Build Your Confidence Dancing Salsa
I want to ask you a serious question.
What do you feel when you are dancing… to music, with a partner?
Are you feeling happy? Inhibited? Ridiculous? Sexy? Confident? Tense?
Personally, I have felt all of the above at one time or another.
That’s ok. It’s part of the learning and growing process. However, I think you’ll agree with me when I say that it feels SO MUCH better to have confidence and feel great dancing than it does to feel closed off and insecure.
That’s why I am about to share two things that has helped me build my confidence in the past, and still to this day, in building my confidence while I dance Salsa.
The first, and most obvious, is PRACTICE!
I am not talking about just showing up at the dance studio to take a class. I am talking about focused, ultra-conscious, intentional and goal-driven practice. The kind of practice where you don’t leave the mirror until your hips are swaying right. The kind of practice where you don’t notice when someone walks into the room because you’re so focused on what you are doing. Unfortunately, we cannot hire someone to put in the time for us. We have to do the work.
The second thing that has boosted my confidence is being able to FEEL the music.
Sometimes even great technical dancers lack musicality and poorly interpret the music. There is nothing more satisfying than being completely in the moment while dancing and hitting a break in the music, with a move from out of nowhere that felt so right. It’s better than any drug you could ever take (not that I would know). FEELING the music means you are dancing to the rhythms and melodies of the instruments instead of counting the numbers.
Numbers are important when starting out, but if you never move past that stage you won’t ever get to experience the true joy of dancing.
What an amazing feeling it is to instinctively KNOW when the music is going to change
and being ready to react to it with your body. Aaaahhhhhhh…
And yes, YOU have that ability. You just need to understand and tune into it. It will take time, effort and potentially a penny or two to gain the right knowledge and education. Once you have found an instructor or dance school that fits you, then it is up to you to practice what you learn and put it to use (in other words, get out and use those moves at the Salsa club).
