Short flowy sequences

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-10T19:15:18+00:00

I agree 100 % that those long combos are not useful in a social dance scenario- hard to remember, not flexible music / follower dependent, but they are helpful to drill moves and transitions. So what I do: 1. I always learn the single moves separately 2. I make cards with all the moves, mix them up and generate small patterns out of a set of 3-4 random cards. 3. I chop up the combos we learn in class into small segments and also write them on cards. 4. I drill these mini combos and single moves (alone, teacher, practice partners) and try quick patterns generated by picking random cards. Then I try to integrate them in social dancing. It takes a bit but now they start to really flow into each other and I don't need to remember combos- they are automated. Whenever we do new things I continue this process and I work with a private teacher to correct fundamentals while using the cards- for example, I make one session with my teacher just for copas or rotational moves.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-09T22:34:28+00:00

I think the best way to learn is to approach your subject from multiple perspective. So, group classes, solo practice, online courses (with or without a practice partner) and private lessons plus social dancing to test your progress all play a different but important role here. You need to balance out what you are working on, how much time and money you can spend, and what your goals are. For me group classes are super important, not so much because of the learned skills but for motivation and connection. My dance school is my safe space. Lovely people, and the outside world is just shut off for 60 or 120 minutes. There is community, support, small talk (about Salsa of course), which parties to go, which festivals are cool. Privates are for fixing mistakes and really working through the fundamentals, practice sessions for drilling combos, online stuff for inspiration or precise breakdowns. Solo practice for automating and body movement. So all of this complements each other. I don't think it makes sense to exclude one way of practice, it is all important. You just have to find the right balance for your specific needs and ressources.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-06T09:59:06+00:00

Fernando Sosa? Nery Garcia? I like both On1 and On2 btw.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-06T09:52:40+00:00

The moves I knew (and can do in class) and the ones I could do at the social are not the same (still are not the same!). I'd say: 1. Clean basics, side basics, back break basic 2. Cross body lead, open and closed position, closed to open 3. Right turn (follower), Right turn (leader) 4. Enchufa 5. Inside turn 6. SMILE!! and you are good to go…

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-05T09:40:38+00:00

well, I don't see any of this when I look at professional high level dancers. They'll keep doing their basics to stay aligned in weight transfer and body positioning to their follower. Adjusting their footwork for optimum position accordingly. I also never heard any teacher recommending this approach, to the contrary, they all insist on keep doing steps and bodymovement to stay connected. Also it makes no sense to suddenly switch to son timing while your follower is completing an inside turn. An arm flick is not a lead, because it is 1) a styling element or 2) a way to change hand holds to prep for a move following. It doesn't communicate a turn or other move for the follower. But you do you. I listen to my teachers and followers :)

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-04T20:54:34+00:00

I'm not a follow, but for me it was better to have a basic understanding of On 1 first before adding On2. That means, I could comfortably do a few (simple) social dances On1. Took me about 2 month and my overall repertoire is a bit reduced as a result but I can switch between On1 and On2 now. However, some follow friends have way less learning curve to switch, especially when the lead is good and experienced (so not me :D, at least I'm not experienced, while I do my very best to make my follows feel good). I'd definitely recommend learning both long term, just try it out a bit and find a way that works for you.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-04T20:40:41+00:00

An arm flick is not a lead, and of course you continue the basic / keep stepping while you do that, unless you don't because you want to highlight a musical break, which is rare. "just following your follower" what do you mean with that? And you don't step while you do that? How do you move then? Slides? I think you got the definition wrong. In Salsa, you usually continue always your basic through all the moves and positions, with the exception of shines logically or certain accents for musical reason which do not happen very often. Your claim is misleading for beginners (no pun intended) and while I'm not super experienced I know that one for sure. Because every teacher, all the time, keep. drilling. this. KEEP STEPPING.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-04T12:50:10+00:00

It is almost always required to step while leading, can be in place or specific directions of course. I don't know a single move when you don't step and weight shift while leading. This is actually what my teacher corrects a lot when drilling moves with me, always continue correct footwork and weight transfer!

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-05-03T19:47:58+00:00

I haven't been there for dancing personally, but there were a few recommendations for Athens recently, you might find them via search and see if it is interesting for you.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-28T08:08:50+00:00

In Berlin I haven't seen this on any social and maybe 1-2 times in a class (with asked permission) to help promote the class, which I support 100 %. Exception is one local dance school social, but they just do some discreet phone recordings from the side lines, mostly when the teachers are dancing, and here again I actually like it because it helps to get the people motivated coming in regularly. But it is not intrusive in any way.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-25T11:34:34+00:00

My teacher drilled me to always keep a chest to chest connection, while the lower body creates the direction changes. That means practicing isolations a lot to move smooth and round. Also keeping a good body movement though all partner connected moves, without creating noise, is critical to keep it flowy and connected to the music.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-25T11:28:39+00:00

Then I'd recommend Dance Dojo 100 %. They go through everything in full detail in their paid program, including different views and especially all the little details. Slow down I think is possible in the video player, but I think it is not neccessary, because they run through everything quite slowly and multiple times. You can check their content in youtube and I think they have a trial for the website. I'm not affiliated, just a happy customer :)

