Missed My Blogging Lately

One great thing I can say since I started dancing regularly. I don't think I get sick as much as the people around me. I still get sick, but I'm better sooner, and overall it doesn't seem as bad. Maybe I'm simply delusional due to the Nyquil I took twice?

That said, I got hit with a very aggressive cold/flu bug last weekend, and I've been out of the loop for about four days. I worked for around 25 minutes on Monday, then napped for three hours, after sleeping for around thirteen hours the night before. I have accomplished very, very little for a few days.

Before becoming ill, Doug Fox and I have had a great session last week ("Learning One Over the Wires" series) and he is making excellent progress. I started an article after his last session, but then got sick before I completed it. I'm simply going to combine that article with the results of our next session.

I'm still editing my article on Music Structure, and expect to go live with that article in a few days as well. I haven't danced or gone to any classes since last Saturday and I normally take two or more classes as the week starts and go dancing at least one of the two nights. Not this week. My heavy workout is walking up and down a flight of stairs a couple times per day and taking a shower occasionally. Sorry... TMI (too much information).

But I'm happy how fast I'm recovering. I have to suspect that being in much better shape due to dancing has cut my sick time. I don't know since I'm not fully recovered, but my theory is weighing less, being in much, much better shape than five years ago has enhanced my bodies abilities to fit off sickness.

When I consider the number of people I'm in direct contact with each week, in classes and social dancing, in theory I should get sick more but it's much less than my pre-dance years. I'm pretty good about washing my hands multiple times per night while dancing and just before I leave, but I'm thinking my immune system is stronger than it used to be because I rarely get sick any more. And when I do, generally it's not lasting as long as I remember from the past.

So my question to you: Have you noticed you are getting sick more as your social dancing increases? Or has it gone down for you as you've danced more? I find it interesting that I'm sick less, but maybe it's just me or my current luck.

Studies show that 80 percent of the population suffers from depression,
and the other 20 percent of you cause it.
-Dana Eagle

Air Guitar, Air Drums: A One Man Band

Do you play any air instruments? You know, pretending you’re the singer in the hot band, or sitting in with the band on air guitar, drums, congas or maybe just cowbell?

Every dancer should! It’s a great exercise and not always easy to do, especially if you really try to get everything right. To play air instruments well, you have to really listen to the music. It’s hard to play things you don’t hear, so start packing your gig bags now.

Anybody who's around me in my car, or in one of my musicality classes knows I'm one of the best air musicians on the planet. (What an egotistical thing to say! But I'll take the Texas defense on this one that says, "It ain't bragging if you've done it.")

I can play air drums, guitar, bass, piano, bongos, timbales, and more. I’ll bet 80% of the people who don’t play those instruments will think I do. Being a drummer, air drums is no big deal, nobody should be impressed. But my air piano is pretty strong for some tunes, and most would be surprised how well I fake “playing” some of the other instruments. I don’t do this in public much, but I always do it in my car and when few are watching.

I also try to sing song lyrics, and phrase them EXACTLY like the artist. (You don’t want to hear my Whitney Houston, Faith Evans or MJB, unless you have excellent ear plugs or need some windows broken.)

The point is not to be a great singer, but to try and sing the words and phrases just like the singer. I sometimes have to play a part of a tune 25 times or more to get the phrasing close. I also try and sing some sax and piano solos. That isn't always easy, but what a great exercise for your ears. I have one sax solo that took me a few weeks to get close, and I still have some things I can refine, after doing it over and over for hours. On the other hand, I'm amazingly close and it forced me to really, really listen to what he's playing.

Last night in took a basic hip-hop class (yea… I didn’t blend) and the instructor was playing air drums at one point, punching out the bass drum with his fist. It cracked me up but I realized “Darn… he really knows this tune! That was not an easy or obvious part…” It was obvious he enjoyed the music (and he loved it) and his dance reflected that he knew the music extremely well.

