master salsa dancing

Last night was my salsa school’s christmas party, and I thought back to last year’s party and how much I’d improved since then, much more than I had expected. I am getting better at following, turning, moving my hips, not gripping too tight…the next challenge is learning how not to have too much tension in my arms…it seems I have the opposite problem of most women there.

I’ve been going twice a week for the last few months, picking it up again after a year overseas. It’s amazing how things just seem to improve without effort if you just keep going.

I was having issues with one of the basic moves (Cross-body lead) while we were moving onto much harder things, that I could have done but for the fact that I was overbalancing on my turn, and not doing it in a straight line.

For a week, I spent about 10 minutes a day practicing it in the hallway at home, where if I didn’t do it in a straight line, I would hit the wall, and by the next class I had greatly improved.

Makes me think it’s all about practice.

I started classes about 6 months ago. I don’t know if I’ll ever ‘master’ salsa, but I would like to be as good at it as an unco-ordinated Australian like me can get without giving up everything else to fit it in.

And yeah, I know what you mean about being in control and not leading, but I also wish the guys I dance with could learn that too, and know what it is like to be following!