Many of the people I teach always ask me how I make a lot of the salsa moves look easy on the dance floor and I usually just tell them to practice, practice, practice. But every now and then I blurt out some sneaky technique I use that can make seemingly difficult moves look easy.
Today I am going to give away 5 tricks that you can use right away to improve your salsa dance moves.
5 Salsa Dance Moves – My Way!
1. Twist Technique
Most people try to launch into a top and consequently end up falling to one side or the other. There can be many different reasons for this, but today I’m going to show you the most important one, centrifugal force! Now if you don’t know what that is, it’s the force acting outward from a rotating object; Imagine swinging a weighted rope around your head and you get the idea. When translated to spin in your salsa dance moves, this equates to all of your energy acting outside of the spin and thus throwing you off course one way or another.
Trick 1-Centripetal Force
The trick is to use centripetal force, which is the force that acts INWARD when you swing an object. So when translated to your salsa dance moves, this means that you put all your energy internally into the spin instead of pulling it out and as a result you will find it much easier and be able to do many more spins than ever before!
2. Turn right
Many people find it more difficult to turn right than left and also report that they get more dizzy when going this way. Now, I’m not sure exactly why this is happening (I’ll leave it to the analysts), but I have a sneaky trick that will make your next right turn that much easier.
Trick 2-The Knee Thrust
While standing on your left foot, hook your right leg tightly around your back so your right knee presses into the back of your left knee. Now push your right knee to the back of your left knee and rotate just your left heel and right toe. You will be able to turn extremely fast now with very little effort.
3. Lead and follow
The most common question I get asked about any salsa dance move is ‘how do you direct that?’ And so I want to give you a trick to really help you both lead and follow.
Trick 3-Using Pressure
Whenever you have hand-to-hand contact with your partner, try to put a little pressure on the hold so that the follower matches the leader’s energy. You should be able to vary this pressure between extremely light and very heavy and your hand position should not move at all as long as both partners have equal opposing strength. Use this pressure technique throughout all of your salsa dance moves and you will find it much easier to guide and follow from now on. Some moves require light pressure, others heavy, and you’ll be able to balance this for each and every move you make.
4. Putting movements together
It is difficult for beginners and even some more experienced dancers to decide which movements should follow others and how one should lead to the next. The trick here is to find moves that flow into each other and continue the rotations rather than stop and start, which leads to a very locked dance and not so much to your partner’s enjoyment.
Trick 4-Salsa Flow
Salsa flow is almost a complete style in itself and leads to many classic moves danced in a different way, but in order to combine the moves you can use the following guide.
Whenever you turn to one side or the other, try to make the next move go in the same direction; avoid stopping suddenly and going back the way you came. There will be points in certain moves that allow you to stay fairly still and this time should be used to transition into a counter-rotating move. Just by following this simple rule, your dancing will improve greatly and your salsa moves will flow with grace and style while making it much more enjoyable for your partner.
5. Dancing to the music
This may seem extremely obvious, but it’s actually quite rare for even some experienced dancers to get it exactly right. You should always adapt your salsa dance moves to fit the music, but few people really do.
Trick 5-Musicality
If you listen to salsa music long enough, you will begin to hear nuances and patterns in its flow. Over time, you will begin to learn when the crescendos and breaks will occur, and thus you will be able to start adapting the movements you choose accordingly. Learn how long it takes to perform a certain move that you like, then try and practice matching it to a common piece of music that you like. After a while, you should be able to time it so that your entire move fits with that piece the next time it’s played at your club. Once you start doing this correctly, you will notice that your dance improves a lot and your partner will love dancing with you.