When listening to music, can you pick out the individual instruments and pretend you are playing them? If not, start with the lyrics, those are the easiest. Take a song you really, really like with a vocalist, and figure out the words. Try to lip-sync them or sing them out loud until you can get close. Continue to refine it over time until you could close your eyes and become that singer for a few minutes.

Quality isn’t the thing here, it’s getting the phrasing and timing like the singer. See if you can get EVERY word just like the recording, even if the dog starts howling along with you.

Do it in your car, do it while exercising, do it anyplace you can where you’re not bothering others. We’ll go over more details later, but the more air instruments you play, and the better you sing words (even if the pitch is wrong), the better off you’ll be as a dancer.

I promise you it will pay off later if you continue to refine your air instruments. You can’t pretend to play without learning to hear the instrument throughout the tune. I have some good exercises for that and I’ll expose those later, but for now just know, the more you sing and pretend you are playing, the better you’ll be as we work on musicality issues.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
-Igor Stravinsky

Favorite Songs: Feb 20, 2008

I've just started getting some more great tunes in the blog and here's another song that I really like when I want something up-tempo. It was originally made famous by Hector Lavoe in the 1970's.

Marc Anthony has remade it for the recent Hector Lavoe movie named "El Cantante".

Partly because of the movie, it's recently become popular again, and is in danger of over exposure by some DJ's. But it's still feels great and the original still stands up decades after the first recording. (That is the mark of great music, it's still enjoyable and fresh after ten years or more.)

Most regular salsa dancers will have heard this tune many, many times and I suspect we'll still hear it ten or twenty years from now.

Here's a short modern version of the song and it's a percussionists dream tune.

Marc Anthony: Aguanile El Cantante (short version)


The original: Hector Lavoe


Finally, a live version of Marc Anthony doing the same tune. The sound quality is just OK, but it's still great to hear the energy from the live band. Marc Anthony does an excellent job making the most of this tune.

Marc Anthony: Aguanile Live


More tunes on the way... Let me know your favorites as well.

I only like two kinds of men -- domestic and imported.
-Mae West

Finding One - Bossa Nova feel

For those following the "Finding One Over the Wires" series, one of the tunes I use is the Robin Thicke tune named "Lost Without U". I don't use it because it's salsa music, I use it because it's simple and an excellent starting point for people to hear the time.

Robin Thicke: Modern Bossa Nova Feel


Birgit Marita posted a great comment with a link to another bossa nova and I realized I should post the bossa nova that is probably the most famous in the world named "The Girl From Ipanema." Almost everybody has heard this over the years, but many people think of it as elevator music, since it's a laid back, "less is more" concept from the mid 1960's.

In most arts, including dance and music, it's smart to get a feel for the history of the art and see how it's evolved over the years. Most people will find it easier to hear the time in the Robin Thicke tune, because the drums are very clear.

In the original version, the drums don't play in the beginning, and when they play they are in the background, providing a feel but nothing like modern tunes. Once you hear the time in the Robin Thicke tune, it's a very small jump to this classic version.

The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto (1964)


And finally, below is a live jazz version of the same tune, so you can see how it's performed by one of the original artists in a live setting. The Girl from Ipanema starts around the 3:10 mark in the clip (assuming you are counting up). I really like the piano solo around the six-minute mark. Remember that this music and these artists are very mature and are excellent examples of the "less is more" music concepts.

Stan Getz Quartet - Desafinado and Girl from Ipanema


All these people have the technical ability to play 10 times more, but in this context they choose to play fewer notes overall. That is an artistic choice, and to do this well often takes musicians 5 to 10 years or more just to get into the ballpark. It sounds so simple, but it's not.

As dancers, we have similar choices, where we learn to perform complex moves with grace, and we pick and choose which is appropriate for the music and our partner.

Let me know your thoughts!

