Ballroom Dance Etiquette

November 30, 2013 by ·

Ballroom dance etiquette ten common sense tips.

Ballroom dance etiquette

Carolina and Hugo dancing in Brooklyn at Dance Fever Studios..

1) Dance in the line of dance.  Ballroom dancers move around the floor in a counter-clockwise direction.  You should be moving in this direction most of the time.  This is ballroom dance etiquette 101.

2) When things go wong, apologize.  If you bump into someone, or step on someone’s foot, tell them you’re sorry.  Don’t just ignore them.

3)Slow dancers should move to the center of the room.  So if you are a beginner to ballroom dance, just learning new moves, don’t clog up the main lines of dance.  Stay towards the center.

4)Conversation should be off the dance floor.  If you’d like to talk, do it off the dance floor.

5)Cross the dance floor around the perimeter.  Don’t cut through.  I’ve seen people walk across the middle of the ballroom dance floor holding drinks.  Not good.

6)Clean up your mess.  So, if you are carrying some drinks and you do spill something, clean it up before some dancer slips and gets hurt.

7)Personal hygiene.  Make sure you don’t have bad body odor or bad breath.  Very important ballroom dance etiquette.

8)Dance at your partner’s ability.  If you are an experienced ballroom dance leader dancing with a beginner follower, don’t expect her to do advanced moves.  Build the dance.  Start with easy stuff.  Once you see that she’s with the timing and following easy patters, try advancing to more difficult ones.  If she has difficulty doing one turn, don’t lead her in to a double turn.

9)Sneezing and coughing while dancing.  This does happen. Always sneeze or cough into the underside of your elbow.  Do not sneeze into your hand and then ask her to take that hand for dancing.

10)Don’t chew gum while dancing.  This is annoying to your partner.  He or she doesn’t want to dance with a cow chewing grass, which is what it feels like.  It also doesn’t look elegant.  Have you ever seen Fred Astaire chew gum while he dances?

Filed Under: Argentine tango, ballroom dancing, Dance studios Brooklyn, Uncategorized · Tagged: ,

NYC Salsa Must Know Patterns.

July 18, 2013 by ·

NYC Salsa must know patterns. If you are dancing NYC style salsa there are tons of patterns you will see as a follower.  No one can list all of them, since every leader has his own, but here are some patterns that you really must know if you’d like to dance at the intermediate or advanced level with a NYC salsa leader.   These are patterns that almost ever leader knows and will expect you to follow.  You will see these patterns, and variations of them, almost %100 of your time dancing with any NYC salsa leader.  All these patterns have tons of variations,  but if you know the basic of each pattern, all the variations will be easy.

NYC Salsa Lessons at Dance Fever Studios

NYC Style Salsa classes in Brooklyn at Dance Fever Studios.

1) Cross Body Lead with an inside turn and a half.  This is the intermediate version.  The advanced version is two and a half turns.  When you do this make sure that you stay on your track.

2)Copa and Copa with a turn and a half.  The turn and a half is the same turn as the cross body lead.

3)Pencil Turn or Check Turn.

4)Half Moon with a turn and a half to basic.  Some salsa dancers call this The Titanic.

5)Reverse Cross Body Lead.

6)Reverse Cross Body Lead with two turns for the intermediate follower, and three turns for the advanced follower.

7)Double Turn in place.

8) Simultaneous Back Spot Turns in place.

9)Leaders Half Chase to Hand Drop.

10)Hand Drapes.

Filed Under: Dance lessons, Private salsa lessons, salsa dance schools, salsa dance studios, Salsa Dancing, Uncategorized · Tagged: , ,

Salsa Dancing and The Three Types of Followers

June 28, 2013 by ·
Salsa dancing Brooklyn.

Dance classes in Brooklyn. Ray and Stephanie salsa dancing.

Salsa followers can be broken down into three types: 1)passive 2)active and 3)mischievous.

A passive salsa follower does what the leader wants.  Only that, and nothing else.  Take her into a cross body lead and she will follow, but with no styling at all.  She follows all your salsa steps, but doesn’t add anything additional to the dance.  Most beginner salsa dancers are passive followers.

An active salsa follower will add some flair.  She will comb and whip her hair, do arm and hand styling, and shoulder shimmies.  She is taking an active part in the salsa dancing.  She is following just like the passive follower, but is adding her own flair.  When you see a salsa dance class labeled as a women’s styling class, they are trying to turn passive followers into active followers.

A mischievous follower knows the step that you are leading her into, can do it if she wants to, but chooses not to.  She does something else that works, but not exactly what you wanted.  For example, if you lead a peek-a-boo step, instead of stopping when you want her to, she’d duck under and turn out.  If you lead a copa with a turn and a half, she might keep spinning more than you expected.  If she knows there is a break in the music, she will hit it even if you weren’t going to.  In order to be a mischievous follower, you have to be very good at following and know the music very well.

When salsa dancing, a leader should be accommodating to all  three types of salsa followers.  If a woman has just started salsa dancing, she will most likely be a passive  follower.  If she has taken some salsa dance lessons for a few months she may have developed into an active follower. You find active followers at most salsa dance schools socials.  If she has put her time in, practiced, taken lots of private salsa lessons, gone salsa dancing all over and really gotten good, she may be a mischievous follower.

 

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Salsa Dancing NYC

June 6, 2013 by ·

Here are a few tips to consider when at a salsa social or salsa dancing NYC .  1)Standing on the dance floor:  Please do not stand in the middle of the dance floor if you’re not dancing.  This is inconsiderate.   You wouldn’t stand in the middle of a basket ball court or baseball diamond while a game is going on, so why do dancers do this on a dance floor? If you’d like to talk  or rest, do it off the floor.

Salsa dancing NYC

Latin couple dancing salsa in NYC club.

2)Making your way onto the dance floor:  Do it without disturbing the current salsa dancers.   If you are the one making your way onto the floor, it’s your job to avoid bumping into dancers and not the other way around.  Try to find the space that is least crowded.  Elbowing your way into a packed area is inconsiderate.  If the floor is too crowded, consider sitting one out.

3)Ladies attire: Ladies, of course wear a great outfit that turns heads, but make sure you can dance in it.  You don’t want to spend the night pulling down a skirt that keeps riding up, or not be able to spin because your dress comes up too high.  Wear something that allows you to move, but compliments your beautiful dance curves.

4)Getting asked to dance: A smile goes a long way.  With a smile,  you will definitely attract gentlemen.  Stay by the edge of the dance floor.  Alone is better than with a group of friends.  Sitting away from the dance floor chatting with your girls,  you most likely will not be asked to dance.

5)Asking a woman to dance: Be respectful gentlemen.  Offer your hand and ask; “Would you like to dance?”  The way you ask a woman does matter.  Don’t ask like she’s the last resort, and perhaps you don’t really want to dance with her.

6)Leading: Please be smooth.  Good followers don’t like rough leaders. We don’t want our hands crushed or our arms pulled out of the socket.  Build the dance.  Start with easy salsa patterns.  Once you see the woman can follow these easy salsa patterns, you may move onto more difficult ones.

Filed Under: Dance lessons, Latin dancing, salsa dance schools, salsa dance studios, Uncategorized · Tagged: , ,