We are also ready. We've arrived at the crucial part of the DVD where you are going to dance with your partner, but before we actually do that there are few things I need to explain to you about how salsa dancing and really all partner dancing works, and that is, there are leaders, and there are followers.
Two distinct groups of people that need to work together to make the dance work. So I'm going to define to you what leader and a follower is, so you really know. Generally, the leaders are men and the followers are women but not always. So, let's make sure we understand what the terms mean.
A leader's job is to choreograph the dance, step-by-step in their mind keeping perfect rhythm and communicating that choreography in a clear way to the follower in real-time.
The follower's job is to figure out what the leader is telling them to do, understanding that choreography and have the speed and the grace to follow it. Both of these are art forms, very difficult things to master but we're going to breakdown all of the key elements to leading and following for you to make you a great, great, great social dancer.
So let's get-to-gether as partners, me being the leader, my partner being the follower, let's dance the basic step and see how this whole thing works when you are out on the social dance floor. So let's get started.
What I'd like to do is introduce my partner once again if I could have Sharaine take the floor, and what we're going to do is we're going to get into what's known as closed dance position.
Closed dance position is when you're both holding each other it's how the dance usually starts. So what I'd like you to do is face each other. You're going to face each other chest-to-chest, shoulder-to-shoulder, you're going to be facing each other directly.
Leaders, hold down your right-hand, you're going to be one half of one arm length away from your partner. Now make sure, one half of one arm length that's not a lot of sweeps, get a little closer, remember this is salsa dance. So you're going to be little close, that's okay, it's perfect.
Leaders, take your right-hand, your right-hand is going to go up on your partner's shoulder blade, directly under the shoulder blade, cupping the underside. Take a look.
Leaders, you're going to be directly under the shoulder blade with your hands completely together, your fingers together. Make sure your fingers don't spread apart, you want your fingers to be completely together as they cup under the shoulder blade, not too far around the back, but directly under the shoulder blade.
Make sure it's not down too far or down farther or even worse down farther than that. You want to avoid that especially in social dancing, you want to make sure you are nice and firm underneath the shoulder blade in the cup palm of your hand.
Leaders, make sure your right elbow stays up nice and high. Ladies, you're going to take your left-hand and place your left-hand directly on the top of his arm, and place your hand on the inside of his shoulder blade, that is the inside of his shoulder blade, and you're going to match his elbow with your elbow. So you're going to match these things together.
So once you've got that feeling, we're going to learn how to lead and follow. Ladies, with your left-hand you want to press lightly away from the leaders. If you're telling leader hey, stay back, but it's a very light push with the inside of your palm against his shoulder.
Leaders, you're going to take your right-hand, you're going to pull her lightly in towards you. Now, this should be common sense, right? Guys are always pulling the ladies toward his, ladies for the most part they are always resisting. So it's just like real life. Basically, you're creating a little bit of tension between the two of you, this is called dance frame and this tension is going to save your life on the salsa dance place. So make sure you always give a little bit of tension.
Leaders, you're going to take your left-hand palm facing away, thumb pointing up fingers pointing to the left. Ladies, you're going to take your right-hand, you're going to place your right-hand directly over the top of his, let your fingers curl over the top of his fingers and leaders, you're going to cling your fingers on your left-hand and put them lightly over hers. Lightly over hers. No, death grips on the fingers nice and light.
Now, bring your fingers completely together. Now you want to make a nice rounded circle with your arms, you don't want to bunch this hand in close together, you want to make sure you have nice little bit of space with which to dance. It's an oval between the two of you, and we'll get into that a little bit later. But right now, I know you are dying to do that basic step, we are almost ready to go.
Make sure you can feel each other before you start the basic step. Ladies going back on the right foot, leaders going forward on the left. Ready, one, two, three, five, six, seven and one, two, three, five, six stop. That was pretty good, we did that pretty quick, let's start again.
Everybody stand up straight, make sure you got a nice and high on the back, don't let that right-hand of your's leaders fall down her back and ladies make sure you are pressing lightly away with your left-hand, giving him a little bit of pressure away. Ready and one, two, three, five, six, seven and one, two, three, five, six, stop. Oh, that is looking also good.
Let's get crazy with more tips on your close position basic, next.
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