Men aren't attracted to me by my mind.
They're attracted by what I don't mind.
-Gypsy Rose Lee

Taking Classes - It's Easy for You

I recently had a couple people say, "Oh, taking classes is easy for you, you're a natural." My first thought was "Natural... are you kidding? I wish! I'm really just a persistent SOB, even when quitting feels like the obvious option during a class." I generally don't say that, instead I grin and say "thank-you," like my Mom taught me many decades ago.

We all need to stretch ourselves, either in dance or another activity. We are all moving forward or backward; there really is no “staying right here” and treading water. Your longer-term physical and mental health is enhanced by stretching beyond your previous best efforts. Sometimes being a fish out of water is the best way to grow, although short term it can bust my ego if I don’t keep my head straight.

Here's my scene a couple years ago: I walk into class and everybody turns and looks at me. They look like they're staring at a lost puppy and their face says "Ah... Clearly you are looking for the senior fitness class." No! Welcome to beginning ballet at the Millennium Dance Complex. They address me as "sir" as in, "Hello sir, this is beginning ballet, is that what you are looking for?" Their voice makes it obvious they assume I've stumbled into this studio when I was simply looking for the rest room.

It's deadly quiet except for some piano music playing softly from the CD player. Almost everybody is stretching, keeping to themselves, and most are lacing up those satin dance slippers the ballet types wear during the exercises. Two thirds of the room are young enough to be my daughters, and the other guy in the class is dressed in a skin-tight, spandex leotard, not looking super masculine.

Turned out spandex guy was an excellent dancer (like most of the females), and rightly so didn't care if his attire looked girlish to me. He was serious about being a stronger dancer. Later I learned the tight clothes allow the instructor to make more corrections, where my ghetto look hides a ton of errors from the instructor.

I'm in my shorts and athletic shirt, and you might guess I didn’t exactly blend with the natives. It took a few minutes and I'm wondering to myself, "what the heck am I doing here?" Taking serious classes and lessons is not for the faint of heart.

Imagine being male, late 40's, gray hair, never danced before and taking your first beginning ballet class. Yes, I did it. It wasn't pretty, and I'm thankful they don't allow video because blackmail was a distinct possibility if I was on the tape. It was painfully clear those exercises look much easier on stage or TV, especially when someone else is doing them.

I couldn't bend over and touch my toes, and I didn't know a plie from a pizza. A chaine turn wasn't in my vocabulary and to increase the fun, the excellent instructor was from Japan. All her French words (the official language of ballet) were spoken with a sexy Japanese accent, leaving me wondering what the heck she was saying most of the time, although it sounded great. She was extremely nice to me, had great technique and was more than patient. She mercifully ignored me other than providing subtle corrections and encouraged me to return, since she could tell I was trying, but there was little denying I was the ugly swan in the room.

I was slowly getting it together, but for months I was in the wrong zip code. I often reverted to knuckle-dragger mode and used my famous monkey-see, monkey-do learning technique because I didn't understand the language of the dance. Many of the moves were too fast for me and I hated the "across the floor" exercises. (People going one to two at a time, spinning, turning or in my case, stumbling across the floor while everybody else watched.)

I had points where I had to simply laugh at myself, because I was either that or leave with my tail between my legs. Many times I was bad enough the others took pity on me and complimented me when I did the least little thing better. Sometimes it was close to "Wow... you really hold on to that bar well" but I think they realized that I wasn't leaving, and I earned respect for simply staying in the game week after week. I found ways to focus on incremental improvements and just keep going, even when the "fun" part of dancing seemed worlds away to me.

But I stuck it out, once per week for almost a year. At one point the class I was taking was cancelled due to remodeling at the studio. Now all the ballet classes during the week are in the morning instead of the one evening class, so I have moved on to a couple jazz classes each week.

It's still not pretty, but now I'm committed to going to jazz classes a couple times per week, working my way from total ignorance to intellectual understanding. My technique is still in the lower third of the class but considering I started in the lower 10% of the class (read: usually the worst) actually seeing a few people behind me is something new and welcomed.

