Johnny & Serap's level 4 class note is as follows.
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized cross body start #1 (L foot slide along follower’s line on 1 and back) followed by block (followers have their own stylization – it might have been twist while stepping backwards on 1 and a body swerve on 5 as they walk forward)
1,2,3,5,6,7 stylized cross body start #2 (L foot slide behind R foot on 1 and back) and finish cross body lead (followers have another stylization – it might have been R foot slide across L foot on 1 and back)
1,2,3,5,6,7 prepare and lead a double stationary clockwise turn (led with L-R) and switch to R-R preferably on leader’s R shoulder
1,2,3,5,6,7 open break and into Copa with L-L connection made mid-way and arms outstretched on 4 and then lead follower into a traveling double counterclockwise turn (going back towards her original position) ending with R hand on follower’s R shoulder [note: I ended up forgoing this R hand on R shoulder bit with a normal song]
1,2,3,5,6,7 walk around in front of follower and into cross body lead position as follower is turned around one more time clockwise and finish with normal cross body lead
So many people seemingly had no practice in stylizing or doing double turns tonight unfortunately. With LA style Salsa, I think stationary double turn is essentially a requirement. I suspect it may be best to start teaching stationary double turns very early – even before teaching cross body with 1 1/2 turns. In an 8-week CDC course outline I designed last month on a whim (but did not publish), I proposed teaching leading and following stationary double turns for beginners on week 6 and continued on week 7. In a concurrent improver course at least for first time around, stationary double turn was started on week 5 and was continued on week 6 mainly because I did not assume that a so-called improver is necessarily familiar even with simple cross body lead. For intermediate class (and improver class after the first term of beginner class has been completed), stationary double turn would be started on week 1. Of course, since I have never tried teaching Salsa, I don’t know if this is really workable. Heck, I sometimes find myself second-guessing myself on my technique for leading double turns when I’m feeling especially incompetent. Then again, I have been scrutinizing every aspect of my leading lately so
For anyone who hopes to be able to dance LA style Salsa and have fun immediately dancing with good local dancers, I feel that leading or following double turn has to become easy. In my (admittedly short) experience, I have not seen any followers who found stationary double turn difficult yet was not wobbling or was not turning too slowly when following 1 1/2 turns during cross body lead. Enough wobbling or not being able to finish turning in time severely restricts leaders ability to string together a complex pattern without placing in a basic – at least if the leader cares about dancing in time to the music.
My mind was in a heavy conflict about dancing tonight. On one hand, I wanted to dance. On the other, I was afraid to dance mainly because of two reasons. One, every dance would need to be more limited and made simpler, which was like a taking a step backwards (even if it is taking a step backwards so that it would be easier to take two steps forwards). Two, this adjustments ran counter to what had been my long-term aim of making my lead softer and smoother (here again step backwards is needed to go forward again). In my opinion, the amount of force needed for communicating leads should become less and less as one become more adept with partner dancing. I’m pretty certain that suggestions made about correcting my cross body lead by Sally and others were meant to make my leads clearer and more precise but to not necessarily make it sharper and more forceful. Perhaps the best proof of this approach (minimizing force) was my dances with Claudia on two different occasions. Just by holding her hands for few seconds at the start of the dance, it was abundantly clear to me that some of the best dancers only need (and probably even demand) mere flicker of indication to lead something to perform most if not all moves. This view is supported by classroom teachings of Sergio and Tamambo (and perhaps to a lesser extent by Ivan) and also dancing with many other very good dancers in London, Cambridge and the USA. Still even with more concentration on leading cross body lead with turns (at the expense of keeping my routines relatively simple), I think I was making a mistake about 1/4 of the time, and every mistake led to an internal (and hopefully internal only) groan. The only time I was feeling completely okay about dancing was during two Bachata songs. In any case, it will get fixed sooner rather than later. After all, I can’t afford to keep not dancing or otherwise risk losing stamina from too few dancing. Also in the end, only a lot of practice (with a lot of concentration on correcting the problem) will be needed to get it fixed (even if it didn’t really start in earnest tonight).
A most outrageous and hilarious thing happened to me near the end of the night. I was practicing some shine in a corner (a recent favorite activity for me) when someone out of blue grabbed my hands and started tossing me around. It wasn’t a battery but not exactly leading either. Maybe 10 seconds into this, this guy starts yelling, “Do you know how to dance Salsa?” I was too surprised and dazed and perhaps even a little scared to answer right away, and the question was repeated few more times before I answered that I did indeed know how to dance Salsa. By the way, I was so dazed that I don’t remember at what point he stopped tossing me around. This guy was with several friends both male and female. He then started talking about wanting to dance Salsa. I started suggested taking lessons, and he replied that he couldn’t consider taking lessons because he would want to dance according to his heart (presumably rather than following instructions from some stranger). Partly so that I could gather my thoughts, I asked him to try dancing to the music – even asking him to dance more when he stopped after about 20-30 seconds. I then commented that he indeed seemed able to dance to the music (even if the steps he was taking was not any standard basic). I then proceeded to explain that lessons are still useful because it instructs one about rules of the dance. The word “rules” seemed to invoke indignation, so I quickly added that dance is a like a communication or a language. In order to dance with someone else, one (leader) has to be able to communicate what is being asked of the other (follower). If two people dancing together don’t know what the other person wants, then the dance does not work. This line of explaining was apparently more persuasive because he then pointed out one of his woman friend while telling me that she had taken some lessons and asked me to dance with her. I obliged and led mostly simple Cuban moves after quickly determining that she didn’t seem very familiar with cross body lead, etc. I think they were favorably impressed because these guys then tried to get me to dance with their other woman friends. I declined on the pretext that they stopped playing Salsa and made my escape. As I was relating what had happened to Sean and few other familiar faces, I commented that the only way it could have been made more extraordinary (and unlikely) is if the person who grabbed me was a woman and if she was leading me correctly.
Thanks to everyone who was helpful and bore with me – there were quite a few out there tonight (although I will keep my policy of not using people’s names except in special cases). Serap in particular was helpful in getting me to figure out which adjustments were good and which adjustments were counterproductive or wrong (I guess this happened because I started questioning my lead for everything). While I haven’t gone over everything yet, it would seem that the number of corrections I need to make is not as big as I once thought.
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