Absolutely.
Imagine the following situation: you are learning a new piece of footwork, still struggling to remember where to put your feet, and the teacher is emphatically shouting something along the lines of "Feel the music!"
Distracting. Counterproductive.
Yet, we have all been to classes like this. There is no time to get any feeling into the dance, so we end up looking as if we are searching for the car keys. It will not look good no matter how we "feel" if we are out of time or balance.
This is a small dig at instructors who push their students to simultaneously do two very different things. It may apply to teaching armwork together with footwork, insisting on expressing emotions during a new piece of choreography, or teaching styling during a fresh combination.
An impossible task.
Flavour and Flair
To achieve flavour, we must actually feel something when we dance. But, since dancing in a personal and musical way requires an extreme reaction speed, we can only use what is already in our muscle memory repertoire - familiar movements we can perform with speed and precision without being conscious about what we are doing.
This is why we can see some beginners with flavour, and plenty of experienced dancers without it. A lot can be done with little and nothing with a lot.
If we do not get the emotional content of the music and interpret it personally, there is no way we are going to have the flair, no matter how good we are at hitting the breaks. Having the music explained, talking about it can help - intellectual understanding can be a shortcut to emotional response.
Teaching Ideas
If you are a teacher and got this far without getting vexed and closing the page, I salute you. Below are a few ideas of what is rarely seen in today's classes, yet I believe they could help immensely.
Technique
When teaching techniques and insisting on students expressing genuine emotions, it should be done with what they already know - using familiar techniques instead of the new technique you would like them to learn. Otherwise, there will always be a conflict.
It is paramount to understand why the technique is effective and why is it done in a particular way. Nowadays, we are asked to "just repeat what I do" too often. Without any explanation, the actions will eventually resort to memory, engaging the brain, and blocking the body from feeling. Understanding why things are done in a certain manner will ingrain this technique and further expand students' potential.
Also, looking at it from a physical perspective, it is not enough to know that you must revolve around an axis to spin. It must be broken down to a point where each part creates the whole. Then all those parts can be used to create another movement.
But more on technique in the future posts. It deserves an article of its own.
Musicality
As for musicality, teachers could do a lot by caring and learning about the music they are playing, mentioning it briefly in class, respecting these skilled musicians, and sparking some interest in their students. Unfortunately, even those few teachers who know something about the music usually assume no one is interested.
It does not require fancy moves to show feeling for the music, your partner, and the dance.
- Have you asked your students which tracks do they like the most? Get them to bring in the music and play short bits of it during the class.
- Have you asked them which partners they enjoy dancing with the most? Get them to elaborate and explain why.
- Have you asked them which professional dancers they admire or enjoy watching? If they do not know any, suggest some names for them to go away and watch on YouTube or Facebook and report back next week.
- Get them to do a simple basic or a move to a music section and then make up their own continuation (from what they already know) to the next phrase of music. This can be done either in partnerhold or in separation when facing each other. Have the leader and the follower interact and play off each other.
Getting the students to learn more technical things before they display their feelings is disabling and creates more barriers down the line. Not always do we have to shimmy like jelly on a plate. Simple things can be done to express ourselves and enhance our dancing.
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
- Leonardo da Vinci
Final Words
I would love to see more people develop an emotional connection stirred by the music. Become in tune with their feelings and how they are affected by their surroundings. Once able to do this, it will become easy to pick up what the music says by pure feel without knowing what the lyrics say or having heard the song before.
In fact, when a person is deeply in touch with their feelings and the music, changes in a song never heard before are felt way before they happen. This has nothing to do with technique nor musical knowledge of salsa, but rather the ability to feel.
Do any of us need to know a foreign language to know we have fallen in love with someone of a foreign language? Do we need to understand what the person says to feel that they are happy? To know what the music says, close your eyes and listen to yourself. Notice how every beat of the music arises feelings, guiding your dance. Once you begin to sense where the feelings are coming from, concentrate on that location, take deep breaths, and shortly you will feel like you are about to burst from emotions. Let your body carry those, and you will find the flair that cannot be physically taught.
It is a reaction we can all pick up. However, modern society does not teach us how to become in tune with our feelings but rather how to look to the outside and be lost in exoteric ideals. A material world that is only happy with external possessions.
Let us change.
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