Do you have a dance partner?

[MacMoto]

Salser@s, do you have a regular partner you dance/practise with?

If your answer is yes, is the partnership strictly for dancing, or is your partner also your SO?
If you don't have a regular dance partner, is it because you are happy without one, or do you want one but haven't found anyone willing/suitable?

Do you think having a regular practice partner is necessary/preferable, or it doesn't matter?

[Sagitta]

Have someone whom I hope to do privates with regularly. Should help with keeping the costs down. I'll have to do this for a couple weeks, though, before I have a better perspective to answer this question completely. I do think having a regular dance partner to practice with would help me learn moves a lot faster and accelerate my progress on the laerning curve, though.

[borikensalsero]

Now a days I don't have a dance partner, I fly solo which means I rarely get to practice any where, I haven't been to class in a few months either. :(

[Vin]

I think having a dance partner is good at times and bad at times.
At certain stages in your dancing you want to move up your dancing by expanding your repertoire, at these times a dance partner is great. But when you want to expand your lead/follow skills and connection it can actually hurt you. I think the best option is to have a strong group of dance friends that you can have sort of temporary dance partners among that group.

[etchuck]

Hmm... I wish I could have a dance partner, but since I do so much dancing, reasonably I should be looking for more than one person to be my partner. And that might make some of my partners a bit testy.

[pygmalion]

I'm actively looking for a dance partner. And an SO. I don't expect the two to overlap.

[peachexploration]

No, I don't have a regular dance partner although I prefer one. Unfortunately, I tend to attract crazy people so most of the time I practice alone. I've actually taken a much needed looonngg break from the salsa scene for a while. :?

[pygmalion]

My view is that meeting cute guys/potential romantic partners is easy. Finding a good dance partner, not so much ... :?

[tj]

Salser@s, do you have a regular partner you dance/practise with?

No.

If you don't have a regular dance partner, is it because you are happy without one, or do you want one but haven't found anyone willing/suitable?

I'm happy w/o one. In general, my On1 is good enough that I didn't feel a pressing need to improve it with a lot of practice. Usually practicing after class is enough. I've talked to numerous ladies about practicing, but never really felt like it was a pressing need. Just something that would be fun once in a while.


Do you think having a regular practice partner is necessary/preferable, or it doesn't matter?
Depends on where you are with your dancing, I think. If you're looking to improve, then it should help just as long as your moves don't become choreographed (unless you mean it to be).

[peachexploration]

My view is that meeting cute guys/potential romantic partners is easy. Finding a good dance partner, not so much ... :?
Right Jenn. Those are the "crazy" ones I was speaking of. :lol: Although, even if I was looking for a romantic partner (which I'm definitely not), is not that much better. We'll just call them "Crazy, Jr. Grade" :lol: :lol: Okay, sorry guys back to the topic. 8)

My personal feeling is that it is always better to have a partner but it's just very hard to find the right one. Need to have same focus, goals, motivation, etc.. Quite often, that is very hard to come by. *shrug*

[Sakura]

Nope, I don't have a regular partner. Of course, if you count my dance teacher as my "partner," then I suppose that makes my answer a "yes," but I don't think that was the context you were asking the question in, MacMoto.

I've recently started going to a WCS group's parties that they have at the studio I go to. (My first one was last night! :D ...Except for that now I'm really tired, and sorta flustered about some things... :evil: ) So, I get to dance with many people in my first "social setting" experience!

Dancing with multiple partners is good for a person (to an extent) in my opinion, because you can learn many things from new people!

For example:

Last night, even though it's a WCS group (The Indiana REBELS**), they do songs that other dances can be done to. I had one partner teach me how to do the Night Club 2-Step right out there on the dance floor during one song! (Thank the People Upstairs that I'm a fast learner! :D I think I did pretty well; my partner seemed to think so as well! Which makes me happy, 'cause then he'll be willing do dance with me again! 8) ) Another person I danced with had asked me to do a Waltz with him. While we were headed out onto the dance floor, I warned him that I was only a beginner in Waltz, and hardly knew anything because I'd only learned a few basics in a lesson back at the beginning of my starting to dance. Apparently he didn't hear me because he led me through all of these things I didn't know! :D :D But I managed to follow like I knew what I was doing ( :shock: Surprising to me -- maybe being such a fast learner is helping me to be a good follow... At least, I hope I'm a good follow! :? ) So, dancing with many people leads to knowledge gained!

Sakura Kitty :kitty:

**In this dance group, there are no leads my age... In fact, there are no people in this group my age! :D Some of the girls seem to be college-aged, but all of the guys are old enough to be my father and above! Not that there's anything wrong with that. They all seem to like me well enough. =^__^= That's always a good thing!

[salsachinita]

I think having a dance partner is good at times and bad at times.
At certain stages in your dancing you want to move up your dancing by expanding your repertoire, at these times a dance partner is great. But when you want to expand your lead/follow skills and connection it can actually hurt you. I think the best option is to have a strong group of dance friends that you can have sort of temporary dance partners among that group.

