If all you do is take a one hour salsa lesson once a week, you will likely not learn too quickly and it will be a little difficult for you to go salsa dancing and feel comfortable and smooth.

The general rule of the thumb is 3-4hrs of practice for every 1 hour of class time. That may seem like a lot of time but an evening of salsa dancing at one of our outings or a local club will fly by and before you know it you have put in the required pratice time without it feeling like homework! That is the beauty of salsa dancing – it is so much fun and once you go out a couple of times and get used to the salsa scene you will find it fun, social, energetic and it will enhance your life.

Other ways of practicing include dancing at home with a partner or on your own. You can use a DVD or just a mirror and some music. You have YouTube to assist you visually and you should try to listen to salsa music wherever you go. Try a Saturday practice session at Trinity Church or our own Monday practice session. Go on the forums and see where the students are heading to and post questions for your knowledge. Really get involved and you will find an amazing new world that is social, musical, fun and exciting!

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I can’t tell you how many complaints I get from women who attend classes without their significant other, stating that their partners did not want to take them out dancing or want to learn to dance with them. They look around the room at all the men in the class and can’t understand why their partners won’t join them.

The interesting thing about salsa and men that I have found over the years is many men (not all of them but many) get into the hobby either because their partner wanted them to or because they wanted to expand their social network. However, just like women, men learn to really love the actual feeling of dancing and end up signing up for future classes purely from the excitement of wanting to learn more and become a better dancer.

I think there is a misperception about dancing that some men buy into and that is that salsa dancing is similar to going freestyle dancing at a regular club. Going dancing at a local club can be extremely uncomfortable because there are no rules or structure and it is not a taught art.

The difference with salsa is that it is structured and once you learn the simple rules of the dance it is actually quite easy to execute. You decide how simple or complex your moves and turn patterns are and how much time you want to spend learning more. You know that your left leg steps on 1, right on 2, etc, which gives you the security of structure. Plus there is so much to be creative about that when you are finally ready to experiment you can with musicality, body movement, patterns and more.

So men, make your ladies happy and take them dancing salsa – with a few lessons you too will learn to love it!

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