This audio was recorded by Danny Kalman, the Director of Movers and Shakers Salsa and Bachata Dance Academy. The following text is an unedited transcript of his audio and headers have been added for clarity.
Transcript of Audio:
The number one most important skill for ladies to work on to make their salsa dancing better as quickly as possible is spinning. Spinning in place and traveling turns, so outside turns and inside turns. This is something that you want to actually practice alone, not only with a partner. You've got to be able to spin with balance and with great technique solo and when you can, then doing it with a partner is a piece of cake.
Mastering Salsa Spins: How 10-15 Minutes of Daily Solo Practice Can Make a Difference
You definitely don't want to always be depending on the partner and tugging at them when you're spinning. You've got to practice it solo. So for all the ladies learning to dance salsa, if you take just 10-15 minutes every day to focus on spinning alone at home, it's going to make a big difference. When I was at the beginning of my salsa journey, I would do this in my kitchen in my socks for a long time, for a year. It really takes time.
When you do this, make sure that you're doing it with proper technique. It is so much better to drill, for example, 5 times really slowly with proper technique than 100 times quickly with bad technique. We want to work efficiently and actually make sure we're getting the correct things in our muscle memory. So how do you learn the proper technique?
If you're in Los Angeles, you can come to study with us at Movers and Shakers. You're going to learn everything from Salsa 101 day 1, the beginner program. You're going to learn techniques for right turns in place. Then in the intermediate program, every single week, we're actually going to do spinning drills to help you get this into your body.
Finding the Right Class: Structured Programs and Private Lessons for Salsa Technique
If you are not in Los Angeles, find a local program that is structured. If you can somehow make private lessons happen with that really qualified instructor, that's a good way to do it also. You can ask that instructor for proper technique for spinning in place and traveling turns and then ask them for homework, what you can work on solo. Make sure that if you're in a group program, you have a group program with a great instructor if possible, and with structure.
Don't try to piece it together with drop-in classes if you're starting from zero. It just becomes a big mess. You can also go to DanceChemistry.com, which is a site that we run that has some really great programs with a lot of techniques. In any case, once you learn what the technique is, you just want to drill that into your body as frequently as possible and once you start to do this, it will completely transform all of your salsa dancing forever.
There's so much spinning for ladies in salsa, or for the follows, rather. It's the foundation of maybe 90% of what you're doing on the floor. So work on that, and that's one of the most important things to quickly make you a great salsa dancer.
Improve Your Salsa Spins in Los Angeles
If you are in Los Angeles, check out Movers and Shakers to learn all the proper salsa dance spinning techniques from the ground up.
Right from Salsa 101, day 1, you’ll learn the proper technique for spins in places. When you progress to the intermediate programs, you’ll do spinning drills weekly for spins in place and traveling turns in order to master spinning properly and as quickly as possible.
Check out our Salsa Classes in Los Angeles.
