HOW TO FIND THE 1
How to find the 1?
The question that almost every dancer had to deal with. It is the famous downbeat that all Salsa steps start from.
Finding “the 1” is one important skill that dancers should focus on when they start to dance. It’s where the music patterns start each bar, and therefore it is musically fitting to start dance patterns on the same beat. More than that if both the follower and the leader are dancing on the same beat, it gives us a mutual ground on which we can easily “communicate” and dance harmoniously on.
Finding “the 1” can be a challenge. Salsa has a relatively complex structure, and unless you grew up listening to it, chances are that your ears are not trained to easily recognize the patterns. Most students take between 3 to 8 months, of conscious training before they start to feel comfortable with finding “the 1”. But there are often people that get it faster, or slower. It’s all good, in the end, if you put your mind to it, with the right guidance and effort you will get there.
Below are a few recommendations if you want to speed up the process:
Practice Practice Practice…and do it consciously
I have tried to teach finding the 1 to many students, and most of my sophisticated methods of teaching usually fell short of the simple method of simple practice. You want to find the 1? there’s no magic about it – practice practice practice.
Finding the 1 is a skill that for the most part comes from a feeling rather than any theoretical knowledge. Choose a song and practice your favorite patterns. Do it a lot, and when that song becomes easy, choose a new song. If you get used to enough songs, you will start developing a general sense of finding “the 1” in Salsa.
One important tip – train consciously. What do I mean by that? Don’t ignore the music – the beat and “the 1”. When you practice, try to do it with music, and start anew every time you are not on the right beat.
Don’t be afraid to count. Count when you practice, count when in class, count when dancing in the club (silently, in your heart). It will help you a lot, and eventually, the need to count will disappear.
Hear the music…and do it consciously.
Our mind is an incredible machine, it is incredibly good at recognizing patterns intuitively if it encounters them enough times. It is not any different when it comes to music. If you listen to enough songs, your ear will get used to typical patterns of that genera. So if you want to find “the 1”, make yourself a list and listen to it many, many times. Put it when you take a shower, put it as your alarm clock, put it when you are stuck in traffic, put it everywhere – and you will see a difference.
While our lovely brain will analyze the Salsa patterns even unconsciously, a conscious practice will make a shorter work of it. So when you hear the songs, try to actively count or find “the 1”.
Go to classes
This might be obvious to some, but if you “learn on the dancefloor” you don’t receive professional feedback. A good teacher should be able to give you feedback, direct you and activate your mind to finding the 1 and how it relates to different patterns and figures.
So find a good teacher, and go to classes.
Some simple music theory won’t hurt
In my experience, deep music theory classes won’t help most students finding “the 1”. Music theory is extremely useful for higher levels when you already have a sense of the music, but not so much for developing a sense of the downbeat.
There is one tip that I can give without going into deep details – the confirmation method. It can help you practice and confirm with yourself if you were right or wrong.
Find the beat – Start by finding the beat. For most people, the beat is intuitive, and you immediately start to tap with your feet on the beat when you hear the music.
Take a guess – One of these beats – is “the 1”. Great, but which of those? Well, go for the one the feels right.
Confirmation – Now, keep on counting, if you count the 1 about 16 times and it feels alright – you were probably right. If at one point it feels like you counted 1 too early or too late to correspond to a major note or change in the music, you were probably wrong…try again...
***
An article taken from https://la-candela-salsa.de/finding-the-1/...
Check out this YouTube video for both visual and audio of "finding and hearing the 1" in Salsa: https://youtu.be/DN_u2BVc9u0
MAKING A SALSA LIST
Kick-start your Salsa journey - Make a List
If you cannot remember the dance moves that you have learned in classes, how do you expect to execute them on the dancefloor...
"Making a list and check it twice" isn't just for Santa to check who is naughty or nice, rather a really good way for beginner salsa dancers to keep track of all the moves, techniques and turn patterns that are learned in class and then can be pulled from memory and danced at your next salsa social.
