"Dear Edie,
Do all Salsa teachers pack so much new stuff into a one hour class that you can't remember any of it 20 minutes later? The girls say they'd be bored working at one sequence for a whole hour, so he has to keep them entertained, but the men have to learn, so we can lead :-\
- Overwhelmed"
Dear Overwhelmed,
I TOTALLY get it. You walk into what looks like a great class, the music is slammin’, the move is awesome, you’re feeling hopeful… and then about 1/2 way in you’re LOST, feeling like a complete idiot, and THE INSTRUCTOR IS NOT SLOWING DOWN. Your ego is SHATTERED because it seems like a couple of super-advanced guys are nailing it, but you’re over here wondering if your feet are even attached to your body.
No wonder you want to crawl under a ROCK and just DIE at that point, vowing to NEVER take a Salsa class again.
Been there.
Done that.
Frankly, I got tired of it.
So… I built a way out. I created a curriculum that takes care of the woman. This feeling is built-in to the system. It not only makes her feel sexy, but also safe from unnecessart pulls and yanks. This is a curriculum embraced by instructors worldwide, that men can ACTUALLY apply and finally BREAK what had looked like an IMPOSSIBLE Salsa code for DECADES.
When I was a Salsa instructor (follower), traveling and dancing all over the world, I kept noticing patterns: where men placed their hands, how their feet tracked under them, the momentum required for each move, the little contrasts that made everything pop, and why some leads felt like heaven and others felt like chiropractic emergencies waiting to happen.
When I started becoming a budding instructor, I realized that I had to learn both the female and male parts, so I became a full-time Salsa detective. I analyzed EVERY MAN I danced with for YEARS before I had the GUTS to design a curriculum that could make any man who applied it feel like one of the world’s TOP social dancers. (Notice: social dancers – NOT performers. HUGE difference. Performers do not feel anywhere NEAR as good as the world’s most elite social dancers – by an order of magnitude.) I wanted EVERY MAN to feel smooth, connected, and impressive as hell out there. I wanted EVERY MAN’S LEAD to feel like SILK – World Class – matching and even SURPASSING how the top social dancers in the world felt.
Why did THEY get to keep all their secrets?
I was tired of waiting in line to beg the best male social dancer in the city for crumbs of wisdom.
Why did I have to ask THEM to dance?
Because these gentlemen got SO GOOD, they never had to ask anyone anymore.
THEY WERE INUNDATED with DANCE REQUESTS.
What was the secret sauce these guys had that others didn’t??
What was their hidden “Salsa Code” they’d cracked and then locked in a vault??
Why did THEIR leads feel effortless and silky while others, doing the exact same moves to the exact same music, felt so awkward by comparison?
So I went to work. I studied for YEARS what their secrets were. How they felt. How they led. How they stepped. How they held me. How they LOOKED at me – as if I were the last woman they would ever want to dance with in their life. How did these guys make me feel like I wanted to have ALL THEIR BABIES????? (Ladies who go to Congresses, you know EXACTLY what I mean.)
Step-by-step I studied. I reverse-engineered their strategies. Slowly, methodically… and twenty years later, Black Belt Salsa™ was born. What we discovered is that the concepts in the BBS™ curriculum work like a universal dance operating system that can be applied to virtually ALL DANCE TYPES – Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cumbia, Lindy Hop, Country, East and West Coast Swing, Ballroom – virtually ANY partner dance (exceptions: Waltz and Tango). IN OTHER WORDS, once you truly understand the Black Belt Salsa curriculum, you can plug those same concepts and techniques into ANY other partner dance you learn! Truly!
The problem? Most instructors out there are trying to impress the (few and far between) advanced students with “Moves From Hell” that only the top 1% of follows in the world can actually follow… and the other 99% spend the hour feeling like crap. BOTTOM LINE: Most instructors teach BACKWARDS.
- Instructors should NOT be trying to impress ANYONE. They are teaching at too high of a level.
- Because of that, they usually end up teaching SUPER FAST, which does NOT help students AT ALL.
- They forget to REPEAT OFTEN – which completely kills natural learning momentum.
- They should assess their class and teach at the lower to mid-level percentile.
- Some instructors just talk WAY TOO MUCH. BBS™ Rule of Thumb:
Talk 2%,
Show 8%,
Involve 90% - Ignoring Women’s styling, footwork, and following technique KILLS female motivation. This is where you start losing your ladies' interest.
- Classes are so small that there simply aren’t enough different partners to keep dancers engaged and committed over the long term.
- Classes are so large, with such a wide mix of levels, that beginners end up confused while advanced students wind up frustrated and bored.
- Showing off what you know just builds resentment and insecurity in your students.
Now, not all group classes are like this. It depends on who’s teaching and what syllabus system (if any) they use. In the Black Belt Salsa™ (BBS) Training System, we built a progressive, comprehensive curriculum using a classicMartial Arts business model which utilizes far more Belt/Degree levels resulting in smaller more personalized classes. Instructors progress students every week, every month, every year, with a clear path. The intensity ramps up over time, and students LOVE it because they get REWARDED with a new “Belt Level” every month! The curriculum can be shortened or lengthened depending on how much time the student invests. People often say the BBS™ curriculum is “an inch deep, but a MILE wide.”
