Salsa City Forum » Salsa Music and Dance » Tension in arms

Yes, I think that’s the reason for the wrist injury! If the woman is a real armwrestler and you try and match her strength you can both get hurt. Though some women with a lot of tension can be fine to dance with as long as you adapt the moves accordingly (ie don’t try to do anything too fast and elaborate).

PAS Here,

Of Course, at extreme degrees of resistance, dancing gets down-right dangerous. Only skilled professionals use this resistance safely. For the rest of us, too much force will lead to injury.

We used to have a joke “Why do all the Old Guys dance with the pretty young girls?”
Answer: They’ve broken all the others...

Kidding aside, here are some better ideas for handling dancers who need help with key dance elements.

1. Rotate - A good teacher will notice whether a problem persists around one person and will step in to help. (In other words, say nothing and let the teacher fix things).

2. Take the philosophy that “The person dancing that is aware something is wrong adjusts for the other person, rather than correcting them.”

In other words, try to do your part so well that you (are sure you’re not part of the problem) create the perfect situation for your partner to get the feeling of how it works. I think we all enjoy that feeling of achievement when we figure out something on our own.

A beginner is your ultimate chance to perfect your lead, not 5 minutes of torture. Of course, you hope the better partners who dance that evening treat you with this type of respect.

3. Discretely tell the teacher before class that some people in class would benefit from a better explanation / demonstration of principle x. The teacher may or may not help but they at least get helpful feedback about their effectiveness without a particular student being attacked. By the way, teachers only see what the students are doing. They can’t always determine the amount of leading and following actually occurring unless they rotate in with the class.

Any of these are better than criticizing someone, and might just work.

Hope this helps. Wishing you a nice weekend from Los Angeles.

PAS

The reason for my injury was dancing with an extremely strong lead that I couldn’t continually match. Also one of the most complicated and talented dancers I know, but he has and is known to be a strong lead. I have seen girls look like they are being thrown around like rag dolls but as with any guy the more you dance with someone the easier you find it to adjust to that persons lead and I wanted to try, infact I will try again this weekend. I am not an arm wrestler LOL I am talking about matching tension and if you can’t match then you will look like your being thrown around if the guy is strong, or possibily get hurt like me if you relax the tension because you are used to dancing with a certain tension, the 5/5 thing is the way to go and I teach this at beginner level however each person uses different tension and adjustment is the only way. I feel that I have always made the guys adjust to my tension which is another reason for me doing this, so that I can learn to be stronger if I need to be

The subtext of your message, ang, is “you have to keep dancing.” But you don’t have to keep dancing. If your partner is hurting you or putting you in danger you should stop immediately and get off the dance floor.

Your description of this guy makes him sound like a fool and a bully, but the women who allow him to behave like this are just as foolish.

Good joke PAS, I’ll remember that one - and point 2 is spot on.

Ang, I don’t believe that anyone who “throws women around like rag dolls” is a good dancer. Anyone can reproduce complicated moves by using brute force but learning to lead them accurately takes a lot longer.

Unfortunately, because it’s quite common, some women think that brute force is what proper leading is. On more than one occasion I’ve had inexperienced dancers tell me before I dance with them that they “need a strong lead”, when what they really need is an accurate lead.

Here I will not disagree with you, brute force is not needed and I’m not saying that this is what makes this particular man a great dancer but although most acknowledge he is not a plesant lead he is one of the most creative and incedible dancers in the world. I actually did not keep dancing. He took me to put ice on my wrist and make sure I was OK. He is not a fool or a bully it’s just the way he is used to leading and he’s not the only one either. I agree that it takes time and attention to be a great lead but, you know what? You can be an amazing lead but look awful as a dancer, and if you are dancing just for fun that’s probably best as women will love to dance with you, but you can also look like an amazing dancer and have a very bad lead. Totally agree with your second paragraph Tom. However as an advanced dancer we try to push the limits of our ability and challenge ourselves. It is a fact that some advanced dancers still use far too much strength in their leads but if you want to be able to dance with ANYONE you need to know how to match them.

It’s true that it takes all sorts... and some women seem to accept, and even enjoy, being manhandled and thrown about, and some people might find that an exciting spectacle. But, to me, dancers communicating without unnecessary force always look better, even if the moves the man is leading are relatively simple and uncomplicated.