8 Tips On Being A Better Leader In Salsa

In Salsa Leading can often be overlooked as one progress through Salsa classes.

In fact a lot of students develop habits where basic steps, cross body leads, and basic turns are executed without proper leading. Below are 6 tips from www.DanceSalsaInToronto.com to help you with your leading.

1) The leader should always lead everything. Even the basic Salsa steps of forward and backward, cross body leads and a basic turn.

2) Leading comes from the core of the body. Leader must lead with his body and move as a single unit, instead of just with the arm or the hands.

3) Gauge the strength of your lead on your partner’s ability to follow. One could soften his lead if his partner follows well. Note: This does not mean not leading the basic Salsa steps or cross body leads.

4) Look at where you want your follower to go before leading her there. Leaders are usually the blames for crashing the follower into someone else in a Salsa club.

5) Think like the follower sometimes when you are practicing your Salsa leads. There should be enough time to prep the follower so that she knows where she is supposed to be next.

6) Do overwhelm your follower by passing the follower’s level unless mutually agreed upon during dancing. Otherwise this could spoil the fun in social dancing.

7) It is okay to abandon a lead if the follower or leader missed a step. Improvise until you can catch the beat again and recover with a basic step or a cross body lead.

8) If possible you should rotate through as many partners are you can during your Salsa classes. This will let you see if your lead is sufficient as some of your classmates may be a better follower than others. It will also be easier to identify your errors and correct it this way.