Shines (and Sabor)

Sabor means 'flavour'.
Why learn shines?

There are many good salsa songs that have sections which are simply not suitable for turn patterns. There will typically be parts where you "have to" do Afro Rhumba moves, or shines.

If course, u can still ignore it and do turn patterns, but it just doesn't feel right musically.

This is especially so when you've developed your dancing to be able to interpret the music and know what musicality is about.

Thus it is important to learn shines.

Beside the above, shine also gives Leads a VERY good way to improve their styling. Subconsciously, their body movement learnt from shines will creep into their posture, etc. when doing partnerwork. This will make them look a lot better when doing patterns!

Breaking in shines is also another level of leading, which goes beyond hand contact.... it's goes into play with music, visual contact with your partner, etc. Stuff which are really hard to describe with words, you simply gotta see it with your own eyes to understand.

If I can find a suitable video, I'll post here to illustrate this point.