You watched a couple perform an electrifying dance at the club a few months ago.
You got curious and started learning more about this dance that amazed everyone: salsa.
You started taking your first steps (pun intended) in learning how to dance salsa.
You finally got the basics down and now you want to go a step (okay, we’ll stop with the puns) further.
Here, we share some of the best tips to excel in dancing salsa. Tips that will help you dance like the pros you once saw.
Remembering the Basics
Before you get to the next level in your dance training, you need to always keep in mind the very basics of salsa dancing.
Remember: practice makes perfect.
You need to always start by counting the beats from one to eight.
Remember how to clap, remember to step, remember to pause on the right beat.
4 Tips to Becoming a Pro Salsero
#1 Vocalize the Song’s Percussions
Once you’ve got the basics down and you’re counting accurately, a better way to internalize the tempo is to hum the music according to the song’s percussions. Basically, you need to sing the instruments you hear, such as:
- The conga
- The piano
- The clave
This helps you isolate the instrument you’re humming during live music sessions at the club, and it makes your movements flawless.
#2 Listen to Salsa Every Day
This might be an obvious tip, but it’s important to stress it: listen to the music as much as possible, all the time.
The reason any genre of music can come easy to you is because you’ve listened to it enough times. Over and over again. Repetition leads to permanence.
It’s the same reason salsa comes so naturally to Caribbean and afro-centric dancers: they listened to the music from an early age.
Catch up.
#3 Work Out
Salsa dancing requires stamina, agility, and a strong core.
You move around the dance floor so much that you expand a considerable amount of energy.
You don’t want to hit the dance floor full of confidence and then be out of breath, barely standing after a few minutes or songs.
It’s for this reason that exercising is crucial for any pro salsera or salsero.
Plus you end up looking and feeling great.
Stay healthy, stay active, stay strong, stay salsa.
#4 Never Practice a Figure Out of Time
Another obvious tip, but always practice your figures on time. Don’t try to execute them at random times.
You may think that you can dance effortlessly whenever, you might even get the urge to try to, but not even the pros try to dance out of time.
Dance with more advanced salseros - people who instinctively keep good timing. Dancing with a partner that has bad timing eventually makes it harder for you to shrug off the bad habits you develop.
