On Learning...

Teaching many students over the years, I've learned a thing or 2 about what makes students more teachable.

 
The best kinds of students a teacher could hope to get are those that are like a clean slate.  They don't have any prior opinions, they don't seem to know anything and they trust you to show them how to do it all.  Students like that are a dream come true because we don't have to spend time convincing them why they should do this rather then do that, why doing this will make you better than doing that, etc. 

For example, if I have 5 minutes with each student, I can spend that 5 minutes trying to convince the student to do Task 1 and why doing Task 1 will help them to improve, or I can spend the precious 5 minutes showing and teaching them to do Tasks 1,2 and 3.

Here is an illustration:

Teacher, "You must practice your spins everyday. Do it 3 times a day, for 5 minutes each."

Student, "Why do I have to do it?  I get so dizzy when I spin.  I'm so busy also, everyday is not possible."

Teacher (starts explaining and convincing the student to do the homework), "Spins are important in dancing.  When you first practice, you will find it hard, but if you practice everyday, you will improve and won't get so dizzy within a week or two....."

Or the conversation could go this way...

Teacher, "You must practice your spins everyday. Do it 3 times a day, for 5 minutes each."
Student, "OK i will do my best.  What else should I work on?"
Teacher (delighted in such a dedicated student replies), "Besides spinning, practice your isolations too.  After spinning, you can do body isolations for 5 - 10 minutes.  If you have more time, you can...."

If a student doesn't keep second guessing the teacher or thinks he knows better or his way is better, the teacher doesn't have to waste time thinking "How can I convince the student that my method of learning has been taught to many students, and all who followed my instructions wholeheartedly all succeeded and became good dancers?"  The teacher can then spend more of his energy to focus on how to make the student an even better dancer. 

I'm not suggesting that the student should blindly follow the teacher, but I feel that the students should not judge the teacher during the class (is what this teacher is saying better than what the other teacher taught me to do the other day?  I think that if I do it this way, it is better than what the teacher is saying now...). 

You take a class to learn.  Reserve your judgements for after the class.  During the class, learn all that you can, take all that you can from the teacher.  Even if you don't agree, put your opinions aside first.  Your teacher may have a different approach to what you are used to learning but it may produce the same or better results, but you never know it works if you don't try with an open mind.

You are there to learn, not teach the teacher or disrespect or humiliate him.  So focus your energies on learning.  If the teacher is open to it, you can share what you feel and humbly and respectfully present your opinions to him after the class.  But don't go into an argument with him in the class.

The Reversal of Roles in Salsa Tourism

My essay on Salsa for the Sociology of Tourism, one I did in school... I think I had some interesting observations, but din have much time to write it down properly.... Oh well, maybe next time I'll edit it. I'm posting it here in case I loose my essay, like I did my last one on gender relations! 

Authenticity vs. Homogeneity 
Salsa tourism is the gathering of salsa dancers from all over the world in a place which organizes a festival or congress (e.g., Hong Kong) where world renowned instructors teach, perform and social dance in the event which spans at least 4 days. These stars are brought in from all over the world to attract locals and tourists alike to participate in the festival. They show off their famously unique moves during the festivals and are hailed as authentic salsa dancers with original and unique moves that define the borders of salsa[1]. A person participating in the festival can be what Cohen calls an “experiential tourist” who seeks out the “mystified” experience of meeting these famous dancers in person, watching them perform, learning from them, and also, dancing with them (1979a, 1985 quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 74; MacCannell, 102). Participants also come to see new dance steps that have been invented and discovered, and they have a desire for these real, authentic experiences that can lead them to discover more about themselves and the dance (Inglis, 6).

Famous dancers have a huge following of dancers who will emulate their dance style and dressing. An example is Frankie Martinez and the Korean salsa scene. Top dancers emulate his dance style and dressing: Martinez likes to hold the bottom ends of his shirt and toy with it while he dances; many dancers in Korea do that. He has a certain unique style that consists of very quick footwork interspersed with slow body isolations, which is also emulated in Korea. Many of his performances have been adapted; e.g., he dressed like a pirate in one of his performances in Korea and in the Hong Kong Salsa Festival 2006, a performer emerged in clothing that was cut and ripped to look like rags that a pirate would wear, dancing in a style that was clearly adapted from Martinez’s. A point to note here is the disjuncture between what is said and what is done. Salsa advocates creativity and innovativeness in its dance. New styles are vigorously praised, and yet, they are furiously replicated.

Salsa tourism, which encourages the sharing of knowledge in salsa, thus raises the problem of homogeneity. With the massive copying of the “authentic”, the dancing scene becomes resoundingly duplicated as people imitate the dances, style, dressing and even music of their idols. This, however, is encouraged by the stars and the organizers behind the salsa festivals: imitation implies that the dancer is famous, and this ensures that he does not run out of business because his idols will pay to see him dance and teach. They will also buy his instructional DVDs and take additional classes from him. These will increase his status, wealth and power within the salsa scene. Mowforth and Munt (2003) in Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World defined ideology as “the way relationships of power are inexorably interwoven in the production and representation of meaning which serves the interests of a particular social group” (46). The ideology of the authentic salsa dancer is endorsed by the festival organizers who commodify and sell him in the festival, thereby giving the dancer a good reputation which allows both of them to benefit. This commodification of a person is similar to that of a pop star, and in the context of salsa festivals, the more popular an artiste is, the higher price he fetches. Salsa festivals and celebrities survive on this commodification of the authentic good: the dancer.

