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 Here's a load of stuff for you all about learning salsa! Class Level Guidelines We encourage teachers who list with us to describe their class levels using the definitions below. You will find some variance between teachers, and in some cases there may be a crossover of levels within the same class! Don't be put off by this - salsa defies absolute definition - and rightly so! But hopefully this guide will help you to choose the level of class that will best meet your needs. Teachers are always happy to advise before you attend their classes, so give them a call ahead of attending if you need to know more about the class... These Guideline largely refer to cross-body style classes - we will update this page with information that may relate to Cuban style as we get responses from Cuban-style teachers! 1) Absolute Beginners The class assumes that people attending have no previous experience of salsa. The Basic step is taught thoroughly (some variations such as sidestep/cuban backstep may be introduced). Basic partnerwork is taught so that people can dance the Basic step in full hold. 2) Beginners/Technique The class assumes that people can dance the Basic Step and are comfortable with dancing Basic in full hold. Technique moves are taught over the course of a number of classes - these are likely to include: Followers clockwise turn, Followers left turn, Cross Body Lead, Half Crucifix, Full Crucifix, Changing Places (break back), Round the World 3) Improvers The class assumes that people can dance all the Beginners/Technique moves with reasonable competence. The class teaches variations and combined patterns based on the Technique level moves. The class also covers Cross Body Leads with Followers inside and outside turns, Followers 'flick' turns, double-handed turns and simpler Hammerlocks 4) Intermediate The class assumes that leaders and followers are comfortable with Improver-level salsa. This level involves more complex patterns and will include Followers double clockwise turns, copas, wraps and more complicated Hammerlocks. Leaders will have a very good understanding in relation to 'safe leading' - important as the extra complexity of Intermediate level moves introduces greater risk of injury resulting from poor leads. 5) Advanced (we currently have no classes listed at this level) The class assumes that dancers are comfortable with Intermediate-level salsa. Dancers should already be able to comfortably manage relatively fast double spins (Followers and Leaders). Leaders should already have an impressive repertoire of moves. Your style will be smooth and your timing will be very good. The advanced class will include Followers triple and quad turns and triple hammerlocks, plus Leaders hammerlocks and more complex copas. A useful comment on class complexity... One Improver level class may feel a lot easier than another taught by the same teacher. It is important to understand this, otherwise frustration and confusion will set in! Think about it this way - a class level, such as 'Improver' or 'Intermediate' is not fixed but covers a range of difficulty. Think of it this way - in a Technique class you may be taught the followers clockwise turn - that move takes up a single 8 count. Another technique class may cover the half-crucifix - whilst it only takes an 8 count to get into the half crucifix it requires a further 8 count to get out of it! So it's really a 16 count move and, therefore, a more challenging sequence to learn. Think of each level as being divided into three sub-levels of 'easy', 'challenging' and 'difficult' (the words don't matter that much - you get the point!) - so if you are new to the Improver level then one in three classes is going to be pretty tough, whilst one in three will be quite do-able (assuming the teacher is thoughtful enough to vary the difficulty level of each class!). On this basis, you should stick at any level for at least three classes before you decide it's too hard and that you need to drop back a level - I'd actually stretch that to five classes to be on the safe side. HOWEVER - you'll do yourself and others few favours if you decide to move up a level without being reasonably sure you can cope - so ask your teacher for their opinion on your level of dancing (and sometimes it helps to ask how hard each individual class will be before you decide to attend). Another way of telling if you are ready to move on is your retention rate at the previous level - i.e. how much of the taught content are you remembering and dancing outside the class itself? If the answer is under 50% then you probably need to stay longer at that level - if it's around 75% then consider attending that level with occasional forays up into the next level. Give up the previous level when every class is familiar and you are using all the moves in your free-dancing - with the following exception... Most people only dance Improver level moves in free dancing. It's a fact. Watch even the best dancers on the local circuit and you'll find this to be the case. Most teachers invent largely new turn patterns for their Improver classes - it follows, therefore, that continual attendance at Improver level will enable you to add new patterns that will be of use to you even when you are capable of dancing technically above the Improver level. This tends also to be the case because followers tend to level out at Improver level - in other words, a leader can usually assume that a follower is going to be able to cope with pretty much all his Improver patterns but he is right to be more cautious about the followers ability to deal with Intermediate moves. So hold onto the fact that the number of followers who can genuinely respond well to Intermediate level moves outside of the class environment is generally small (they're gonna hate me for saying this!!!). Consequently, you will tend to dance Intermediate level patterns with followers you are confident can follow them - and that's maybe less than 2 out of 10 followers (hmmm... probably less than that)... so most of us dance at Improver level because it's more fun to do stuff you can both respond to - and we spice up our Improver patterns with interesting variations to keep it reasonable challenging and fresh - but the level stays essentially the same. There's another issue here - because we don't get the opportunity to lead at Intermediate level so often we don't practice the patterns enough and we soon forget them. So if you have a regular partner you can practice with take advantage of the opportunity! When you know the follower can respond to that double two-handed turn into a neat little copa with a flick turn finish you can actually make use of it! The key here is to practice repetitively until the pattern requires little or no thought. And do that practice on different days