I dance several different styles socially – both Latin and non-Latin – and I hear this from time to time as I ask a prospective follower to dance: “Okay, but I’m not very good,” or variations on this theme. It’s hard to say whether the person feels less confident because I know my way around…
The day after Labour Day is, of course, a parent’s happiest time of the year—the day their children return to school. It marks the end of summer, if not meteorologically then at least psychologically. In a sense, it’s a time when most of us are programmed to consider new beginnings and to approach activities with…
I was listening to a podcast yesterday on “Prevention.” It dealt with preventing all sorts of dire events, both in the community and for ourselves, personally. There was, not surprisingly, a segment on Alzheimer’s disease which for many people is among the most frightening of dire events that could befall us or a loved one…
This week, I was called an “offbeat teacher.” I’m assuming, of course, that the critic was referring not to my dance timing, but rather to the unconventional way in which I teach my class, especially at the Foundation level. Let’s face it—I don’t simply tell students to parrot movements, to forget how they learned to…
We have Malcom Gladwell to either thank or blame for popularizing the meme that it takes 10,000 hours of practice at something to reach an expert level. Gladwell – as he is wont to do – misread or misinterpreted or both original research performed by Dr. Anders Ericsson who, with two colleagues in 1990, published…
Over the past few weeks in the Repertoire class, we’ve worked on some choreographies that have interesting elements. There was the “pizza turn” with an elbow block push-down, a blind spot turn with the lead hand stopping on the back of the leader’s neck, some shifting from rail to rail on the slot, and others….
It’s something of which I often remind students in my classes: Salsa is a metaphor for life. (To be fair, many other lead/follow, partner dance styles are equally metaphorical for life, but this is Salsaholics after all!) I often joke about this in class, like when mentioning that the follower (usually a woman) never lets…
One of the biggest challenges that a relatively inexperienced dancer imposes on themselves is the idea that “I don’t know enough moves.” Often, a newer dancer – and this is often more true among leaders – wishes they had a larger repertoire of patterns and combinations with which to spice up their dance experience. After…
On the Salsaholics Facebook group this week, I posted a picture of what looks like a pretty painful injury incurred by one partner, literally at the hands of another. What is clear from the photo is that the injuring party grabbed the injured person with extremely strong thumb pressure, so much so that there is…
In last week’s Repertoire pattern, I mentioned in class that there was a key element that made the difference between success and “not-so-much” in the choreography. That magic ingredient? Flow. What I mean by “flow” is the dancer’s ability to keep their body in motion through the entire 8-count of salsa “units,” if you will….