Dancing Soul

"Good" vs. "bad": cultural baggage about posture and learning to dance

Recently, I have had many discussions with students about how hard it is to move in a new way. They feel embarrassed, awkward, uncomfortable, and sometimes even dizzy as they try to adjust posturally to salsa and tango. Although a new movement may not feel natural, why do some people have such a strong reaction to new ways of standing, walking and dancing?

We are taught by our culture and our families that there are "good" ways to move and "bad" ways to move. "Good" movement fits with our ideals of how men, women and children should be. "Bad" movements are those that are done by "other" people, or people who don't fit into that particular cultural ideal.

In the United States, there are many different cultural groups.  Many of my students are white adults who grew up in the United States. In this case, I am mostly discussing their struggles against learned "good" cultural behavior, in order to learn salsa and tango, and to find a more aligned body along the way. If the new movement resembles movement that the dancer learned was inappropriate, then not only does the body fight to learn, but the mind must move past old judgments about what movement is "good" or "bad".

What have we been taught?

• "Good": "Stand up straight!" This means pull our shoulders back, our stomachs in, our hips under and raise our chin; the military look.

• "Bad": Relaxing the spine so that the natural curves work, the shoulders release, the hips relax back, and the chin lowers. 

Why is this bad? Because it looks suspiciously like "lazy"; the Puritans would turn in their graves! North Americans have a cultural ideal of looking busy, trying hard, and putting effort into what is done. Relaxing feels and looks too easy to be right ;-)

Another example:

• "Good": "Be a lady!" This means tuck the hips under to hide the buttocks, release the shoulders forward to make sure you aren't flaunting your breasts, and hold your hips in a straight position so you don't call attention to your sexual/sensual body; walking like a "loose" woman. I find this is true more for the 45+ women than the younger women, but many young women from conservative families still have this issue.

• "Bad": Using your hips the way they were created, with side-to-side swing, makes you look like a "bad" girl, encouraging male attention. Letting your hips move back into a more relaxed position gives your body sway and your butt sticks out a bit. Almost all of my female students tell me that they feel as if their butt is REALLY too far out behind them, while I see their hips still tucked forward! Lifting at the solar plexus makes it impossible to hunch over and hide your chest: if you are well-endowed, then so be it! That really makes some women quake.  An entire sector of N. America has learned to hide their bodies, rather than to enjoy their bodies, and I am pushing all of their unconscious buttons while trying to remedy poor alignment issues.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I think it illustrates how hard a person has to fight to learn new movement that they have been taught is culturally inappropriate. Is it culturally inappropriate to dance salsa and tango? Is it wrong to go against cultural information you learned as a child or young adult? Why do we have certain actions that are culturally accepted or condemned?

I would like to hear your comments about what you find difficult/awkward/uncomfortable about learning tango and salsa and other couple dances. I'll write more as I receive your comments.

Street salsa: why this is my choice of salsa styles

My salsa roots

Dances that attract me MUST have an element of improvisation. However, I'm not a big freestyle dancer: if you put music on and ask folks to just hang out and dance, I end up doing strange versions of the dance forms I've studied, mixed together any way that seems interesting to me. I need form, but I also need to have ways to play with that form, or even break the rules on purpose. I like: Argentine tango, Balkan line dances, West African styles, Brazilian street samba, funk in my native Philadelphia, Moroccan and Middle Eastern belly dance styles, Lindy hop, and . . . salsa.

I learned salsa by dancing in bars: I danced with the mix of Latinos who came out to hear music, see each other, and dance: Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, Colombians. They taught me salsa, merengue, cumbia, bachata, norteno dances, etc. Most of them had never had a dance class, but they had learned from aunts, from older cousins, and from dancing at family parties or dance clubs before moving to the U.S. 

Going to a new club, I have to wait until some brave soul asks the newcomer to dance, but after that, I dance all night. The guys can't believe that I learned to salsa here, because I have my own style. My years of African dance training and the Afro-Cuban workshops I've attended blend into my salsa. I have street salsa, despite having taught ballroom dance for twenty plus years and a M.A. in modern dance.

After starting like that, salsa dance classes held little interest for me. All the folks looked so white-bread, form-perfect and lacking in groove. I started teaching salsa, trying to reconcile the idea of teaching in a class with the styles that I had learned on the fly. How could I make my students look like salseros, not ballroom students dancing salsa?

I focus on the element of lead and follow, of finding a common groove in the music. There are basic salsa moves that I teach, and harder, more flashy ones, but the point is to learn to move your body in a way that feels good and connects with your partner. You don't have to be the best. You don't have to be flashy. You have to FEEL GOOD! If you use your body correctly and learn the basic concepts of salsa movement, you can enjoy yourself and look good at the same time.

Friday night at Mississippi Pizza Pub: Toto, I don't think we're in tangoland anymore

My tango friends say things like, "Well, I don't think I'd like salsa.  It's so, so, well, it looks like it would be BORING, not enough improvisation." They wouldn't think that if they'd gone to the Mississippi Pizza Pub with me on Friday night. I walked in with my sweetie (who doesn't dance much), did one cha cha, and was literally pounced on by a dancer who said, "I know you! You taught me tango at the University of Oregon!" and proceeded to salsa my brains out.

