“Few people are born with a dancing style,” says social dancing teacher Mariann Cataletto, co-founder of Dancestudent.com. Mariann draws on her 20 years experience as a dance teacher to produce instruction videos on Hustle, Mambo and West Coast Swing. “It is something that requires conscious effort and time to develop. You can witness style in action by taking any standard dance step and having several advanced couples demonstrate the move. You will find that the same dance step will look different with each advanced couple who demonstrates it. Why? Because of each dancer’s unique style.
“I stress the word ‘advanced’ dancer because style is something that I believe is reserved for this level of dancer. Beginners are too busy worrying about the timing and footwork to think about style. This is as it should be. You must have a solid foundation in a dance before you can begin to develop your style with it. You will know that you have ‘arrived’ when people start commenting on the way you move in a given dance and especially when they begin to imitate your movements.”
Mariann has developed her own five-step ‘Poise Method’ to help dancers begin developing their own style.
Step one: Plan
Since your style will involve your own personality expressed in the form of dance, you will have a better chance for success if you know what your personality is or what you would like it to be. You will then know what type of movements to incorporate into your dancing.
Take 10 minutes now to write out as many facets of your personality that you can think of. Are you macho, strong, dynamic, serious or delicate, light hearted, subtle and sweet? Now that you have your list, stand up and move as you would if you were expressing these adjectives without music or a specific dance in mind. Note what feels good and what doesn’t fit. This will help your brain to make a connection with what you are looking for in style as you dance.
Step two: Observe
Watch dancers that you admire and pay attention to the way they move their bodies as they dance. Note how they accent certain steps and how they generally carry themselves. Which movements appeal to you?
Step three: Improvise
Start with the movements that you have observed others doing and try copying them without music. Adjust the movements so that they fit your personality and become your own. For example, you may have seen someone extend an arm upward sharply and completely as he/she breaks into an open position. This may be too strong a statement for you if you are the shy type. So modify it by only partially extending the arm slightly upward. Do what feels right for you.
Step four: Select
Select one or two of your improvisations and keep them in mind as you dance. Look for an opportunity to use them. As you eliminate the items that don’t work for you, keep adding selections from your group of improvisations until you have built your own treasury to enrich your dancing.
Step five: Experiment
Up to now you have used other people as your source for developing your basic style. You should already be having a positive impact on the people who watch you dance. Soon you will have the confidence to experiment by adding totally original movements which others will admire and want to copy.
“Keep in mind that not all experiments are successful,” says Mariann. “Be prepared to discard some of your experiments and don’t be discouraged by the ones that yield poor results. It is the dancer who is willing to continue experimenting and learning from the results that truly rises above the sea of average dancers out there.” Enio Cordoba, has been a professional Salsa dancer and choreographer for 24 years. He recalls being complimented that he had plenty of style but that his partner didn’t. “I remember being constantly told by audience members that I needed a new partner, that I was special. Yet I could never figure out why. I didn’t believe that I had exceptional talent,” he says. “Style is possibly a light‚ that some people can exude although they can have no idea what it is. That light is impossible to examine but can be felt by the audience. I don’t believe that style can be bought or even acquired after thousands of hours of dance lessons. Take Fred Astaire. When I first watched him dance, I was quite put off by big, clunky hands. Yet when I stopped being critical, I was overwhelmed by the style that came from every pore of his body,” says Enio. Rita Hargrave, from Salsacrazy.com, offers her take on style. “I think what people call personal style in Salsa dancing is their external observation of a very internal, passionate and personal response to Latin music. This style is a powerful, physical expression of free flowing communication between the dancer, their partner and the primal rhythms of Salsa,” says Rita, a professional Salsa dancer/teacher who also runs salsaroots.com, a site devoted to the history of Salsa.
“Dancers with personal style have so much spontaneity and emotional resonance with the mood and tempo of the music that they exist in a separate world from others on the dance floor. A stylish dancer devours the subtle rhythms and melodies of Salsa and allows the music to infuse her soul with such intense passion and joy that you can see the music coursing through the dancer’s entire body.
“A truly stylish dancer has a special warmth, emotional openness and charisma which they readily offer to their partner. Playfulness, sensuality and physical responsiveness are the traits that make a dancer captivating and infectious and cause the audience to stop and stare,” adds Rita.
