So what do we teach in our classes and how do we teach it? Our aim is to teach authentic Cuban Salsa, which means it is not just about learning steps and combinations, it is more about understanding salsa music and its intricate rhythms and feeling those rhythms in your dance. We believe that listening to the music and understanding it makes you a better dancer.
"My big essential issue about everybody who looks at Cuban dance from the outside, is that they are missing the point. They go in looking for: 1) "moves" to fit in a syllabus -
2) expert instructors who "know the material" in some sense and pass it down to students in measured doses by teaching set combination after combination, including lessons in how to "remember to smile"...
It is not the way Salsa is experienced in Cuba. Dancing is part of the culture, passed on from generation to generation, everything is individualized. Never is dance disconnected from the music and the culture.
Cubanas will tell you they'd far rather dance with somebody with good feeling than somebody that knows lots of moves. This concept may be hard to understand by an outsider. Ultimately, all the dance "experts" outside think what we do, is "improve" on the Cuban thing. There is no awareness of what is lost in the process. But all that is really significant is ultimately, discarded.

Magali.

 


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