salsa etiquette

S

salseroito

When dancing with someone you asked, who initiates getting off the dance floor first, the man or the woman? Assuming it is your first time to dance with each other, how long should you dance with each other. I know it all depends on whether both parties are having fun but isn’t there a rule of thumb on this?
 
Hmm...Well, the tradition is that the gentleman gives his arm to the lady and take her back to her seat at the end of the dance. This is a nice touch but may not be as easy dependant upon how crowded the dance floor may be. As far as how long you should dance? As SC stated, as long as it's mutual, it shouldn't matter. If you're not sure, then it's best to say thank you and move on to the next dance with someone else. Hope this helps. :)
 
It all depends, I guess... whenever one of you wants to finish or continue, he/she should say so... and yes, I would escort the lady back to the seat... :)
 
Also keep in mind that there seem to be regional and international differences on this... some places one dance at a time are customary, unless you both *really* had a great time while there are other places where saying thanks and ending after "only" one dance would be taken as quite an insult to one's dancing...i.e. places where 2-3 dances/partner are the norm.
 
buddingsalsero said:
When dancing with someone you asked, who initiates getting off the dance floor first, the man or the woman? Assuming it is your first time to dance with each other, how long should you dance with each other. I know it all depends on whether both parties are having fun but isn’t there a rule of thumb on this?
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In my neck of the woods, it is customary to have only one dance at a time unless you started dancing halfway through a song, in which case people often ask for another to make it 1 1/2 songs. If you liked dancing with the person, you can always ask them for another dance later (it's flattering to be asked "will you dance with me again later?" as you leave the dancefloor).

It's nice to have the leader walking you back to your seat, but in reality we are often too busy trying to find a new person to dance with as another song starts we just don't bother with such politeness. :oops:

When a guy asks me to dance with him three times in a row, I begin to suspect his intentions so usually say "maybe later?". When I see a guy dancing with the same partner 3 songs or more back to back, I assume they are a couple and avoid asking the guy for a dance (another reason I don't want to have 3 dances with the same person -- I don't want other guys to stay away from me, I wanna dance with everyone!).

I believe the above applies across the UK but perhaps not in other European countries.
 
In my country, if I like dancing with a guy and he doesn't dance with me more than once... it means he doesn't like it! And if I don't like it, I pray to Lord the guy says 'thanks' at the end of the tune...
 
After a particularly fast song, I need a break, regardless of whether I want to dance with a particular follow again. Was wore out by this one salsera last night in fact.
 
Depends. Sometimes I dance with a person for more than a couple dances in a row. Usually it is a person whom I know, one who won't dance with many others, who is a really nice person, and whom I can connect with. It does stop me from asking as many others to dance as I would like, but it is only a small loss. :wink: :)
 
often times I'd dance with the partner again if only there's a great chemistry.

sometimes when I dance with someone, there's a feel of awkwardness, it's one of those feeling that there's no click or chemistry, or caused by backleading or just because the dance partner's teaching you how to dance. this is the most uncomfortable dancing ever. do I stop in the middle of the song by making some excuse? has anyone done this?
 
While it's certainly NOT the correct ettiquette to dump your partner in the middle of the dance, it's happened to the best of us (me included :oops: ) at least once in our salsa lives for one reason or another. Similarly, I've had to do it (very rarely, but I'd be lying if I said never) as well........

Most of the time it's got to do with breakdown of communication, in the dance sense.

I've had to leave dancers who lead dangerously. Simply can't risk injuries...

I've had newbies who (instead of leading) decided to stop in the middle of the dancefloor & teach me the follower's part :shock: .........

.......or self-proclaimed salsa gods who consider me not worthy of being their organic dance apparatus :roll: ........
 
thanks for the welcome. :)
I went to the dance on Saturday. Got myself the workout after dancing for 3 hours or so.
I had one girl who hugged me after the dance. I've had this happened couple of times, but the one from last night was hugging me in front of her boyfriend. uhh... :shock:
 
if she looks good from the back.. i'll put her infront and walk her out of the floor.. drop to one knee and propose :lol:

hey just kidding! :mrgreen:
 
salsachinita said:
While it's certainly NOT the correct ettiquette to dump your partner in the middle of the dance, it's happened to the best of us (me included :oops: ) at least once in our salsa lives for one reason or another. Similarly, I've had to do it (very rarely, but I'd be lying if I said never) as well........

Most of the time it's got to do with breakdown of communication, in the dance sense.

I've had to leave dancers who lead dangerously. Simply can't risk injuries...

I've had newbies who (instead of leading) decided to stop in the middle of the dancefloor & teach me the follower's part :shock: .........

.......or self-proclaimed salsa gods who consider me not worthy of being their organic dance apparatus :roll: ........
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I have stopped in the middle of a song before. If I am totally out of it I will ask the person I am dancing with if we can stop and explain why. Fairly recent phenomenon for me as it takes more than just any salsa song to get me dancing etc etc...
 
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