By Lauren Wilmore

Lauren’s Top Five Ways to Get Better at Salsa FAST!

Ok Folks, here it is in a nutshell (I explain in greater detail below). If you want to get good at salsa, you MUST

1. Take a class (or better yet, a bunch of them)

2. Practice BY YOURSELF

3. Listen to the music outside of class/social dancing time

4. Watch people who are REALLY good–stylistically AND technically!

5. Go out and dance!

Ok, I gave you the golden nuggets of wisdom up front.

Now I want to explain and justify them. But first one more (maybe more important) golden nugget of truth: it takes TIME to develop your dancing. For most ladies, it will take a good solid year of consistent work. For most leaders, it will take considerably longer–2 or 3 years if you are pretty natural. That’s IF you do all the things listed above. So, get ready to work, and above all have fun and stay patient with yourself and with the other dancers in your community. One day, they could be AWESOME!

This list has been developed from years of observation and experimentation, and from great wisdom from dancers and instructors more experienced than I am. Don’t agree? Please leave your comments and explain what you think is more reasonable–it will help us ALL!!

1. Take a class (or better yet, a bunch of them)
I’m not just saying this because I am an instructor. I started out as and STILL AM a STUDENT first and foremost. I take class from the best instructors every chance I get. And I still have SO MUCH to learn and master. If I still need to take class, you probably do too.

I can’t tell you how many people try to learn by doing. Would you do that with medicine? Would you presume to treat a patient without learning the proper skills first? I hope not. Let’s say you go to the operating room a few times, casually watch the surgical team while drinking a mojito. Would you be qualified then to call yourself a surgeon too? Nope. So why do you think you can go out and learn to dance by osmosis? You can’t–at least not well. Beware of folks who claim with pride to be “self-taught.” They are lying, deluding themselves, or a bad dancer, or likely all three. If they are good, they received instruction somehow somewhere whether they admit it or not. Here are some characteristics of your typical self or club-taught dancer:

*Bad timing
*Bad technique in their dancing//Bad leading or following technique
*Bad floorcraft–if it is a leader, he will likely dance you into other people or objects and choose the most crowded, dangerous spot on the floor to dance in. If it is a follower, she will likely slam down her stiletto heel where ever she pleases, spin, turn, twist, and gyrate out of control and onto other dancers
*Bad attitude–unfortunately, these mediocre dancers are often the haughtiest, making beginners who might legitimately want to LEARN the dance feel like they suck, or committing the sin of teaching on the dance floor–a big no no

Don’t be this person. And there is such a simple remedy. If you want to learn this dance and be as razzle-dazzle awesome as that salsero or salsera you can’t take your eyes off of, start off on the correct foot (LITERALLY!) and take a class. There are at LEAST 5 qualified instructors in St. Louis. They teach on different nights of the week in different parts of town and at different price points. So you can definitely find a class that suits your needs. I don’t mean spend a million dollars on group classes every day of the week plus ten private lessons per month. For most people, one group class per week, plus a private lesson or two here or there to clean some things up, will be perfect. Still can’t afford it? Get creative. Many parties have a lesson at the beginning. No ideal, but at least it is SOMETHING and hopefully the instructor will correct any major technical error you make. Don’t be shy about telling an instructor that your financial situation won’t allow you to afford the full price up front. Many will allow you to pay in installments or even reduce the price as long as you seem honest. But don’t take advantage of us–it is our livelihood, so when you lie, you could be taking food off of our table.

I can’t tell you how many students I have who danced in clubs for years, finally came to class, and had such trouble because they had learned nothing but bad habits. Please stop this trend in its tracks. Take at LEAST a basics class so you have a nice foundation to build upon!

2. Practice BY YOURSELF
Here is a MYTH that many (ladies especially) believe: “I’m not getting better because I don’t have a partner to practice with <sniffle, tear>.”

Everyone–STOP believing this! The single most important thing you can do to be a better leader or follower is to practice your footwork BY YOURSELF. If you cannot do it by yourself, you can’t do it well with a partner. Sure, you may be able to stumble through it, let your partner throw you around a bit, but you won’t really be dancing. How can you really connect with your amazing partner and this amazing music we call salsa? Not by messing up simple cross-body lead footwork. No way.

Here is a secret–I have been dancing salsa for a LONG TIME. And guess what–I still practice my basic step and my basic right turn. All of those basics are so important. They are the building blocks to other moves. You are only as good as your ability to dance the moves on your own. Plain and simple. Ladies–can’t do a cross body lead with an inside or outside turn on your own? Well, until you can you will not be able to perform it well when following that superstar leader in the club, and FORGET about styling. Ladies, the most important thing is your dancing–make sure you can dance a step before you even think about styling it out. What is the point in styling out bad dancing? Musicality? How can you be musical when you can’t stand on your won two feet?

And gentlemen–you need to practice your timing in a big way. A lot of times, your footwork can be simpler especially at the beginning level. But no matter what the level, if you cannot become  a human metronome and keep time with the music, the follower will not have fun or be able to follow you effectively. So, make sure, on you own, that you can keep time to the music. Make sure also, especially in the beginning, that you have a clear idea of what you want the follower to do, what foot she should be on when doing it, and the timing/placement of the lead. Your job is to keep her safe, make her look good, and have fun with her. When you lead poorly, your ability to do this is severely impaired.

