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Welcome to Episode 70 of the Salsa Kings LIVE podcast
Andres wants you to break up with Salsa. Passions of course require a commitment, which is good. However, being too connected to it can make you rigid. When you are learning salsa, you’re learning a part of the dance world. Your teacher is giving you an overall gist. He is trying to get you to understand dance and its world. He doesn’t want you to commit to a single process or a single ‘right’ way to do your dance.
The problem isn’t being dedicated to the dance. The problem is limiting yourself, putting yourself in a single box. Salsa dance, all dance, is an art. To simply be committed to a specific process will limit you. You need to let yourself be inspired by other things. If music and dance other than salsa inspires you that is beautiful and you should follow this. When Andres asks you to break up with Salsa, he does not mean to leave it completely, merely that there should be room for you to allow other things into your heart. Much like your diet needs to be balanced, a dancer cannot only subsist on salsa.
If you are too married to salsa, then you can be cutting yourself off from other ideas. Instructors will only be giving you one thing after another, because too much big stuff will push you away. They want your commitment to be gradual so that you are not overburdened with the knowledge or the intimidation of the dance. They don’t want you to commit without knowing what you’re getting into. This might discourage new dancers or limit their understanding.
There is a goal that instructors are trying to get you to reach, and the goal is not the process. You will have to unlearn and relearn things as a part of the process of becoming a better dancer. If you commit too much to your process, to a specific ‘right’ way of doing things in dance, then you will end up making things harder for yourself later on in your education.
Obviously, everyone listening to this podcast loves salsa but it is one thing to be inspired by salsa, and another to be limited by it. If you feel yourself becoming rigid or boxed in by salsa and its forms, it might be a good idea to try and break up with salsa.
“Some processes fall off and some build on each other, but so long as we’re able to have that grain of salt concept of always being ready to evolve, adapt, drop certain processes or build on top of them is ultimately what’s going to allow you to be the most diverse.”
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