The Flexible Social Dancer

On the dance floor, flexibility pays.

At its most basic level, flexibility means adjusting the subtleties of your movement in response to your partner. This could be as simple as adjusting your timing to on1 because she just can’t seem to get the on2 thing, or dancing in a slot because the circular movement just isn’t working.

It could mean adding an additional ‘dialect’, such as NY or LA style Salsa, to your existing Salsa speak.

And if you’ve got a strong grasp on your native tongue, it could be as aggressive as learning to speak a whole new language of dance, such as swing or Tango.

And though flexibility pays big time, we would do well to give each separate dance the respect it deserves and, even if learning just a little bit, take that little bit seriously to ensure authenticity of movement.

Possessing a "survival kit" for a number for dance forms will allow you access to different social scenes and expand your social network.

In Saturday class, we work on the other two dialects of Salsa: NY and LA. And though it’s not meant to replace a complete course, it is part of that survival kit and in about two months we will also offer classes in East Coast and West Coast Swing. Just an FYI for you dance junkies out there!

So as I have said before, keep your mind open, and be ready to reinvent yourself at a moment’s notice.