Master this 1 thing to achieve greatness on the dance floor

Did that get your attention?

This is an interactive thing so I need for you to
answer the poll question first...once you do that
then read the full story.

==============================

Ok, if you've made it this far, I'm trusting that you
answered the poll question.

The reason why I had you do that is because it proves
a point.

I will go down the list and give you my thoughts as to
how this relates to salsa dancing (or any dance for that
matter...)

The first option in the poll was:

"Because of the promise that was made..."

When you read the headline, I made a promise to you
that by mastering this 1 thing you can achieve greatness
on the dance floor.

So if you chose that option, that's what intersted you in
reading further.

Dancing is the same way.

When you ask someone to dance, you are making a promise.

You are saying to that person:

"Just grab a hold of my hand because you are about to have
the time of your life...I promise."

That's why people dance, to have a good time, and it's up
to you to keep that promise.

In fact, not only do you have to keep that promise, you have
to OVER-deliver on that promise.

Once you've set the scene, you have to go above and beyond
in order to make sure that you are having a good time for you
and your partner.

But how do you OVER-deliver?

By simply doing your best to make sure that the next 3-5
minutes are great.

You do this by having a good attitude, by feeding off of your
partner, by giving and taking, by respecting your partner.

The fastest way for you to not keep your promise is by
trying to show off, keeping the attention on yourself, by
dancing just for dancing and not really being into it.

You see, when you OVER-deliver each and every single time
you're out there, you start to build a reputation for yourself.

Once you do that, then you'd fall into the second category.

Some of you (hopefully for me :wink: ) chose the second
option, which was:

"Because I always read the posts you (salsarhythms) writes..."

Now, if you chose that option, it's because I've always done
my best to make sure that I always OVER-deliver in every
post that I write.

With that in mind, as you begin to OVER-deliver on your
dancing experience, you will soon start to notice that more
and more people will dance with you simply because they
already know that you will deliver and OVER-deliver on
your promise of a great dance.

But in order for that to happen, you have to take the first
group of people (the people that don't know you yet, but
are expecting a great dance from you) and OVER-deliver
on your promise.

Then and only then, will they fall in the second category
of people (Those that already know you and know that you
will OVER-deliver on your promise of a great dance.)

This does not mean that you must be flawless...I mean no one
is without flaws (Except maybe Borikensalsero who seems to
get better and better with each post... :wink: ) and no one
expects you to be.

You don't have to put a lot of pressure on yourself either, don't
take this that way...

All I'm saying is give it your all.

Put your soul and heart into it, and believe me the rest
will follow...

And trust me, it's not that hard to OVER-deliver. All you have
to do is make your partner feel like they are the only ones
on the dance floor. This is done with the way you move,
your attitude, your charisma, all of it.

Just because you haven't danced for a long time, does not
mean that you can't put your all into it.

That's OVER-delivering...taking all of you, your soul and heart
putting it out there and expressing it through your dance.

If on a particular night you don't feel like you can do that,
then make sure you dance with someone you know already
and can say "Hey, I'm feeling kinda down right now, let's dance
so that I can get past this...what do you think?"

And once you get out on that dance floor, leave everything
else behind.

Trust me, do this 1 thing of OVER-delivering, and you will
achieve greatness on the dance floor.

I chose #2...and you lived up to it...as always!

Well thank you SD, but what do you think of that
concept of OVER-delivering?

I really feel strongly about it and would love everyone's
input on the matter...

And not just for salsa dancing, for any dance...

I have to confess I read the article first, but only because my login screen wasn't working. :? Great article, as always, salsarhythms. I picked option 2.

salsarhythms your post is my salsa mantra! Great post!

youngsta said:

salsarhythms your post is my salsa mantra! Great post!

Click to expand...

I will second to that!
:notworth: :notworth: :notworth:

You see a homeless man on the street and give him all your change. Next homeless man comes along, what do you give them?

Sure, this all sounds great. But how would you do this practically? I gave up on pleasing people on the dance floor a long time ago. It is just not possible with all the attitude that is oozing around the floor. You can have the best smile and the most intense eye contact met by a stone cold face that looks like its going to fall asleep.

I think some of us got it wrong. We overanalyze and study and exagerate and practice. We do body waves in our homes, we do isolations and footwork and shines trying to impress other people on the dance floor, only to find that they are too busy trying to impress us to notice it. Just relax and play with it, why the hell does there need to be so much stress in dancing?

Re: Master this 1 thing to achieve greatness on the dance fl

I don’t think it’s possible to over deliver every time.

This mean you have to give more than expected.

For a first time dance, this is absolutely possible.
But if your partner has seen you on the dance floor,
he/she will have a clue about what to expect.

If she expect a ride in a combination between a Limousine and a Lamborghini,
what will you deliver to get the over delivered impression?
A F16, a space shuttle or a horse coach?
And what do you do next time, to get above her now very high expectations?

I believe in the promise to pay attention to your partner, tune in,
and get the most fun and the best dance possible with the combination
of skills each other got.

salsarhythms said:

"Just grab a hold of my hand because you are about to have
the time of your life...I promise."

Click to expand...

Exchange “the time of your life” with “a good time”
This is as far as I will go at my skill level.
It may be “the time of your life” experience, but there’s no way
I will promise that in advance.

I still have a lot to work on. :wink:

PS. I always enjoy reading your posts.

brujo said:

You see a homeless man on the street and give him all your change. Next homeless man comes along, what do you give them?

Click to expand...