to make sure you're not losing the memory of it. Then make sure you dance it regularly in the free dancing. Then there's a chance it might stick! On learning... We go through different stages when we learn a new skill - knowing these stages will help you, the learner, to recognise when you can competently carry out a salsa move or pattern - and for teachers, this is useful to know when it comes to assessing how your people are coping with your classes... When you begin to learn any new task you are in a state of unconscious incompetence - in other words, you're really not very good at what you are doing but at the same time, you don't know just how bad you are at it! The phrase 'blissful ignorance' also describes this level! With a little tuition and practice you move into a state of conscious incompetence i.e. you still can't quite manage the move or pattern but you realise you're not quite getting it and you may also have an idea why it's going wrong... You persevere and with practice you become consciously competent - this means you are getting the move or pattern right but you have a permanent look of concentration on your face throughout the move! This is because you have to think yourself through the move in order to complete it. If you become distracted during the move it'll fall apart. You definately can't hold a conversation whilst you are dancing this move! But it's looking and feeling pretty good... A load more repetition of the move and you slide into that Nirvanic state on unconscious competence - in other words you can do the move without giving it any thought - it just comes naturally. Most of us walk and run in this state. If you are at Improver level then your basic step will be danced at this level - you don't have to keep thinking which foot to place where! Lots of factors get you to this level - people talk about muscle memory and the like - but the bottom line is that you need to practice repetitively - go over and over the move or pattern - then take a break - then go over and over again. After a lot of repitition during a session it will feel like things are getting worse! That's ok - take another break and come back to it again and you'll find that you have actually improved without realising it. And the beauty of this state is that you can now use your spare thinking capacity to invent variations of the move you're dancing whilst you're dancing it - that's exciting and worth working towards. How long does all this stuff take? Rome wasn't built in a day and salsa dancers aren't born with the 8 count in their head. It takes time and practice to get good. For the Leaders the tough part is building a repetoire - if they don't lead a move or pattern then nothing but the Basic step is going to be danced. Followers don't know what's coming so they need to learn how to respond - to identify shapes and leads and to feel the timing and acquire an understanding of some basic rules of movement and body management - but a lot of this is picked up fairly easily and is an intuitive process (and intuition tends to be something most female followers are naturally good at anyway!). For the Leaders it's a more considered process - they need to have a clear picture in their heads of the shape of the move and the individual stages of it - if they lose a part of the move then it will often fall apart - so they have to learn mechanically and then they have to retain - and keeping hold of a bunch of patterns so they are all ready for use is like learning a foreign language - always harder then it's talked up to be! Never assume that attendance at one class on a particular move will result in you being able to add that move to your repetoire. Do the class a number of times (teachers repeat everything eventually) and practice as much as possible in between. Once you've got the move don't let it out of your sight or it will get away - if I learn a new move I dance it regualrly along with all the others. If I go to a dancenight and don't dance every one of my moves at some stage I can almost guarantee that the undanced moves will soon be lost. It can take ages before a Leader feels his repetoire of moves is sufficient - and by sufficient I mean you can dance with someone for five minutes knowing that the dancing will not feel too repetitive for the follower - and ideally, the follower will feel nicely challenged by the move/pattern variations and will come off the dancefloor slightly surprised by her own skill (a feeling which is, of course, directly proportionate to the skills and confidence of the Leader!). Let's be realistic here - with a typical amount of practice (i.e. not much) it'll take a Leader eighteen to twenty-four months to start feeling really useful on the dancefloor. The Leader will then probably keep dancing Improver level patterns for three or four years before Intermediate moves start to creep into the repetoire (even if he's been attending classes at that level for a year or two). If you're really keen and you have a good feeling for the music then you will progress faster - most people don't. For the Followers most will follow Improver level moves and patterns after they've been dancing regularly for as little as four months, by six months they will be pretty responsive. For reasons of comfort and complacency followers tend to level off at this stage - probably because there are not enough guys out there leading harder stuff to justify the effort of getting to that level - you can be the best follower in the world but what happens on the dancefloor depends on what the leader can lead (interesting thought - this means that followers experience a lot of different stuff on the dancefloor as they come into contact with different lead repetoires - but for the leaders it's the same set of moves every time because they only experience their own moves - which incentivises the learning process for the guys because they get bored dancing the same repetoire all the time!). This all adds up to the girls advancing faster than the guys - at least early on. So to the girls who are learning with their partner I say stay patient - it's tougher for the guys to get this stuff under their belts! Interestingly, the guys who stay with salsa tend to end up dancing at a higher level than the girls who stick with it - so eventually guys you will overtake most of the girls (although your regular partner will probably keep up with you because you practice together). At this dewveloped stage guys - 4, 5 or 6 years down the line you will become a rare and desirable thing - a guy who can dance well enough to make the girls look and feel good on the dancefloor - and they'll pretty much forgive your everything when you get to that level! Click here to return to the Class Listings Click here to add a class to our Class Search page |
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