communication with an average congress follower
 
vit said:
After that, I watched him on 5-6 congress parties during last years, probably something like 20 dances in total, with usual congress crowd. Unfortunately, out of those, only 1-2 were a kind of nice, other were really pain to watch ... confused followers shifted all over the place and at the end, with a kind of happy face that they did a kind of well by surviving the dance ...
Click to expand...

He's hounded from every direction at every congress he goes to. There is the main Salsa room, and then there's the Terry zone. I have never seen another salsa celebrity given as much of a berth on the dance floor as Terry. He also has the longest queue of followers waiting to dance with him.

When he dances with a really advanced follower with whom he has good chemistry, that's when the sparks fly.
 
Again this is a subjective thread. To my sensibilities, the others are more pleasing. To me it is a complete dish of creamy, crunchy and spicy.
Terry is like pita chips dipped in Habanero juice. I love spice and crunch but after eating that for 3 minutes I'm done for the day.
 
vit said:
First time I watched Terry live back in 2012. One of those dances was with Magna and I was really amazed with the dance. Someone actually recorded that dance, I found the clip somewhere and posted it here.

After that, I watched him on 5-6 congress parties during last years, probably something like 20 dances in total, with usual congress crowd. Unfortunately, out of those, only 1-2 were a kind of nice, other were really pain to watch ... confused followers shifted all over the place and at the end, with a kind of happy face that they did a kind of well by surviving the dance ...

All other megacelebrities had way better communication with an average congress follower
Click to expand...
Not a mega celebrity but Edson from Montreal led my fairly large (but still a light follow) friend through a crazy dance with hand tricks and triple spins and a full 360 rotated coca cola. She didn't know how how he did it lol. He is one of those "leave only one of 2 options available" leads.
 
Gumercindo said:
Attaca, Mouaze and Oliver, OTOH dance with a much better flow imo. They are very smooth, don't do things that are super complicated and I can typically pick up a bunch of stuff from their dances that I can incorporate into my dancing (either pattern or some stylistic moves).
Click to expand...
.

None of them probably socially dance in a month as much as Terry dance styles in a single night. At very small festivals too I seen him dance four or five hours non stop. Terry can be smooth, musical and engaging, when he wants.

I think I have ever really liked only one video of Terry’s from all that have been posted on the forums. I am not a fan of his overpowering pattern centric dancing putting followers through grindmill that is often seen in the videos. If any lesser person than Terry would donthatbtomfollowers, they will soon find many followers rejecting them. But I have seen him at enough festivals to say that he is one of the most approachable stars and is always social dancing all through the night. He is a great dancer too. The videos capture too much of terrying unfortunately.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
He's hounded from every direction at every congress he goes to. There is the main Salsa room, and then there's the Terry zone. I have never seen another salsa celebrity given as much of a berth on the dance floor as Terry. He also has the longest queue of followers waiting to dance with him.
Click to expand...

Exactly that. He is way overrated by followers who pile up to dance with him, most of them ending looking like sh* during the dance. Others are not nearly that overrated and don't make that much followers looking like that

I'm not talking about his dancing qualities
 
vit said:
Exactly that. He is way overrated by followers who pile up to dance with him, most of them ending looking like sh* during the dance. Others are not nearly that overrated and don't make that much followers looking like that
Click to expand...

Most followers who line up are pretty low skill in general. I would say out of roughly ten followers who line up, may be one has decent enough skills to follow him. May be one in twenty can really dance with him. I have heard directly from some followers (who at most generous I would say are intermediate level) that they didn't enjoy dances they had with him.

At festivals I see dancers, both men and women trying to get dances with people (stars and sought after dancers) way above their skill levels. I may be in minority, but I think it is better for people to dance within up to two levels (above or below) of their own skills. People have tendency to overestimate their dancing skills.
 
Last edited:
Offbeat said:
.

None of them probably socially dance in a month as much as Terry dance styles in a single night. At very small festivals too I seen him dance four or five hours non stop. Terry can be smooth, musical and engaging, when he wants.

I think I have ever really liked only one video of Terry’s from all that have been posted on the forums. I am not a fan of his overpowering pattern centric dancing putting followers through grindmill that is often seen in the videos. If any lesser person than Terry would donthatbtomfollowers, they will soon find many followers rejecting them. But I have seen him at enough festivals to say that he is one of the most approachable stars and is always social dancing all through the night. He is a great dancer too. The videos capture too much of terrying unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I think you're spot on about this. This forum loves watching the Terry pattern blitzkrieg dances with follows that can be frenetic yet mesmerizing to watch. I'm sure he has plenty of dances that are much less frenetic and (for me) more appealing.

Agree on approachability. My wife attended a DC bachata congress about 10 years ago and he was one of the performers. She met him back stage and talked about how friendly and approachable he was.
 
Offbeat said:
I may be in minority, but I think it is better for people to dance within up to two levels (above or below) of their own skills.
Click to expand...

We talking about at festivals or in general? Those people lining up at festivals are there to dance with celebs. It might be their only chance to do so, so why not? It's part of the congress experience.

Personally, I dislike congress culture because you are right. People do overestimate their abilities, which lead them to act more snooty than usual since they feel entitled to dancing with great dancers only. I'd rather stay at home and dance with the humble folk.

I'm still open to dance internationally, but I want to do it more at the local level. Every local scene has its own pulse and I like getting to know it
 
"Those people lining up at festivals are there to dance with celebs. It might be their only chance to do so, so why not? It's part of the congress experience."

Very true! I feel the same way myself since the opportunity to dance with a salsa celebrity is extremely rare for some of us.
 
Well, one can pay a private with them as well ... it's more expensive, but you get more dancing, feedback etc as well ... I didn't take any privates in salsa, but did some in WCS and many in BR and it was always worth the price ...

Nothing particularly wrong with lining up to dance with better dancers either. Just that - if I were a follower, I wouldn't line up to dance with terry, but with some other, for instance ETjr, FM, Mouaze, Jose ... (that were also on some of those festival parties) ... which is of course just my individual preference ...
 
Terry is like playing a game on "impossible" level. You can play a game on easy all your life, or test yourself. I can see why a lot of girls want to dance with him, because they want to see if they can 'hang' and play at a higher level.

The gripe with Terry (in this weird corner of the salsa world) is not that he's overrated, but that he is 'not good' at adjusting to the level of his follower. To which I disagree.

I think Terry is giving what those endless lines of followers want. The challenge. That's the role he plays.

Because he can still dance like this:


Slow, relaxed, and even weak at some points where his signals fall below threshold. He understood Jorjet doesn't want that, especially not in platform stiletto heels.

It is easier to connect at a low, relaxed level, IMHO. Girls want to see if they can connect at 100 mph. Naturally, most don't.
 
Yeah, it's that epic failed dance we discussed a year or two ago ....

I understand that he is giving the girls a challenge (I don't mean this clip but overall) ... if I were him, I woud probably do the same, trying to prevent the queue to get too long ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top