Polakito's Salsa Journey

[polakito]

I've recently been bitten by the salsa bug and I think it's safe to say I'm addicted. I wanted to record my journey, if only for posterity. Hopefully some other people can get something out of reading about my experiences. I've been taking classes since June, but it's only in the last month that I've found the confidence to get through a song or two without making a mess of things. I have to say I'm somewhat proud of myself. I always saw myself as the guy with two left feet. I never really considered that becoming a competent dancer was something within my reach. I'm not saying I'm there yet, but I've definitely surpassed my own expectations already. My goal is to be a great social dancer, to be able to dance with any girl at any club and hold my own and show her a good time. At this point I haven't really thought about competition but never say "never" right?

Before June, I had zero dance experience, apart from some classes we did in PE in high school, which is over ten years ago now. I'm 28, by the way. I'm actually quite musical. I've played guitar since I was 13 and I can sing reasonably well and I've always loved music. If I hear a melody once, it sticks in my head. I have no problems keeping a beat, but I could never translate this to dancing. I suspect that over the years many people have looked at my drunken dancing in clubs and wondered, "what the hell is wrong with that guy?" Now, after a few months, things are starting to click and I'm enjoying it more and more.

The funny thing is that I actually tried salsa about 5 years ago. I went to a few classes, but it just didn't click and I felt like a fish out of water. I've come to realise this is probably because I had a pretty bad teacher. He'd stand up the front of a class of 20-30 and just say "follow me." He'd make no attempt to break down any of the steps and I came out after 3 lessons, none the wiser. I secretly suspect he was one of those guys who learnt to dance to get laid. He was a 50 year old guy with a 21 year old blonde girlfriend. Lessons were cheap (about $7). I guess you get what you pay for. I tried calling up to ask about his class, the other day, just out of curiosity to see if I could pick up an odd class while my current teacher was overseas, but I don't think he's teaching anymore. Maybe all his students went elsewhere?

I'm really happy with my new teacher. Classes are small (typically between 5-10). She has a degree in teaching dance and has been teaching for at least 12 years. She's been dancing for a lot longer. She also is quite well respected in the local salsa community, it seems, and is usually asked to judge state and national titles and usually coaches teams there too. Her lessons are quite technical and structured, but she manages to make it fun too. I honestly believe that, if it wasn't for her, I'd have given up again by now.

I remember her saying on the very first lesson for absolute beginners that, initially, learning salsa is a lot tougher for guys than girls and because guys have so much more to consider when leading and also because of the differences in learning styles between guys and girls. Guys tend to break things down and focus on a particularly aspect of something before moving onto the next aspect e.g. feet, hands, timing etc. This really helped me keep my confidence up when I saw the girls all progressing faster than the guys.

So I kept at it. I did the absolute beginners class three times, until I was sure I had the basics right. Then I "graduated" to an improvers class, which introduced some more footwork, turns and basic patterns, building on the first class. I've done the improvers class twice now and I'm going to do it again one more time to really burn all the concepts into my brain. I think I'll do the intermediate class in parallel with the improvers class. I definitely learn faster when I'm doing classes two nights a week.

I've been making an effort to go social dancing at least one night a week too. The other night I went social dancing in the local mall and I was pretty surprised at myself. I danced with maybe 10 girls, who I'm pretty sure were all beginners and we all had fun and no one was hurt or injured. I think maybe I held off on the social dancing for longer than I should have because of lack of confidence. The place where I take classes has social dancing too, but the dancers are really, really good compared to most other places I've seen. This is pretty intimidating for a newbie like me. I'm learning to dance on-1 with what I guess is an LA style, lots of turns and shines. This place also offers classes on-2, bachata, zouk etc. I think I'll stick with on-1 for now until I can do it in my sleep and then I'll try on-2.

I've found that dancing with girls with little to no experience is easier for me in some respects because they are just impressed I can do a basic turn so I relax more. I also find that you have to focus a lot more on leading with girls with less dance experience because they don't know how to follow as well as better dancers, which forces me to be a better lead. I also really appreciate the difference in a good follower. They make dancing so effortless. So little pressure is required to perform a move.

My only regret is that I really wish I'd picked up salsa 10 years ago. I guess the main thing is that I'm here now. I'm making heaps of friends. I'm having heaps of fun and it sure beats doing cardio at the gym for fitness. I could go out and easily spend $100-$200 in one night at a bar/club or I could take that money and go salsa dancing and it would pay for a 6 weeks course and all the socials and I'd have change left over.

