Week One

Hello Dancers,

Each week I will post the highlights of what we covered in class. This is not meant to be a dance manual or a substitute for attending class. Instead, it is here to help you remember what we worked on between classes.

We started with our risk statements, policies, and paperwork. I briefly discussed my experience dancing and competing as well as my approach to teaching dance.

The warm up is the most important part of any dance class – it is the time when dancers learn to use their bodies in new ways. In addition to promoting greater leg and back strength, general flexibility, and avoidance of injuries, we will develop numerous isolations and greater coordination.

Dance classes in other genres of dance – Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, African – all begin with a comprehensive warm up. Partner dancing (ballroom dancing) is another dance discipline equally as involved as those I just mentioned, yet a warm up is frequently missing from many ballroom dance classes. In the ballroom classes and workshops I have taken over the years, participants get through more material more quickly and with greater satisfaction in those classes that began with a comprehensive warm up.

I believe in teaching people how to dance, not just teaching how to reproduce steps, patterns, and figures. It takes a little bit of time to lay this foundation, but it is time well spent. People can learn to be good leads and good follows. Both are skills that people can develop.

The lead’s role is to define space. The follow’s role is to decide how and when to occupy space. Partner dancing is a dialogue between two people – each person voluntarily participating in the activity, dancing together. The lead does not tell the follow what to do!

We worked on what I called the “friction connection” – not too hard, not too soft, just right – and that each person is responsible for building and maintaining the connection.

We used the friction connection to begin moving around the room – simply at first and then adding turns. Leads turn their own bodies by creating space under the contact point and moving their bodies through the space. Follows turn when the leads create space that goes in a circle.

We began to describe the three socially acceptable regions of contact – I referred to them as “arm level”, “shoulder level”, and “waist level”.

By the end of the class – when we compressed the group together in one small area – we were using these “levels” to begin to dance merengue.

The leads were actually leading. The follows were actually following. In this class I will encourage you to develop your own creativity. It certainly looked like everyone was having a good time.

I end each class session with a review, in the form of a question. “What is something useful or interesting you learned today?” Everyone gets a chance to answer, because sometimes the best observations and really good insights can come from your fellow classmates.

Week Two

Officially, our class has 18 people enrolled! This is a great size for a group class. Please talk to me (or email me) early in the semester if there is something about class that you would like me to address.

I love to teach large groups. The energy and excitement that happens in a dance class when a lot of people are really getting involved is very powerful.

We reviewed the material from last week, including the friction connection, standing with turnout, leading turns and being lead to turn using arm-level connections.

In the warm up, we also began to develop the characteristic Latin hip action (the rotational action of the hips, also known as Cuban Motion).

We used simple notions like up, down, across, away, and circle to begin to develop a system for creating moves.

One hand goes up (to approximately forehead-height of the person who will be turning) and one hand goes down (so that the wrist is below the elbow on both partners).

We did cuddles and hammerlocks for both the lead and the follow, as well as some hand changes behind the back for the leads.

By leading hand-across-the-face and hand-away-from-the-face turns with the up-hand while maintaining connection with the down-hand, the lead provides the space for the follows to turn, creating “cuddles” – hand-across-the-face (the cute move) – and “hammerlocks” – hand-away-from-the-face (the one people thought was bizarre initially).

The leads can put themselves into cuddles and hammerlocks by moving their bodies under the up-hand, though without moving either of the hands while in the process of turning.

Floor Craft is the act of paying attention to yourself, your partner, and all of the people around you while everyone is moving and dancing. It is the art of collision avoidance.

Cuddles and hammerlocks are very versatile and are the raw ingredients for countless other moves.

We used the three levels of contact (see the class note from Week One) to begin improvising moves.

We also learned what I think is the most versatile move – the idea that either person can just let go with both hands to get out of any move.

Week Three

Hello Dancers,

This week we reviewed the cuddle and hammerlock from last week. Those moves are the basis for about 75% of the things you will create in Merengue and Salsa.

I also introduced the concept of Negative Space.

Everyone is becoming more comfortable with the idea of “just going with it” if the move did not happen exactly the way you planned.

There are (at least) three ways out of every move that we do.
1) Just Let Go
2) Go back the way you came
3) Use Negative Space (often there are many ways to use negative space)

Finding and inventing new ways out of any given entanglement of arms and hands makes dance interesting.

We explored Negative Space with the Lead’s Cuddle to the Tunnel (which then presented us with the chance to work on the two-hand-up turn – keep the Follow’s wrists close together and moving in the same direction at the same speed at the same time – if the lead also turns, I called this a “you-go-I-go” or “he-goes-she-goes” turn).

We also used Negative Space from a Lead’s Hammerlock, sliding behind the Follow (shoulder-blade-to-shoulder-blade), experimenting with the two-hands-down variation while sliding behind the follow.

Next week, I will demonstrate a way to link those two Negative Space exercises together.

Remember, these are just exercises designed so that you as individuals can discover the kinds of things that are possible while partner dancing. Remembering the exact sequence of events that goes into producing a “move” is not nearly as important as remembering how it feels to produce a move.

Many of you commented on the fact that every person you dance with does it a little differently. This is good! Each person is unique, and discovering what is possible with each new dance partner is part of the delight of partner dancing.

Week Four

Hello Dancers,

This week we reviewed several key concepts from last week, including negative space.

There are usually a number of ways out of any given entanglement of arms and hands, and finding new ones makes dance interesting.

I presented the basic pattern for the Salsa, and discussed a number of counting systems and ways to think about the pattern, emphasizing that the rhythm is more important than the pattern.

By the end of class we had just begun to apply some of the negative space playful moves we had developed in the Merengue to the Salsa.

Week Five

Hello Dancers,

This week, we worked on the right-to-right and left-to-left handhold (ie, criss-cross). We started with “right-to-right left-over-right” – if you put your hands together in that way (one hand at a time), you will always end up with the hand arrangement that you intend.

With criss-crossed hands, we worked on face loops for the lead and the follow, the “you-go-I-go” turn, and the various turns that resemble cuddles/hammerlocks.

We also worked more with negative space, timing moves to work well, and with deflections in the vertical plane (ie, leading the follows to duck).

It is very important to think about leading and following in terms of “suggestions” or “deflections” and not “force / turn / push / pull”. Those hard action verbs result in a harsh lead/follow connection and can quickly result in injury.

And remember, either person can just let go with one or both hands. We only mentioned briefly during the conclusion of the class that letting go with just one hand will result in an entirely different-feeling set of moves.

Also remember that the things we have been doing in class – while also being “moves” – are more importantly the exercises that allow us to discover how to lead and follow. We discover much assertiveness, decisiveness, and attentiveness are required in order to actually dance with a partner.

Everyone is doing a great job!