Awareness Month @ YA Salsa
Posted April 9th, 2008 by Geo-
in
After a few too many accident reports at our March social, we are declaring April Awareness month at YA Salsa. While, its fortunately pretty rare that anyone is seriously hurt, it's too common that people end up wincing in pain from footsteps or the occasional collision.
Dancing safely isn't just for crowded dance floors – the floor often gets crazier when there is lots of room and couples start pulling out all their favorite yet unperfected moves. Regardless, some simple principles apply and over the next few weeks, we will try to cover them all. The point here is not to make the dancing boring or preach: The point is to make it a better experience for everyone.
There are a lot of things to cover, so we'll break them out into separate articles over the next month:
The difficult thing about talking about safe dancing is that most everyone thinks they are the safe dancer; and the other people are the crazy or careless dancers.
News flash: Almost all of us are guilty of dancing a bit out of control at times – it just varies by degree.
But that can change. Here is our call to you to take part in the quest create an incident free dance scene that is always high energy, alive and popin!.
There are a lot of things to cover, so we'll break them out into separate articles over the next month:
- Be Aware
- Protect Your Partner
- Dance in Your Space
- Step Lightly & Turn Tightly
- Watch the Dips, Drops, Tricks & Kicks
The difficult thing about talking about safe dancing is that most everyone thinks they are the safe dancer; and the other people are the crazy or careless dancers.
News flash: Almost all of us are guilty of dancing a bit out of control at times – it just varies by degree.
But that can change. Here is our call to you to take part in the quest create an incident free dance scene that is always high energy, alive and popin!.
:-)
I love you guys - my foot is happy to see this. And I'll be back on the dance floor this Friday!
Jess
Great idea
George,
This is a great topic. Being aware is key when salsa dancing. It's like learning a new pattern, when you practice awareness over and over it'll becomes easier. We all need to practice being aware.
Glad to hear you're healing up Jess.
Glenn
Thanks Gentlemen & Ladies
Good Points George. I'm looking forward to the other posts.
I left the social last night with a smile on my face which isn't unusual. The reasons why were special. All of my dance partners were not only "aware" they were definitely protecting me, dancing in their space and leading me to dance in mine, stepping lightly & turning tightly, and gracefully dipping me. A couple of my partners were especially sweet. Cheshire cat grin! Reminds me of a phrase from my southern roots, "Bless your pea picking hearts." (Translated into Midwestern lingo=you'd have picked the garden peas for me [not an easy job}, which touched my heart.). It seemed as if they were making extra efforts. I was impressed. A few times other ladies & I brushed lightly, once doing the "Bump" (A dance of the 80's) which made me laugh. All apologized. Considering the speed of some of the songs that was amazing ( I loved the music by the way.)
I realize that many a leader has consistently tired to be aware & protect me. I am greatful and apologize if I didn't acknowledge you sooner and ...save me a dance in the future.
Sharon
Being aware
I'm so grateful that George started this concept on the web & hope everybody reads it & adopts it. Yes Sharon, many leaders do care & protect us. And yes, some dancers apologize & for me when they do, it seems to hurt a bit less.
As a loong time dancer :) I not only ve been kicked & stepped on in the past, but unfotunately still do. So, once again, thank you so much George for bringing this up! So, dancers: PLEASE, DO PAY ATTENTION?
Dance Floor Etiquette, or just plain common sense
Unfortunately, paying attention is something that not everybody is willing to do. And can somebody, please, explain to me the need for a toothpick to be sticking out of one’s mouth while dancing. No, I’m not making this up. And is it potentially dangerous? ... I’d say so. However, I’m not blaming anybody here, just asking myself a question: “whatever has possessed me to accept an invitation to dance in such close proximity to a sharp toothpick?” I guess I naively believed that it would be removed during the dance. But my guess couldn’t be any more inaccurate. Next time, I’ll think twice before I accept a dance that has injury spelled all over it. Thankfully, this time everything went smoothly and nobody got hurt.
Dance floor etiquette is a subject that might still be taught, common sense is probably something you’ve got to figure out all on your own. Please use it!!! It will be much appreciated.
Ya Salsa Website
Just a thanks for this website and a forum for interesting and useful topics. I definitely will take in consideration the advice and opinions given.