Does Corky Ballas have good salsa technique?

Corky Ballas is a god in the ballroom world. I'm trying to find authoritative information on how to dance the salsa basic with perfect technique. This video makes salsa look weird though. Maybe I'm just not used to it? Does anyone see a problem with using American Rhythm Mambo technique for salsa technique?

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=196332&fr=

anyone else think he looks off time? Maybe I'm not counting right but it looks like he starts the step on2 but doesn't land until 2.5...:???:


edit: Nevermind...when I view the video his mouth is not in synch with his words, so I think the audio is out of synch.

nycsalsero said:

Corky Ballas is a god in the ballroom world. I'm trying to find authoritative information on how to dance the salsa basic with perfect technique. This video makes salsa look weird though. Maybe I'm just not used to it? Does anyone see a problem with using American Rhythm Mambo technique for salsa technique?

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=196332&fr=

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If I had ever danced salsa like that in the latin clubs I visited over the yrs-- they would have laughed me off the floor Nik knows what I mean .

This is the perfect e.g,. of what salsa is not . No Alma y corazon y para sabor .

nycsalsero said:

Corky Ballas is a god in the ballroom world. I'm trying to find authoritative information on how to dance the salsa basic with perfect technique. This video makes salsa look weird though. Maybe I'm just not used to it? Does anyone see a problem with using American Rhythm Mambo technique for salsa technique?

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=196332&fr=

Click to expand...

this video's hilarious. . look at the pauses he does whilst doing the basic

This is Mambo, not salsa. Also, this video is at least 15 years old, so it has a different look than the salsa folks have today. However, dancing like Corky would be a high goal to achieve in ANY technique.

saludas said:

This is Mambo, not salsa. Also, this video is at least 15 years old, so it has a different look than the salsa folks have today. However, dancing like Corky would be a high goal to achieve in ANY technique.

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Thats the whole point !! -- I dont want my salsa to look like my Intern. Latin--- My Intern. Rumba ,does not look like my Bolero .

His ability is not in question -- its all about style .

And by the way, pretty much all the B / Room afficianados , look and dance salsa similarly ( have been around many of them socially )-- its not wrong-- just different .

Also remember-- he -- like many others -- are products of the Amer. chain schools system , where Mambo rules .

This is what is meant by "ballroom mambo"... if you have lots of time and enthusiam, learn it, then let it go. Expect raised eyebrows in a salsa club while you are working on this though

Yeah, I personally wouldn't want to dance like that.

So let me pose this question: is it a good or bad thing that collectively, there's a peer pressure thing about how we all think salsa should be danced?

There is no such thing as a perfect basic in a social dance. Not to say there aren't better and worse versions.

If you're looking for a model of someone who has the intellectual and physical ability+training found in the ballroom world, has very good teaching ability, and retains a foot in the social world, I would refer you locally (NYC area) to Jose Decamps. Cheaper and more available, Edgar Osorio.

This is ballroom mambo. Salsa and ballroom don't mix.

saludas said:

Also, this video is at least 15 years old, so it has a different look than the salsa folks have today.

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Sorry saludas, but that clip with Kristina is clearly from within the past year or so at most.

As a general reply to the OP:

(1) I don't think there is such a thing as "a" perfect technique for salsa.

(2) I think that while some of the mechanics from ballroom motion might be "translatable," these are not what are being discussed/explained in this clip (aside, perhaps, from the stillness of the open & closed frame/handhold)

(3) Ballroom mambo, as practiced today, is designed to for presentation and to be "readable" from great distance -- this is relatively antithetical to social salsa dancing where the key element is the experience of your partner. As such most of what is popularly recognized as good salsa
(by salser@s that is) has a smoothness to it that is different from the clear punctuation of ballroom mambo.

Sagitta said:

This is ballroom mambo. Salsa and ballroom don't mix.

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I think this overstates the case Sagitta. They are certainly far from the same thing. That said, they share a common historical heritage and elements of each can be applicable across genre. The problem (at least as I see it) is when the differences are not recognized and hence adjusted to.

SDsalsaguy said:

I think this overstates the case Sagitta. They are certainly far from the same thing. That said, they share a common historical heritage and elements of each can be applicable across genre. The problem (at least as I see it) is when the differences are not recognized and hence adjusted to.

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I agree with SDsalsaguy. I've said it before and I'll say it again: nightclub Salsa dancers (and especially performers/competitors) are adopting more ballroom styling than most people like to admit.

I'm like a few others who wouldn't try to emulate Corky Ballas, but I can respect what he does in the context of what he's trying to do (if that makes sense). Ballroom style is different from New York style -- and both of those styles are different from Cuban style or LA style. Nevertheless, they're all just different styles of the same basic dance.

tj said:

So let me pose this question: is it a good or bad thing that collectively, there's a peer pressure thing about how we all think salsa should be danced?

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It's bad when the peer pressure is trying to get everybody to dance On2....

Just kidding (sort of ). Seriously, though, I think peer pressure is good when it encourages people to be more compatible dance partners at a minimal level, but I think peer pressure is bad when it discourages the less popular styles in a community from even getting a foothold. In the latter case, it can become a situation of only one available dance style in a community -- rather than one "preferred" dance style with multiple options available on a person-by-person or club-by-club basis.

There was a thread about the "Homogenization of salsa" ... personally, I think it's bad. I don't want perfect technique, I want connection, flavor, and to be surprised and delighted. If everyone does X styling with Y repertoire to Z music, then it's time for me to take up Krumping or something. (you would know how funny that was if you could see me)

SDsalsaguy said:

Sorry saludas, but that clip with Kristina is clearly from within the past year or so at most.

A

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Wow, yes of course you're right.