"Anyone wanna practice?"
Dear Nadine,
This is something I am having trouble with right now. I need to find practice partners. I noticed that Salsa Crazy has a clearing house for people looking for dance partners in San Francisco. Is there something like that in Seattle? Do you have any pointers for people looking for partners who are also interested in learning how to dance better.
Thanks for your ideas,
JB
Great question. A few people are lucky enough to catch the eye of some wonderful dancer who volunteers to work with them to help improve his/her dancing. (High likelihood that ulterior motives are in the air, though.) For the other 98% of average dancers, we have to put ourselves out there and find a way to practice. Aside from actually GOING to the clubs and socials and asking people to dance, here are a few other suggestions I have:
1. Attending classes regularly offers several advantages. One is recognition. Two, you can arrive early and warm up (i.e. practice) with a fellow classmate. Three, after class is over, ask a fellow classmate to practice with until either of you are ready to leave. The classroom environment is perfect to establish rapport with your classmates, with whom you can later ask to practice with outside of the classroom setting or even in the club setting.
2. Host a salsa practice night with the people you've met in class or on the dance floor in your living room/dining room/garage/your-best-friends'- new-house-with-hardwood-floors-that-you-helped-install. I've seen this succeed in a couple different places. It's casual, friendly, and there's guaranteed to be an endless supply of tap water. It doesn't hurt to have freshly baked cookies and pasta for your guests as my friend Caroline wonderfully provides in her home.
3. Take the lead on setting up a clearing house for others looking for dance partners in Seattle. Send an email to the seasalsa@u.washington.edu list announcing your new service. Email the local salsa site's webmaster (webmaster@seattlesalsa.com) to ask if (s)he'd be willing to head up this service. Alternatively, if you'd like, you can ask the instructor if you can make an announcement at the end of the salsa classes to see if there are others who want to get together to practice and start a sign up sheet.
-Nadine