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STABILITY IS A KEY ELEMENT IN SALSA
You must be a very stable dancer to accomplish some of the moves that you
see out there. You have to make the dance look gracious, light, simple, and specially that it flows like
water. But the trick is to make it look like that with some crazy moves that require all your strength and balance
possible. How do you do that... Well, you become a well grounded dancer!
A well grounded dancer is someone who whatever you may end up doing, pull him, spin her, push, bump
or whatever, a well grounded dancer is always REALLY hard to knock off their feet. In other words,
they are really secure when they dance.
SPECIALLY FOR GENTLEMEN
You have to be! Imagine doing all those crosses, turns, combos, dips, drops, flips and tricks without having
a well setting in the ground. Things can get pretty ugly there.
Also, you are the one that is controlling the dancing, therefore you must have the ground controlled since
you are the BASE, the ANCHOR. You have to imagine that it must be very hard to be keeping your
scene of stability when doing some crazy moves. Guys, make sure you do practice it a lot!
By that I don't mean that you should be rock hard on the floor, and don't pick up your feet. Oh NO! Not
at all. What I mean is that when you have one or two feet on the floor, you make sure you are well
secured and very well balanced before sending your lady into a crazy spin or other imaginable move.
Now, the trick is that even though you are being well grounded, which is putting some pressure between you
and the floor, you have to look LIGHT! Now, I am just making things more difficult here! How do you
accomplish something like that? Be solid, but be light at the same time?
Well, it's not really at the same time if you think about it. When a guy dances, he always keeps at least
ONE foot on the ground, even when you are spinning or doing a flip to your partner, you will always have at
least one foot on the ground, on most moves anyway. Either way, if your ONE FOOT or both FEET are going
to be on the ground for a move, make sure you put some ANCHOR FORCE on them while doing it, because most likely
the lady will be doing something that will make her count on YOU for balance, and she'll become a less of a
ground holder if you know what I mean.
But how do you look light? Well, it's simple... hmmm... Not really! - You have to make sure that you know
your move. If you know your move, you'll know what time your feet are on the ground, and you have to know
what time you need your ANCHOR FORCE the most. But when doing regular stuff, one of your feet will be on
the air, that's when you have to make it look light. I am not saying to pick up your feet all the way to your
chest! But make sure you are making the move well enough that it's noticeable that you are picking up your
feet. Now, by doing this, you are MAKING the illusion that you are LIGHT, but really your one foot that's
in the air is not really a limb there at that moment - In Fact! It's also carrying enough ANCHOR FORCE to
make sure it does a correct landing, a secure enough position for the other one to go in the air, or do
a move well enough without loosing your balance.
Now, when picking up your feet, try to stay not too far, and not too close from the ground. Try to have
a connection with the floor. Feel it!
I know that that's too much to think about when it all happens in less than a second, but with practice...
everything is possible. I found the best way to practice that is to take big steps... Now I am not saying
to dance like that all the time, but to practice your cross body leads, and your basics with big steps. That
will force your feet to be very well grounded when you are doing a move when taking long big steps. Another
good thing to do is to practice with slow songs. That will force you to keep that ONE foot on the air longer,
making the one that's on the ground take more time to be well grounded. When dancing slow songs, it builds
your stability when doing a move. This is the best way to practice to keep your feet well anchored!
The trick is to be very well situated in whatever stand you are on! You can be in one foot doing a turn or
both feet are on the ground and you are doing a dip or you are about to do a drop and you are barely
landing in your position, make sure that in EVERY SECOND of your dancing, you are impossible to knock off.
ALSO FOR THE LADIES
Specially when you are spinning! We know that this takes practice and so on, but you have to make sure that if
something ends up happening to your guy, you are still standing after all those spins.
You have to make sure that when a guy is making you spin, specially multiple spins, you keep a center. And SPOTTING
is the biggest factor of that. Make sure you SPOT to keep your center and keep yourself well balanced.
Now, you have to imagine if you don't keep a center. Doesn't matter if you are a full figure woman, or if you are a
model look alike. If you don't keep your center, the guys is going to feel like every inch of your body is pushing
in all sorts of directions at individual times, guys are going to feel like he's riding a bull there for a moment! I
am serious, like riding a big-wild-bull!
In your case, if you don't keep a center and are well grounded, you'll feel like your are out of control, even
on simple turns. If you don't keep yourself well grounded, you'll always feel like you are about to fall.
Most of the time, you have to keep your ground as much as guys. When doing a cross body lead, try not to push
nor pull the guy too much, and if for any reason he was to ddisappear after your cross-body-lead with spin, you
are landing with a secure ANCHOR force to keep standing. That's the trick, to make sure you have good
force to stay standing. If you accomplish that, it doesn't matter if you are skinny or fat, if you are a well
grounded dancer, guys will love dancing with you.
But now the question is, how do you accomplish that? Well, there are different tips to help you become a
better balanced dancer. Distribution, placement and connection is a good thing to do when dancing.
Distributing your body weight is like distributing the sand in an hour glass. With all the sand at the bottom, it’s very stable, and difficult to topple over. With all the sand at the top, it’s easier to tip over.
The placement of your feet is extremely important here as well. If you point your toes out at a 45 degree angle after your spins or turns it’s more difficult to topple you over, than if your toes were pointing straight ahead.
Now about connection. Have you ever heard eelectricianstalk about GROUND CONNECTION? Well, that's when they keep
a cconstantelectric connection with the ground. It's the same here, you must always keep an ELECTRIC connection
with the ground, even when picking up your feet. As a woman, you must pick up your feet too, but not as much as
the guy, it helps a lot to be closer to the ground than the guys.
When you dance, and with every step you take, try ALMOST sliding/dragging your feet along the floor. In other words,
don't lift up your foot off the floor TOO MUCH. During practice, do not lift it AT ALL for a while, just during
practice. Literally slide/drag it along the floor every step of the way. "Feel" the floor beneath your foot.
Embrace the floor. Love the floor... KISS the floor constantly with the bottoms of your feet – even if it means
wearing out the suede leather on your dance shoes. Do it anyway. If you practice this, then when you go
dancing you'll feel more connected to the floor.
You see, the reason you are toppling over, or ending up off-balance is because you are not using gravity
to hold your body weight down. If you pick up your feet too high, your weight is transferred
upward through your body. If you keep your feet firmly gliding on or very near the floor, the weight of
your body is now transferred downward, toward the floor, thus "grounding" and balancing you.
The concept is simpler than the guys, since you do keep your feet close to the floor, but tricky nonetheless.
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