Style classes are an increasingly central component in the dancers’ journey. Style intrigues, fascinates, seduces. Once rooted in culture and symbolism, Style has changed significantly with the mass popularization of dance, often creating misunderstandings between seasoned dancers and newcomers in the community.
Style as personal expression
When we talk about Style in dance, we refer to a whole series of technical and interpretive elements that distinguish a genre of dance and the way that dancers interpret that dance.
Until a few years ago, before social dancing became a mass phenomenon, Style represented body language shaped by centuries of history and deeply rooted in the identity of peoples. Global massification has significantly altered this cultural expression, turning it into a kind of “consumer product” and tying it to the aesthetics and spectacularity of movements.
Back then, emphasis in body gestures was deeply connected to empoional expression rather than spectacularity of movements.
In this article I explore this transformation by trying to highlight the opportunities and shortcomings of the current way of doing Style.
The social roots of Style
In its origins, when Salsa existed within the borders of Cuba, it was basically a mix of many Cuban dances that appeared throughout Cuban’s history and folklore. In the Baile de Casino – this is the name used in Cuba to refer to the dance we know as Cuban Salsa – gestures were and still are inherited from these dances.
The symbolism of gestures in folklore recalls social meanings to be sought in the narrative of slavery, religious syncretism and popular customs and traditions, expressed primarily in the way of making music. For this reason, dance – the Style in its essence – is symbiotically linked to rhythm; the study and deepening of rhythm and body gestures have always gone hand in hand, supporting each other mutually.
Cuban folkloric dance academies are still structured to teach along a chronological path from the Spanish and African origins of the dances that appeared in Cuba up to today’s Casino. This approach highlights the role and significance of body gestures, and this knowledge is crucial to fully understand the Cuban Style as a whole, as historical contextualization affects it systemically.
Dance as mass phenomenon
When dance and music came out of Cuba, the great Cuban Masters transmitted their folklore as they themselves studied it and identified with it. As is reasonable, however, peoples far from Cuba cannot identify themselves with a past that does not belong to them1.
The Cuban model is indeed very rigid by today’s standards. I have said it before: most people are attracted to dancing for leisure and socializing. Understandably, they have no interest in explore things which do not yield tangible results in a short time.
This is especially true for Style. In the past it was conveyed as technical-expressive knowledge, with the aim of training the artistic component, while now it looks more like a product to be sold that changes every year to adapt to market demands.
The Style that is in vogue is made up of decorative movements whose only purpose is to maximizing the aesthetics appeal and showmanship of the dance: it works if it is “beautiful to look at.”
Style without flavor
Now, I don’t think there is anything wrong with learning certain movements just because they’re enjoyable, without having to engage to a long learning process. After all, it is important to experience social dancing playfully and even lightly.
However, we have reached a point where Style is often diminished and trivialized, reduced to just a few simple movements. I have seen Stile classes composed of mini-choreographies to be mimicked with one’s brain off: touching your hair, caressing your hips, lifting your arms, doing a little hop…
Rejecting the current trend is anachronistic, but in my opinion a mistaken idea of Style has been created and spreads in this way, pushing me to criticize this teaching model.
Choreographies are not in themselves useless or harmful, and indeed there are valid points in favor of this approach. However, they are effective as long as they are a form of exercise aimed at solidifying the technique learned in class.
Simplifying is totally fine, but being very careful to get the correct ideas across
It surprises me how many dance schools – including many led by highly skilled dancers – don’t understand this basic pedagogical aspect, thus compromising their teaching methodology by offering classes that consists only of choreographies for its own sake.
Beginners and those with only a few years of dancing experience are particularly vulnerable to this, since by virtue of their inexperience they are unable to weigh the various factors correctly. Often, attracted by the allure of the new, beginners tend to mythologize the movements they are learning. This happens in Salsa but especially in Sensual Bachata, in which dancers attribute legendary qualities to the dance, confusing emotional involvement and stagecraft with interpretive depth.
What is going wrong?
In my opinion, it is very positive that dance classes enable students to start dancing after just a few lessons, thereby promoting fun and social interactions.
The emphasis on the social and playful aspect of dance has certainly broadened participation and made dance more accessible to a wider audience, enriching so the scenario. However, the commercialization of dance has led to a reduction in the time and attention devoted to technical training and rhythmic understanding, macroscopically lowering the entry threshold.
The idea of being able to learn with little effort what others in the past have built up over years of dedication is one that I tend to reject because I find it illusory.
Schools that see Style classes solely as a product to sell do not create an artistic path but aim for what commercially works, unbalancing exaggeratedly on the aesthetic component, and ultimately creating dancers who move in caricatured ways.
Several instructors emphasize the importance of learning the fundamentals first and only then adding decorative styling, since if the fundamentals are not clean, “creative styling” does not improve nor enhance the dance, it actually makes it significantly worse.
In fact, one can clearly see the difference between those who learn by imitating their instructors, becoming a poor copy of them, and those who instead understand the meaning of what they do, experiment, contextualize and express themselves “in their own words” using their own body language.
The problem with overstyling
This way of marketing Style also creates a number of significant issues in the context of social dancing.
The one I consider most relevant is overstyling: the constant, exhausting execution of style elements, musically disconnected, which repeatedly breaks the flow and suffocates connection. The overuse and excess of stylistic movements performed over and over again makes the dancing experience decidedly frustrating for the other person who tries in vain for any form of connection.
