Salsa: Three Types of Practice Required!

It may take two to tango, but Salsa requires three distinct types of practice as you grow. Maybe a few can dazzle in the clubs by just “dancing”. But most people require a systematic approach if they want excellence in a reasonable time frame. Few dancers want to crash and burn in the club while working on new material. You can accelerate your success by making sure you are actively managing your practice. On a regular basis, you’ll want to incorporate different types of practice as your dancing matures.

Practicing breaks down into the following categories:

• Personal
• Partnering
• Club/Social

Personal Practice
You need to practice on our own, with a mirror and/or video camera, to get the footwork and overall body action refined. By yourself you can focus on your look and feel without the distraction of your partners’ strengths and weaknesses. Work on your footwork, Cuban motion, balance, turns, spins and shine combinations alone, refining basic and more complex body control.

Partnering Practice
Practice your patterns and leading/following skills with a practice partner, outside the club. You slow the patterns down, speed them up, repeating sections over and over to fine-tune the mechanics and make sure everything is clear to your partner. It is also helpful to practice the patterns at both a snail's pace and at blistering tempos. Working a pattern very slowly is often eye-opening and harder than doing moderate or faster tempos. Counting out loud while practicing patterns is an excellent practice habit and using a video camera to review your progress is extremely helpful.

Club Practice
Getting in the real world changes things. If the wheels fall off when you try it in the club, you haven’t practiced it enough in a private setting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve practiced a pattern/combination with my practice partner, and then the first time in the club it was like the car ran out of gas. I forgot how the pattern started, or I blew the ending, or I missed a step and we crashed and burned. Sometimes it works fabulously; sometimes it’s material for a blooper reel. Different music, lighting, a different floor and just the fact that others might be watching change the dynamics of dancing enough to throw my game plan out the window. Ideally, you try new material with a partner who is already one of your fans, since they will cut you some slack if the first couple attempts lead to a blowout. Once you have success with known partners, then see if you can lead others through the same move.

Let me know how you manage your practice.

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.
-Henry Kissinger