So for now I'm going to keep dancing as much as I can. Keeping going to socials. Do my 2 classes a week and start taking some privates. And having heaps of fun.

 

[Offbeat]

Welcome to the forum. Yes, salsa is a long journey and when you been bitten by the bug, it is a non-ending exciting one. You are doing all the right stuff. You seem to be in the good hands. Most of us on here wish we had picked up salsa 10 years before we did. There is a life before salsa and then there is after salsa!

Go out as much social dancing as you can. The more you dance the faster you will get better. Hope to see you on the dance floor some day

He was a 50 year old guy with a 21 year old blonde girlfriend. Lessons were cheap (about $7).

Now that is what I want to be when I am 50!! I think I finally discovered my goal for the middle age Except my preference will be for brunette or better black hair 21 year old chick I won't mind giving free lessons

 

[timberamayor]

I'm 28, by the way. The funny thing is I'm actually quite musical. I've been played guitar since I was 13 and I can sing reasonably well and I've always loved music. If I hear a melody once, it sticks in my head. I have no problems keeping a beat, but I could never translate this to dancing.

It's great that you are posting this because I think a lot of guys feel like they are not capable of dancing, but they can read your experience and realize that by applying themselves a little they can do it.

The funny thing is that I actually tried salsa about 5 years ago. I went to a few classes, but it just didn't click and I felt like a fish out of water.

There are a lot of people who do that. they start it and then for one reason or another they quit before they get very far, but when they come back to it they are really serious about learning. that was my case. I started taking classes with some friend sand when they quit I felt like I had no one to dance with so I quit. A couple years later a guy at work said he wanted to learn so we started together and I made it far enough that when he quit I had other friends in the salsa world and I was also used to going to the clubs.

So for now I'm going to keep dancing as much as I can. Keeping going to socials. Do my 2 classes a week and start taking some privates. And having heaps of fun.

That's a hardccore schedule! I ever took more than 1 class a week but we would meet at his house once a week to practice the stuff from class. IT was a great help because we had to remember the moves ourselves and once we worked it out on our own we didn't forget it. Then after practicing for an hour we would go out to a club. At first I was afraid to dance because I was afraid of people watching me and thinking OI was a bad dancer. But I quickly realized no one would be watching me because people always watch the best dancers on the floor :lol: So that was a great relief and I was able to relax and dance without worrying about what other people thought. Being a girl I didn't have to ask anyone to dance though. I imagine guys worry more about whether or not they are 'good enough' to dance with certain partners since they have to do the asking.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Salsa Bear]

I've been taking classes since June, but it's only in the last month that I've found the confidence to get through a song or two without making a mess of things.

I think I started in June, too.

Before June, I had zero dance experience, apart from some classes we did in PE in high school, which is over ten years ago now.

Same here; I took dance classes years ago but zero experience with social dancing.

The funny thing is I'm actually quite musical. I've been played guitar since I was 13 and I can sing reasonably well and I've always loved music.

Same here; I've played three instruments in the past, though I don't play any more.

The funny thing is that I actually tried salsa about 5 years ago. I went to a few classes, but it just didn't click and I felt like a fish out of water. I've come to realise this is probably because I had a pretty bad teacher.

My first salsa instructor was a train wreck, and it didn't "click" even with the better classes I later took.

I remember her saying on the very first lesson for absolute beginners that, initially, learning salsa is a lot tougher for guys than girls and because guys have so much more to consider when leading and also because of the differences in learning styles between guys and girls.

Absolutely.

So I kept at it. I did the absolute beginners class three times, until I was sure I had the basics right.

I think the first class I ever remotely enjoyed was a beginners class I took for the second time. Not being light years behind the follows makes an enormous difference.

I've found that dancing with girls with little to no experience is easier for me in some respects because they are just impressed I can do a basic turn so I relax more.

Yes.

Wow, that was like deja vu. I never got to the point where salsa is really fun, but, otherwise, your story sounds so similar to mine. I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride.

