Have you ever messed up the genre of the dance

N

NPEADS

Changui
Have you ever danced the wrong dance style/genre for a whole song?

Last year I was traveling to Lisbon and I saw a Facebook post about a salsa party at a bar. I arrived early and a couple was dancing in the small dancefloor. The music and dance both seemed unfamiliar to me. After they ended the dance, I asked the girl for a dance and I was dancing salsa, she was dancing something else. Midway through the dance I realized that they are not dancing salsa. Later the girl told me she was dancing forro. She mentioned she enjoyed dancing with me(even when the genre did not match(. Then I ordered a drink just to stand there and watch others dance. A girl was standing next to me more than once (in between her dances). I explained to her that I was dancing salsa without realizing that this was a forro event. After that she did not stand next to me anymore :(
 
NPEADS said:
A girl was standing next to me more than once (in between her dances). I explained to her that I was dancing salsa without realizing that this was a forro event. After that she did not stand next to me anymore :(
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I don't know in Lisbon but in my german forro scene ten years back they all deeply disliked salsa, reason enough for them to never dance it as they all proclaimed. I guess that is defence attitude against the bigger brother.

In general mentioning salsa doesn’t seem to make friends in other dance scenes. In case you're a male they may suppose you have just come to harrass the girls. All this salsa image is not helpful.
 
I've never come across this attitude in other dance scenes of Salsa having a bad image. Generally people are respectful of other dances. WCS people were cool with me being a Salsa dancer. Hustle people were cool. Heck, even Tango people were cool with it.

Okay, I wouldn't recommend going to a non Salsa party and start proclaiming Salsa as the best dance ever to the other dancers but otherwise I haven't run across this.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
I've never come across this attitude in other dance scenes of Salsa having a bad image. Generally people are respectful of other dances.
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When I learned dancing, in my city salsa was the dominant dance. When bachata first came, many girls did not dance it because it was too close. When I first danced kizomba a girl complained to me that I should not dance chest to chest, Then I danced merenge with her in a club and she did not mind dancing closely at all. I think it all depends how someone learns a genre. Its awkward to dance in a close embrace unless we are used to it.
 
From what I know about Forro, the dance is done with footwork and partner dancing turn patterns very similar to ‘salsa’. That’s the thing about partner dances when it comes to turn patterns they all borrow ‘moves’ from each other so what you did was not wrong. ‘Salsa’ borrows a lot of stuff from Latin Hustle, Tango, West coast swing among others in addition to the foundation of most of these dances ‘the basic step’ and some type of Latin motion.
Look familiar?

 
Chris_Yannick said:
No but I've danced with people who danced Salsa with me then asked afterwards 'Was that Salsa?'
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I second this.

On a rare occasion when a cha cha cha is played, I'll dance that, and then next song that comes on is a salsa, then I'll still be trying to do a cha cha cha. Oppps.

Speaking of oppss, just recently I was getting a funny looks from my friend while dancing a salsa, turns out I completely missed that it was a guajira. Ohhhh, that's better. lol.
 
As far as dancing salsa to forró, and I apologize for not being specific and using proper names, the salsa step is also used in forró when the rhythm is faster and the side to side step/shuffle doesn't fit too well. From that "salsa step", the turns are like what MAMBO_CEC posted when highly skilled dancers are dancing. Instead of those lovely turns, a simpler more accessible way to turn would be to turn like you would in cumbia. When using the salsa step, the turn comes after the back step of the follow (The "1" in salsa dancing terms), and the lead would open up/moves out of the way on the follow's right side and the cumbia turns would proceed. OP was almost there. :P

MamboJazz, were those German forró dancers (forrózeiros) that deeply disliked salsa Brazilian by chance?
 
Jaime_Pipoca said:
MamboJazz, were those German forró dancers (forrózeiros) that deeply disliked salsa Brazilian by chance?
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No, Germans. I remember I talked about it back then with another guy who also danced both salsa and forro like me and he nodded and said: "Yes, they all say loud they don't dance salsa - because they say forro is more beautiful!" It may be a german thing to stay within your group. Back in youngster days I remember the youth groups were very separated in punks, hippies etc. and avoided each other. I was surprised when I came to Spain and saw punks sitting with older people in a normal bar, I didn't know this.

I also know brazilians try to separate from other latinos because they dislike being spoken to in spanish all the time.

I think all these dances based on portuguese language (kizomba, forro, samba, brazilian zouk) will always stay niche because hardly anyone understands the words and there is no incentive to learn portuguese. And not understanding the lyrics keeps you distant. Forro singers can sing as often as they want about "saudade" (like in the song in the video above), no one in the rest of the world will understand it. Spanish is the only western language which has enough speakers to compete with english, but will always stay second as well. The song may be very mediocre but if the singer sings "I hate to love you" everybody in the world can relate to it and find it catchy.
 
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