Jules' salsa dance blog

September 2nd 2010 - Our latest news
The last few weeks have been very busy for . We've introduced our new video salsa lesson notes - if you attend a class with us you get given a password to access videos of those moves on our website at the Recent Moves tab. If any of you fancy having your dancing videoed we are also offering that as a free service - we record you at one of our evenings, edit the video and email you a link to download your video. Please ask if that is something that you would like to do.
We had our Big Bank Holiday Weekend of Dancing, this was our first weekend of events and a big thank you to everyone who came along and made it such great fun. We will definitely do this again sometime.
Our Tango practicas have now been running every Friday before salsa (7-8pm) for a few weeks, these are free practise sessions for dancers to meet and share ideas in a relaxed informal environment, and beginners are welcome too.
We have also now got Pilates classes running every Wednesday 6-7pm at our Godalming venue - The Wey Inn, GU7 3HJ. Pilates is excellent for general health and well being and especially valuable for dancers who wish to improve their balance, posture, flexibility and core strength. Sessions are only £5 and there is no need to book.
If there is anything you think we can do to improve our services to you, please let us know, we're always looking for new ideas!

August 16th 2010 - Footwear for salsa
Do proper dance shoes make a big difference? Well that depends on what you were wearing to dance in before. For example, if you were using trainers to dance salsa in, you may have found turns difficult as your feet would be gripping the floor. A pair of suitable dance shoes would have a slippery sole that would make a huge difference to your ability to do turns. As for ladies' shoes, I have seen countless variations on ladies' feet that I have no idea how they manage to dance in - backless shoes such as flip-flops fall off feet as soon as you try anything more adventurous than a basic step, neck-breakingly high stilletos make balance very tricky, wedges give little or no movement to the foot making steps clumsy and clumpy. But then again, many ladies' shoes are perfectly adequate for dancing in. A heel is fine as long as you are confident walking and turning in them, I personally like a fairly solid low heel to give me good stability and help with balance but that is personal choice. A strap across the front of the foot is good to make sure the shoes stays on mid step, and some degree of flexibility in the sole of the shoe allows your foot to bend and grip the floor better. As long as your shoes are comfortable and don't hinder your dancing you don't need to buy specific dance shoes, but if you feel your shoes are creating problems with your salsa then perhaps a visit to the local dance shoe shop wouldn't go amiss. Godalming has a lovely dance shop called Ballet-Hoo and Farnborough has one called Flashdance.

August 10th 2010 - Trying different dance styles
I am often asked whether it is best to study just one form of dancing at a time rather than swapping between different dance styles. I think it is a very personal decision - some people find it difficult to switch between dances - salsa and jive for example - and others seem to find little problem with the changes. My best advise would be to give it a try and see how you feel. If it confuses you, stick to one dance until you're happy you've mastered it, then take a break from that and try a different dance for a while.
I personally feel the wider your dance experience the better you become as a dancer. If you have several disciplines to choose from you can begin to dance fusions of several dances and that's when your dancing starts to become really creative. But I happen to love fusion so I'm obviously biased! The truth of the matter is that dancing is creative and subjective - unless you are competing, where rules do apply, there is no right and wrong and dance can be formal or free, serious or fun whatever you want it to be. Just find the approach that works for you and enjoy it.

July 30th 2010 - Salsa World Record Attempt on Aug 1st!
One of my students, Ben, has informed me that there is a salsa world record attempt taking place in London this Sunday (1st August 2010).
"Carnaval del Pueblo in Association with London Salsa, is calling all salsa enthusiasts, experts or not, to help us break the Guinness World Record for the “largest salsa dance”."
Unfortunately I am away so I won't be able to make it, but if any of you are interested in taking part or going to watch, the details can be found on their website. If you can make it, have fun and best of luck!!

July 29th 2010 - Moves v Routines
Most people who come to salsa lessons find they get the routine with no problem during the class, but then later after a break, struggle to remember the whole thing and come the next week can't remember even how it started. This is very common. The more you can freestyle the routine the more likely you are to remember it, but remember a whole routine is always going to be tricky. A better approach would be to take individual components from the routine and mix and match them with moves you already know. Have a go next time you come to class - pick your favorite part of the routine and see if you can use just that part in your freestyle - you're much more likely to remember short sections than lengthy combinations of multiple salsa moves. If you struggle to take out just a section please ask us and we'll be happy to help and make suggestions for how you can combine the moves with your own.

