Why Footwork?
Footwork in salsa
I often get the question from either students or fellow dancers (especially from men), on why they should spend time on learning footwork and shines. Is it really worth it? Isn’t it just a way to show off on the dance floor? And if so, it doesn’t go well with the modest norm of the culture here in Sweden where showing off your skills is seen as bragging and being somewhat narcissistic.
I do understand that a majority of salsa dancers love the social aspect of the dance and more specifically the lead and follow aspect of social dancing. So then you’re better off learning turn-patterns to improve your skills in leading or following, right?
Well yes. That’s not wrong. It make sense to get better in the things you enjoy to be able to enjoy them even more. However, if you focus on only learning new turn-patterns, one of a few things might happen.
If you only focus on turn-patterns:
1. You might forget the joy of just doing the most simple turn- patterns and how much you can connect with your partner while doing it.
2. You stop listening and dancing to the music. Now this might not feel like a problem for some, cause you don’t really like the music. It’s not the reason you dance. And I’m not here to tell you that’s wrong. But dancing to the music gives you so much diversity to your dance. Not only does it give you inspiration to invent and improvise (hands up if you’re a lead and suddenly felt like your follower knew every move you made and looked like she was gonna fall asleep right there on the dance floor). It’s also a way to connect with your partner. Cause, unlike dances like Kizomba, where the leader micromanages the follower, in Salsa we connect through our basic step and through the music. I will make another blogpost about musicality and how to connect through it and link it here.
3. You might experience that you hit a strange limit cause, as a leader you loose your timing when executing more complicated patterns and feel the need to start counting while you social dance. Or as a follower, some leads just seems impossible to follow. You might think that it’s because of a poor lead (and a lot of times you’re probably right) but sometimes it’s simply because you don’t have the technique to follow it.
Benefits of Footwork
So, what’s the benefits of practicing footwork and shines?
Well the first thing you might experience is that you will improve your overall coordination and balance. This will make your partner-work feel so much easier. Second thing you might experience is that you start hearing and anticipating the changes in the music, with the added bonus that you might start enjoying the music more.
On the topic of music. You might also realize that you’ve missed out on a list of possibilities. What i’m talking about is all the different rhythms and styles of music and dances that appear in most songs that you can now dance to, like Swing/Cocolo, Pachanga, Guaguanco, Rumba, Bomba etc. This will make your social dance so much more divers and every dance will now feel unique, even when you’re dancing with the same partner.
Another thing is that with practicing footwork, you will have more tools to improvise in the moments where you’re not holding on to your partner for dear life. And in the end Salsa is not only about connecting with a partner but also about expressing yourself and having fun.
Now i know that the same thing can happen with footwork as I mentioned with partner-work in point 1 and 2 and I’m not suggesting you do your Adolfo Indacochea routine on the social floor. But as you raise the limit of your capability, you also raise the level on where you can be comfortable and enjoying the dance with your partner and with the music.
To summarise this.
Learning and training footwork in salsa will benefit your timing, your coordination, your musicality, raise the level of the turn-patterns you can handle and make your social dance experience more divers and rich.
Well that’s my, not so short, answer to the question, why you should practice footwork.