Salsa, the new summer hobby that everyone can start with

Every summer you see it happening again. Terraces are full, festivals start up again and everywhere in the city you hear music. There's a good chance you'll also see people salsa dancing somewhere on a square or in a park. You might think: that looks fun, but you probably need to be a good dancer for that. That's really not the case at all. Salsa is actually one of the easiest dance hobbies to start with. You don't need years of dance experience and you don't need to be able to improvise creatively either. The basics of salsa are surprisingly simple. 

Many people think salsa is complicated because experienced dancers look so smooth. But if you look more closely, you'll see that almost all movements come from one foundation: the basic step. The basic step is a simple rhythmic step that you repeat continuously to the music. Almost all figures in salsa build on that. That's why salsa feels quite repetitive. You learn a few figures and then you can keep combining them again and again. So you don't have to constantly come up with new movements. Actually, salsa is a bit like a building kit. You learn separate components (figures) and while dancing you decide for yourself in which order you do them. That also makes it surprisingly accessible for the famous Dutch "stiff rakes". 

You usually dance salsa with two roles: 

The leader determines which figures are danced and gives subtle signals with hands, arms and body. 

The follower follows these signals and moves along through the figures. 

Traditionally men are often the leaders and women the followers, but that absolutely doesn't have to be the case. More and more people choose for themselves which role they want to dance. 

The most important difference between those roles lies in what you need to learn. 

As a follower you don't need to remember all the figures. You mainly react to the leader's movements. Do you have a bit of rhythm or can you already dance a little? Then you can sometimes keep up surprisingly quickly. 

Many people therefore learn salsa in a fairly simple way: 

During most salsa parties, a short lesson is given first before the party really begins. Only then does the free dancing start. As a follower you can then just follow different leaders and learn to recognize more and more movements. You also learn by doing. So this is the perfect way to start with salsa, and you also immediately see if you like the atmosphere at a salsa party. 

For leaders the beginning is often a bit more challenging. Because leaders need to initiate and guide the figures, they first need to know those movements. Just going to parties and trying to join in therefore often works less well. Most leaders therefore start with a short course. Fortunately there are loads of those in the Netherlands. Almost every city has a dance school where you can take a beginner's course of four to eight weeks. During such a course you learn: 

After such a short course you can usually go to social dance evenings just fine. 

What makes salsa extra fun is the community. In almost every city there exists a large group of salsa dancers who regularly see each other at parties and socials. Many of those groups also have WhatsApp groups where: 

Going to a salsa party for the first time? Then you can almost always ask someone if there's a WhatsApp group. There's a good chance you'll be added within a few minutes. 

In the Netherlands there are surprisingly many places where you can dance salsa almost every week in summer. A few well-known examples: 

From June 4th there's an outdoor Latin night called Summer Breeze every Thursday evening at WestWeelde. Often there are separate rooms where salsa, bachata and urban music is played. So you can also alternate and go stand wherever you like it most. A ticket costs €17.50. 

Utrecht 

From April 8th there's Salsa Night every Wednesday evening at Beton-T. First a workshop, then free dancing with DJs who play salsa music and sometimes also a bit of bachata and kizomba. A ticket costs €10.  

A well-known place where a lot of Latin is danced is Striktly at Stadhuisplein. There you can dance every Tuesday evening in summer. Entry is free. 

Besides that, there are big salsa calendars like Latinworld.nl where you can find parties and workshops throughout the Netherlands. In many cities there are multiple events every week.  

The beautiful thing about salsa is that you don't have to be good at it to start. Most dancers still remember exactly how clumsy their first evening felt. And that's exactly part of the process. You get to know the music, you learn the basic step and slowly you recognize more and more figures. Before you know it, you're standing much more relaxed on the dance floor a few weeks later. Salsa might seem complicated, but the first step is surprisingly simple: go to a workshop once, dance a few songs and see if you like it. There's a good chance you've found a new summer hobby.