How often do mistakes happen on your night out?

Hey everyone,

I'm new here (as you can tell by my number of posts), but I've been reading posts from this forum for quite a while.

My question is, on a regular night out dancing, how many 'odd situations' or 'mistakes' do you or the person dancing with you make each dance (on average, so if its once every 3 dances..u can use fractions ie. 1/3..too much math?? sorry )?

What Id classify as mistakes are things like, when he leads you to a certain move you do something completely different..sort of like anticipating the moves..or going offbeat.

I cant help but sometimes anticipate a move....it can be real hard for me to relax at times even after trying so hard ...I try to enjoy the music but the leaders always opt for 'impressing their surroundings' by doing all their fancy combos :cry: ...

SO I just want to see how often every one else does it.. AND can you state how long you've been dancing for too?? I've been dancing salsa for 7 months now..always trying to find ways to improve!

i've been taking salsa lessons "seriously" for about a year, "nonseriously" for another year, and dancing in clubs for about a year. i take 1 or 2 salsa classes a week and go social dancing another 1-2 times (wish it were more!)

i really never have a dance that doesn't have some sort of "mistake" in it. it's very rare.

unless i'm doing a routine there's ususally some kind of mistake on every dance, each song.

if there aren't any mistakes then you're not pushing your envelope and not dancing to the limit of your combined abilities.

what's the fun in that? you've gotta push it to see what you're capable of and if it works then you feel great! you've been challenged and you passed. the occasional "perfect dance" is just that... its rare and you love it and you're always striving for it but if you have it more than not then you won't appreciate it.

Mistakes are part of the dance, we all make them. Especially in social dancing. Mistake here, mistake there, makes for a great dance. What I find the wildest is the number of mistakes I make with those dancers whom I dance the most.

We know each other so well that we screw up all the time. ...when the guess game goes wrong.

completely agree. if nothing "mistake-esque" happens, i'm probably dancing the same five moves with a leader leading them in the exact same way every time. fortunately, this infrequently happens!

..

you know..I watch other people dance and it always seems like their dance is utterly flawless, well at least in my eyes they do, and whenever I make mistakes, or mistakes happen in a dance, I become so discouraged and cant help but feel that the person I'm dancing with will probably not want to dance with me again.

I have this sense of insecurity..and its funny because when I had just started dancing, I never felt that way, and dancing was easier and fun,... I feel like the more I learn the worse I dance.. I hope this feeling goes away soon..

It is how well mistakes are covered that makes them look as if planned. likely what you see as flawless, to those dancers, is the art of "cover-up"

cutie i totally know what you're saying!

it gets better, though. after a while you realize even the superduper people are often silently damning themselves for this or that "mistake" or "missed" opportunity... and there you are thinking they are royalty and can do no wrong. it's all about perspective, you know?

if you keep practicing, the day will come soon enough when you realize someone is watching *you* thinking: "wow, she is so good. i wish i could dance like her." that moment is priceless.

cutie_pie81 said:

My question is, on a regular night out dancing, how many 'odd situations' or 'mistakes' do you or the person dancing with you make each dance (on average, so if its once every 3 dances..u can use fractions ie. 1/3..too much math?? sorry )?

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Welcome cutie pie.

You want a raw number in how many times my follower do something different then I thought I was leading?

Calculating :shock: :? :lol:

5 to 20 times during a single song. I will push the limit. And if I’m good enough she won’t know. It’s all about covering up, 911 moves and improvising to what you get. Let the lady look good, and both having fun. Sometimes mistakes and cover ups lead to me thinking, wow! What happened here, was that possible? Then I try if I can lead it again, and lead it with other followers. Other times I have to work on getting the lead clear.

If something goes wrong, try to keep the beat, and step with the right foot to the right beat, then it’s easy to “cover up”.

for me?? don't really have a #, but i'm pretty sure i make mistakes on every single dance doesn't matter who i dance with....

cutie, what we're all saying here is accicents happen all the time. don't be so hard on yourself. stop being a perfectionist. relax and enjoy!

I never make any mistakes. 8)














:uplaugh: BWAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHA

Seriously? Saturday night I was watching dancers like James Cobo with his team, guys and girls from Salsa y Control, dancers from Art in Motion, all dancing with each other - I noticed quite a few times how something didn't work out. They just laughed and kept going. That's the beauty of social dancing, it's all for fun. If you're so concentrated on doing everything perfectly, you lose that aspect. If something doesn't work out, pretend it was meant that way, do a couple quick shines, a free spin and get back to it

borikensalsero said:

It is how well mistakes are covered that makes them look as if planned. likely what you see as flawless, to those dancers, is the art of "cover-up"

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I totally agree. Also Cutie (that was not addressed to you Boriken :lol: ), non-dancers and beginners (under a year) only see about 20% of what is really happing between two partners on the dance floor if they're having fun and covering up any mistakes they make and keeping the dance flowing. Just go and talk to a total beginner after they see you dancing with lots of mistakes and probably hear them say how good you were and all that. :lol: :roll: Try it!

The key thing is to get into that free state of mind where you're just following and not worrying. Also stop saying sorry when you make a mistake and just smile instead unless of course you hurt your partner!

in my dictionary "mistake" is just another word for "risk-taking" or "spontaneous" or "creative" 8)