Learning Social Dancing Online
Question by user baconplease89
Hey all, any good websites to help a beginner learn salsa for the first time? Obviously with COVID keeping my expectations low, but would love to learn. Thanks ahead of time!
Answers
User ewdontdothat
YouTube has a ton of stuff for beginners that a simple search brings up. I would start there.
If you need motivation of a scheduled class to get you going, you should find dance schools in your area that offer lessons in the style you like. Most of them offer online or outdoor classes now, so for a reasonable fee you get to participate in a live class. The reason i suggest you go with a local school is that you could then transition to in-person classes when the pandemic is over.
Enjoy!
User RProgrammerMan
Where I live there are in person classes to be found, so I would still try looking around if you haven’t. A channel I like is called salsaventura, I think it’s great for beginners. The videos follow a structure starting with basics to more advanced moves so it’s probably a better place to start than watching random videos.
User movementengineer
It’s definitely a bit intimidating and overwhelming to know where to start with dance as a beginner — especially in 2020!
The first thing to keep in mind is that to progress fast in dance, you’ll want to regularly dance socially when things are a little more normal, and also take regular classes.
This means you’ll want to understand what style of salsa is taught and danced in your area. You can look up information on your local dance schools, get in contact with them or a local teacher, and even look around for local Facebook groups you could join.
Doing this you might find some specific recommendations for particular online courses that could be a temporary substitute until things get back to normal.
Remember teachers have their own teachers and influences, so if you make an effort to learn from content that aligns with what they’ll end up teaching you, it’ll be a much easier transition for everyone.
Without any frame of reference I’d avoid learning from random videos on YouTube. You don’t know what you don’t know, so until you have deeper knowledge of your dance you won’t be able to evaluate whether you’re just going to waste time learning something a teacher will have to help you ‘unlearn’, which can be really hard.
