Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Know your enemy

I think we all recognise who you mean. Just out of curiosity, why does anybody dance with him? (more than once anyway).

It’s a mystery to me. Maybe women who are similarly rhythmically challenged think that’s how you’re supposed to dance?

Is this “Tarzan” you are refering to a rather tall man? For my partner had her eye blackened recently by a person who sounds like the same guy you peops are talking about.

It could be almost anyone, there’s plenty of very bad dancing in Cardiff. All of us guys should take a a long hard look at ourselves and ask, “Am I a considerate, pleasing, dance-partner or am I a tiresome, galumphing, menace?”.

Tarzan is quite tall, with dark hair. Sounds like the same person. There is plenty of bad dancing in Cardiff, but nobody who manages to turn such a large section of the dancefloor into a danger area while dancing to salsa.

When I was first taught, the teacher encouraged us to move round the dance floor. Anyway, I’ve given up now as I dislocated my shoulder, and there are some women who have a tendancy to try and lead quite forcefully - enough to dislocate it again if they don’t know what they are doing.

Who taught you? On a crowded dancefloor you should find a space and stick to it. It’s only in ballroom dancing that you move around the dance floor. If you’re dancing Cuban style you circle round each other and if you’re dancing CBL style you swap places, but unless there’s loads of space you should always be sticking to the same spot.

Don’t get me started on ladies who lead...

The only time I would travel around the dance floor is to get out of the way of a dangerous dancer. There are several other idiots who are a risk to everybody else while dancing, but none of them has the same range as Tarzan (about five yards in any direction!).

The way to deal with ladies who dance too forcefully is to release their hands when it gets too rough (sometimes they go flying but what the hell, it’s better than a dislocated shoulder).

Why don’t the people who run these venues put out regular announcements on the PA appealing for people to dance safely. It may have the effect of shaming inconsiderate dancers into changing their behaviour.