Here's the point for you: If I can do it, so can you! Maybe you go to a shines class, a more advanced salsa class, stretching, ballet, hip-hop or jazz class (the good ones are excellent spinners, and someday I will join that group).

Do something to improve your game. Nothing builds confidence like starting at the bottom and attending the classes until you move up the ranks into the reasonable range. Maybe like me, you find yourself outside the norm for the class attendees. Maybe you wonder if you really can become a dancer, since everybody else makes it look easy and they don't struggle like you and me. Over a few weeks (or more), we can push through the feelings that make us all feel uncomfortable when we start something new.

I'm still a work in progress in that area, but every week I try to do something that is a little outside my comfort zone, building my ability to block out what others think of me in the process. That is an excellent life skill that applies to learning anything significant as we continue to mature.

Obviously, it's easy to say "never stop learning" but unless we push ourselves, it's much easier to stay home and watch TV. Learning more benefits your dancing and makes you feel much better about yourself. Little is out of reach, even if you don't fit the "normal" status compared to others.

Of course, you need to make a commitment to stick it out a few months and more. There is real magic in taking classes beyond a few months. Things that seemed impossible (like touching my toes or chaine turns) become routine with consistent practice.

Find a way to stretch yourself this year. Life tends to favor the bold, so go find a class, DVD or otherwise find ways to continue your dance education. The rewards are amazing, and go way beyond the dance floor.

Again, I rarely blend in my classes, and at points it can be painfully obvious I'm not a natural dancer. In my experience, the harder I work, the more natural I look. Overcoming obstacles and sticking with it a while builds your skills and more importantly builds your self-confidence. That carries over into other areas of your life, making you a better person even if you don't become a world-class dancer.

Let me know what you are doing to improve and stretch yourself this year.

Until Eve arrived, this was a man's world.
-Richard Armour

Finding "One" Over the Wires: Feb 14 Update

This is part of a series on assisting someone to hear the time in the music, check out the links at the bottom of this article to see the previous articles in the series.

Doug and I had a great session today.

One week after we had a phone conversation where we worked through a set of simple exercises, he is consistently getting the 1 & 5 right in simple music, and now we are now expanding into a couple different tunes and he's still getting it right! Our new tunes included "Heard It Though the Grapevine", the Michael McDonald remake version, and the Motown Remix version, with Gladys Knight and the Pips.)

Michael McDonald: "Heard It Though the Grapevine"


I know some of the my salsa guru friends are shaking their heads right now, because I take a totally different approach to teaching the music and timing. Rather than start with clave, and the other Latin percussion instruments, we start with simple music and build a foundation that applies to all dance music, salsa or otherwise. (We do focus on instruments in the rhythm section, including clave, but that is later in my system.)

My approach starts with a simple concept of understanding the right music structures, and the goal is to get people to realize how easy it is to hear the time. This assumes they have the right foundation and we build it from the ground up. It isn't based on hearing one instrument, but it all starts with my first rule in the "Baarns Musicality Principles" (BMP)

BMP Rule Number 1:
Music Has Structure! (and the corollary: Music Ain't Random!)

I have an article in draft form behind the scenes which expands on the principles and the first rule above. I expect to have it live within a week. It revolves around the concept that if you can get a handle on the basic structures (8 counts, phrases, sections), and can hear the structures in simple music, you can build on that to hear the time in nearly all dance tunes.

At this point Doug is making great progress and hopefully he'll write about it in his blog. I'm extremely proud of the quick progress we are making. He paid me the ultimate instructor compliment today when he said something like, "Gee, this all seems pretty easy..." I doubt he was saying or thinking that in the past. I suspect it all seemed like a big cloud or bowl of soup to him. Now he's almost bored with how easy it is and he naturally wants to move on.

I cautioned him that it's critical to get the first steps right, and practice it more than you might enjoy, because once you add a partner you need to already have these concepts running on autopilot.

