Dear Coach,

I am an experienced Salsa dancer but I hate doing drops, lifts, dips and leans with girls because it hurts my arms, legs and back.  Many mornings after a rambunctious night of Salsa I wake up with a headache that equals the worst han over I have ever experienced.

I quit drinking years ago because I hate hangovers and now I am experiencing the same thing from the acrobatics I feel pressured to do to be considered cool.  I wonder if other guys experience this same problem or am I just a wimp.

Signed, No Thanks I Have a Headache

Dear Coach,

I have been told by many guys that I am one of the best Salsa dancers on the floor.  I have worked very hard on my Cuban Motion, my spins and turns, my footwork and my reaction times to a great number of social dancers’ leads because I really enjoy dancing Salsa.  Since I follow and dance well, guys are always leading me into drops and dips that I feel uncomfortable trying to execute.  Most guys try to lead me into a drop on the wrong beat or try to do a dip so fast that I fear I am going to land head or butt first on the floor.  I admire girls that have the guts to tolerate doing these tricky moves, but since most of my dance partners are guys who are out dancing with girls that they ask to dance at a social dance, sometimes knowing the girls, sometimes not, I wonder if other girls feel the same way I do?  I hesitate to complain to the guys I dance with because they may not ask me to dance again and I hate setting around when all that great Latin music is playing.

Signed, Damned if I Do, Damned if I Don’t…What’s a Girl to Do?

Dear What’s a Girl to Do and No Thanks I Have a Headache:

I am answering both of your letters at the same time because this subject has been asked of me by both genders, on separate occasions of course, and never in the presence of the opposite sex.

If your back, legs and arms hurt when you are leading or following dips, drops and for that matter lifts, they are being done incorrectly.  The percentage of these “tricky” “dippy” moves, when executed properly and both dancers understand balance and leverages, are not as difficult as they seem.  With proper instruction anyone with average strength and dance skills should be able to execute these steps without wrenching muscles, or fear falling or being dropped on the floor. 

Men that want to lead these steps should make an effort to learn to do them properly to save their own bodies as well as their partner’s.  I think any man that drops a girl on the floor because he surprised her with a dip she wasn’t expecting should be dropped on his head from a three story window.  Likewise if a lady leads herself into a dip, she better be prepared to hold up her own weight because the guy may be in an awkward position to catch her and may risk pulling a muscle trying to.  In the latter case I say let her go because many times guys have fallen or stepped on girls trying to save them from falling.  It is only a couple of feet to the floor from a dip.  A 24-inch fall probably won’t hurt a girl’s body…her pride maybe, but it will be a good lesson on why you do not surprise your dance partner with some of these moves. 

Dancers that have been instructed on the proper way to execute these moves practice them until both dancers are moving together and know what to expect from their partner.  These are not moves that you spring on someone on the dance floor just to prove how cool you are.  I fully understand that it’s a real show and the crowd loves it but there are some consequences that many people have had to live the rest of their lives with as the result of an accident on the dance floor.  A few years ago in Bend, Oregon, at Cisco & Pancho’s Cantina, a couple tried to do cartwheel flip and the lady was dropped head first breaking her neck.  She died before the ambulance got there.

I have seen many people with spinal injuries, broken hips, broken arms, and shoulder separations, not to mention thousands of pulled muscles.  I have pulled muscles that have never totally healed in the course of my dancing career and once damaged, your body is never the same.  Every time I have been hurt it was because a partner or student surprised me with an unplanned move and I tried to save them from falling, which was a stupid move on my part. 

Your search for an instructor may not be an easy one.  Many times instructors that are teaching at the local Salsa clubs have little or no training themselves and are not qualified to instruct anyone on how to execute these moves properly.  Most ballroom instructors, unless they specialize in Theatre Arts, have not had this training either.  If you decide to learn from a video you are making a terrible mistake.  The subtle move or a subtle wrong move can be misunderstood when watching a video.  There is no way for the instructor on the video to act as a spotter nor can you ask questions of the instructor teaching you on the video.  Let me tell you, it always looks easy on the video but there have been many hours of training and practice preparing the video stars to film that video.  A good way to practice lifts over your head is in a swimming pool…if the lady falls she just hits the water. 

Most of the steps I teach at my studio are very easy to learn and with a little practice you can look very sharp without taking the chance of destroying your body.  They are steps that when properly led, can be followed by most good Salsa dancers. 

My suggestion to “Damned if I do and Damned if I Don’t” is that you should look for partners like “No Thanks I Have a Headache.”  You might be surprised at how many guys only do these tricky moves because they think all the girls want to do them or they feel they must do them to keep up with the other guys. 

There over 400 documented Salsa steps and many are very cool.  It seems to me that with that much material available a little more effort should be put into learning to dance Salsa in sync with your partner.  You know the old conventional way where a guy leads a lady into a step, the same step he is doing and she is dancing as a mirror image to him.

And they are both dancing on the correct beat.  Now that takes skill. 

I have watched girls walk off the floor and leave their show-off partner in the middle of the floor doing his floor-show for the crowd because she couldn’t do his triple spins, belly flops and fake poses, and she felt like a fool doing her basic forward and back Salsa steps waiting for him to get tired of showing off and return to partner dancing with her.  I think it is a lot better for guys to get out and do their hot shot stuff in a line dance of guys rather then make a lady feel like an idiot standing in the middle of the floor dancing by herself while her partner gyrates, bumps and grinds for the crowd.  A lot of guys in Miami do something that is very entertaining without using a girl for an excuse to be out on the floor.  They start a little challenge dance, one guy does a step, the other guys copy the step, then the next guy does a more difficult step and the others copy or try to copy his step.  This way everyone gets to show his stuff to the ladies and try to challenge the other guys in a friendly sort of fun challenge that nobody takes too seriously.  (If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.)  They are dead serious about beating the next guy with an extra spin or faster footwork and spend hours practicing and developing new tricks for the next time.  The crowd loves it too and if you watch close you might pick up something you to can use.  My wife calls all of this a bizarre mating dance among the Salsa dancing crowd, with the males strutting their stuff, the females oohing and awing in unison and waiting for the male with the best steps to secure his territory in the ballroom or club.  I think she watches too much Animal Kingdom on the learning channel, don’t you?

I hope you two get the point I am trying to make about these risky moves because the social dance floor is really no place to be doing lifts and drops unless you have the floor to yourself or you are doing an exhibition.  By the way…do you have health insurance to cover yourself and liability to cover your victims?