He wasn't a schooled dancer, which was why I enjoyed dancing with him so much. He did a bit of salsa, some hip-hop-like moves, and some awesome traditional rumba moves, all combined into one grooving dance. I pulled out my Afro-Cuban religious dance training, my funky breaks, and my Philly a** and met him head-on. We cleared the floor. I haven't felt that happy on a dance floor for a long time.

When, sweating profusely, he thanked me for the dance, I told him how much I liked his traditional rumba moves and he looked at me and said, "My what?" Sometimes I forget exactly how big a dance geek I am: probably no one else in the room has studied the history of salsa in terms of dance anthropology (a lot of the older Cuban dancers in the place have LIVED part of that history and you can see it in their dancing). My dance partner wasn't following a form, or breaking rules on purpose; he was just dancing.

THAT is what I try to teach my students.

The opposite of street salsa

I have a huge bias against L.A. style salsa (sorry, L.A. salseros, it's just me, it's not you). There's so much waving of hands, cute poses and careful footwork. Yeah, I guess it looks nice, but it doesn't move me the way the old Cuban ladies with their basic salsa move me. There's cool in their moves, and grace, but the sexiness comes out of the groove, not out of engineered salsa parts. The whole idea of salsa congresses doesn't excite me; the idea of a great Cuban neighborhood band excites me.

I'm trained in choreography, in technique, in creating sequences that blow the mind, but what I prefer to teach is social dancing, for fun.

Life is short. GET OUT THERE AND DANCE!

Fall classes with Elizabeth Wartluft

All new classes start the week of September 15th.

Beginner/Advanced Beginner Argentine Tango

Thursdays, 7:15 PM
Riverside Performing Arts, 1108 Main St., Vancouver, WA
$72/6 weeks, $60 students, seniors and continuing students

This class will cover: walking, basic salidas, the cruzada, basic turns and front ochos; musicality, navigation, connection, energy, and the embrace. For advanced beginners, I will provide more complex variations and more focus on musicality and connection. As always, my focus is balance, alignment, efficiency of movement, to create an elegant, sensual and playful tango.

Intermediate Argentine Tango

Wednesdays, 8 PM
Dancing Soul, 4315 NE Garfield Ave., Portland, OR (or nearby: I'm in negotiation for a larger space)
$72/6 weeks, $60 students, seniors and continuing students

I design this class to be taken a minimum of three times before advancing to the next level, so I cover different topics each six weeks. We learn the technique from the ground up for paradas, sacadas, ganchos, adornos, quebradas, calesitas, planeos, etc. Continuing from my beginning classes, we will learn harder variations of turns and ochos, combining them with the new repertoire. As always, my focus is balance, alignment, efficiency of movement, to create an elegant, sensual and playful tango.

If you are unsure as to whether you belong in intermediate or advanced, please contact me for an evaluation.

Advanced Argentine Tango

Tuesdays, 7 PM
Dancing Soul, 4315 NE Garfield Ave., Portland, OR (or nearby: I'm in negotiation for a larger space)
$72/6 weeks, $60 students, seniors and continuing students

For those of you who knew my classes in Eugene, this is my Tango 3 class. Pre-requisite: you should already know the technique for the steps listed above in Intermediate class, and be ready to pull out the BIG guns: overturned ganchos, colgadas, volcadas, boleo combinations, shared axis turns, crossed system grapevines, leg wraps, etc. (one of my Eugene students called it "crazy sh**"). The focus will be integration: using these steps on the social dance floor safely and elegantly. Every week, you'll leave class with new material for your dance.

If you sign up with a partner, you may stay with that partner for the class, but you will learn more quickly if you switch around. If you come to the class without a partner, I expect that you will be flexible about dancing with any other member of the class, in order to best learn the material.

Milonga with Robert Hauk and Elizabeth

Wednesdays, 7 PM
Dancing Sould, 4315 NE Garfield Ave., Portland, OR (or nearby: I'm in negotiation for a larger space)
$72/6 weeks

Robert and I will be teaching a milonga class together. We're really excited about it! At this time, the class is full, but we will be able to open it up if we get a larger space, so let me know if you want to be added to the waitlist.

Beginning Salsa

Thursdays, 8:15 PM
Riverside Performing Arts, 1108 Main St., Vancouver, WA
$72/6 weeks, $60/students and seniors

I've been teaching salsa since 1993, but haven't had a chance to teach it in the Portland area yet.  By the end of the six weeks, you'll have enough material to go out and tackle the dance floor! Lead/follow technique, basic moves and improvisational extras will all be covered. Tango folk: come learn a dance that has that same improvisational possibility, but with hips and saucy music!

Private lessons: $50/hr or $200/5 hours

I strongly suggest combining private and group lessons for optimal dance learning. A group setting allows you to practice your technique and meet other dancers socially. A private lesson focuses on technique on a deeper level than a group class allows. Even one private lesson every few months will help your technique. For the serious student, a weekly private lesson plus group classes and/or time on the dance floor, is the most efficient way to learn tango well. If private lessons are not in your budget, consider finding someone to share lessons to split the cost, or contact me re: barter.