About this blog

After struggling with salsa for almost four months with many different teachers, I decided to start documenting what was taught in various classes I attended. The idea of writing down what was taught in class was inspired by a suggestion from Sergio. Because I have a pretty good memory to begin with, this was fairly easy to start with and I got better at it quickly. Soon thereafter, another student was amazed that I could remember so much and started asking me about previous week's routine, etc. This led me to thinking that I should make my notes public because it might help others remember also. For me, it does not take much more time to publish this in a web-log (blog) form; note-taking takes much more time.

These notes will not be very useful for people who did not take the lessons and are not intended to replace real lessons or practice. I suspect it won't be helpful for everyone who took the lessons as well since different people have different methods for learning. It's written more for leaders, but I think this is an understandable bias.

I'd like to thank all my Salsa teachers past and present including:

• Johnny & Serap, my salsa teachers for the longest amount of time, are technically the most challenging, and I feel we have become good friends.

• Mauricio taught me the importance of footwork, and I first heard the beat of salsa music in his class. His class was instrumental in me actually starting to dance salsa.
  

• Peter's class helped me get comfortable with longer routines at moderate speed and build up my confidence.

• Helen and Rhona's classes have been great for getting comfortable with dancing at faster pace and with many stylizations.

• In addition to inspire me to take notes and thus become a better student, Sergio's shines made everyone else's seem easy by comparison.

• Others, including Enrico, Angelique, Tamambo, Nelson, Cristian and Dee (listed in chronological order) also helped me to varying degrees.
  

I also thank all my dance partners and other friends I met during lessons, many of whom have been very helpful and supportive.

Last updated April 17, 2005