At a body movement class, the instructor repeatedly scolded me with "you're dancing with your feet!". I had no clue what this meant. What else would I dance with?
See, I was taught a watered down basic step. It shouldn't even be called the basic. It should be "the salsa direction". I learned which way to travel, but by no means could I call it dancing.
The first person to teach me how to DANCE salsa, using the basic step, was Griselle Ponce. At her styling workshop she taught it right away. We did exercises on how to step so our hips would naturally sway without much force involved. It was all about the weight transfer and keeping the feet close to the ground (so close you're practically dragging). So why doesn't everyone teach a basic step with the style it's intended to dance with? I think there may be a few reasons.
1. Watered Down Salsa Makes More Money
If a school waters down salsa's basic, they can teach it to a variety of people. That includes the person who doesn't listen to salsa at home. Or the person who wants to pick up a hobby and found a deal on Lifebooker. If these people feel the dance is too complicated, schools may wonder if they will come back. So the integrity of the dance is initially lost in favor of making more money from having more students.
2. Some Teachers Want to Be the Only Ones Who Are Great.
I believe some teachers like to see a student aspire to be like them. Because it feeds their ego. They keep their "great dancer" status by making sure you don't progress too quickly. They teach you just enough to get you to keep coming back. You set a goal to be great, but don't even know where to start. So you keep coming back to class in hopes of having an epiphany. Your epiphany comes when you leave that kind of class.
Why do you think salsa is taught this way?
No comments:
Post a Comment