Tips To Becoming A More Musical Salsa Dancer
In this part, I will cover what many often think about what it means to be a musical salsa dancer, and that is learning to recognize the breaks and accents in the salsa music. You will also learn about the difference between dancing to the lyrics literally versus lyrically.
Here are the three tips to help you become a more musical salsa dancer.
Tip # 1 – Learn To Recognize The Breaks And Accents
Learning to recognize the different accents and breaks in the salsa music is what really will make your dancing lots of fun for you and your partner. The prerequisite to this part is that you have mastered salsa timing. Once you have mastered salsa timing and made staying on the right count an automatic process, you will be ready to move on to develop your awareness of the music even further by concentrating on understanding and hearing what else happens in the music.
First, it is important that you realize that learning to listen to the breaks and accents in the music is actually a skill that you can develop. When I started learning salsa, I did not even know what breaks or accents in the music meant, nor did I hear them. But through countless hours of trial and error, hours and hours of musicality classes, going through dozens of software products and salsa timing CD’s, and through lots of practice, I was able to develop that skill. Now I am a very musical dancer. One of the best ways to learn and cultivate this skill is to take a live salsa musicality class where someone shows you how to recognize different breaks and accents in the music and lets you try to interpret the music. If you don’t have musicality classes available in your area, you can try an online learning course. So take a live musicality class, take a private lesson with a musical salsa dancer that you admire, or take an on-line learning course, and you might just become amazed by how much more of a musical dancer you may become.
Tip # 2 – Learn To Dance To The Lyrics Literally
This is similar to learning to recognize the breaks and accents in the music. However, there are two ways to dance to the lyrics: literally and lyrically. Dancing to the lyrics literally means that you interpret the sound of the vocalist. For example, if the singer sings a phrase such as: “Oye Mi Quinto, Bongo”, you might accent the word Bongo in your dancing with a stop of your body, head pop, chest roll or whatever. The point is that you are interpreting the actual sounds of the lyrics. When I started to become a more musical salsa dancer, it took me a long time to really understand what this meant. Hearing and becoming aware of the different instruments became easier for me. Learning to dance to the lyrics, I just did not see the excitement in it. Many times I saw amazing dancers do a choreographed dance performance, and I thought that was cool, but I did not see the musicality in their dancing. It was only after really understanding what dancing to the lyrics meant that an entirely new way of expressing myself to the music finally opened up to me. I even went back to watching those same amazing dancers, and I finally realized that they had choreographed their entire piece to the lyrics of the song, instead of the hits and accents of the instruments. I was blown away. It might take you awhile to get this concept too, but once you do get it, it will bring your enjoyment of salsa dancing yet to another level.
Tip # 3 Learn To Dance Lyrically
Lyrical dancing means that you actually try to interpret the meaning of the words in your dancing. So if the songs talks about sunshine, a love affair, or sadness, for example, you might actually want to somehow try to reflect those ideas in your dancing. You might open your arms as if to mimic sun radiating its rays to the world to portray the idea of a sun shining, or hold your partner really close and secretively as to portray the idea of a love affair, or simply have your arms in front of your face as if to be filled with sadness and tears. Obviously, most salsa music is in Spanish and that might limit how much you would be able to dance to the actual meaning of the lyrics, even if you wanted to. Dancing lyrically is also much more rare, both in performances, as well as in social dancing. But if you really love knowing what the songs talk about, by all means, why not explore this idea of becoming a more musical dancer as well.
And there you have it, my three tips on part 2 to becoming a more musical salsa dancer. As always, first master salsa timing. Then become more aware of the types of salsa, and recognize the different song structure. Finally, learn to play with the accents and the hits of the music, and develop your ability to dance to the lyrics both literally and lyrically. Who knows, maybe soon you will be asked to tour the world to teach musicality workshops as well.
Written by Mikko Kemppe
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