Personally, I have a lot of fun dancing with leaders who know fewer moves, but connect with the music (good timing/musicality), connect well with me (fun and sociable), and lead their few moves impeccably.

3. Listen to the music outside of class/social dancing time
This is kind of an extension of #2. If you really want to groove it, you’ve got to know the music. One of the biggest compliments I get is about my musicality when dancing. I don’t know every song I dance to, I just listen to it while I’m dancing, and try to find patterns. Music is often very repetitive–themes and phrases come back over and over and are developed throughout a song whether it is classical music or pop.

When dancing, our first connection is to be to the music. We connect to our partner SECOND. So, make sure you feel comfortable with the music. Just pop in a salsa CD every once in a while on the drive home from work. It  makes super workout music. Ask your teacher for a CD or recommendation. Ask the DJ at viva his favorite five salsa songs and download them on itunes. However you do it, just (legally) get your hands on some of this delicious music for your listening pleasure! You will rock it out while listening, and this will translate to better rockage on the dance floor!

4. Watch people who are REALLY good–stylistically AND technically!
Ok, you may need some help with this one. There are many dancers who on first glance look good, but upon further inspection are very showy but not very knowledgeable  dancers. You want to watch someone who has great technique and styling in action both in class and on the social dance floor. You’d be surprised how much you can learn just by keeping an eye out and purposefully looking for things. You can catch cool new styling, shines, moves, even some technical secrets.

One of my favorite parts of visiting a new city is invading the salsa scene there to make new friends and also to steal new moves!!! I keep a keen eye out for the very best follower in the place then I stare down her moves, her styling, her technique, and I mentally catalog anything that I want to keep. Don’t look like a stalker though. It often helps to introduce yourself to that person and let them know you loved their dancing so they don’t think you’re a weirdo. I’ve learned some super cool stuff that way and imported it back here to St. Louis and the coolest part is seeing students and other ladies doing those moves on the dance floor.

Here is my warning–from experience I know that many things that happen on the dance floor are illusions. It may look like that dip is happening one way, but it might really be something else. That cool shimmy body roll move may look very loose but it is actually extremely controlled. Watch, then try with caution in the privacy of home or dance studio in front of a mirror. If you can, watch, try, then check with an instructor to make sure you got it right. I would NOT do this as a beginner or with the basics. This is for intermediate/advanced dancers who already have a good technical understanding and are looking for ways to broaden their dancing.

5. Go out and dance!
This is the last of my top five, but it is VERY important! Social dancing is a skill all its own separate from learning in class. Beginners you may know–the first few times you go out might be kind of rough. There are more distractions, floor conditions are not ideal, it is not the music you are used to from class, the people you dance with are not at the exact same level and have not learned the exact same moves in the exact same way. Some people are rude or have bad breath or stand a little too close. You might be extremely nervous, tired, excited, etc. Soooo many things make the social dance environment different from the in-class environment. But your classroom learning isn’t for naught–once you get over the social dance hump, you can begin to implement your classroom learning on the dance floor.

It is difficult to justify continuing to learn and improve if you are not going out, having fun, and being social with it! For most people, the main reason to start dancing is to have fun and meet people–so do it!! You worked hard, you went to class, practiced on your own, listened to music outside class, and watched other good dancers. Don’t be shy–get out on the dance floor! The sooner you do it, the sooner you can get past those couple of rocky dances, loosen up, remember that you can do it, and start shakin your groove thang!

Some good get-out-on-the-dance-floor strategies:
*Go with people you know. Not your non-salsa friends–they’ll just make you drink margaritas and hang out and talk. I mean friends you’ve met in classes or at other salsa parties. They will hang out with you, encourage you, and maybe introduce you to some folks who are fun to dance with!

*Go early when it is less crowded. Some of the good dancers come early so you can get some good dances without worrying about getting stepped on and with fewer distractions.

*Hang out near folks who dance near your level. You are more likely to ask or get asked by someone who dances near your level, so find those people and barge in

*Ask people who are better than you, but do so respectfully and in moderation. We were all beginners at some point, and most really GOOD dancers have no problem dancing with beginners. But we probably don’t want to do it on every song or on extremely fast songs. So, go grab that awesome salsera for a dance after she had a few gulps of water and that conversation she is having seems to be winding down. And if she even just SEEMS to be sending “don’t ask me now” vibes, don’t ask her. And don’t take it personally–it could be she hates the song, or is really tired and thirsty at the moment. Unless she is rude to you in which case go ahead and gossip about her to your friends (kidding!)

*Listen to the song BEFORE you ask. There is nothing worse than FINALLY asking that awesome salsero who loves to spin people only to find you asked him to dance a breakneck speed salsa (or worse–MERENGUE!). So, listen to the intro of the song before you ask, you will be glad you did!

That’s it! Follow my advice, young ones, and you can be as good at salsa as YOU want to be! Pretty much everything that we do in social dancing is accessible to EVERYONE. You CAN do it–you may just need to work hard and SWEAT a little bit first!

AZUCAR!!!