 

[polakito]

Polakito's First Private Lesson

I had my first private lesson on Thursday. I explained to my teacher my goals, which are essentially to be a great social dancer by:

- nailing the fundamentals
- becoming a good leader
- developing musicality
- developing my own style

Fundamentals

I went in with the attitude that I'm ready to have my salsa torn down and rebuilt and that's kinda what happened. As I suspected my basic step is wrong. Not hideously wrong, but the problem areas are:

- I need to keep my feet closer together (about a 2L coke bottle apart).
- I need to step smaller. I tend to exaggerate movements when I learn, but need to calibrate this and make the movement smaller, once the I have the movement down. I could apply this to all movements I make I guess.
- I need to work on my cuban motion.

So my teacher gave me some drills to work on for my basics for homework and I've been practicing these. I believe I know what I was doing wrong for the cuban motion part of it and how to fix this. So whenever I get the chance now I work on my basic step and smoothing out my cuban motion.

Leading

My teacher identified the following things to work on with my leading.

- on open breaks, curve (hook) my fingers more so I don't lose connection with the lady.
- less force on some of my leads, like cross body lead.
- avoid the tendency to rush moves in an attempt to signal early intention of a move.

Musicality

Thankfully my timing is OK. I put this down to my musical background. So I don't have any trouble recognising bars and beats and keeping in time throughout a song. The main thing I need to work on is getting my basics down to the point that I can focus more on what the music is doing and recall things subconsciously and apply them to the song.

We did some work on what to do at the beginning of a song to get "in sync" with your partner and establish connection in the opening bars. This has really helped already with my social dancing.

Style

My teacher told me that, to begin with, I should just choose one move that we'd done in previous classes and work on making that my own. We ending up going for a tortilla with a wrap into a frisbee, which gives me plenty of room to experiment, and to give my partner a chance to show her stuff too. So this will be something fun to focus on.

I'll probably do a block of privates. I'm not sure how many at this point since they are $70 a throw, but maybe 4-8 in a row, weekly or fortnightly, depending on my progress and finances.

 

[crazygirl]

Welcome Polakito!

You seem to have a lovely attitude so sure you will continue to improve and have fun on the dance floor

 

[polakito]

Wow

I hung around after my class yesterday for the free class before social dancing. Normally one of the teachers runs the free class but this time it was run by Eric and Chantal Turro, who happened to be in town. It was only a very beginners class, but it was awesome. Both of them were so friendly and really emphasised being relaxed and having fun. They both have so much presence when they dance, which was really cool to see. I loved the way Eric started the class by talking a little bit about the history of Cuban salsa and the music. He even busted out the clave to give everyone a feel for the son and timing. Very, very cool.

 

[wildbill20056]

Fabulous, keep at it and keep that enthusiasm!

My advice? Forget the private lessons, I genuinely don't believe they are value for money and CERTAINLY not at that price.

You have already identified the drill that will have the most dramatic effect on your dancing: dancing! Social dancing, on social dancing on social dancing.

Doing it, being around it, watching how others do it, will give you the learning environment you need to be in to improve those basics.

Don't get me wrong, classes are ESSENTIAL, however a well run group class will provide you with everything you need.

Private lessons to my mind, and certainly not at that price geez, are really only properly beneficial to reasonably advanced dancers working on somethings in particular or needing coaching for competition.

 

[polakito]

Fabulous, keep at it and keep that enthusiasm!

My advice? Forget the private lessons, I genuinely don't believe they are value for money and CERTAINLY not at that price.

You have already identified the drill that will have the most dramatic effect on your dancing: dancing! Social dancing, on social dancing on social dancing.

Doing it, being around it, watching how others do it, will give you the learning environment you need to be in to improve those basics.

Don't get me wrong, classes are ESSENTIAL, however a well run group class will provide you with everything you need.

Private lessons to my mind, and certainly not at that price geez, are really only properly beneficial to reasonably advanced dancers working on somethings in particular or needing coaching for competition.

I don't have too much basis for comparison but some places in Brisbane charge $90/hour for the better teachers. Hard to say if I'm getting ripped off. It would be interesting to hear what other people are paying and what sort of experience their teachers have.

I find myself taking classes in place of social dancing because there aren't that many places in Brisbane where social dancing is offered. Really it's only every Friday and Sunday night with every second Wednesday/Thursday night in some places. I haven't found anywhere that does social dancing on Mondays and Tuesdays.

 

[chrisk]

I don't have too much basis for comparison but some places in Brisbane charge $90/hour for the better teachers. Hard to say if I'm getting ripped off. It would be interesting to hear what other people are paying and what sort of experience their teachers have.

