Salsa is a very social dance form and many people join their first salsa class as a means to make new friends and meet new people. I have met many people who join a salsa class as one of the first things they do when moving to a new place and the fact that you can dance with someone in a salsa club even if you do not speak their language is the perfect set-up for salsa enthusiasts to meet the local community when they are on holidays.
However, especially in the beginning stages, students can feel rather intimidated to just approach someone they have never met before and ask them for a dance. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that only the dance partners who know roughly the same number of moves will find your way of dancing interesting. Many leaders I know worry about whether they can keep their dance partner interested throughout the song and feel that their dancing will be boring until they learn a minimum number of moves. Similarly, many followers worry whether their dance partner will be annoyed if they cannot follow the majority of moves being led. As a result, it is very common for groups to form where people dance predominantly with the dancers they know, isolated from the other people on the dance floor. This is a somewhat natural process that certainly helps to build self-confidence and while I have heard some criticism around people who go to a salsa club and only dance with their friends or even just their partner, there is actually nothing wrong with this approach. Salsa can be extremely social but does not have to be. There is no obligation to dance with as many people as possible at an event and if two people just want to dance with each other all night and they enjoy the dance and the music while being respectful to everyone else then they should not be criticised for doing so. After all, it is their right to decide how best to enjoy their hobby and no-one would complain if you chose to say play tennis or golf with just one partner.
That being said, for most people I have met, dancing exclusively with friends is only an intermediary step to get them to a point where they are happy to dance with other people as the social aspect is something they tremendously enjoy. When that point is reached is different from person to person and is entirely a function of self-confidence. In theory, experienced dancers should always welcome newcomers onto the dance floor and a dance should never be refused on the basis of someone not being good enough or not knowing a certain number of moves. Of course, there are some more experienced dancers (albeit a rare occurrence) who have a more snobbish attitude towards beginners and refuse a dance with people who do not meet their standard or feel the need to correct them persistently on the dance floor. This behaviour is generally unwelcome as it does no favours to the beginners’ self-confidence or the reputation of the salsa community as a whole.
Generally, however, more experienced dancers are usually very happy to dance with beginners but few people have the confidence to ask someone for a dance that they perceive to be better. This tends to happen at almost every level i.e. many beginners are intimidated by improvers who are themselves nervous about asking people from intermediate levels for a dance and so on. I have seen many people stand at the side of the dance floor analysing who might be at their skill level so that they can give them an interesting dance… More on this to follow in the second part of this series.
