by Shulagh Jacobs | Mar 26, 2023 | Vlog
After moving into the new, bigger studio back in November, it’s been a quest to find a new dance floor to fit the bigger space at an affordable price. It hasn’t been without hitch as back in January we had been all set to go to Eastbourne to collect...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Aug 31, 2022 | Beginner's Salsa
The early days of Salsa lessons are by far the most crucial, as it is such a steep learning curve if you are starting from scratch with no prior dance experience. This is particularly true for guys, who typically lead the dance and have to master what I term “the...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Aug 16, 2022 | Beginner's Salsa, On2 Salsa
One of the things beginner Salsa dancers often ask after they’ve moved past the technical frustrations of learning the step is this: “Why is it called a Suzy Q?” It’s one of those things that seasoned social dancers don’t really...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Jun 24, 2022 | Dance Yourself Happy, Dancer's Body, Uncategorized
My first love in dance was ballet. And my first love in ballet was Swan Lake. I’ve loved it ever since I was a toddler and my grandmother – a ballet-lover – used to play the Tchaikovsky score when I went to sleep over at weekends and she watched me launch...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Feb 4, 2022 | Beginner's Salsa, Salsa Mindset, Social Salsa Dancing
One of the things that bothers me most as a Salsa teacher is when I ask my students (or any novice or beginner) for a dance and they shift around nervously, their stress levels visibly start to rise, and sometimes they even back away, make an excuse, or run off. Now...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Nov 29, 2021 | Uncategorized
Many single people who start Salsa lessons assume that it’s all so much easier if you have a partner. A real life dance partner who you can call upon to practice with any time of day or night – at 8am in the morning when the kettle is boiling, or after one too...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Jul 13, 2021 | Social Salsa Dancing
Chances are when you step onto a social dance floor for the first time after lockdown you will feel rusty and unfit. We all will. It doesn’t matter how good a dancer you are, no one can stop for nearly a year and a half and not notice some deficit in their...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Jul 8, 2021 | Dancer's Body
Body isolation is usually presented as the first step towards learning body movement in Salsa dance. Yet how many of us have watched even seasoned social dancers struggle and get increasingly frustrated when they just can’t make that body part behave and move...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Jul 2, 2021 | Dance Yourself Happy, Salsa Dance Injury
Mental health is a real buzzword just lately, with reports that so many of us are tangibly suffering from prolonged disruption of our usual patterns of behaviour, our social gatherings, and increased uncertainty over finances and future plans. It seems that there is...
by Shulagh Jacobs | Jun 24, 2021 | Beginner's Salsa, Salsa Mindset
I can remember the days when I was just starting out. I don’t think I ever thought learning Salsa was going to be easy, but I had been teaching fitness and aerobics classes for some years, and considered myself more coordinated than the average person. So on one...