Most instructors who don’t use a systematic progressive syllabus tend to wing it. They teach “move of the week” combos they grabbed from YouTube – often nearly impossible to follow – and they may not remember what they taught the week before, or even that they already taught that same move just a few weeks earlier. With Black Belt Salsa, the moves are all online for instructors to review, learn, and teach for every night, month, and year, systematically.
If you’re in a group class, your instructor has a TOUGH job. They have to:
- Challenge the men enough so they can actually learn to lead.
- Keep the women engaged so they don’t get bored out of their minds being twirled by beginners for an hour.
The only way men can truly learn to lead is by practicing with women. The only reason women keep coming back to a group class is if the class is fun, interesting, and makes them feel special and challenged. We all pay the same price at the door; if the women feel they’re not getting anything new or exciting, they will eventually stop coming.
Back in 1994, as a budding female Salsa instructor, I had no clue what the men and instructors were going through until I learned how to lead. Before that, I couldn’t stand group classes. Why? Because unless the instructor specifically showed a styling move or a fancy trick I had to do, I spent the entire hour just following some guy around. After a while, following-following-following… I’d rather spend my money at the club than in another class (yes, even Edie the Salsa FREAK can be an absolute ***** sometimes…).
Instructors have to keep leveling up the material – more interesting, more complex, more creative – to keep the women excited about class. They MUST keep learning fun, dynamic, and challenging for everyone. If you feel your instructor isn’t spending enough time on a move, grab a gal after class and ask if she’d be willing to practice for a few minutes. Offer to buy her dinner in exchange for an hour of practice – that works about 80% of the time. If that’s not your style, take privates with the instructor.
Finding someone just to practice with is HARD. That’s why we built a fantastic service at our Practice Partner site to help you connect with partners in your city.
Once I started learning the guy’s “Leading” part, I suddenly understood the struggle. I started taking group classes as a leader so I could teach it… and wouldn’t you know it, no girls wanted to dance with me (yes, I am a girl too!). I started feeling like “one of the guys” – PISSED OFF that everyone kept saying no. And honestly? I didn’t blame them. I sucked so badly as a leader that even my OWN FRIENDS didn’t want to dance with me – not even just to practice! Now THAT was a wake-up call.
So I asked the instructor if he/she could help me a bit after each demo. I started taking private lessons to really dial-in my leading, because back then finding anyone to practice with was next to impossible.
The best move you can make now is to train with a reputable school that has a World Class curriculum, taught by instructors who have been trained by Master instructors with decades of experience. These instructors are trained to teach slowly, methodically, repeat OFTEN, and NOT to cram too much into one session.
Here’s the magic formula:
- Take Group Classes with them.
- Sprinkle in a weekend-intensive Salsa Bootcamp.
- Find a practice partner through their school who is ALSO used to World Class training.
- Take private lessons with those TRAINED instructors.
- Then practice with whomever and whatever lets you… the dog, the pillow, the towel, a tie… WHATEVER!!!
- All of the above will give you MORE THAN what you need for your next Dance Vacation Retreat!!!
Go out to your local Salsa clubs as often as humanly possible… and one night, it will ALL COME TOGETHER. That night, you are going to SOAR on the dance floor, and YOU will REMEMBER that night for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. That single night when everything clicks will feel like MAGIC exploded through your ENTIRE BEING. Salsa, taught the RIGHT WAY from a REPUTABLE school with a World Class curriculum, will change your life FOREVER. All that boring repetition, all that ad-nauseum drilling… will have been sssssooooo WORTH IT!!
REMEMBER: Black Belt Salsa instructors are trained to teach slowly, methodically, repeat OFTEN, and NOT teach too much in one session. That’s why we have so many different Student Belt levels – and even our instructors have their own Belt Level classifications.
Black Belt Salsa is an INCREDIBLE curriculum. ANYONE can try it!
Happy Dancing!
- Edie, The Salsa FREAK!!
- https://thisissalsa.com
- https://www.blackbeltsalsa.com
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWUptTJSqtU
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- https://salsafreak.com/privates/
- https://thisissalsa.com/bootcamp/
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- https://www.blackbeltdance.com
- https://go.blackbeltdance.com/cms/edie/
- https://salsafreak.com/packing-too-much-in-a-class/?et_fb=1&PageSpeed=off
- https://salsafreak.com
- https://thisissalsa.com/private_lessons/
- https://dancefreak.com
- https://www.instagram.com/blackbeltsalsa/?hl=en
- https://www.youtube.com/user/ediethesalsafreak/videos
- https://thisissalsa.com/go/
- https://www.facebook.com/BlackBeltSalsaDenver/
- https://dancefreak.com/learn-salsa-bachata-dance-edie-salsa-freak/edie-the-salsa-freak/
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