*Or so I've heard about certain scenes and salsa congresses.
Again no.
festivals and salsa scene you refer to is very small part of salsa dancing universe. There is 5x to 10x bigger salsa outside the world of salsa festivals and local scenes.
Talking about the festivals and regular socials of studio trained social dancers:
If you can dance well, people will dance with you. The pyt effect exists but isn’t that bad. At festivals and socials you are referring to, women will ask more relative to tango. Europe id mostly follower heavy and center of festivals. In USA the s have different vibe, greater percentage of beginners, more performances by average or beginners that you have to suffer through if you chose to watch, and best dancers are found at socials.
It is very typical of salsa promotions to portray it as this sexy dance with scantily dressed women. Most of the performances at the festivals without fail have women wearing very revealing clothes or almost none.
Size of person doesn’t mean they don’t get asked to dance. It is mostly open hold dance and size doesn’t matter.
Like tango, a lot of long time salsa dancers are not all that good dancers. There are many who survive local scenes but when they go to the festivals they might find average level of dancing a lot higher than the local scene.
Salsa is also more athletic. The music is twice as fast as tango. You have to be your feet. Salsa dancers, the trained ones, are very particular about being on time. If you are not quick on your feet, you can get off time quickly. These elements do work against followers who are older. Not if they were already dancing salsa. I seen leaders who take up salsa in their 40s and 50s struggle too. Again similar to tango.
Then there are latin@s dancers who grew up dancing at family backyard parties, family gatherings, weddings, etc. if not dancing they are very familiar with the music. These dancers keep their steps extremely simple. Almost like rocking side to side the whole song. Unlike tango, almost every latin@ has heard salsa music growing up. Whether they like it or not. There is a greater cultural affinity to salsa music for an average latin@ than the same can be said of average Argentine for tango music. I know a number of Argentinians for whom tango is something they know is identified with Argentina, but far off in their lives. Almost like yoga and Indians.
in this case fault was all her. She has no fundamentals in dancing. Neither in tango nor other social dances. She tries to wing it. No spatial awareness either. And no willingness to take classes and learn proper way to dance.