In my experience, among those who attend Style classes, it happens very frequently in Salsa and is an endemic phenomenon in Sensual Bachata.
Embracing differences and opening dialogue
I think it is very important for social dancing to be experienced with freedom, without pressure or judgment weighing down the community. That is why I believe there’s nothing wrong with performing Style movements simply because they are liked or enjoyed.
In the past so many have made the mistake of belittling other forms of Style as less authentic, and that is wrong. I think it is important to experience dance free from any form of prejudice.
The consumerist model has considerably changed the rules of the game, thus triggering reactions of reactance, which is a form of “rebellion” against change which are activated when one feels deprived in the freedom of action and that consists in rejecting the current model, perceived as illegitimate, refusing its cultural validity. It is crucial not to fall into this trap of “purism” and learn to shed this armor that keeps stuck in a conservative mindset.
A bit of healthy pragmatism
My opinion is that in social dancing it is essential that the experience of the participants is rewarding. Since we all share the same dance floor, it is imperative that there is always mutual respect and a genuine willingness to accept other perspectives.
The key is to seek a shared way forward that makes the dance enjoyable and social events fulfilling for all; that turns differences into points of mutual strength and growth, and eliminates the rift between differing but not conflicting positions.
After all, that’s the way the world goes; the dance changes and we adapt. Taking care, however, not to stifle debate and connection in the name of pragmatism. I therefore invite you to think critically about your choices to take “style” classes based on choreography, whether simple or complex.
A bit of healthy realism
Style is the result of a long journey and is built initially without striking results. It must be accepted that technical, interpretive and expressive skills cannot simply be “transplanted” by imitating instructors nor can they be absorbed by osmosis by copying (“taking inspiration”) from online reels.
Successful schools have long abandoned this mindset, educating students in dance and patience. These schools meet dancers’ need through a healthy and constructive approach. They bring attention to authentic, genuine partners’ connection and the importance of mastering the fundamentals, thus shifting the heart of the experience from appearance to substance.
By limiting the use of figures and choreography, these schools prioritize ample practice time, ensuring that students gain a solid assimilation of movements. The investment in repeating essential exercises reinforces and solidifies their foundations, thus adhering to the social meaning of dance as a collective space and at the same time building adequate foundations to tackle Style classes with meaningful content.
Finally, these schools transmit Style through the body mechanics that generate movement, so that each students develops on themselves those interpretive skills, wearing their own dress and not their instructor’s.
Paraphrasing Giancarlo Cerveri in his book Non ti fissare (Don’t Get Hung Up”), “it is difficult to ascertain in advance whether a path will lead far or serve no purpose. Instead, it is useful to determine what processes lead us to structure” – the continuation from here on is mine – our movement and use it as a tool that transforms dance into something that authentically expresses our personality and talent.
Because it is fine to be pragmatic, as long as this is not a childish way to mask a lack of stimulating and educational reflection.
Happy Styling to all!
In depth node on cuban movement
To give an example of the complexity of the folkloric Cuban Style let us start with posture. Afro-Cuban posture consists of a very relaxed stance, with bent knees and torso tilted, slightly leaning forward.
The goal of the posture – which then tells us whether the technique is correct – is to unload the entire body weight in the lower part of the body itself, i.e. on the legs, thus relieving the back from any load.
The back, freed from any strain, can move in isolation from the rest of the body and so also able to undulate, just as provided in Afro-Cuban dances. Salsa maintains the posture, but the movement of the body is not undulatory it rather starts from the rib cage and consists of a lateral translation of the rib cage itself. It’s important to note that the movement involves only the upper part of the rib cage – a key difference with, for example, Sensual Bachata, in which many movements start from the navel area requiring the partner’s support to counterbalance properly and maintain couple stability.
Lateral displacement of the rib cage has three consequences.
The first is that the trunk, as a result of shift, rotates the shoulder slightly, pulling it off the body axis. This characteristic is the basis of the “8” torso movement in which the shoulders, always relaxed, later intervene to accentuate the movement through the scapula “recall”!
The second consequence is to laterally unbalance the center of gravity. The dancer maintains balance by realigning the chest with the execution of the step, ensuring the weight fall correctly on the “front” leg.
Finally, since the movement reaches the legs only afterward, the torso rotation allows the knees to be realigned so that they are always parallel in whatever direction one moves: a technique that gives elegance and composure to the dancer in every motion. Salsa inherits this technique of parallel knees from its African root and is one reason why – for those who intend to dance Salsa as Cuba dances it – the study of Afro-Cuban dances is necessary and cannot be replicated by any choreography!
As a sole note of curiosity, anatomically speaking, the muscle from which the entire movement starts and is coordinated is the scapular muscle. Conceptually, however, it is preferred to say that the movement starts from the solar plexus since the latter invokes the center of the body.
1. This does not mean that Cuban folklore is outdated nor that it is less valuable than in the past. Instead, it means that the process of defining the Style is broadening and that European dance schools and dancers have taken a proactive role, functional to local customs and traditions.
In fact, there are many enthusiasts out there who take paths to deepen their understanding of Cuban folklore. It happens to those who, like me, see meaning in dance beyond mere entertainment.
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