Part 2:  What is the Salsa Connection and why don't we get it?
by Sam Gill

So what is this salsa connection and how do we get it?  You’ll remember that exercise done in most first salsa classes right after the basic foot patterns have been introduced.  You know, that little exercise where the lead and follow lean against one another’s hands and then pull away from one another.  Perhaps the teacher talks briefly of tone in the arms or the connection at the hands.  But then the class goes on … everyone wants to get to the moves.  And the succeeding classes continue one after another focusing on moves and individual skills. 

Since in classes the extensive repetition of a new move leads to the appearance of mastery, we do not adequately comprehend that this apparent competence is not due to actually learning how to lead or follow, not due to strong partnering skills. The only continuing mention of anything related to the salsa connection are comments usually directed to the follow by often frustrated leads about them having arms that are “too loose” or “too stiff.”  Many follows I have talked to about this have little clue about what this means or why it is important.  Some come to me and ask “Are my arms too stiff (or too loose)?”  I have come to appreciate that dancers simply do not understand the salsa connection.

Salsa connection is the foundational relationship between dance partners that allows them to communicate amazing amounts of information almost instantly so that they dance together smoothly and seemingly effortlessly.  This connection is extremely complicated and I’ll develop the notion in much more detail in succeeding blogs. 

But why don’t we get it?  We don’t get it because we (teachers and dancers) don’t understand how foundational the salsa connection is and I don’t think that many teachers know much about how to teach it.  This may be because for many teachers, as great dancers, it may come rather naturally to them and they don’t realize how foreign the salsa connection is to many who are learning to dance. 

I believe that the main reason most dancers aren’t aware of the fundamental importance of the salsa connection is the way salsa moves are taught.  I believe that what happens is that follows learn the patterning of the move and rely on an initiating signal that a move is called for.  Then the follows simply, and often skillfully, take themselves through the move without actually being led.  They are just holding the leads’ hands. What results is the appearance that women are following and men are leading, but the truth comes out on the dance floor.  Outside of the controlled classroom where follows know what move is being practiced, many dancers experience the awkwardness of attempting to dance a move.  There are those jarring and confusing moments when a move fails.  There are those painful situations where women feel they are dragged (the word “horsed” always comes to my mind) through a move.  Or there is the appearance of jerkiness and separateness between partners who somehow get through the dance but don’t seem to be dancing with one another.  I believe that all this is because dancers are not taught the skills of the salsa connection.  I have worked hard to be able to teach the skills of the salsa connection.

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