What a fun class last week as we began the first of our two-week bachata workshops. For many students – especially those who are less experienced dancers – bachata is considerably easier to learn than salsa. The basic steps, for instance, are pretty basic. If you can count to four, you can dance bachata. This…
With a popularity that almost belies its lower-class origins, Bachata has become a popular social dance and best-selling music genre. Fifty years ago in Dominican Republic – bachata’s home – the dance form was considered low-brow and vulgar. It was relegated to the barrios, among the brothels and bars, where it grew in popularity among…
For both Christians and Jews, this is the holy season. For Christians, this week leads up to the seminal event in the history of the religion, celebrated as Easter. For Jews, this is the week of Passover, celebrating the exodus from Egypt that led to the creation of their nation in biblical times. As the…
“Just follow my lead…” Sometimes, that’s easier said than done (but makes all the difference in the world, according to Ed Sheeran). Being effective in following a lead means that each partner – both lead and follow – are connecting in the three ways that we covered in the prior three newsletters: to the music,…
In previous weeks, I discussed aspects of the first two types of connection in partner dancing: connecting with the music and connecting with your partner. This week, let’s look at what it means to connect to the floor (which, in the list of three, many take as an expression of my oddball sense of humour)….
Last week, I discussed some elements of the first connection in partner dancing, namely, connecting with the music. Today, we move on to the second connection: connecting with your partner. In a similar way that some people dance to the count in their head rather than to the music, some salsa dancers will dance patterns…
You’ve probably heard me say that, in partner dancing, you connect three ways: You connect to the music, you connect to your partner, and you connect to the floor. And you can’t miss on any of them (especially the floor!). 🙂 In this edition of Mark’s Lead, let’s focus on the first connection: to the…
The best way to learn to dance is to dance. That’s, of course, a truism. Coming to classes is great (just ask our regular students!). But if you don’t have an opportunity to dance “in the wild,” you’ll never really learn to apply the class learning to real music and random partners. But what if,…
Over the past couple of editions of “Mark’s Lead,” I’ve introduced a few ideas about how to experience the lessons and optimize your learning. Today, we’ll continue on that theme with an idea that will accelerate your learning and enable you to quickly advance in your dance skill. Ready for this? Here’s the secret: Learn…
In last week’s Lead, we looked at how the intention of our classes is not so much to learn the pattern perfectly from beginning to end. Rather, our intention is to convey ideas and applied skills that you can incorporate, according to the nature of the music and the skill of your partner, into your…