I wish I had recorded his original stab at counting the time in simple tunes, because he's doing it so convincingly today few will believe he struggled with it previously. We were both having a great time because he's having those "ah-ha" moments where it's all starting to fit together for him.

Once the foundation is in place, combined with regular practice, anybody can hear the time in the music.

Doug and I are continuing our building block approach and in the next couple weeks will will start moving into more complex commercial music, then start our transition into simple salsa tunes.

One thing that is important for you. The process we are taking reflects our starting point, factoring in Doug's previous experience. Everybody has different ears and I used to be surprised how different people are. Some people will take twice the time Doug took to get where he is, some may take less. That really doesn't matter, because once you get it, you own it for life. So what if it takes you an extra few weeks? Some guys have spent years dancing off the time, and they don't even know it.

It's an amazing individual process because I can't "show" someone what to hear. In a dance class, you can show me a move, and we get instant feedback via the mirror and/or video camera. Where I'm missing something, it's easy for you to point it out and show me what it should look like. That same approach doesn't work with music, because it's all in our heads.

I'll provide more details on my "Baarns Musicality Principles", and I'll get you additional updates on Doug's progress as we go.

Comments and feedback are always welcomed.

In case you are new to this blog, Doug Fox (of "Dancing Into the Future" fame) and I are working on a project where I'm helping him to find "one" in the music, without ever meeting face-to-face. For details on how this got started, check out the following articles:
Finding "One" over the Wires
Nov 2nd Update
Feb 10 update

Modesty: The gentle art of enhanceing your charm by pretending
not to be aware of it.
-Oliver Herford

Favorite Songs: A Couple More

Sam (via a comment) asked me about more tunes, so here are a couple which come to mind. One of my blocks is many of my salsa tunes have Spanish titles, and so while I know a hundred tunes by sound, I often have no idea what they are named. If I’d simply get off my tail end and improve my Spanish, this wouldn’t be an issue, but today it is. Check these out and I’ll do my homework to get you more.

I love this tune off the "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" soundtrack called "Do You Wanna Dance" (The big band version, not the one by Mya). It's available for about a buck on Buy.com (take the link on the song to hear a sample). It should be available via iTunes and/or the other major sites, but I didn't check to verify it's there.

I found the alternate version with vocals on YouTube and I'm including it below. It's a nice tune but it doesn't compare to the big band version referenced above.

Do You Wanna Dance - Mya
A nice video, but not the music version I'm referencing above.


If you want some great music and are into slower cha-cha-cha (almost a bolero feel), you have to get one of my favorite tunes called "Welcome to My Empire - (English)" by La India (AKA India). This is the title track from a movie named Empire: Two Worlds Collide. It's an excellent example of a tune which builds like making love, and every dancer should study this tune and feel the mood the musicians create. The song is a perfect model for great dancing, music, art or love.

Welcome to My Empire is one of those I have listened to over a hundred times, and I can leave it for a few weeks and listen again without getting bored. The horn arrangements are excellent, the rhythm section is rock solid and she sings with incredible passion.

It's also extremely dynamic. If I start with the introduction at a medium volume, by the end it's simply too loud. This is a tune to enjoy on a premium sound system, as the band is burning, and the dynamic range creates intense emotions if you have the system to support it. The problem is I haven't been able to find a source for the MP3 file without buying the complete movie soundtrack. I found the CD on Amazon.com. If anybody finds a good source for just the song, let me know and I'll post it.

This tune should be in every dancer’s collection, just for the power of the music and the vocals. It's also the perfect tune to practice your cha-cha-cha dancing, since it's slow and emotional. Dancing slower is often much tougher than dancing medium or faster tempos, because every move is exposed. I've also used it to practice Salsa moves slowly, but that requires ignoring the real feel of the tune.

I’m going to dig into my Salsa collections and get titles and artists in place. Stay tuned and let me know what you think of these songs.