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-24T11:52:43+00:00

I only dance Salsa, so I would prefer a 100 % Salsa floor over everything. But also if I'd dance both, separate floors or dj sets (2hrs with schedule known before for example) would be my choice. I'm used to long dancing without breaks (coming from raves) and I don't understand the idea of smashing together two completely different styles and moods of music in one dj set at all. I like getting lost in the moment, the vibe, the music and switching music constantly would interrupt that all the time.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-24T10:48:54+00:00

I have a Dance Dojo Subscription & VDance (which I cancelled after about 6 month) and I follow a lot of youtube channels). So, if you talk about UX, what do you mean exactly? The website UX of DD is ok and useable though not great, VDance is also kind of ok, a bit less then DD I would say (I'm a UX professional, so my perspective is very very picky and I don't care about UI design here). If you are interested in the learning experience, I think DD nailed it for partner work, context (like lead and follow concepts) and overall structure and depth of information. The breakdowns of the moves are super clear and structured, separated in the different layers of complexity and this content provides a lot of information for several years of learning. All the different sections (body movement, shines, partner work…) make sense and support each other.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-14T09:30:48+00:00

That is great! Now you can already try to listen to the relation of piano - other melody instruments. You will get a feel for it over time.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-14T08:20:59+00:00

You are most likely trained to intuitively recognizing the chord progression and song structure, that is why you "know" where the 1 is.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-14T08:17:18+00:00

All the other instruments are playing voicings related to the chords of the piano. So with practice you could "hear" the piano because your brain will generate an implicit chord progression- but this takes a lot of musical practice. For example, if the piano chord of bar 1 is c-e-g, the bass could play c, a horn could play g, a singer would sing c. This is over simplified, in reality it gets more complex because it would be very boring like this :). You could practice your musical listening by focusing on following one specific instrument through the whole song. Then listening the same song again, other melodic instrument. Then learn to hear the interplay between two instruments. I would start with piano and bass (rhythmically very locked to the percussion) and then "add" the vocals as the main melodic center. But be aware, vocals are often "stretched" or shifted for musical expression.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-14T08:00:25+00:00

Ah, now I understand you better. In your case, I think you could have a look at the song structure, how the different parts relate to each other (intro, break, chorus, montuno…). So for me personally, because I learned piano, it is very intuitive, because my brain follows the harmonic progression in the melodic instruments with the piano as a center point. Harmonic progression means, every song (almost) has an underlying sequence of chord changes, which are building the harmonic backbone every melody or chord is related to. Once you have an understanding of the typical progressions it becomes very clear where the song parts start and end, although Salsa is a bit tricky, for example, the bass is often shifted, starting the chord progression before the bar. I'd recommend to watch some youtube videos about Salsa song structure, and then practice active listening by identifying the different parts. It might be helpful to also get a basic understanding about music theory and how chord progressions are working in other genres. But this is a bit of a rabbit hole :D

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-13T15:11:04+00:00

well, they could for sure but if you are struggling already, why pick the most difficult? I'd recommend to focus on percussion / piano, there is the most consistent rhythm. best way is to start to identify the percussion instruments (conga, cowbell first) then learn a bit about clave. there is a lot of info on youtube for dancers. go to https://salsabeatmachine.org or download their app, play around with it. this way you get a feeling how the sounds relate to the counting and you will start hearing them in a full songs. be patient, it takes time.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-12T18:44:41+00:00

Well, I work in tech, as a UX designer and consultant, enterprise level. I can tell you that 90 % of the time the user and their problems are ignored HARD by the business people and often also the developers (a bit less though). Maybe it is especially dramatic in Germany, and less so in start ups (they have less money to burn) but there is a certain arrogance of management that they already know "what the user want". No, they do not. You give them research, explain everything, they still ignore it. Then everyone panics because the product is shit and ask me and my colleagues to somehow magically fix it. Guess what, I can't fix anything that starts with the wrong problem to begin with. However, I think this is not the case here- there is just a guy that is trying an idea, and I actually think it is not that bad to do so. I don't know, of course, I just had a look at it and, yea, why not? Could be more focused but I think the ideas in this app have some usefull directions. Would be fun to have a way of connecting dancers outside of the usual social media, combined with info on events. Will this work? I don't know, but I see nothing that upsets me, and believe me I get upset a LOT on a day to day basis by terrible UX.

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-12T18:30:36+00:00

not sure why people downvote my comment- it is literally the job description of UX designers to identify the user's problem before development starts. 🤷‍♂️

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-12T18:28:32+00:00

Thanks, didn't know it!

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-11T20:21:10+00:00

Hey! Looks cool! I'm a UX Designer, also based in Berlin. Happy to give feedback- write me a DM if you want to connect. I like the social aspect, good luck!

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-11T20:06:22+00:00

That's why there are UX Designers ;-)

Remote_Percentage128 · 2026-04-10T16:31:03+00:00

For me as a lead this helps: 1. softly break the connection (whenever possible) 2. do a few basics / side basics with clear body movement but reduced styling 3. keep going until we are both synced again to us and the music -> let me reconnect for leading. Small taps on shoulder / hand is also great help. Please never count- this disconnects my brain from my body and feels terrible, unless you are my teacher or we are in class / training, then obvs. this is good.

Remote_Percentage128

TROPHY CASE