Salsa City Forum » Salsa Music and Dance » Leading ladies

I take your point Brendan (message 69) but we have to bloom where we're planted. Many people (stuck in Smalltown, USA, for example) would love to have the salsa provision that Bristol has.

If the classes don't suit you, get some videos, step through some moves on your own, then try them out on a trusted partner. I often do this and it is very economical. You can get a good video for the cost of 3 or 4 unsatisfying classes.

It's only really the classes that I find frustrating and that's mainly due to them being mis-advertised. I suppose it all depends on your definition of the different levels. I realise that I'm lucky with the standard of people who go along to the club nights and am trying to make the best of it as I'm moving away in a couple of weeks time.
Video's I'm in two minds about. They are really useful for ideas but no real replacement for a teacher and its sometimes difficult to figure out what the lead should be. I've taken a couple of things from videos that I use a lot when I dance but they tend to be styling points or very simple moves. There are also some good internet sites with videos. I notice that you've got a link to Gallito's pages from here but there's also www.salsamafia.com, www.mamboston2.com, www.imambo.tv and www.salsaloon.com (which appears to be down at the moment).

Thanks for those links Brendan, I'll check them out.

Saul, as an aside there are a couple of things you can do that are useful to help build up to double spins. If you ask me the next time you see me then I'll show you.

I will Brendan cheers.

Didn't realise this one would run and run...I think Saul's got it right on the classes. My pet hate is teachers who treat salsa as an exercise in powers of memory rather than teaching how to one or two moves properly. I think the record I saw - I dropped out of the class halfway through - was a 'guest teacher' at the Sulis doing a sequence which lasted for over 20 eight-beat measures. How on earth anyone was supposed to have learnt any of the moves well enough to reproduce them 'in the wild', as Hugh puts it, I have no idea.

Yes, the impracticality of trying to teach an overlong sequences is shown up nicely when the teacher himself forgets it, as, I expect, we've all seen.

Another disadvantage of long sequences is that we have to do the first parts over and over again, till we're sick of them, as bits are added on, and we get inadequate practice of the later, often more difficult, sections.

What a wide-ranging thread!

I agree that there is no point whatsoever in learning a massive sequence of moves (or, come to that, of shines). I've always tried to teach a small amount of stuff that is "different" and interesting. Trouble is, if you teach a one-hour class, even if you stop and break down each bar, you really do need quite a bit of material if you're not going to endlessly repeat the same bits. In which case a good memory is inevitably going to be required.

It is also quite difficult to teach the leads, not least because by the time the move has been rattled through a few times, the girls are - understandably - going to know what's coming next.

I often (though not always) try and number a couple of similarly-starting moves, get the couples to turn round so the girl can't see me (but the guy can) and, with a piece of music running, wave a number of fingers in the air to indicate which move I want the guys to lead. The girls then don't know what is coming next so the guys do have to lead it. Only really works for CBL-style of course, but better than nothing.

And apologies to anyone I've ever taught a long sequence to! If you can't figure out the lead - stop me and ask for a better explanation, I don't mind. If you want practice leading it we can do the "blind" routine I've described above.

I'm sure the other teachers in this forum would agree that feedback during the class is really helpful when deciding when to break things down and when to move on.

Cheers,
Ian.

Thanks Ian. It's interesting to get the point of view of some teachers.

One approach teachers could try with their more advanced classes would be to teach a few short sequences but make no attempt to link them. I mean, demonstrate a sequence, let the class practice it, then don't refer to it again and get on with another sequence.

This makes the assumption that the class members can manage to link moves themselves, and many of us would welcome that assumption. I once did a class with Nelson Batista that went like this and it was a very refreshing and enjoyable experience.

When I started teaching I always said I'd emphasize the fact that no-one should feel they had to remember a long routine, just the component parts. I think I've been forgetting to do this of late ...

Sadly it doesn't apply to Rueda where, if you're making any effort at all to cover a standard syllabus of moves (e.g. the Miami moves that are taught all around the world) you really do have to take on at least some long sequences. Hey ho.

Ian.