With regards to private lessons in general as well as some info about prices, take a look at these previous threads:

total newbie need some advice about private lessons!!
Salsa Congress Private Lessons
How to have/prepare for a private lesson?
Are one off privates worth it?

 

[wildbill20056]

I don't have too much basis for comparison but some places in Brisbane charge $90/hour for the better teachers. Hard to say if I'm getting ripped off. It would be interesting to hear what other people are paying and what sort of experience their teachers have.

I find myself taking classes in place of social dancing because there aren't that many places in Brisbane where social dancing is offered. Really it's only every Friday and Sunday night with every second Wednesday/Thursday night in some places. I haven't found anywhere that does social dancing on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Oh I'm not saying you are technically being ripped off, simply that at your stage of dance progression you simply won't get value for money from 4-8 privates in succession, even staggered.

Sounds to me as if you are getting plenty of free dancing also. There will come a point past which more dancing and more classes won't make you improve any faster. Do give yourself time to relax and to think about your dancing. An internal review is also essential to your progress.

When you have become a proficient dancer from group classes and you want to sharpen up or you have a particular technical difficulty, this is the time to think private lesson. Even then it would be one second month or so imo.

Keep it up!

 

[polakito]

Oh I'm not saying you are technically being ripped off, simply that at your stage of dance progression you simply won't get value for money from 4-8 privates in succession, even staggered.

Sounds to me as if you are getting plenty of free dancing also. There will come a point past which more dancing and more classes won't make you improve any faster. Do give yourself time to relax and to think about your dancing. An internal review is also essential to your progress.

When you have become a proficient dancer from group classes and you want to sharpen up or you have a particular technical difficulty, this is the time to think private lesson. Even then it would be one second month or so imo.

Keep it up!

I do try and get along to a couple of socials a week. But mainly I dance with people from class. I try to dance with new people but I usually get about one or two "yeses" from a new person each time so I'm not actually spending that much time dancing. So it's slow progress it seems. I will probably back off the private lessons for a bit. I've kinda of run out of questions for now (well ones that I'm willing to pay $70 for) and have enough to work on at home before I come back with a fresh set of things to work on. Thanks for the advice.

 

[polakito]

Second Private Lesson

So I took the feedback from my first private and worked on it, particularly the homework for the basic step and I think I have the cuban motion concept down now. I still have to smooth it out. I showed my teacher and she says I've got it now. I need to imbed this in my brain now. I tend to be OK when I'm just doing the basic step but I need to keep the cuban motion going through all of my dancing. I tend to stop using the proper action as sooner as a move gets more complicated.

I asked my teacher about the hook turn which still baffles me (I've posted about it here) and she gave me some pointers but I'm still confused. I need to do some more reading and experimenting with it, it would seem. She gave me some homework for this too.

My teacher also says my dancing is too CLB-based at the moment and that I should mix it up more with cumbia-style/back break stuff, that is less linear.

I also need to work on keeping my steps small, shoulders relaxed and watch my posture. I think I stand too far away from the follow at times too which forces me to corrupt my posture and lean over a little, which looks weird.

We worked on some shines too. I'm still not really sure what to do during breaks for songs I don't know, when the break isn't expected. It still messes me up at times.

I'll probably leave the privates for another couple of months at least and then see how I'm going.

 

[polakito]

So I've been dancing salsa for about 6 months now...if you consider that in December I didn't dance much at all because it was the silly season and I was busy with other stuff, like getting my scuba license and what not. It took about a week to shake off the cobwebs but I'm back in the groove again now.

I'm redoing my intermediate 1 class for the third time and I'm also using the absolute beginner's class beforehand as a warm up, since my teacher lets me take it for free. I would have like to have taken the "improvers" class again too but it's on a different night that clashes with my Spanish course. Once Spanish finishes I'll probably take both improvers and intermediate 1 again together.

I'm still stuck in salsa hell I feel. I can string some moves together and get through a song, but I still struggle to connect moves and recall moves and to get all of this smoothed out. I did have a great little moment on Sunday night where I realised I was actually planning ahead during a song for the next set of 8 counts rather than hanging in there for dear life, just trying to execute the current move. This was really nice.

I haven't done any more privates beyond the first two I did a couple of months ago. I don't feel like I have enough of a base to keep doing more privates, but I did get some really good pointers to work on. I'll just keep up with regular classes and social dancing til I feel I need another private or two. I'm also trying to get along to more salsa shows and competitions as a spectator, which is good for meeting people in the salsa community.

