Hey gang, it’s your friendly neighborhood director of Toronto Dance Salsa.
I love today’s question, you know, in every beginner class I always give little hacks on how to make Salsa dancing easy so you can go to a nightclub and dance with others and have fun, connect, feel confident.
The easiest way like anything in life is to get your basics down. One hack I tell my students at the end of the very first, Salsa level 1 class, is to practice your basics as you go about your day.
Brushing your teeth? Practice your forward and back basics.
Waiting for the subway, buss? Practice your forward and back basics.
Practice your Salsa basic over and over until it becomes muscle memory.
This is the most underrated yet the most important thing, any beginner dancer can do, Why?
Because most dancers focus on, unfortunately, on the turns, on the fancy moves on, “I want to learn the dip”.
When you actually look at two professional dancers, what they’ll do more than any dip than any turn, then any toss in the air is their forward and back basic. It’s the foundation of everything.
Here is something you can try.
Turn on some salsa music, you can visit our YouTube Channel, we have a beginner-friendly playlist available for you to check out, and see if you can do your forward and back basics, sticking to the rhythm while talking to a friend on the phone.
If you can do your forward and back basic and you can carry a phone call conversation, Salsa dancing just became easier.
Here are a couple more hacks you can follow when you’re doing salsa dancing to make it easier
- Take Small Steps: When you do your forward and back basic as a leader or follower, doesn’t matter. Try not to pass your toes and your heels. Small steps is just easier. As you start to go dancing, you’ll notice Salsa is fast! So small steps, that’s one trick.
- Bend your knees and hips: So think you are sitting on a tall bar stool, that’s another little hack. It makes your center of gravity lower. You can think of it as skating. When you are skating or rollerblading, you want your center mass, your center of gravity lower and when your center of gravity is lower, you just more balanced. You can think of your knees and your hips then start to act as shock absorbers. So when you go forward and back, it’s easier to stay upright.
- Don’t look down and don’t look at your feet: Every beginner when they start, they think that if they look at their feet, it makes it easier but actually what’s better is not to look at your feet and learn by feel. Learning how it feels for your feet to make contact into the ground, focusing on the body sensation vs looking, your body picks up the muscle memory faster.
Honestly, a lot more tips I can give but the biggest tip I can give is just put on some Salsa music and dance. Dance, have fun and get it down so you don’t have to think and your feet just move in the rhythm. Then it’s easier to focus on all the fun and cool moves you get to learn in our classes.
Remember if you have more questions please contact me! There are so many more tips that I want to share with you! If you have a question, please message me on Instagram (torontodancesalsa), on Twitter (#torontodancesalsa), on Facebook (Toronto Dance Salsa) or email me at [email protected].