:!: Ditto to all of the above :!:

For an absolute beginner, it's more important to concertrate on the tools (steps/weight-change & timing).......your connection/lead & follow skill will start to develope as you go on, hopfully in both classes & clubs. At this stage, it's far more beneficial to dance with variety of people, rather than just having one partner.

Intermediate (I kinda dislike the terms for different levels but in the absence of better suited terms :roll: ) dancers who may or may not be attending classes (regularly) any more, will benefic enormously by being out there at the clubs, making youself known to as many people as possible, from all different levels/backgrounds. This is the time you start to build a solid 'dance friends network' (NOT a clique, ok? There's a difference :!: ). Travelling to check out other salsa cities & closely observing others are also great helps. A dance partner at this stage is optional, it may help, but won't make a huge difference.

Once you get beyond that, you make feel that you've learnt most of the things you could pick up at the clubs/classes/workshops. This is the moment when a dance partner (for practice, social, sharing cost for private, or show/comp) would allow you to get to the next level. This is also the stage where you develop a greater sense of musicality (assuming you already have good connection/ lead & follow skills) & personal style/flava.

Recently I've started with a new practice partner, working on some int/advanced Casino/Rueda moves. This opens up a whole new scope of learning for me & I absolutely love it :D !

My dance partner El Washing Machine & I have been dancing together since we were newbies. Eventhough we didn't dance that much (with each other) after we both left the group, we continued to have a great connection & style together. In hindsight, though, I realised that we have been compensating for each other when we dance (while we looked good, old habits just don't get corrected). We also go into 'auto-pilot' mode, which made learning new things quite a challenge (evidence from our last L.A. workshop :roll: ).

The best amount of learning I've done were during the last few years, when I get to dance with a vast variety of people from all over the world/levels/backgrounds. This was the by far the most beneficial learning (for me anyway) experience in both quality & quantity.....more so than as if I was still exclusively dancing with my salsa mentor/ex (however good he might be).

8) So I guess in this case, variety is the spice of life :P !

[squirrel]

Yes, I do have a dance partner... we dance extensively together, which is good in a way, 'cause we look great together (we match) but bad for our 'partnering' skills... :) it's bad 'cause we have the tendency of making the same mistakes and anticipating... :)

[etchuck]

For an absolute beginner, it's more important to concertrate on the tools (steps/weight-change & timing).......your connection/lead & follow skill will start to develope as you go on, hopfully in both classes & clubs. At this stage, it's far more beneficial to dance with variety of people, rather than just having one partner.

Oh I definitely agree with you on this. Although I think with some people who are beginners, having a partner will help get them used to doing certain moves with a level of confidence than if they were to go it alone. But it's not completely necessary.

Intermediate ... A dance partner at this stage is optional, it may help, but won't make a huge difference. Once you get beyond that, you make feel that you've learnt most of the things you could pick up at the clubs/classes/workshops. This is the moment when a dance partner (for practice, social, sharing cost for private, or show/comp) would allow you to get to the next level. This is also the stage where you develop a greater sense of musicality (assuming you already have good connection/ lead & follow skills) & personal style/flava.

And I also agree... this is the moment when you decide exactly how serious of a dancer you are. If you find yourself going to as many workshops as there is (in salsa or swing/lindy exchanges or whatever), then you are already more serious than 90% of the dancers out there, and having a partner will help a lot.

[Purr]

I'm actively looking for a dance partner. And an SO. I don't expect the two to overlap.

Same here. I don't think either one is going to be easy to find. :(

[etchuck]

I'm actively looking for a dance partner. And an SO. I don't expect the two to overlap.

Wanting to incite discussion a bit more...
Maybe your standards are too high?

[A saying from one of my assistant professors to two female colleagues of mine as I was walking into the classroom, "You can date anyone you want if you keep your standards low enough."]

And I will state, I think mine are. :?

[MacMoto]

I think having a dance partner is good at times and bad at times.
At certain stages in your dancing you want to move up your dancing by expanding your repertoire, at these times a dance partner is great. But when you want to expand your lead/follow skills and connection it can actually hurt you. I think the best option is to have a strong group of dance friends that you can have sort of temporary dance partners among that group.

:!: Ditto to all of the above :!:
Same here...
During the brief period when I had a practice partner, I made a good progress because of the amount of practice time I was able to put in and also due to the fact that the partner was more advanced than me and was able to teach me a lot of basic technical stuff my group class teacher forgot to mention :evil:. At the same time, however, I fell into the habit of anticipating his moves, and my follow skills improved considerably when we stopped practising and I started going out social dancing.

At the moment I don't have a partner, and although I don't think I need a partner to continue improving my dance, I think I would probably benefit from having a practice partner (i.e., more practice time).