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
-Thomas Alva Edison

Gaining Perspective on Your Dancing (and Life)

As we grow, sometimes it seems like everybody else around us is improving or is already better. They are making more progress then we are, and making it look easy, when I'm struggling to get to the next level.

In my case, nothing beats doing something rather than complaining about my lack of progress. Take a new class, watch some dance DVDs and find a few new moves, hang out with some stronger dancers, hang out with some beginners (realizing how far I've progressed), go to a new club, or occasionally, simply do something else to gain perspective.

When I'm feeling like I need to kick myself in the rear, I watch these two videos again. They are NOT salsa related, but are worth viewing when you need some perspective. They make my complaining seem very petty.

Check out this basketball player and his excuses:


When you are struggling with your dancing, check out these two dancers. You can't help but admire their ability to move forward after severe, life changing setbacks:


Let me know your thoughts on these clips.

Familarity breed contempt -- and children.
-Mark Twain

Finding "One" Over the Wires: Feb 10 Update

In case you are new to this blog, Doug Fox (of "Dancing into the Future" fame) and I are working on a project where I'm helping him to find "one" in the music, without ever meeting face-to-face. For details on how this got started, check out my Finding "One" over the Wires article and the Nov 2nd Update.

Doug and I had a great phone session a few days ago. I had almost given up on him, as we were both very busy near the holidays and progress was painfully slow since our kick-off e-mails.

One thing that is very clear to me, you can’t do some of this without some interactive sessions, either over the phone or in person. Doug is a very smart guy, but via e-mails I couldn’t tell if he was hearing the one in the right places. I suspect he thought he was right, I wasn't sure, and now we know it wasn’t right at points. I’m not clear if he knew he was wrong some of the time, but I know he was frustrated.

In five minutes over the phone, I realized he was being confused by the guitar groove in our example tune (“Lost Without U” by Robin Thicke, see the video below). The tune is a simple, slow bossa-nova feel, with a bass drum on the 1 and 5 count. That said, everybody hears with different ears, and initially the bass drum wasn’t clear to him. Within a few minutes of him listening to my count, and our discussions of the different sounds, he had an “ah-ha” moment and said something like “Oh… that is very clear now, I don’t know how I missed it.”

"Lost Without U" example tune by Robin Thicke


The reality is that is extremely normal. Just because you hear one aspect of a tune, it's amazing what others are not hearing or hearing differently. My focus can be totally different than yours. Even something very "obvious" to you is often unheard by someone else, especially at the beginning of the process. (If someone has any musical background, they are often miles ahead of the game.)

One of my challenges as an instructor is figuring out what you are hearing or not, because until you hear some of the instruments, combined with learning some "selective focus" techniques, it's not always easy. (I'll expand on "selective focus" in another article.)

After going over some counting fundamentals, we worked on getting the 1 and 5 aligned with the music and practiced counting out loud. We also practiced finding the count by stopping and restarting the tune in the middle, working toward being able to hear it no matter where we are in the song.

Our process includes learning the count to a slower, simpler tune before we start tackling salsa music. If someone can’t hear the time perfectly in simple music, and keep it consistently from beginning to end, they have little chance of getting it right with the complexities of most salsa music. Via e-mail we discussed clave and some other musical concepts, but at this point we are walking before running.

He is also learning Tango, and he asked if these concepts applied to that music. I'm clear that once he gets it with a few tunes, a whole new world will open up across a wide set of dance music.
Our next task is to outline the structure of the music, and fit his counting within the structure of the tunes. This will provide the framework for finding the time across all dance music, and I expect we'll start crossing that bridge in a few weeks or so.

Doug is also documenting our progress and I expect to see something in his blogs soon. I'll cross-post a link here when he goes public with his progress. I can say this process is easy for me in person, but the long distance aspects provide me with plenty to think about.

