How to Apply Choreography in a Social Context

The benefits of choreography

Many people say that Salsa is a social dance and that the most beautiful aspect of Salsa can be seen on the social floor where the dancers play and dance their moves to the music, all in an impromptu fashion. I agree with that and I have seen some amazing dancing on the social floor. However, I feel that there are certain benefits to choreographing a dance that some people tend to overlook. In my opinion, choreography is important for beginners who are not seasoned dancers as it provides them with a good starting ground in their social dancing for the following reasons:

1) Easy to remember/recall steps while dancing
Many newbies to Salsa have very few moves to execute while dancing because their knowledge in dance is limited. Their variations are often interspersed with a lot of basic steps because they are thinking of the next move to execute. A simple choreography that is taught to them will allow them to constantly practice one variation after another, so that they can train their muscle memory to execute simple steps one after another on the dance floor without worrying about what the next step is.

Some people may think that this will make their dancing boring and repetitive as they constantly repeat the same things. However, I stress that this is for beginners and that doing repetitive steps again and again is better than doing many basic steps while worrying and ransacking your brain over what steps to execute next on the dance floor. Furthermore, the dancers can rearrange the sequence of steps after they are more familiar with the steps.

So beginners out there, put what you learn into a series or combo that you can easily remember. Don’t make it too long as that will be hard to remember. I suggest that you choreograph Combo 1 which comprises of variations A, B, C and D, Combo 2 which comprises of variations E, F, G and H, etc. That way, you also practice how to transit from one move to another!

2) Posture and other tiny details corrected – confidence in the steps obtained
A choreographed routine will ensure that you have executed the moves many times in that sequence. This will make sure that you familiarize yourself with the steps quickly as you repeat them many times. In addition, you will gain confidence in your dancing as you become more secure in your leading and following of the variations. If you have a teacher correcting you in your choreography, this is a plus point as a good teacher will not only correct your lead but also your posture, hands, expression and other tiny details to make you look good on the dance floor. It is easy for the teacher to correct you in such a scenario as you repeat the steps and he/she can check if you slouch in a particular step or if your hands are placed wrongly in a particular step. Once you are sure that you look good, you will get the confidence to dance and enjoy yourself.

3) Students who are less talented can learn about timing and rhythm and how to pose to a particular music through the choreography
A choreography to a particular music also helps students with problems in keeping the timing right while dancing as the fixed music will help them to familiarize themselves with at least one song. Once they learn to keep the count in the song, they can gradually learn to keep the count in other songs. The first song allows them to start ‘somewhere’ in learning about the Salsa beat.

A choreographed routine may also have pauses and different rhythms where the students are taught to pose or dance in response to the music. This teaches students how to play with the different musical styles of Salsa.

4) Finally you can piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle to mix and match moves
After learning the choreography, students who have become more comfortable with their routine can then choose to mix and match the variations or shines to vary their repertoire as they dance.