Leader’s Misconceptions (Part 1)

Being a leader when dancing any form of dance is certainly an entirely different experience to being a follower. In Cuban salsa more so than any other dance form I have seen so far it is at least in its modern form completely acceptable for women to dance as leaders and for leaders to dance as followers. While this may not always have been the case historically, it is now entirely up to the dancer whether they want to lead or follow and many dance schools including Tiempo España Dance Academy encourage all their students to learn both leading and following. This becomes especially important when learning such moves as “Confusion” where the leaders and followers will switch within the same dance. Doing this will actually teach leaders how to lead better as they will be more aware of what the followers are doing and vice versa. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in beginner’s classes as most men will just default to learning the leaders steps and most women will want to see the follower steps initially even though men and women will eventually see both steps and it is irrelevant which role they start with.

Another big misconception is the fact that leaders often believe that they will have to lead the followers through entire moves from start to finish which is definitely not the case. A good follower will learn to respond to key moments in the dance which tell them all the cues they need to figure out which move is coming next. Therefore all a leader needs to do to lead a move well is to give clear signals at the right moments. These moves can be very subtle and do not need to be strong or prolonged in any way. As long as the signals are clear and happen at the correct moment then a follower will understand the moves being led perfectly and will not require any additional guidance. It is in fact possible to lead moves using only one finger which is an exercise we sometimes do in class and for certain moves it is even possible to lead without touching each other at all using only the body position as guidance. While some very good dancers will lead with their hands much more than they need to, it is their personal choice to do this or maybe just a result of how they were taught initially but for good followers it is not necessary to receive more than the key signals. They can in fact find this annoying or even patronising if they are led consistently throughout a move rather than receiving the opportunity to display their skill by interpreting and responding to the signals correctly. Followers who demand of their leaders that they give prolonged support or “stronger” guidance are usually followers who have not yet mastered the skill of quickly responding to the right signals. Dance couples who have been dancing together for a long time and very skillfull dancers can be so subtle in the way they are communicating the moves to each other that it is nearly impossible for spectators to see how the signals are given and received which is what makes the dance look so smooth so this is something most dancers ultimately aspire to.

Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C.

Since the idea for Tiempo España Dance Academy was born it has grown considerably to a point where recommendations are now our primary source of new students across our various locations. From our first classes in Eggborough with just a few students we now run classes of often significant sizes in 6 locations around Yorkshire (Carlton, Selby, York, Leeds, Tadcaster & Hambleton) with our Leeds class running twice a week on Saturdays and on Wednesdays.

Team building days and wedding performances continue to increase in popularity and we now run private classes throughout the week. The 11th of December will see our first Cuban salsa party including a one hour Rueda class which will be the start of Tiempo España Dance Academy organising Cuban salsa events around Yorkshire so that our students have more opportunities to practise what they learnt in class.
It has been a real pleasure for both Aimi and myself to grow our dance school from its early days to the stage it has reached today. We are proud of our many students who have gone from being absolute beginners to become great dancers, ready to go social dancing whenever there is an event on.

While we were worried initially that teaching Cuban salsa every day of the week would eventually decrease the enthusiasm we feel for this dance, we continue to love every moment of it and would love to teach even more classes if we could. Unfortunately, like any company, we are restricted by financial constraints and have had to decline lessons in the past such as private classes in too remote locations, group classes in smaller villages where the initial interest did not cover the costs etc. It has been our utmost desire to be able to teach Cuban salsa to anyone who is interested in the region we live in and create a community of dancers that share our passion for this wonderful dance. After some small bureaucratic difficulties we are now in a position to follow this dream with our new company: Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C.

C.I.C. stands for community interest company which is a company structure in the UK that allows companies to maximise aspects that benefit the community which do not have to be monetary by nature. We will run our C.I.C. alongside but completely independently of Tiempo España Dance Academy to be able to offer the community we live in increased services especially to people who are not able to come to our ordinary classes for whatever reason.

Our normal partnership Tiempo España Dance Academy will continue to engage in the activities we have offered in the past such as organising group and private lessons, salsa events, wedding first dances, corporate team building days etc.
On the other hand, our new company Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C. will work closely with councils and charities around Yorkshire to provide benefits to the community in areas that were unattainable to our normal partnership in the past. These activities will of course depend on the available funding but some of the communities we would like to provide dance classes for are listed as follows:
- Disabled people
- People with learning difficulties
- People with a low household income who cannot afford dance lessons
- Mothers and/or fathers with small children who could bring their kids along to class
- Daytime or night-time rather than evening classes for shift workers
- Classes for people living in remote locations or people without a car
- Pensioners and people with reduced mobility who would prefer slower classes which are not too strenuous i.e. those limited by medical conditions etc

It is our hope that this newly formed C.I.C. will make our biggest hobby accessible to a wider pool of people to share our passion in an area they would not have the chance to experience otherwise and we are very excited to start the next chapter in our endeavour to bring Cuban salsa to Yorkshire.