You'll see additional details later about our exact sessions, and we've made excellent progress so far. I’m now even more confident he’ll be great with the time in the near term. We still have lots of practice and exercises left, and I’ll provide more details as we progress.

When a habit begins to cost money, it's called a hobby.
-Jewish Saying

Critics and Learning from Others: Part 2

This is the second of a two-part article. If you haven’t read “Critics and Learning from Others: Part 1” I recommend you do so before this article, although I hope they both stand on their own as well. (Side note: I'm not naming names in this post, as the principles apply no matter who is involved.)

In some of my conversations with more advanced dancers, I hear many of them overlooking opportunities to learn from others around them, especially those taking a different approach.

In the musician world, mature musicians with extensive technical skills know the best musicians often “play less” than the up and coming players. You learn and practice intense technical skills over and over until you become mindlessly competent with a wide set of exercises.

During performance time, more mature artists choose to play less but make the most of each note you play, saving their most complex abilities to add balance and spice to their art. Part of the growth process is learning what to leave out of your playing, and when playing “simply”, they use their technical excellence to create enhanced feel to their fewer notes. Great music is a balance between intensity and silence, and dancing is similar.

At the club recently, I'm talking with a strong lead who has forgotten more patterns than I've ever known. He has been dancing salsa over eight years, and has accumulated a large set of very complex moves, executing them with great authority. He's at a point in his development that complexity is his benchmark for "good" dancers.

During my short conversation with this strong lead, I point out one of the gals at the club visiting from another country. This young woman is an extremely advanced dancer, excellent spinner, strong, sexy stylist and was easily one of the best dancers in the room that night. She would be in the top 3 follows in almost any club in the world, and makes it all look easy and fun.

She was dancing with her performance partner, and the strong lead I'm talking with commented, "Oh, he isn't very good." (I'll call the strong lead the "OHNVG guy.") I was surprised by that comment, since her performance partner does an excellent job showcasing his partners’ strengths, even if he's not Johnny Vasquez himself. Their dance had a nice balance between show quality tricks and a set of finesse moves which they made look easy, but required seasoned dancers to make them look great.

The performance partner also had some nice, well placed moves that were not overly complex, but complimented the music well. These allowed his partner to add style and look sexy between more intense combinations. It's clear they can dance at a high level, and he is smart enough to know it's about her and making his partner look great.

Later that evening, I saw the OHNVG guy dancing with the same world-class follow. During their dance, he put her through the ringer, doing tons of complex arm twisty, over the river and through the woods patterns, and he to used his extensive pattern vocabulary to keep the intensity cranked up all through the tune. She did very well, nailing a large set of his most complex moves, although she missed a few things along the way. It was almost as if he wanted to show he knew some moves that she didn't. Most spins where triples or more, with a few of the extended, spin the girl until her head snaps off from spotting or spin her until her shoes start smoking from the friction.

She aced the extended spinning tests and I can tell she has that professional, "OK, if you want to spin me, go for it and I'll do it until your arm falls off" attitude. There were a few points in the combinations where it was like she was underwater looking for a place to catch a breath, but she handled it with grace. It was spin, spin, spin, complex arm twisting cross body lead into more spins. She took it in stride and smiled most of the time, with moments of intense concentration reacting to another complex sequence.

Now, my turn to be a critic; her performance partner has his strengths and weaknesses, and the OHNVG guy doesn't realize dancing isn't just about patterns and complexity. They could both learn from each other although when I talk with her performance partner, he was the first to tell me he is a work in progress and constantly learning from leads around him. I noticed he films many guys dancing with his partner, and he told me he's always on the lookout for great ideas he can borrow and then make his own.

The OHNVG guy didn't compliment or reflect the music or use his extensive pattern vocabulary to build a dance but rather used the music as a time-keeper to start and end complex sequences. He started the dance complex, and continued with high intensity with some very minor breaks along the way. He really did an amazing end-to-end endurance dance, although most of the time it lacked feel and musicality, where the dancing and combinations didn’t match the ebb and flow of the music. It was an impressive technical showcase of his leading patterns, but missed the musical and connection components of great dancing.

