Dancing with your eyes closed
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toan-hoang
Son
Al Pacino's Scent of a Woman...
You can dance with your eyes closed socially, walk to a quiet part of the floor, assess you space, and then try to keep yourself as controlled as possible, and pray that people don't run into you
You can dance with your eyes closed socially, walk to a quiet part of the floor, assess you space, and then try to keep yourself as controlled as possible, and pray that people don't run into you
Yes and I also lead in A/Tango with eyes close. The line of dance along with the temp of music makes it predictable to lead with eyes closed in A/Tango.
Can't do the same in Salsa social dancing. Even if if I am able to lead (or follow) with eyes closed, you lose spatial awareness of people dancing around you and where they are likely to move next. If it is completely empty floor, that is different.
Flying Donkey
Changui
I kind of like it when the follower closes their eyes. It kind of implies they feel safe with and confident in my lead.
Huh?
I find that thought quite strange, as in rumba you have very little contact with the partner, and have to respond in split second timing to your partner's movements...
This is a fun exercise to improve leading and following abilities, if you have the space to do it. I tried it once, leader (me) eyes closed, then follower (woman) eyes closed, and then both eyes closed, each was in 1 minute intervals with a medium speed song. We did it during a practice session with lots of space around us. She was able to follow 90% of my moves, also keep in mind we dance wth each other a lot so she is very familiar with the way I lead. I will probably try this with somebody I don't dance with too often and see how that goes.
I would never do this during social dancing, too many accidents can happen.
I would never do this during social dancing, too many accidents can happen.
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
He is referring to ballroom rumba which is called Bolero in Cuba and is a form of Son. Closing eyes to guaguanco or yambu makes almost as little sense as closing eyes to capoeira - someone could get hurt.
I have never done it in salsa (except once when the instructor asked me to in order to demonstrate to the class that with a good lead, the follower should be able to follow with her eyes closed; I followed fine but it was pretty disorienting).
I do it occasionally in Argentine tango when dancing in the close embrace hold--it heightens the follower's awareness of the lead and the music, as you are 100% focused on the music and the leader's signals. As long as you trust the leader, it gives a very pleasant feel to the tango.
It works well for a salsa follower to. My partner is a beginner and she's greatly benefitted from it. Now things are really getting better. She tended to backlead, but now it's better and she's learning to allow herself to be led.
Precisely.
Lately dancing with eyes closed is a problem to me. It seems I'm impolite. So I try to open them an look at my partner in an appropriate manner.
Dance for me is an experience of motion, touch and listening first and visual later. So I often close my eyes or just scan surroundings for danger. (I'm a lead) The better the dance the less mental capacity I have for watching. Also the more beautiful the partner the more distracting it is to watch. Women are mean here and distract you on purpose.
Dance for me is an experience of motion, touch and listening first and visual later. So I often close my eyes or just scan surroundings for danger. (I'm a lead) The better the dance the less mental capacity I have for watching. Also the more beautiful the partner the more distracting it is to watch. Women are mean here and distract you on purpose.
sagitta
Changui
A little late, but yes - ballroom rumba. Sort of mixed ballroom with street...
wonderwoman
Son
I tend to close my eyes and/or look down. It causes me to miss leads, with guys that just offer their hand as opposed to taking mine, so I've learned to keep them open and watch more. I guess I close them when I am comfortable with a guys leads and don't expect any surprises. But, I think the biggest problem with not keeping my eyes open, is that I look drunk or high or retarded in photos on facebook the next day. Just sayin.
Following with eyes close in Salsa on a crowded floor can be dangerous ? I honestly don't think that Salsa lends itself to dancing with eyes closed. Tango and Kizomba (and Bachata to a degree) are the ones where a follower can do that. Been dancing Kizomba for past 3 nights and almost all followers dance it with their eyes closed.
kbitten
Son Montuno
Although i did very few tango classes , we don close our eyes while dancing..we just look down, and that appears we are closing..
Dont like dancing kizomba and we dance zouk to some kizomba songs..in zouk we close our eyes a lot of times to avoid dizzyness, to help unlock the head and to feel the guys lead on our body