Private Salsa Lessons For Social Dancers
The Real Difference Between Group And Private Salsa Lessons
Many people assume they are going to get the same kind of experience they get in big group Salsa classes – just without all the other people in the room.
This is a huge misunderstanding.
I developed my Private Lesson Programmes to serve the people who find themselves bored or frustrated by group classes.
And to give all the depth and detail typically omitted by club based teachers catering for the masses.
And to create a truly personalised experience that will help you reach a decent level faster.
I don’t teach routines in private lessons – if you’ve read any of my stuff you’ll know that I believe routines are not that useful and actually delay your journey towards creative, improvisational social dancing.
Instead, you can expect my layered approach to teaching – going deep into the structure of the dance, movement technique and musicality.
I’ll open the gateway to you hearing and actually feeling the music at the emotional level you need in order to be able to dance spontaneously from the heart.
This deeper connection will enable you to develop your own style and feel confident expressing yourself on the dance floor.
How To Get The Best From Private Salsa Lessons
You need to DROP all the Salsa baggage and previous learning you’ve acquired to date.
Mostly this is what’s preventing your progress and keeping you stuck in that plateau because it includes all the bad habits you embedded during the early days, as well as the limiting beliefs you have carried along the way.
You need to DITCH the Salsa Superheroes you’ve been following on YouTube and Instagram.
Although it’s great to be inspired, just copying their moves and cloning their style stops you from developing your own signature trademarks.
So don’t expect to come into my lessons with a routine you did in someone else’s class and ask me to show you how to make their moves work.
I want you to be able to create your OWN dances in real time on the dance floor.
But for that you will need a different strategy and change the way you think.
You need to DUMP the stories you’ve told yourself about how good you want to get and what you think you need to do to get there, as very likely it’s these which are holding you back.
There is another way.
And it may be different to most other teachers out there.
It’s a process which I’ve designed to remove all the stumbling blocks before they actually occur, and it will very likely involve you relearning some of the fundamentals in order to execute moves and combinations with more skill, incorporate more musicality and expression, and enable mastery of more complex material much faster in the long run.
Private Salsa Lessons
About 90% of becoming a good dancer is mindset and the ability to stick at it for long enough.
Success or failure really boils down to acquiring the attitude, beliefs, confidence and discipline you need to keep showing up and working on yourself.
To have a strategy that keeps you focused when life gets in the way, and helps you to conquer those moments of self doubt that we all struggle with.
It’s also how you navigate the social dance scene and tick the boxes of fun and connection, whilst still working on the things you need to improve.
You Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission
Many people are waiting for all the planets to align, the ducks to get neatly in a row, and for the time to just be magically right.
But we all know the right time doesn’t always come around.
And nor will the phone call from the Strictly TV show.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t embark on your own personal Salsa journey.
It’s a journey YOU are in control of – and this means you can start as soon as you’d like!
Reasons For Choosing Private Salsa Lessons
The reasons people look for private Salsa coaching are varied but the common ones are:
- People often feel intimidated by the big mainstream Salsa clubs and don’t feel comfortable in that environment.
- They started out in the clubs but had a bad experience which destroyed their confidence.
- They want to progress faster and get impatient if they are being held back.
- They want a higher level of technical detail than is typically offered in group Salsa classes.
- They have a strong work ethic and know the value of high quality individual coaching.
- They want to be the best they possibly can.
- They need more flexibility with lesson times
The Problem With Learning Routines
There are several fundamental flaws with learning only via routines as in the typical group, drop-in style Salsa class.
This is because pre-choreographed routines are a PERFECT vehicle for performance based dances such as Ballet and Ballroom.
Unfortunately, although they are an easy way for instructors to teach large groups, they do not teach the main key skill you need for the social dance floor:
IMPROVISATION!
But there are other reasons as well.
- It has little relevance for social improvised dances.
- The human brain has very limited capacity for memorising sequences of moves in this way.
- It has next to no value for followers unless the female demo partner is given equal time to break down technique, footwork and styling.
- Leaders who rely on routines tend to always link the same moves in the same way, in the same order, resulting in boring and predictable dances.
- Dancers tend not to develop their own creative potential and remain in a consuming, copying mindset.
- Leaders who are mostly focused on remembering their next move are not prioritising connection to their partner.
- Routines teach you nothing about musicality.
How My Private Lessons Are Structured
For this reason, my teaching methodology is based on how the human brain prefers to learn complex movement skills and lock on to the rhythmic patterns within Salsa music.
This way it can make the necessary connections and build up a comprehensive “map” of the dance which can be understood at ascending and infinite levels of complexity, depending on where you are in your Salsa journey.
Musicality, technique and improvisation skills are all built into the process too, which means you will become a much more versatile and skilled dancer than those who learn purely through the mainstream clubs.
What Happens In A Private Lesson?
All my lessons follow a carefully designed structure.
The first part of the lesson will be spent warming up and working on individual footwork and movement technique.
This has a direct carry over into partnerwork and ensures your balance and weight transfer are all on point.
The second part of the lesson will be spent on partnerwork, where I will teach you all the moves and combos you need to lead or follow during improvised social dancing.
Private Salsa Coaching For Beginners
I LOVE teaching beginners.
Mostly because I love being able to prove that there is NO ONE without rhythm.
All it takes is the right environment, and a structured process which creates the conditions your brain needs to lock on to the patterns in Salsa music, and develop the movement skills to match them.
If you’ve found learning dance hard in the past, or had bad experiences most likely it was because the environment was working against you and things were moving too fast or not presented clearly enough in a way that your brain could recall, access and use.
So if you want the best possible introduction to Salsa, my Beginner programmes are guaranteed to get you feeling comfortable and confident about dancing faster than you ever thought possible.
How Much Do Private Salsa Lessons Cost?
Developing skill in any dance is a complex and time intensive process. As with all investments, short term wins are exciting and easy to settle for, but the biggest returns accrue over the longer term.
Therefore my coaching is not available on a session by session pay as you go basis. Stand alone sessions or dip in and out arrangements are a waste of time in most circumstances.
For beginners a weekly 1hr lesson once or twice a week is usually enough.
More advanced dancers need more time – simply because there is more to work on and the technical input more nuanced and detailed.
