Recently I saw an advertisement for a ladies styling class at a local school. The ad promised a bunch of skills to be acquired in a 5 week course, including posture, balance, foot placement – all good things! But what caught my eye was the promise of hand and finger styling. FINGER styling??
Over the years of teaching I have noticed a pattern that is strong and persistent: people place learning styling before learning the dance itself. After all, when a beginner dancer cannot identify the subtleties of Salsa-specific body movements, they are dazzled by the more obvious movements of the arms, head, hair – basically things that move lots!
Don’t get me wrong – personal styling is what makes your specific dancing unique, it can add flare and pizzazz, and it can make you stand out on the dance floor. The trouble is that even intermediate dancers fall into that trap, and by the time most realise what styling is all about, they have to re-learn the fundamental ways they move the body.
As I learnt more and more about Salsa, I realised increasingly that styling is an innate part of the body movement and flavour that comes with a mature understanding of the dance style. Sure, anyone can learn to swing their arm in a particular way, create a specific line with the hand (or finger!). But an experienced eye will always see the difference between a seasoned Salsera and someone who simply learnt the moves and super-glued some styling to it. Instead I prefer to focus on the core of the dance – the guts of it, so-to-speak, and work on the deep, raw, organic movement of the body that allows our flavour (and styling) blossom.
As an instructor I prefer to dissolve the differences between women’s styling and men’s styling. You might ask, why? Aren’t men and women different? Yes, they are! And your innate femininity/masculinity will actually sort all that out without problems. It’s a bit like baking, really – you can’t hide a bad cake with some icing. But if the cake is good, the icing adds that little bit of final touch. 😉
My point is, Ladies – stop worrying about styling and focus on your dancing! Work on your technique, weight transfer, foot placement, body awareness and FOLLOWING. The styling we use in Salsa is NOT a separate set of moves. It is NOT holding arms, wrists (or fingers!) in a particular way. NO. Styling is about focusing on the source of the movement: understanding the fundamental structure of body positioning, hip movement, which muscles should engage during which elements (your baking ingredients!). When that is in place, the arms, shoulders, head and everything else will snap into place – it feels great!
How do we achieve that? Firstly, stop asking your teachers to ‘teach you styling’. Instead ask them how you can improve your technique, your following and your spinning. Dance teachers love that! 😉 Take body movement classes, and pay attention to how your body responds to different challenges. Learn yourself and keep your eyes and ears open. Look to the root of the movement of the dancers you watch. Basically, dust the icing off and taste the cake itself!