A lot of complete salsa beginners are generally amazed when they see more experienced dancers on the dance floor and while it is the interplay between the footwork, the arm movements and the body movements that creates the picture they see, it is usually the arm movements that catch their attention first particularly in Casino.
Many beginner students are very enthusiastic about learning moves involving complex arm patterns as it is the most obvious visually pleasing aspect of the dance rather than subtle body movements which can be missed more easily. Particularly in the beginning stages, students tend to be much more concerned with the way their dancing looks rather than the way it feels which has given rise to a plethora of complex turns, spins, dips and moves involving complex arm movements, often referred to as nudos (Spanish for knots) in the salsa community. These have become popular to the point where a whole range of moves now contain the word “nudo” in their title i.e.: El Nudo, El Nudo Complicado, Nudo Complicadito, El Nudo Del Dj, Nudo Sintético etc.
One of the difficulties associated with these type of moves is not only to learn the signals and the particular hand and body positions that will let you move your arms in certain ways but also to master spatial awareness to the point where you know when it is safe to include nudos in your dancing. I.e. some factors that you will have to consider before executing these types of moves include speed of the song, distance between you and your partner, you and your partners size and arm length, distance between you, your partner and other people on the dance floor. etc. Ignoring these may leave you stuck in a rather awkward arm position that you struggle to get out of without abandoning the move completely, or worse it may result in injuries to you or others on the dance floor. This can be very difficult which is why nudos tend to be introduced mainly in advanced Casino classes. At the same time, however, it is the apparent difficulty of making such moves look good while performing them perfectly on the dance floor at the right time, that creates an ambition in many students to master these advanced moves.
It is certainly appealing to be able to connect your arms with your partner in ways that will leave spectators puzzled as to how you will ever get out of this move again, only to follow it up with an even more complex move with such a smooth transition that it almost seems to look like part of the same pattern. As a result, many dancers aim to improve their dance ability by adding more and more complex patterns while dancing socially. However, people are often surprised to see some of the best dancers do the exact opposite.
I.e. many people who have been dancing for years are less concerned with how their dance looks and instead aim to improve the way it feels to them when dancing. That is, they may actually end up doing very simple moves and instead focus on the way they synchronise with their partner and the music. As a result, I have met people for whom learning “nudos” is like the Holy Grail of salsa as well as people who have no interest in learning “nudos” as it distracts them from other aspects such as body movement, musicality, etc.
Personally, I have gone through periods of both and still have evenings where I want to do lots of complex moves in a row as well as evenings where I want to do simple moves but execute them perfectly connecting them to the song and the lyrics etc. In the end, even if you prefer one way of dancing salsa over another, it is the ability to change your dance style that will give you complete different experiences and variety even if you dance with the same partner to the same song.