July 27th 2010 - The importance of freestyle
I have a lot of students who come to my salsa classes and learn the moves and do really well during the lessons but as soon as the freestyle starts they make a bolt for the door. Freestyle is not the scary thing many new dancers think, it's simply a chance to practice the salsa moves you've learnt with other people. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes - we all do, even experienced dancers get it wrong sometimes. The trick is to allow yourself to be human and mess it up and allow your partner to be human too - if it goes wrong, so what? laugh and try again. If it goes wrong repeatedly you can always come and ask me and I'll be happy to help you. If you don't freestyle and practise the moves the likelyhood of you remembering them tomorrow or next week is pretty slim and your progress will be very slow. A few dances of salsa after class makes all the difference. Your body has what we call muscle memory, which means if you do things several times your body absorbs the information and replicates the action when you need it next - like learning to walk, we stumble and fall as infants but the more we try, the easier it gets! So get brave, stay after class for a couple of dances and see how much quicker your dancing improves.

July 26th 2010 - How to dance with anyone
During today's class we were experimenting with different endings for the same move which has many fantastic benefits - it allows you to learn several moves in one, expanding your repertoire greatly and giving you ideas to play with. It means that when leading, only one move needs to be remembered to give you several potential moves to lead, it keeps it interesting for the ladies as they never know which variation to expect helping them to avoid the temptation of anticipating the move and also it gives the guys the ability to choose the ending appropriate to the person they are dancing with. What do I mean by that? Every dancer knows that different people feel different to dance with - some girls may require a firmer lead, some may be fantastic spinners, others may be great at shines. It is always a good idea to take a moment at the start of a dance with a new partner to lead some basic moves and see how your partner responds rather than robotically launching into your fixed collection of moves. If she is a beginner then you may choose not to progress any further, but stay dancing moves she will be comfortable with. If she is clearly more advanced then you can throw some of your more complex moves her way. Either way having different endings to the same move can be a fantastic resource - lead the same move on both dancers but use the easy end for the beginner and the harder end for the advanced dancer. For the ladies, every dance is different as each new man will have a different set of favorite moves, but as a man dancing only your own group of moves, you will need to find ways to vary your dances and keep yourself engaged and using different endings and moves depending on who you dance with is a great way to achieve this whilst giving your partner a great dance at her individual level.

July 21st 2010 - Charity Dance Night
A big thank you to everyone who came along to our charity dance night last night - I can hardly walk this morning as I was glued to the dance floor all night! Kevin and Karen from Christopher's Smile sent a lovely thank you email - and I would like to send special thanks to those of you who couldn't make it but donated money anyway, and to all the local dance teachers and promoters who put out our leaflets and gave us a mention. Very much appreciated!

July 16th 2010 - Dancing with beginners
Last night I was dancing with a new comer to salsa who said to me that I should probably dance with someone better. From my point of view if I dance with him and help him he'll become one of those better dancers a lot quicker than if he only danced with other beginners. He laughed and said "so actually you're making an investment?" and I laughed and said "yes and I expect you to save me a lot of dances in a year's time!" Seriously though - and here's where I'm going to get on my soap box - so many salsa clubs get a reputation for being cliquey because good dancers will only dance with each other so new comers always feel excluded. Even as an experienced dancer at unfamiliar salsa clubs I've been repeatedly turned down as the person I've asked doesn't recognise me and therefore won't risk dancing with me in case I'm a beginner. I've known dancers who have been having lessons for over two years and have never had a dance with the teacher! I am happy to dance with anyone, so if we've not had a dance yet, I apologise for not having got to you yet - please come and ask me and I'll be happy to have a dance with you regardless of whether you're a salsa god or a beginner with two left feet. After all, we all started out as beginners!

July 15th 2010 - Salsa and stretching
If like me you're dance crazy you've probably suffered from occasional aching muscles after a really good night's salsa dancing. Whilst dancing is a great workout we very rarely think of it as exercise, which means we forget to stretch at the end of the night! Next time you get sore calf muscles from lots of dancing take it as your body's way of reminding you to stretch at the end of each night. At we have stretch cards available for those of you who aren't familiar with stretching - pick one up next time you visit our Godalming or Farnborough salsa venues. Or you can always ask me to show you how - I was an aerobics and gym teacher in a previous life (hence me nagging you all to stretch ;-))! Also, aching muscles from a heavy night's dancing is a really good excuse to treat yourself to a massage... dancing and massage...mmmm heaven!

July 13th 2010 - Beach party
Great fun tonight at our salsa beach party in Farnborough - thank you to everyone who came in beach wear - especially Sam who got free entry for being brave enough to come dancing in bikini top and sarong.
Typically though our beach party fell on the only day this summer where it rained! What are the chances? At least we were indoors and it didn't dampen anyone's spirit - plenty of our usual silliness and everyone got involved dancing with beach balls under one arm. You are all very good sports. :-) Adam - inspired move picking up the inflatable shark half way through the class although decidedly harder dancing salsa with the shark than the beach ball!