Complexity isn’t an enemy or inappropriate, if both partners have the ability AND the section of the song is appropriate for intensity. Few songs are complex from beginning to end, but tend to build throughout the tune. His follow was about as good as it ever get in terms of ability to keep up with his complexity on a first dance, but he missed the chance to let her dance with him rather than for him.

I have great respect for the OHNVG guy in terms of his pattern vocabulary. Few guys will invest the effort required to get to his level in terms of advanced patterns. On the other hand, he reminded me of less mature musicians who are over-balanced in the “more is more” camp.

That said, I suspect he’ll mature over time and balance out his dancing so he takes his highly technical skills and balances these moves with more graceful, simpler patterns, allowing his partner space to add her flair to their dance. In this case, his follow had the ability to make almost any lead look great, but only if the lead provides the space for her to contribute. With the constant complexity, most of the dance disproportionately reflects the leads concept of the dance, without allowing enough space for the follow to shape the dance.

An improving lead needs to practice and enhance our technical skills and pattern vocabulary, but keep in mind that complexity doesn’t make dancing excellence, but it’s part of a balanced dance. When a dance gets too complex for too long, it’s like a conversational partner who never lets you get a word in while they are speaking. The more mature guys wants his partner talking as much or more, otherwise it’s a speech. Most women get exasperated when we do that too long, and they will avoid the dancers who do the same.

Be sure to watch for dancers taking a different approach from yours and see what you can learn from them, rather than writing them off as “not very good”. Often they have a few strengths that can compliment what you already do, especially the ones who have been dancing a few years or more.

Just because you are blind, and unable to see my beauty doesn't mean it does not exist.
-Margaret Cho

Critics and Learning from Others: Part 1

It seems like everybody is a critic, and the better you get, you'll find more people pointing out your weaknesses. Occasionally they’ll criticize you to your face, but mostly behind your back.

Get used to the fact that it will happen, assuming you continue dancing and improve beyond the beginning stages. People argue endlessly about the dancers who compete and/or win at the ESPN Salsa Championships, the Mayan or any other competition related to salsa. If they can find faults with those dancers, they can spend months documenting my issues, but that is just too easy so why bother.

When you take classes at a professional grade dance school, many instructors primarily criticize or correct the best in the class, and everybody else has to look at the corrections for the elite, and fix the same issues themselves. It becomes a badge of honor if the instructor is picking on you; because the instructor only corrects the top tier dancers. Many dancers attend classes a couple years before the pro instructors starts correcting their form regularly.

In a social context, few people criticize the beginners, because we all cut them tons of slack (as we should). As you progress and become stronger, then you get the “Oh… that’s a nice move, but he’s too …” type of comments. If you hear them about yourself, realize you've finally grown enough that others are noticing your advancements. It may not feel great to hear the negative, but if you hear it, don’t let it ruin your day, it's a sign you are making positive progress.

Sometimes it does makes me wonder about people focusing so much energy on others faults. No matter what your level, it makes sense to learn from everybody around you, even those with less experience or taking different approaches. In a social scene, once you decide someone is "not good", you often miss opportunities to learn from them, because you've written them off as "below you". They may be less experienced than you overall, but that doesn't mean they can't contribute to your growth.

We can learn from anybody, even if what we learn is what we don’t want to do. Instead of being the critic, use your observation skills to find the good things someone is doing, and make that your focus. Sometimes it’s just what you don’t want to do, but as a rule everybody has something you can adopt and put into your dancing, especially once you focus the people who have a couple years experience.

This all assumes you are looking for their best, rather than paying attention to their current weaknesses. Again, the idea is to watch for the good things, and ignore their rough spots.

Part II of this article outlines a conversation I had with a very advance dancer, which highlights the points above. That article will go live in a couple days.

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson