Your Strong and Weak Points?

Ok its confession time!

Salseros and Salseras,

What do you think are your strong and weak points?Why?(be honest :roll: )

Maybe someone could offer some advice on this with all the great dancers here!

I personally think shines are what are holding me back(I don't use them much and when I do them I feel I look too ~hip-hopish~. :cry: Do you guys /gals do shines much?

I think my strong point is I feel I am a pretty good lead because I can adjust to different levels slow or fast depending on whom I am dancing with! 8)

More on Salsa Forums about Dance Strengths and Weaknesses

Hmm...I'll give this a go.

Strong Points - Um, I'm a nice guy? I'm good at avoiding on floor collisions, I've been told that I have good frame and a good lead, which isn't saying much since I only know about 5 moves. I also feel my timing is very good, if I lose the beat I always get right back on it. I'm actually not bad at shines...I just don't quite have the courage to bust them out on the dance floor yet. :shock:

Weak Points - I have many...and that's an understatement. I would say the most is my self confidence while dancing...I get a bit shy at times and and I need to start putting in more floor time and be able to use more techniques so the ladies don't get bored. I still get flustered trying to lead women who try to backlead and have no concept of lead and follow. I've seen great leads take these same ladies and lead them effortlessly...but I usually just pray for the song to end so I can run screaming in the other direction.

SG

scorpionguy said:

Hmm...I'll give this a go.



I still get flustered trying to lead women who try to backlead and have no concept of lead and follow. I've seen great leads take these same ladies and lead them effortlessly...but I usually just pray for the song to end so I can run screaming in the other direction.

SG

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I'ts kinda of like taming a wild horse! :headwall: It's happened to me too, I think you must of pretty good though if they didn't stop dancing with you and walk off the floor. I've seen it happen before even to me but I was always lucky because before I learned to dance salsa, I was already pretty good with merengue, cumbias, and racheras so I was always able to find another partner to dance another type of music.

Weak points: spins & styling. This generally applies to L.A. style (which I suck at ).

This stems from the fact the I am "untrained" with next to no studio time of this style (and very little studio time anyway :roll: ). My progress were made while dancing at the clubs, in many different cities, over the years.

(Sometimes I wonder if all the spin & stylings are neccessary. Many of the dancers out there seem to squeeze way too many moves into a 3 mins song which didn't call for any of these moves..... :? )

I am taking this on as my challenge. I've made myself a promise to become a better follower who can dance (effortlessly...!) with these leads 8) . I am still working on it.......

My shines are ok.......very understated with old-school Colombian influence. But I prefer partner work any day.

My strong points...? Fiece passion for the music....! I am also a fairly versatile follower with strong basics. I grew up with very 'old-school' ideas of salsa & present myself blank (ie. total surrender) to my leads (If the lead isn't deliverd/excuted properly, I would have no idea what is asked of me :? ....... still unsure whether it's a good or bad thing ).

Weak points: Balance. Spins/multiple turns (the balance problem also plays a part here). Shines. I've got a lot to work on and am not getting enough dancing hours.

Strong points: I'm a happy dancer! I never turn down a dance invitation (who needs a rest when music's playing ) and am all smiles when dancing. I hope this means I make the leader happy too even if I'm not (yet) a technically great follower. I can't list technical elements of my dance as strong points yet, but I'm working on it. On good nights I'm okay; on bad nights I suck .

I thought my eye contact and dancefloor passion were also my strong points, but lately I'm getting told that a few of the guys I've danced with seem to think I fancy them. :shock: :shock: :shock: Am I overdoing it? Or am I so attractive guys just let their wishful thinking go wild?? :lol: :lol: :wink:

I think my strong points are my lead and my focus on my dance partner, and my feel for the music.

My biggest weak point would be my technique being quite sloppy at times, although I can dance with proper technique, often I just don't do it; I have been described as being a lazy dancer.

salsachinita said:

(If the lead isn't deliverd/excuted properly, I would have no idea what is asked of me ....... still unsure whether it's a good or bad thing ).

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It's a good thing, as a leader I rather have you just do a basic if you're not sure on what's happening then that you're making up things; that way I know that I have to change my lead for that move.
Oh and ladies, now we're on the subject, every now and then I'll want to do my own thing for the odd few measures, don't worry, stay in your spot and i'll be right back, especially when i'm doing a few spins, don't suddenly take a quick a sprint across the dancefloor.

Oh and ladies, now we're on the subject, every now and then I'll want to do my own thing for the odd few measures, don't worry, stay in your spot and i'll be right back, especially when i'm doing a few spins, don't suddenly take a quick a sprint across the dancefloor.

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LOL! yep i hear ya.. sometimes with me, they just stop and watch :shock: and i go like 'common do your thing, free style a little, shine a few!' but they keep on giving me that lost/confused look on their pretty faces.. :headwall: but so cute :lol:

Sabor said:

Oh and ladies, now we're on the subject, every now and then I'll want to do my own thing for the odd few measures, don't worry, stay in your spot and i'll be right back, especially when i'm doing a few spins, don't suddenly take a quick a sprint across the dancefloor.

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LOL! yep i hear ya.. sometimes with me, they just stop and watch :shock: and i go like 'common do your thing, free style a little, shine a few!' but they keep on giving me that lost/confused look on their pretty faces.. :headwall: but so cute :lol:

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In this case one person is enjoying the shines but the other isn't. I'd personally keep that to a minimum with such a person, perhaps doing a really simple shine or two to see if they want to try and learn it. As a follow does not have as much freedom to decide what to do, so as a leader I do my best to stick to what both the follow and I can do/enjoy...

I should add that another of my weak points is spinning. Due to past and present neck injuries spins are just not the best for me. I can do singles and even some doubles...but I generally avoid doing so. I figure while it is a weakness, I can make it a strength by putting my energy into other things, like a smooth basic.

Whether something is a weak/strong point is very subjective.

I'll list things that I think I need to work on currently:
latin movement
smile (I smile for the first minute of a song and then I don't anymore - because I get tired)
balance - in quickstep, jive, rhumba, salsa, mambo, and cha-cha (mostly on spins)

things that I'm happy with for now (sorta):
following - it is ok. some things could be improved, but for now it is great.
posture and movement in standard (not in latin yet)
frame - it looks good

Strrengths: Diligence. After all these years of lessons and practicing, I'm still trying.
Weaknesses: I don't do well in a nightclub/bar environment. A space that's too crowded, air that's too smokey, a floor that's too hard, and music that's too loud wear me down. Add all that to the constant rejection and having my dancing criticized by people who've never taken a lesson, and sometimes I get a bad attitude and just need to go home.

generally, the better i get, the more weaknesses i discover, yet.. not in the physical sense, but more in terms of knowledge and perception.

Sabor said:

generally, the better i get, the more weaknesses i discover, yet.. not in the physical sense, but more in terms of knowledge and perception.

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Isn't that a fact!!!!

Ahhh, the beauty of a dual question…

Strengths: Play with the music/partner, don’t care for # of patterns or grade of difficulty of moves. What the music yields I try to depict. I get a million and one compliments on how the ladies can watch me move the body all night long. The nicest comment I’ve gotten was from a male dancer who I admire. He said, man every time I see you dance I wonder how in the world do you do that? Ahhhhhh,.. Make love baby!!!!!! To the music that is… So I figured that moving the body has to be one of my strengths.

Weaknesses: The ladies have told me that they get so lost in my eyes that they forget to follow the lead. I have to learn when, and for how long to look into someone’s eyes. I’ve had girls crash into me, then apologize because they were staring into my eyes and forgot the lead. That must mean that my lead should improve!

I dance with very “light feet” and when I try to lead a heavy-footed follower it causes me to go flying in the opposite direction from the lead. I find it amusing and when it happens I do CBL after CBL just to see if the girl can sense how heavy she is dancing, not to mention I love the feeling of “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.

The slower the music gets the softer my lead becomes. When dancing with someone I frequently dance with I will assume they know what I want from half a lead and neglect to properly lead them. Causing the lady give me an “oops” look when in fact it has been my fault hat I didn’t properly guide her.

The technical stuff all needs to improve… spins/beat/patterns/shines/everything!!!

In all, I too agree that the more we know they more we know we have to improve.

Strong points--Flexibility and I ooze confidence (even if I don't know what I'm doing. ).

Weak points--Getting the ballet and jazz out of my Latin Dance steps and I'm definitely weak on technique as I just started. It will take some practice.

Strengths: Rhythm and Shines. Shines came really easy to me probably because I'm more used to dancing alone. Also, that's when my alter ego, Alice, comes out. She likes to flirt. :lol:

Weaknesses: All the technical stuff. Still working on the lead/follow stuff of course. And posture, uggh is the worse.