If you know me, you know I have a bit of a salsa dancing addiction. If you didn’t…
My name is Resa. I have a problem. I dance salsa incessantly.
Fortunately, it’s actually a pretty amazing habit and the only harm I’m doing is on my knees.. and my sleep cycle..
Since I started dancing, though, I’ve learned a few things that transfer to daily life.
1. Live In the Moment
In salsa, you are carrying a conversation with your partner. If you are leading, you are telling your partner where you want her/him to go, what steps to take, and what you’re about to do, while expressing your style and thoughts on the music. If you’re an awesome lead, you’re also expressing your thoughts on your partner.. (wink wink!). If you are following, you are waiting for and responding to these commands while adding your input in the form of styling.
What is unique about these dance floor conversations is they are completely unspoken. These commands are given solely by physical gestures – a lift and push from one hand, a press on one side of the back – and they can vary from person to person. Some leads are forceful, some expect response from the gentlest of gestures. Similarly, some follows provide more tension and may respond faster while others may provide a gentler hold.
Thus in salsa, it is crucial to live in the moment – your presence is absolutely imperative to your partner. If you can’t be there with him/her, you can’t act on the commands he is giving or give her the assurance that your commands won’t land her on the floor or tangled in another couple.
Similarly, the most successful projects you take on are the ones you focus on and live inside of. Think of it this way: if you can crank out a quality product with 15 minutes of dedicated, focused work, why would you waste an distracted hour and a half on a similar but sloppier outcome?
Because that’s time I can clock!
…shut up.
But really, imagine how much more productive you could be by cutting out the world around you and being present in the moment, focused on the task at hand.
2. Observe and Emulate, But Make It Your Own
I learned how to dance salsa by going to clubs. My friend played in the band at the Conga Room at LA Live and I would go with him almost every weekend. I would sit back for a while and just watch what other people were doing. When I was asked to dance, I would dance and try to apply what I had seen.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Now it wasn’t/isn’t a perfect system. However, I have learned a lot about dancing by observation, trial and error. Hell, I learned bachata by watching.
Quick lil sidenote: I used to hate bachata. It always reminded me of the dirty old dudes grinding up on the young girls at quincaneras & weddings & such. Then I tried it with someone who was really good at it… TOTALLY changed my mind. Long story short, BE OPEN MINDED!! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Now the idea here is to use this in real life. How?
Observe those who are successful in your field. What makes them successful? Are their basics/foundations technically sound? What do they do to make the basics and common moves their own?
Now take that and run with it. Keep the basics – they’re called foundations for a reason. They’re universal and everyone you dance with will understand them. Now what do YOU bring to the foundations to make them your own? What makes people remember dancing with YOU?
3. Give People A Chance
Now I’ll throw out a disclaimer here: I don’t intend for this to sound shallow, petty, or derogatory. I’m just calling it as I see it.
That being said…
When going to salsa clubs, being a young, attractive woman, there are a lot of men to choose from. They range in age, size, shape, attractiveness, and there is an INCREDIBLY wide range of experience and skill levels.
I learned early on that one of the best ways to learn new moves, styles and following techniques is to dance with a lot of different people. Sure, you can have a consistent partner, but I like to keep things shaken up. Everyone brings something different to the table – a different dip, a variation on a basic move you may never have tried..
One of my FAVORITE people to dance with is Sexy Martin. Sexy Martin is known, nay infamous, for making every woman he dances with look like a rockstar. Every time I dance with him, I discover something I had NO idea I could do. Seriously. One time, he had me in this crazy dip where my head was inches from the ground, one foot in the air.. I don’t even remember how I was positioned, but it was SO. COOL.
Now consider this thought when you’re working with someone else. Perhaps they’re not going to be a match for your business’ needs, maybe they’re not going to work out as a partner. However, they may be able to bring something to the table that you can learn from and bring to your own business. Be open to other people and their ideas and be VERY careful not to pre-judge. Trust me – people have a tendency to be surprising. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes
For a girl, this means missing a lead or tripping up on a move. For a guy, this means getting a lead for the move you’re trying to accomplish wrong.
Now I’m still really new to salsa, so it’s not unusual that I’ll miss a lead. Thus, I’ll play it off and ask to try the move again. I’m still learning, so I want to understand what my partner is trying to tell me. Additionally, each new move is a new addition to my dance vocabulary. Thus, I want to learn everything thrown at me.. or everything I’m thrown into. Same thing for guys – sometimes you need to feel out a new move and mess it up a few times before it’s a piece in your repertoire.
We’ve all made our share of mistakes, be it business, dating, life in general. Neil Patel blogs often about the early mistakes he made in developing his business(es) and the multitude of ways he has learned to grow and develop as an entrepreneur as a result. Screwing things up often shows us one possible way NOT to do something. Trial and error.
When I first started this blog, I was completely new to WordPress and I frankly had NO idea what I was doing with CSS, much less PHP. I broke this site MANY many more times than I’d like to admit. However, each break took me one step closer to understanding what all these seemingly obscure characters meant. Now I’m close to fluent in CSS and I’m comfortable with writing and editing PHP.
I know it’s not necessarily the best way to learn, but it’s certainly one way to learn how to do things BETTER.
So what do you do?
Salsa, to me, is an escape. It is a way to force myself to live one moment at a time while connecting with another human being. Fortunately, the escape is rich in lessons that I can bring back to reality with me.
What have you learned from your favorite pastimes?
