Postby Steeler [Crawler2] » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:58 am
My partner is Turkish. A very good person. I am close to her whole family. Her father is painting my apartment when I move out free of charge. BUT, we are friends, it is not sexual in any way.
"Hey Mac, I've tried to learn the salsa, but I just can't get the hang of it. I've been told I'm too stiff, that I focus too much on the beat. Any advice?"
Pragmatic
Start without music. Salsa is danced on an eight beat rythem. Find out if people are dancing on one or on two in your area. Then just practice without music.
Common beginner mistakes:
On the first and fifth beats (or second and sixths if dancing on two) they move their body over their foot. For the woman, which you are, this means you are bending your right knee and sinking down a tad on the first step and on the fourth step when coming forward. Keep the leg your weight is on straight and do not move your body over your foot. Your weight is on the foot, but your body remains close to the center of the basic movement. Think of it like walking to the rythem. There is no vertical movement when you walk. It's all lateral. Same here. Latino dances, all movement is lateral, there is no bopping up and down.
Once you get comfortable with the basic step just using a count (no music), then work with the instructor (you have to have an instructor - take a group class, they're affordable) to ensure your mechanics are sound. Learning patterns before the mechanics are sound is a mistake.
Seperately, while not trying to dance or move, have the instructor explain to you where the clave is on the beat. It is a distinctive percussion sound, that you can hear if you know what to look for. This is how you can find the rythem, beats one through eight.
Once you are comfortable and mechanically sound, then get some SON music. I recommend Buena Vista Social club. This music is NOT salsa, but it is an eight beat rythem (with a nice associated dance that has long gone out of style - I dance it on occassion with the rare Cuban woman I will find who is 50 or older) and it is SLOW, which allows you to get comfortable dancing to the rythem without being stressed.
Salsa is NOT EASY to learn. It requries time, patience and dedication. To become a decent, beginner level dancer takes about 3-4 months of work. To become a very good dancer, if you are talented, takes about a year (I had no talent, it took me about three years). To become a world class dancer takes most talented people about five years of very hard work. I'm not there yet, but I don't embarras myself when dancing with very good dancers like Edie Lewis (Edie the Salsa Freak) or Ana Tinajero or some of the other world class dancers. So if you want to get good at it, you start with realistic expectations. It's not something you master overnight.
Lambada 
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