Can you dance rock and roll and/or salsa?

Post Reply New Topic

If yes, how did you learn?

I know how to salsa along with doing various other latin based dances.

When I was 3 or 4, my parents lived temporarily in Heredia, Costa Rica. I learned how to speak fluently along with some of the dances since I was really into dancing as a youngster.

Did you learn from watching? I ask because I have NLD, so I can't learn from watching. I need to receive theoretical explanations and very slow, repetitive demonstration.

this would also be a good place to suggest dances that are good to learn.

I can't dance to save my life but I really want to learn! I can do the 2 step but that's about it.

Someone might mistake me for Godzilla wrecking Tokyo.

Kinda rusty now, but used to be into handjive/swing/jitterbug type dancing, and could do some salsa, and merengue.

All from workshops, and informal lessons.

Not that I ever was good I did some dancing to rock and pogoing and other spastic new wave stuff back in the day. Now it's more like bobbing. But I still love Rock and Roll.

And how did you learn the footwork, and to combine it with the turns and armwork?

Why would I dance?

It exemplifies everything I hate about humanity.

I am still learning how to walk normal lol.
It would be cool to dance, but right now I just fall down if i try.

I've done some swing dancing and a tiny bit of salsa dancing. I've only ever danced as a follow, and in my experience it's easier to dance with a lead who knows what they're doing and is decisive in their movements. I've always thought that learning to follow is a lot easier than leading, but I've met people who've said the opposite, so I guess that's just a matter of preference. (Traditionally leads are male, but I've also known girls who lead, and all of the dance instructors I've met are open to teaching people to dance in either position.)

As for how I learned....well, it's been a long time, so I don't really remember details, but I think what we did in most of my classes was just watch the instructor and try to mimic their movements while you're watching. You generally start by learning simple steps, and you don't really do anything with your arms until you have the steps down. I always thought that learning what to do with your arms was the hardest part, though; I could never manage to do different things with my arms and legs at the same time. That's not as much of a problem with partnered dancing, though, since all you need to do with your arms is hold on to the other person, and pretty much anything else is done with your feet.

I just don't understand how so many people are able to learn just by watching others on the dance floor. Turns out the footwork for rock and roll, for example, has 2 very precise steps you have to make, it's not just walking back and forth to the rythm of the music as I was led to believe back when I tried in my teenage years.