Have you ever watched amazing salsa dancers like maybe Magna Gopal or Oliver Pineda and wondered how in the world were they able to hit all of the musical accents or breaks in the music? Or maybe you have seen some other amazing dancers doing complicated turn patterns and watching these dancers effortlessly keep the correct salsa timing and rhythm made you wonder how in the world were they able to do it.
In this 5 part series to Musical mastery I am going to reveal to you some of my precious secrets that have made the biggest difference not only in my ability to become much more musical as a salsa dancer, but also has made a huge difference in how much more I know enjoy listening to salsa music. The reason I call my tips secrets is because I very rarely see or hear any salsa instructor teaching these ideas to their students. Of course, instructors have many reasons for this. Often teachers only teach what they think their students would like to hear, for example, that learning salsa is fun and easy, while the truth is that salsa timing can be a huge struggle for many. I know it was for me when I started out. And other times, instructors simply don’t have the time to teach much about salsa timing even if they wanted to.
So let me start by explaining what I mean by a musical salsa dancer? I define musical salsa dancer as someone who has developed their ability to interpret the music that they are listening in their dancing. In other words, their salsa dancing is in one or another influenced or inspired by the music.
What I want you to realize is that learning to dance more to the music is definitely a skill that you can develop. How do I know? Because when I started dancing salsa, I had no musical or dance background. In fact, I was a very rhythmically challenged stiff basketball player yet I was able to learn to become much more musical in my salsa dancing. But I will leave that story for another time for now. Let me get you started on my first secret.
Here it is.
Secret # 1 – Mastering Salsa Timing Takes More Than Just Learning To Count The Music
Mastering salsa timing and rhythm is in my opinion the most important thing to develop to start your path toward becoming a more musical dancer.
Through out my dancing and teaching career, I have seen many different types of beginner salsa dancers. There are the ones that think that you should simply feel the music and not have to learn to count. Then there are the ones who think they are on the right count, but live in a sort of a blissful ignorance, and continue to dance off count. And then there are the ones who actually learn to count, but think just because they have learned to count the music they think they have now mastered the timing.
What I want you to realize is that there are actually many levels to mastering salsa timing. First, you have to learn to become aware of the rhythm and then learn to recognize the counts. This is the first level of your awareness. Once you learn to recognize the counts, you can then advance to the next step, which is to learn to actually continue to count the music while dancing. This often takes mental effort and for most definitely does not come automatic. Also, not all songs are equally easy to find the count, especially in the beginning. You have acquired a mastery of this second level when you are able to recognize the correct count and rhythm on any song that is played and you are able to maintain it through out your dance.
The third level of mastering salsa timing is to get to a point where the counting happens automatically subconsciously in your mind and you are always automatically in the correct salsa timing and rhythm. At this point you don’t have to think about the timing consciously, it just happens automatically. I often refer this process to learning to use the manual shift in your car. If you just try to feel it from the beginning, your transmission will be in trouble. You have to learn the correct timing and order of doing things, how to use the clutch, how much gas to apply, and so on. But through repetition and practice learning this process will over time become automatic. This is the third level.
But there are levels even above that. That is to say, once you truly have mastered salsa timing you should be able to subconsciously without thinking be able to dance or tell in which count you are at any given moment of your shine or footwork pattern regardless of what your feet are doing. This level of mastery is very rare and I am still working on that myself. Even some of the very advanced salsa dancers I know can not always be able to recite the count they are on at any given point in the music with out some mental effort to figuring it out. The difference between this third and fourth level is like the difference between a good driver who has learned to use the manual shift and some one who is a world class rally or formula 1 driver. It is the difference between an advanced salsa dancer and someone like Eddie Torres ( The creator of New York Style salsa).
But my point with this article is simply to inspire you to continue your progress toward further mastery of salsa timing because all of the following secrets to become more musical dancer will only build on this foundation. If you are interested in receiving some further tips and videos on how to improve your timing, simply put your name and e-mail address below and I will get you started right away.
And in my next post, I will reveal to you my second secret: There Is Much More To Musicality Than Salsa Timing.
