How to Practice Salsa Without A Partner (and The 6 Things You Need to Master)

have you ever found yourself wanting to practice a partner dance but you don't have a partner I hear you you go to class you get really excited you want to put in the time and effort to practice outside of class but you're missing that one thing the partner we've all felt the pain and we get this question all the time how do I practice without a partner what's up guys it's Robin here welcome to the channel if it's your first time we're all about helping you become a better social dancer now today we're talking about how to practice without a partner and first of all it takes two individuals to make up this partnership thing we get so excited about that means that each person needs to bring their own skills and abilities into the partnership there are plenty of skills you can cultivate solo that directly strengthen your ability to dance with a partner so here's what to practice solo timing and awareness of music so at a basic level this is your ability to dance on beat so you can communicate with your partner at the correct time and as you improve your ability to recognize rhythms instruments and song structure you'll find yourself able to start reflecting that expression in your dancing and be more playful in essence timing is the foundation to dance with a partner and musicality is what brings that dance to life if you struggle with finding the beat and dancing on time I've actually created a really cool resource a mini course here on YouTube it's a four-part series and it will radically help you improve your ability to find and dance on beat within 30 days so go check that out if you haven't already next up we have your basics this is like learning to walk these are the foundational steps to everything the better you can walk the better you can run the better you can dance you can never practice your basics enough can you do them on time can you do them in all directions you know front to back just to the front just to the back to the side the diagonals crossing back crossing front you get the idea can you switch between them easily without thinking can you stylize them with taps and other touches next up we have shines and this is the footwork that you use beyond just your basic steps practicing footwork helps you refine your timing stepping and pivoting techniques since there's only so many ways you can move your feet the same steps you learn solo will often appear in your partner work so the more vocabulary you know and get comfortable with you'll start feeling better both dancing solo and with a partner you'll also learn how to step to different rhythms and not just the basic timing this helps you expand your awareness your understanding of the dance and your skills overall next up you can practice body movement and this is really where the magic happens let's take a look at some basics so here's a basic with no body movement first now here's a basic with some body movement and now here's a basic with serious body there's not much else to say body movement is that wow factor that secret sauce that flavor that makes dance so amazing to watch when I started to improving my body movement I really started have so much more fun I felt way more connected to the music because I was able to express myself to it now body movements still one of my greatest weaknesses but it's definitely my focus right now because I realized it doesn't only make you look better it feels so much better and it's what brings everything to life it makes you look good it makes you feel good and not just to you but to your partner as well and that's because body movement is actually technique and when you move correctly you're leading and following feel much more smooth connected and impressive next up you definitely don't need a partner to practice turn technique now this is what holds most beginner follows back from being able to execute smooth and controlled turns and it's what holds most leads back from being able to lead the turns smoothly because they're leading them on the incorrect time so dial this in because it's the fastest way to improve both as a you know experienced beginner lead and follow and it's going to make your dancers so much more fun so you want to practice all these individual elements on their own to strengthen them individually but once you have your timing your basics some simple shines down some body movement and some turn technique you want to start layering them on top of each other to bring the package together and make your dancing more complete so to start layering these techniques and skills together start with your basics and once you have your basics start trying to add your body movements in and then once you can do that take some simple shines and then try and add body movement into your shines now the important thing is here don't do complex footwork because once you're trying to add this layer of body movement it's going to be much harder to even do the simple steps next up once you've got some simple shines add a turn or two in there and then see if you can add body movement on top of that once your execution improves you can focus on doing each of these things connecting deeper to music you know play a song and think about and feel how does the energy of the song change from the intro through the reverse into the next section how does it make you feel and how are you going to express those changes in the song with your movement now remember it's a very step by step progressive process some days you might feel like you're a few steps ahead some days you might feel like you're taking a few steps back but if you focus on all these individual elements and then layering them on top of each other one by one being very compassionate with yourself and starting very simple you're going to see results over time now let's take a step back and get back to why you want to practice this stuff when your solo skills are on point you can make the easy stuff look hard and the hard stuff look easy it's impressive and when you can do all these things without thinking it allows you to focus on the connection with your partner and that's the sign of an awesome dancer now I'm going to speak directly to the leads for a second here 95% of follows don't care how many moves you have or how difficult they are as long as you have a handful of them and you're able to have fun that's the key your partners crave connection they don't want an ego show where you're showing off and they don't want to final exam in complex turn patterns and on top of that most people use social dance with are only going to be at a beginner and intermediate level so even if you can do some cool crazy advanced things you're not going to be able to do that with most people so what you want to learn to do is have fun with the basics become musical playful and learn how to move your body to bring it all to life ok great I know why I want to practice all this stuff but why practice it so low well if you improve your solo skills it's going to make you a better partner dancer and there's no way that you can practice this stuff while you're dancing with a partner because it's too confusing there's too much to think about and it's really distracting so practice all these individual things on your own so that when you do have a partner you're ready to have fun and you're not going to overthink and yes sure at some point you're going to need a partner practice partner dancing but to grow as a dancer to grow as an individual it's all about solo practice if you ask any of your favorite dancers how many hours of solo practice they put in it's going to be a lot lastly in a way as a lead there is a way that you can kind of practice partner work solo so you've probably heard of the idea of shadowboxing and pretending you have an opponent in front of you similar idea you can pretend that you have a partner there and walk through the steps that you normally do now this is a bit more of an intermediate skill because you have to imagine the fact your partner's their and their positioning but it can help you walk through the step remember your footwork patterns or the sequence because knowing what your feet are doing is key to executing good partner work we've now eliminated the excuse I don't have a partner you know what to practice and your work is cut out for you if you found this video helpful hit that like button it's gonna help us spread it to more people on YouTube and if you'd like any more guidance progressions and details on how to improve your partner dancing we have online courses on salsa and bachata at the dance dojo comm we'd love to help you out of that interests you check that out link is in the description below you'll see some videos popping up here if you want to keep watching if you have any questions for me as always leave those in the comments below as well thanks so much for watching I'll see you in the next video peace

Channel: Dance Dojo

Views: 204,582

Keywords: practice salsa without a partner, practice salsa by yourself, practice salsa on your own, how to practice salsa, how to get good at salsa, practicing salsa, salsa dance, salsa dancing, how to salsa, how to dance salsa, salsa dancing tips, salsa dancing for beginners, salsa shines, how to practice salsa alone, salsa dancing solo, how to salsa dance solo, salsa dancing without a partner, salsa dance alone, salsa dance by yourself, dance salsa alone, dance salsa by yourself

Id: Qv7OPbWzVXs

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019