Reverse‑Engineering the Perfect Lead

Since 1994, from dancing with LITERALLY thousands of men throughout the world, what I have learned from those experiences, has given me a VERY UNIQUE perspective of what feels good, vs what these guys THINK and have been TAUGHT feels good for the ladies.

• I go to New York, and love dancing there with everybody because of THEIR style.  Some moves hurt, others don’t.
• I go to Los Angeles, and love dancing there with everybody because of THEIR style.  Some moves hurt, others don’t.
• I go to Europe, and love dancing there with everybody because of THEIR style.  Some moves hurt, others don’t.
• I go to  Asia, and love dancing there with everybody because of THEIR style.  Some moves hurt, others don’t.

So.
Because my last dance partner was… let’s just say… he used to have a drinking problem (but – thank God – has since sobered up), he would sleep in and forget about his class.   There were times, I had to teach various classes in his absence.  The Men’s Styling workshops were the most fun.   I ended up teaching them all by myself, to cover for him, in order to still be paid for the event.  As a female, I always taught Men’s Styling classes with female partners because I saw men that I danced with that STYLED BEAUTIFULLY DURING the partner work, rather than only during Shines.  ANYONE can teach a Mens’ Styling class doing Shines.  That’s the simplest thing on earth.  But the way some men Style during partner work is EXTREMELY impressive, yet overlooked during high-profile Congresses and workshops.

Literally, I was a first-hand witness to that type of Men’s Styling during partner work, because I had always been RIGHT THERE, in his arms while he executed his impressive MASCULINE Styling!

So many top leads do little things here and there during partner work, that are sssooooo Masculine and ssssooo IMPRESSIVE… but those “masculine things” are RARELY if EVER TAUGHT!!

I decided right then and there, that in order to get that feeling from MANY men I danced with, rather than a select few, I had to teach AS MANY MEN AS I COULD how to give that same feeling to women.

There was a point in time, that I realized… that I HAD to finally learn how to lead to get the point across.  There were times that I felt like screaming from the hilltops, watching these guys teach on-stage what they “thought” was correct, vs WHAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY DOING ON THE DANCE FLOOR.  They COMPLETELY MISSED the very cool parts of their leads, and only taught was was taught to THEM years ago.

It’s a darn shame that ssssoooo many male students miss out on the type of instruction they SHOULD RECEIVE, but instead, only get rote repetitions from instructors who teach what they themselves learned from past instructors – instead of what they are ACTUALLY DOING – which looks SUPER COOL, but they DO NOT TEACH IT.   Ref:  Baked Ham story

I was sick and tired of waiting ALL NIGHT for the ONE GUY in the ENTIRE CLUB that had that EMERALD, SILKY, WONDERFULLY ASTONISHING, FANTASY LEAD.  And when I did, he was too tired to dance with me because every woman in the club had already danced with him all night.  He didn’t teach, but was a born dancer – probably had.a corporate job of some sort… and was just “having fun”.   LOL.

I so desperately wanted to teach men what these guys WERE ACTUALLY DOING so more men could do the same!

I realized, that in order to get the word out, (and for VERY selfish reasons – I wanted to get my FIX with MORE MEN)…  I had to reverse-engineer what the guys were doing – and NOT doing – to make their leads good or bad.

I would compare a CBL that one guy did, and a CBL that another guy did, and ask myself,
“Self, WTF???… what is THIS guy going in his CBL or Basic, that feels ssssooooo good, and what is this OTHER guy going in his CBL or Basic, that feels like shit?”   Worse, some guys made me feel like I could REALLY dance beautifully, while others felt like I had to go back and take private lessons ALL OVER AGAIN.

I studied leads, with a passion – quietly, since 2004.  Why?  Because I knew some day, I would create my own curriculum that took the BEST OF THE BEST qualities of those magnificent leads and culminate all of them into a SINGLE curriculum – built to please women!  I would make CERTAIN that this new curriculum would SATISFY a woman at EVERY LEVEL.
From White Belt through Black Belt.

• No more little pinky up from the leads – ladies need to feel his pinky on her fingertips – test it out.  When she feels his pinky with her fingertips, she can “feel” his lead much better.

• No more stepping back so large – ladies can take a larger “7” forward, making her weigh less / feel lighter.  Typically curing a CBL.  We take a short “2” and short “6” to become super fast on the dancefloor.  Ref:  https://youtu.be/74AMEZ4D000?si=vqJdDY3dTwb5JdmNThe short 2 and 6 eliminates the “ouch!  you stepped on my foot!” from the guy behind you that you just struck oil on his foot with your high heel.  LOL.   So we do a “Long, short Long” step now.  This also allows your body to take up more space because now your legs and feet are under you, rather than behind you.

• We apply considerably more “Down The Body” (DTB) moves – we calculated that there are 94 different ways to turn the man and the woman, in total for both men and women, for a single left break turn.   AND, the same for a single right break turn.    We haven’t even gotten to doubles yet!  We teach two types of prep.  The “D” prep and the “O” prep – Green Belt.

• We no longer call a CBL turn her right, a NY Walk or a Bridge walk-thru.  It’s just a “CBL Right”.  We call a CBL where she does a half turn, just a normal “CBL”, or a “CBL Left”.  This facilitates having to explain things A LOT when you go opposite side (our 1st degree Camo belt).

• We have eliminated the terms “inside turn, outside turn, underarm turn” etc.  We  no longer say “Cross Body Lead with an inside or outside turn…” …. AT ALL.  We call them Progressive Lefts and Progressive Rights.  Why?  Because an inside turn goes “inside” the egg (frame) in front of the giro, and and “outside” goes outside the egg (frame).  (we call frame, the Egg, because of the shape we make when we explain it – less formal and more fun to joke around with during class… and I love omelettes).   LOL.

… the above are just a few examples of what I teach now.  I tell the guys, “If you simply follow this curriculum to a Tee, you will NEVER have to worry about pleasing the woman.  Ever.”

The BBS curriculum was built by a woman who danced with over 10,000 men from all over the world, culminated the Best of the Best leader techniques, and created a single curriculum for men to understand just WTF these guys are doing to make the women feel sssssooooo GOOD!!

I know I just wrote a small novel, but I guess since I respect you sssssooooo much {instructor name}, that you are one of the few mature men on this planet that would actually read it, understand it, and see why I HAD to create Black Belt Salsa.

I had no choice.