Rueda Hand Signs (Part 9) Mini Setenta

Setenta moves are among the most common moves seen at a Cuban salsa event. While they are strictly speaking not elementary moves in the sense that they essentially consist of a combination of other moves, they are so common that many teachers treat them as one of the core moves students need to master before they are allowed in higher level classes.

The popularity of these type of moves is partly due to their distinct look and feel that makes them quite different and therefore interesting to other types of moves. In addition, the fact that many Setenta based moves are made up of a series of vacilalas and Enchuflas which balance each other out in terms of direction is also a reason leaders and followers alike appreciate Setenta-based moves as the moves can look complicated while being relatively easy to execute for leaders and the fact that there is a balance in terms of direction makes followers less dizzy when being turned multiple times. Leaders will often use a Setenta variation as a means to think about the next move they want to do as the fact that the moves are relatively long gives them enough time to think about the next moves they wish to execute.

It is therefore no surprise that there are hundreds of Setenta variations out there, arguably more than for any other type of move, not to mention the many moves that start like Setenta but whose name does not classify them as a Setenta variation such as “Arco Iris”.

Generally speaking, all Setenta variations will start in a very similar way and most dance schools will teach their students to finish Setenta variations in the same way. Even standard Setenta move can vary significantly from one Rueda to another but one of the key elements that makes any Setenta move recognisable around the world is the fact that the first 2 8-counts tend to be executed in a very similar manner for most Setenta based moves. Usually they are executed initially by the leader leading a Vacilala but taking hold of both hands and keeping the left hand high and the right hand low. At the end of the Vacilala, an Enchufla is usually added on where the leader keeps both hands again but once again the left hand is raised while the right hand stays low.

This Vacilala + Enchufla combination is a move in its own right and while rarely called in more advanced Ruedas it is the key element that makes a move recognisable as a Setenta based move. A common name for this move is “Mini Setenta” as it is essentially a short version of the move Setenta. Mini Setenta is signalled by the thumb and the index finger of the free hand pointing into the middle of the Rueda forming a small gap between the two fingers to signal the word “Mini” followed by the sign for Setenta (more on this to follow in a later post).

To see a video of the move Mini Setenta as well as the hand sign, please click on https://youtu.be/q9eZSD8a1_0

Salsa Leeches (Part 5)

To conclude this mini-series I want to mention that I have nothing against Kizomba or any of the dance types that have entered the salsa market. On the contrary, I respect all dances immensely and I am sure that anyone who is passionate about Kizomba the way I am about salsa can get the same happiness and satisfaction I feel when dancing to my favourite songs. I will happily try out any form of dancing and might even become passionate about Kizomba dancing one day. However, the only way this will happen, at least for me personally, is if I no longer get asked to pay for salsa but then get sold Kizomba. Only if Kizomba events are separated from the salsa scene or at the very least mixed parties are advertised as what they are, while there are still plenty of genuine salsa events that allow me to dance salsa, will I be able to respect Kizomba and consider taking up dance lessons such as I would for any other form of dance. In its current state, however, I cannot help but see it as the dance that ruins a lot of my salsa nights when it is played excessively at an event that was advertised as “salsa” or “Latin event”.

It is certainly a genius stroke of marketing to get Kizomba into its current state of popularity via salsa and given the record of dance types being pushed onto the salsa market I am sure it will not be the last. While there are certainly some arguments for catering to various dancers at the same night, what I will never understand is the overall acceptance of advertising one thing and selling something else. In any other business that kind of behaviour would not be tolerated while in the salsa community it seems to somehow be ok to get away with that. I have nothing against people advertising Kizomba/Salsa nights and then playing Kizomba and salsa but bundling completely unrelated dance types under the salsa umbrella and then charging customers for “salsa” is simply fraud as far as I am concerned.

As disgruntled as I am I cannot point the finger as unlike so many of my friends I have not started boycotting any of these places. Even though I know I will get cheated out of my money I continue to go to these supposed “salsa” events without a better alternative as even though I know what to expect I still prefer to dance only 5 dances in 3 hours then not to dance at all, so much is my love for salsa. I just hope that the day will come where my dance school is big enough to start organising their own events at which point I will do something so outrageous it will shock the dance community to their bone:

I will organise salsa events that are actually about salsa…