My teacher has asked me to help out with demo'ing her free fun class too, which is doing wonders for my salsa cred and confidence, even if all we're showing is a couple of basic turns. I've also started doing some bachata classes to help me branch out a little bit.

So for now I'm just dancing as much as I can and hopefully I'll be decent enough before I depart for South America at the end of the year.

 

[malcolm]

I'm still stuck in salsa hell I feel. I can string some moves together and get through a song, but I still struggle to connect moves and recall moves and to get all of this smoothed out.

It'll feel this way for what seems like ages.

So for now I'm just dancing as much as I can and hopefully I'll be decent enough before I depart for South America at the end of the year.

If you keep practicing as this rate, then it's a definite thing

 

[ColdSalsero]

I don't have too much basis for comparison but some places in Brisbane charge $90/hour for the better teachers. Hard to say if I'm getting ripped off. It would be interesting to hear what other people are paying and what sort of experience their teachers have.

$90/hour is a reasonable price, but only if you're instructor is REALLY GOOD. Ana Masacote, a world famous salsa dancer, instructor, and performer, charges $100 for a private, which I've heard is well worth it from more than one person. Plus I imagine her time to be extremely valuable, considering how much traveling around the world she does.

For a private from a good instructor, I'd expect the price these days to be between $70-100/hour.

I find myself taking classes in place of social dancing because there aren't that many places in Brisbane where social dancing is offered. Really it's only every Friday and Sunday night with every second Wednesday/Thursday night in some places. I haven't found anywhere that does social dancing on Mondays and Tuesdays.

If enough people are interested, maybe you should consider hosting your own salsa socials

 

[polakito]

$90/hour is a reasonable price, but only if you're instructor is REALLY GOOD. Ana Masacote, a world famous salsa dancer, instructor, and performer, charges $100 for a private, which I've heard is well worth it from more than one person. Plus I imagine her time to be extremely valuable, considering how much traveling around the world she does.

For a private from a good instructor, I'd expect the price these days to be between $70-100/hour.

My instructor has a degree in teaching dance, spe******ing in salsa. She's been teaching salsa for 15 years and has coached teams at state and national competitions. She's run workshops at a number of internationally respected salsa events. So she's good and her teaching style really suits me. Plus she's just an awesome person. So I couldn't ask for more really. Way ahead of the other teachers I've come across around here, in my opinion, though there are other great teachers locally I've heard.

 

[DaveFUK]

$90/hour is a reasonable price, but only if you're instructor is REALLY GOOD. Ana Masacote, a world famous salsa dancer, instructor, and performer, charges $100 for a private, which I've heard is well worth it from more than one person. Plus I imagine her time to be extremely valuable, considering how much traveling around the world she does.

For a private from a good instructor, I'd expect the price these days to be between $70-100/hour.

[\QUOTE]

Think the prices of the privatres been quoted are about right.

$70 USD/AUS equates to about £43 GBP which I think is a fair price plus many teachers give a discount if you book a block of lessobns which in my mind is essential for private tuition since to get the best out of them you need to get some information, go away and work on it, come back and have it reassessed cyclically.

One offs are useful if you've got a single problem with something or I'd take a single private with a visiting teacher because I wanted to just learn some a load of material.

For continuous development you need to work with a single teacher over a period of time.

 

[MacMoto]

I'm still stuck in salsa hell I feel. I can string some moves together and get through a song, but I still struggle to connect moves and recall moves and to get all of this smoothed out. I did have a great little moment on Sunday night where I realised I was actually planning ahead during a song for the next set of 8 counts rather than hanging in there for dear life, just trying to execute the current move. This was really nice.

You will start experiencing more of those sweet moments as you build up your experience of social dancing. The more you dance, the easier it gets. As simple as that

 

[olamalam]

Regarding private lessons, one of my salsa instructors told me that he thinks private lessons are waste of money even though he is giving private lessons!

On the other hand, you can offer giving private lessons to beginner ladies for free. It would be beneficial for both of you. While trying to teach new moves you learned to someone who is at a lower level than you are, you realise what mistakes you do while leading and you can clear your leading to let her follow you easily. I've been dancing for about 10 months and I've been teaching salsa for about 9 months!

I think, if you have money to spend, spend it for salsa festivals

One more thing, you can ask someone to record you while social dancing, then you can watch yourself and evaluate your style and leading.