This assumes you only have a limited amount of your commodity (dancing) to give to people. When I can't give my everything on the floor anymore I know it's time for me to go home for the night--until then I will over deliver every time I step on the floor. And it really doesn't matter if a few of those are women that don't appreciate it; I wouldn't be happy with myself if I didn't give my all.

To answer the poll question.
I read everything SalsaRhythms writes, however I clicked on it without knowing who wrote it, from the main page. The promise looked too good.
One thing I know is that when my partner is not overdelivering, I find it hard to overdeliver myself. Sometimes I find myself having a dance with a woman(and I am sure men do this as well, I have been guilty) that seems as if she would rather be dancing with someone else right from the start. At this point I find it hard to get motivated to give her the great dance that we all should get.
What do you normally do in this situation?

Brujo good point.

But the way I see it is as follows:

If everyone were to take on that attitude, I think
that things would just get worse.

Sure, you'll have people with their attitudes and
whatever, but by simply not dancing with them
the next time is enough.

I mean, when you really think about it, you're doing
it for yourself as well...why would you want to dance
if you're not going to give it your all anyway?

The way I look at it is that by over-delivering everytime
not only are you making it better for your partner, but
you're also doing it for yourself.

Now Vin...

That's the perfect example.

I mean if you're guilty of dancing and not being able to,
or even wanting to, give it your all then you are part of
the problem too.

When that's the case, just don't dance...I mean you're not
going to enjoy it, and neither will your partner.

I mean sure, if everyone were to take on this attitude it
would make it better for everyone, but for now, let's just
work on one person...yourself.

The reason why I say that you should always give it your all
is because of the negative effect you just mentioned it
has on you...

Now, if you're in that situation already there's only one of
two things you can do...

Bite the bullet and keep dancing. Take it for what it is and
just keep dancing...

or

Somehow, someway, gracefully ease out of the dance...this one's
tough, but it can be done, especially if it's apparent that your
dance partner is not in the mood to dance at that time...

What I would do is ease to the edge of the dance floor, and at the
end of a turn pattern, pause, give a very short bow to her and
excuse yourself while you lead her off of the dance floor...

Again, this is really for when you know that you and your partner
are just not enjoying yourself...but like I said, you can always
continue dancing...

Hmm. I've been thinking about how to respond to this for a few days now. So here's what I think. I CAN overdeliver every time. Not in terms of my dancing, necessarily, because sometimes things click and sometimes they don't, for me. But I can overdeliver in terms of my attitude, my willingness to work/dance WITH my partner, my desire to give the other person a fun experience.

Don't get me wrong here. I just can't think of a better analogy. But it's like sex. Sometimes things work out fabulously, sometimes they don't. But what makes the experience work, is that everybody approaches things with the other person's enjoyment in mind. Same thing with dancing. Maybe I can't execute those multiple spins perfectly, or follow every lead seamlessly. But I can approach every single dance with my partner's pleasure at the top of my priority list. Make sense?

pygmalion said:

Hmm. I've been thinking about how to respond to this for a few days now. So here's what I think. I CAN overdeliver every time. Not in terms of my dancing, necessarily, because sometimes things click and sometimes they don't, for me. But I can overdeliver in terms of my attitude, my willingness to work/dance WITH my partner, my desire to give the other person a fun experience.

Click to expand...

Well put, Jenn. This is how I take 'over-delivering'.

No pressure, no egos involved. Just me doing my best with the leads that I have during that song.

The sex analogy is spot on, I've used it in an earlier thread too. We tend to click better with certain people, it's only natural :wink:

Vin said:

One thing I know is that when my partner is not overdelivering, I find it hard to overdeliver myself. Sometimes I find myself having a dance with a woman(and I am sure men do this as well, I have been guilty) that seems as if she would rather be dancing with someone else right from the start. At this point I find it hard to get motivated to give her the great dance that we all should get.
What do you normally do in this situation?

Click to expand...

If I notice that something is up I open my mouth and ask. I've escorted someone who said that they weren't having fun with me off the dancefloor. I don't mind doing that!!

However, if my partner does not clearly indicate - verbally - that she wants out I know that one dance is only a few minutes. I still give it all I've got. It's just like life. If we left everytime something we wanted was not going according to plan we would be really sad people and the world be an even worse place. However, if we stick to it and work it we get something from the experience, and we have made a difference.

When I come to dance I have come with my contract, which is as Pygmalion said:

I CAN overdeliver every time. Not in terms of my dancing, necessarily, because sometimes things click and sometimes they don't, for me. But I can overdeliver in terms of my attitude, my willingness to work/dance WITH my partner, my desire to give the other person a fun experience.

Click to expand...

I intend to fulfil my contract, even if other people don't fulfill theirs!!

I have been reading this thread again.

I can see there’s a little cultural difference in what we understand by the word over-deliver. :?

What you describe here, I would call normal delivery, with the “of good quality” as taken for granted. Just to stay in the delivery terms.

All I'm saying is give it your all.

Click to expand...

I can truly support the “Give it everything you got” attitude. I don’t show up just to pass the time, and I leave, if I feel burned out.

The “I over-deliver every time” and “The time of your life” is a little to high on ego or American attitude for me to swallow. :roll:
If this is a general attitude, how will we ever get the new dancers started? When will they be able to overdeliver in the clubs? Should they just stay away?

Of course not, and if they translate over-deliver as “Give it everything you got” then there’s no problem. This translation IS how I read all your posts. I just don’t think it’s a good word. It can’t stand alone, without the rest of the article.