Chronicles of Salsa

I had a dream last night. Dino appeared in my dreams and he asked me to blog about this. “With greater powers, you bear greater responsibilities.” he said.

I awakened and the first thing I checked was whether I wet my bed. Thank god.

I picked up my pen and here goes.

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I had been dancing Salsa for close to 20 months now. In fact, I had been learning Salsa for 1 year, 7 months, 6 days, 5 hours and 43 minutes and 21 seconds already. I can say I am still learning and I love it.

How to dance Salsa? It’s pretty easy.

First you tap your left feet and then you step out your left feet. Step on the spot with your right feet and take back your left feet. Do the exact replica starting with your right feet.

Ta da! Isn’t it a miracle! Now you can Salsa too.

So everybody does Salsa. Everybody can Salsa. Everybody loves Salsa.

There are tons of extreme Salsa fanatics around, beginning with me, but we might not be the best Salsa dancers. Do you have what it takes to be a good Salsa dancer?


Rule Number One – Smile.

Are you able to give a million dollar smile in every dance to everyone? The radiance to be displayed decorates the perfect dance. Look at the first-class dancers around, Jackson, Gary, Boon Cheong, Tze Yi, Biao Da, Yi Chuan. They all have one thing in common, they give a smile so beautiful when they dance, no girl would reject. Apparently, tons of girls would line up to dance with them. Partially because they are top-notch dancers, but also because these dancers are able to portray a form of comforting, relaxed and fun ambience to a dance.

Are you smiling now?


Rule Number Two – Smile. Not Laugh, but Smile.

You do not need to act like an idiot laughing like a monkey through out the dance. You will freak the lady out.

We are dancers. We are man. We are human. We do not behave like monkeys on the dance floor. Know your own comfort zone to understand how much personality you should display in a dance.

I understand that there are some men out there who believe in seeing the lady smile. They will do anything to make the lady smile. They believe that once the lady smile, they would have scored with the ladies.

Understand this thin fine line of smirk and smile. Some people are able to attain the highest level of sarcasm where they phrase their smirk like a smile. The rest are just plain stupid to understand what a smirk is.

Back to where I started, men would do anything to make the woman smile. They put dumb ass stickers on their ass so when they make a right turn, the dance partner can see an A4 size picture on his butt saying “Kick Me”. Some men signal the victory sign whenever they dip a girl. Some men just gave up all hope and goes to tickle the girl at the waist, ears or even armpit. Some even go on to touch the partner’s beard.

I mean strange things happen on the dance floor. It is just whether we see it.


Rule Number Three – Protection

In all circumstances, we need to protect our partners. Even if it means we go down head first, we go down head first. But c’mon, we can always use our ass. It is less painful that way.

I remember I once danced with a girl and the girl landed with her butt on the floor. I mean it is embarrassing for her and also for me. I never see her again for at least a month. She is back dancing and I thank god.

What actually happened?

I wasn’t doing a difficult move, I was just doing the simple “Normanda”, but apparently, I think she didn’t catch it. So it was a big screw up and I think she tripped over my leg and she was dropping further away from me. She was about to hit this gorgeous girl standing by the side, so I summoned the strength of Hercules and I pulled her back. Maybe I used too much strength and her whole body flung towards me and that’s how the both of us sat butt first on the floor. So I screwed up, but the point is I protected two ladies from probably suffering serious skull fracture. I protected the gorgeous looker from being pin balled by a fellow dancer. I protected the fellow dancer from flying to a spot further than the end of a rainbow.

A dancer would feel safe if the man watches out for her. Trust is built.


Rule Number Four – Beat and Timing

Remember, we do not beat the time. We stay on time and we stay on beat. Do not get all panicky and go all timing crazy. Feel and listen to the music. You dance like choo choo train; all the girls will run like choo choo train.

Listen well and you will be fine.


Rule Number Five – Musicality

Ah ha, you can see that now things are getting harder.

To a lot of people, they often ask me, how to be built up on musicality?

Majority, people will say that you listen to the music more often and they will naturally get into you. I say, first you got to love what you are doing. Secondly, you got to love the music that you are doing. Although most of the time, we don’t know a single crap what the singers are singing. But we can listen and we can feel. We are able to distinguish what a slow songs sounds like and how a fast song sounds like.

Personally, I feel that on the basis that I have no idea what the song means, it all leans down to my own interpretation of my music. My music.

We listen to the up beats and we listen to the accent. Some songs have certain sustain which are very obvious. These parts go long and they drag long. We use these as advantage.

Some songs have certain pause, certain breaks. We use these parts to stop and freeze, chill take a deep breath, smell her perfume and the dance goes on.

Musicality? Can’t buy that from 7-Eleven.


Rule Number Six – Dance Partner

My mentor once said to me while imparting his words of wisdom.

“We need to dance with everyone. Every lady partner that we dance with is a different form of experience. Based on the entire same set of moves to the same song, but with a different partner gives you a whole new experience every time. If you only dance with the good dancers, or if you only dance with the same person over and over again, you are the one losing out. Only immaturity would think that beginners are not good dancers. There is a dancer in everyone.”


Rule Number Seven – Practice

I had a friend, a teacher, a confidante. It took him four years to perfect a so call “perfect” body roll.

I have a teacher and I was told that he spent four hours a day to do four things. Shoulder isolation, chest isolation, hip isolation and how to stand on his hands.

To master a basic step sounds simple. People dances basic differently. A very sound and solid foundation will go a very long way. I realize this recently and every day I am practicing my basic steps. I finally realize it is only correct when the correct sets of muscles are being triggered.

Basic, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7.

Being able to count is one thing. Doing it is another.

Do you dance your basics in a straight line? Get out of this line and make a set of basics your own.


Rule Number Eight – Fun Factor

Most importantly, we as a social dancer need to have fun. If it is always so serious, you might as well go and learn how to play chess. If everything locked in your brain is to use all the styling you learned during class, that will be too stressful. If all you can think about is on how people will look at you, that will be too boring.

Loosen up and have fun with me tonight.


Rule Number Nine - ?????
For you to understand and for you to find out.