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Welcome to Episode 59 of the Salsa Kings LIVE podcast
We’re starting a new level of dance teaching this week: How. Having passed five previous levels, this is quite the milestone for both the show and for you, our dedicated listeners and students after who, what when, where, why and how. The ultimate goal should be to get to the how. Level one who asks ‘who’s doing this?’. On a simple level the answer is you, but it gets more complicated upon reflection. This is a level that needs self-reflection. Level Two is What: What are we doing? Dancing. What is that? What is the goal? What type of dance are you doing? Level three is When: When are we doing this? Ideally, right now. The goal of dance is to be in the now, to exist within the dance. Level Four is Where: Where are we? How are we adjusting of chameleonizing for where we are? How do we take our background into consideration? Level Five is Why: Why are you dancing? You need to know why you are doing this to keep motivated. You need to be aware of your own motivations to spur you forwards. Without that, you will lose that drive.
Finally, we get to How. Once you have figured out the nuts and bolts of the first five aspects, you get to How. How are you managing it? What is it you are doing to represent yourself as a dancer? To inspire yourself and others? How are you doing what it is you’re trying to do? What are the steps you are taking? What is the mindset you are getting into? This isn’t simply about forms or steps in a dance, but what mentality you are taking, and how you get to express yourself as the kind of dancer that you want to. Not only is this often the most complicated step, but without the levels beneath it, the how will also fall apart.
Mastering each of these steps is important to becoming the dancer that you want to become. Without self-awareness, you cannot fully understand your dance. Without awareness of the moment and the area, you cannot succeed, and without and understanding of why you will lose your motivation to dance. With these intact, you can figure out just exactly how you are going to become the dancer you want to be.
‘Your how, that’s what’s going to be your unique energy signal through those five levels that even if everyone has the exact same answers, if there was another Natalie dancing Casino in this exact second in this exact space and has the exact same motivation, they’re still not gonna look like Natalie, because there’s only one Natalie Martinez.’