Simply thinking that you will remember hundreds of moves and techniques is not really realistic, as long as your fundamentals and basic are well trained and executed correctly, you need to somehow be able to have, committed to memory, an arsenal of moves thsy can be used to express what your feeling when dancing and listening to the music.
As a newbee to the dance scene you can grab a piece of paper and pencil and start jotting down all the moves that you have learned (this is more for the leads though, although also helpful for follows to ensure that their techniques and core basics are solid too) and perhaps offering them a number.
This number system can be the progression in which you learned them or perhaps their level of difficulty. The simple practice of writing them down and doing a basic word association can help you remember all those great skills and pull them out on the dancefloor when you are dancing the night away.
Once you start to advance you will find that your list will change and mature, as the beginner steps simply form part of your core fundamentals and the new techniques with start counting from 1 again.
You will also be surprised at how long that list gets too, a great way to also evaluate yourself, keep your dancing fresh and also do some self evaluations on how good you are at each one, and then perhaps train and drill the ones that your not amazing at yet.
***
Are you struggling with some of your dance moves, basics or understanding the music?
DIY SALSA DANCE SHOES
DIY Afro-Latin Dance shoes!!!
Don't trade up your style just cause you want to spin on the salsa dancefloor... You can use your favourite kicks on the salsa dancefloor and keep your style, simply grab some suede leather and adhesive glue or double-sided tape, outline and cut the leather to the shape of your shoe sole and attach it.
Now you able to dance with ease and spin to your hearts content in your favourite shoes!
GETTING INTO THE SALSA SCENE
Getting into salsa classes, the salsa scene and what to expect.
Well if you are reading this, then you are already one foot in the door and we would like to welcome you to this place that we hold dear to our hearts and am sure that you will enjoy it, meet awesome people and really have some fun with us.
Dipping your toes into salsa classes is the best way to truly start your journey in salsa. It is important to know that you are not alone and whatever hesitations you are feeling about being scared or embarrassed to look silly in front of others should really not stop you from giving it a shot.
Most that came to their first class felt this same feeling, but very soon into arriving understood that we are all here to learn and with constant influx of beginners, everyone feels right at home, with awesome people welcoming you into class and honestly no judgement, rather a sigh of relief with those that are truly passionate about salsa and have been bitten by the salsa bug, seeing more awesome people coming in to learn about salsa too.
Attending your first class will be an overshare of information, overwhelming at best and will fly by in a flash and it will soon become the best hour of your week. You will never be able to get back your first time and we strive to make everyone's transition into salsa dancing fun, smooth, enjoyable, comprehensive and educational.
Many are worried about what to wear and what should they bring with them, the answer is pretty simple... Dress cumfy and no real need to bring anything special but nothing wrong with packing in water or a towel if you like. Being comfortable is key when starting out, rather refrain from those super high heels, and wear some comfortable clothing too as you will be moving, stepping, spinning and connecting with others, so you rather want to not worry about anything other than taking in the fun of the class and the experience.
Classes are generally 1 hour duration and depending on the class or workshop you can expect a short intro, basic warm up song, drills and exercises, partner work dancing, breakdown and then practice time to end off. You can also take out your phone after class to capture any vital info or the turn pattern for the night so that you can go home and practice that week, ready for the following class.
And that's it, once you have danced your first class, let the excitement begin. You will find yourself listening to salsa music in the car, at the gym and at home while cooking. You will be doing the basic dance steps while brushing your teeth and singing out 123-567 in the frozen food section at Woolies, and you will absolute love it.
Our advice is to indulge it, enjoy every minute of this new experience and we are here to help you on your way to diving into the Salsa scene, learning the various styles, honing your skills, getting some music to expand your playlist and soon to start hitting the Salsa social dance scene which believe it or not, there are tons of exciting places, parties and events to attend.
We will be posting more about "Getting into Salsa" and hope that we can inspire many more locals to give salsa dancing a try... It is tough to explain it to people, and many who finally get into the scene all say that same thing... "I can't believe that I didn't know about this and wish that I had found out about it sooner".
Our motto - "Salsa is for Everyone"... So why not give it a shot!
