When I first started to take salsa, there was energy in the air. The first lessons were very exciting, yet I was nervous. It was a good nervous.
Although, I’ve taken a few salsa classes in the past, it never really stuck. The mere basics were sufficient enough for me to shake it. However, this time I wanted to really learn. This time taking the classes, there was more focus.
The first couple of months were coming along decent. There was hard work involved but I was feeling good. My instructor was telling me I wasn’t ready to really dance with some experienced salsa dancers yet but with practice, I’ll get there.
My practicing was coming along and I took full advantage of my dancing after the workouts by dancing with all of the girls in class and the girls at the club we were practicing at. I must say, I was having lots of fun.
Meeting new people and making new friends is always exciting and an adventure. Oh, of course meeting new girls was good too. It’s like a honeymoon. You’re enjoying the moment and going with it.
Looking back, I was more interested in having fun than really having my moves down pack. Although, I listened to the instructor in class, I didn’t go home to do a review or read up on it on the internet.
Usually, I’ll study more a subject of interest and do some research. Yes, I have on salsa but not enough, at least not enough on the dancing part.
The club where we are practicing is not known as being a salsa club; it’s more of a Latin club with a variety of songs. Salseros don’t really go there in a group to bust out all of their new moves.
Also, it was convenient to me because it was very close to my home. Therefore, as I was dancing with the ladies there, I thought to myself, hey, you’re not bad. The girls there think I’m a pretty good dancer and they have a good time when they groove with me.
Things were working out okay and everything was under control.
Now, there were times so really good dancers would show up and yes, there are some good dancers there too but not many. People just go to this place to have fun and meet someone. I would dance one, twice and three times with the good dancers and not much anymore. For some reasons we weren’t hitting it off, something was just not clicking.
There wasn’t much dancing with them from there on. Also, there was this one girl in class who was getting pretty good. She has some great style and I would love to sit down and just watch her dance. It was interesting to watch how many of the girls in the club would watch her intensely as she made her moves. They were hypnotized.
Some people just have that effect when they move across the dance floor and she was one of them.
After a couple of months I stopped going to every class, it was around 6 months later. There were many reasons, perhaps more because I was researching a new business to get involved, I was studying for hours about subjects which had my interest on the internet for hours. I was slacking off and just lying down on the bed to sleep or I think it was just that YouTube which had me hooked for a while.
I was still dancing, just not trying to really improve. I knew enough for now, it should be fine.
However, a friend of mine who started 4 months before I did advanced greatly because he kept practicing and making it to class. Also, he would do his research on the internet and went to a different salsa and bachata class because he was interested in learning new things.
Thinking about it, there was nothing special about his dancing when I first started taking class. He had a decent memory and would remember many of the moves but they weren’t precise, actually, they looked really off. The instructors would share this with him sometimes but he would continue to dance at his own beat. I thought he was just a hard headed guy. I’ve met a couple of them in my life.
He would always give me tips how to progress in salsa and told me to focus when you dance. It’s good to have fun and meet girls but is that what you really want or do you want to learn how to really dance salsa. I thought of it for a moment and told him I’ll take the first.
A couple of months ago I started applying myself again and it was easy to see how far off I was. Some of my basic moves were off and there wasn’t a clear recollection of all of the steps I learned earlier. When we were in a group and someone would ask how long I was taking classes, I would usually, say about three months when it was over a year. The instructor’s left eye would widen when he would hear me say it.
Well, I continued forward, getting my second wind and thinking I would be up to it but it didn’t last. Yes, I was having fun but I really wasn’t improving or making any leaps and bounds in my salsa. Besides what I mentioned earlier there were probably other reasons which kept me from focusing but I’ll write about it on another page. I was stuck and it seemed the journey to get better in salsa would be longer than expected and I didn’t feel it was in me to drive on.
Something told me to give up and keep going, don’t give up like the other times. Although, I had a good salsa friend encouraging me, it wasn’t enough. Perhaps, it was some of the heads I clashed with in the past couple of months, I don’t know what it was but I came close to quit learning new salsa moves and stop taking classes.
At the end it was up to me. I had to dig deep inside. I had to finish what I started. Suddenly, like a movie scene, things that other salseros told me in the beginning and during my salsa phase start to flash before my eyes. I kept hearing my friend’s voice and the advice he gave me if I really wanted to improve. I remembered what my instructor told me. Although, I didn’t always see eye to eye with him and clashed with him at times and it wasn’t always about salsa. Yet, this is another story.
Also, the girl in class who shines which I mentioned earlier, she’s dancing great now and she wasn’t such a great dancer when she started. However, she had the same mentality as my friend, I call him Nice Guy. She’s killing the dance floor now. These two inspired me one way or another. Yet, I may have a different style than Nice Guy, I want to improve like he did and I want to be able to keep up with the shining girl. I want to be good enough for someone to say, “Is she your salsa partner?”
If you dare to humble yourself, it’s never too late to catch up.
I shall go on.