As we have seen so far, salsa tourism attracts tourists to a locality by promising an experience of a lifetime in dancing with the top salsa dancers in the world. This commodification of the celebrity dancer has imperialist undertones: the world renowned dancers are from USA and Europe, largely colonial countries. This is due to the fact that Salsa was popularized in the USA and spread to Europe and then to Asia (where it is still relatively new). The salsa ‘hub’ is viewed to be in Los Angeles and New York, an environment whereby the standard is the highest and where most of the famous dancers originate. The inconsistent developments in the standard of dancing result in the unequal structural relationships in the salsa tourism industry whereby the less developed Asian countries adopt a more passive role in the festival by idolizing the celebrity dancers from the west and paying them to endorse their festivals (Stephen Britton quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 49-50).

Role Reversal 

There are four categories of people we see in salsa festivals: the overseas artists, the local artists, the overseas participants and the local participants. My focus here is on the overseas artists in the festival. As clearly evident in the preceding paragraphs, the “authentic” commodity in salsa tourism is not the local culture or heritage but the tourists – the overseas artists – themselves. As such, there is a role reversal in salsa tourism, whereby the authentic is the tourist who makes himself the object of attention. Through the overseas artists, salsa tourism effectively draws overseas salsa fanatics into the country. Moreover, it also entices the local crowd to participate. However, unlike other forms of tourism, the locals are not the object of focus here; they are like local tourists, who come to see the “authentic”, and may undergo a liminal phase which temporarily “suspends” them from their norm to indulge in play and fantasy like a tourist (Tucker, 151).

In social dancing[2], the artists are the objects of the participants’ gaze (Urry, 1990a quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 72). These participants consume the “other” - the professional dancer - in their efforts to reach the romanticized perfection of dancing salsa (Lippard, 2-5; Mowforth and Munt, 73). The dancers are video-recorded and photographed, and it is a thrill for the participants to dance with them, which is all part of the experience of the salsa festival. This is similar to Tucker’s “living museum”, where tourists interact with the locals in what they view as the natural environment of the local in their quest for the authentic experience (149). In this case, the social environment where the dancers are dancing socially and not a choreographed routine is the dancer’s natural environment and it is here that the participants want to interact with them by dancing with them.

Unlike the normal form of tourism, the fetish[3] of the salsa participants to see and experience the authentic and real dancer is not necessarily bad for the celebrity. The main reason is because the power relationship in this form of tourism is different from the regular kind. As mentioned, the artiste benefits from his fame. In a normal tourism structure, the power lies in the hands of the first world country that flocks to third world countries to view the exotic “other”. This is due to the fact that the third world is reliant on the first world to market their country and organize the tourists to go to their country (Mowforth and Munt, 50). In salsa tourism, the power still lies in the hands of the first world (e.g., USA). The difference is in that the exotic Other is the first world tourists themselves who have the power to choose which country to go to. Moreover, they are not subjected to the whims and fancies of the participants who come to see them; this is drastically different from the “helpful, smiling and servile” local who serve the tourists on a typical tour (Mowforth and Munt, 64). Rather, these performers are worshipped and held in high regard as the exotic and talented Other whom the participants idolize and seek to emulate.

Therefore, salsa tourism is a new form of tourism that is an institutionalized bubble which is set up by the West to accumulate capital from the “rest”. It enables them to go to a place where salsa is less developed, so that they have a chance to “play” at being a celebrity and be idolized by participants (Tucker, 151). This is not very different from the tourists who go to third world countries to be pampered by the locals and indulge in luxuries (Inglis, 6). In this case, the tourist gaze is intentionally fixed on the dancer, who thrives in the idolization of being the superior Other. The fetish becomes like worship, which is but another form of imperialism.

Conclusion
 
Although salsa tourism has imperialist undertones, one can see the emergence of the resistance to it. As Asia catches up in the salsa scene, there is the emergence of new dancers who are striving to re-invent their identity, resisting the inferior implications of their dancing (Tucker, 157). This was seen in the Hong Kong Open Salsa Competition held in the festival, where couples from India, Korea and Singapore emerged with a unique style of their own that can pose a strong challenge to the domination from the west. This may bring about a balance in the unequal opportunities that have arisen in the salsa tourism sphere and redefining the power relations within Salsa tourism.


Bibliography

Inglis, Fred (2000) The Delicious History of the Holiday, chapter 1, New York: Routledge.

Lippard, Lucy R. (1999) “Introduction: On Rubbernecking”, in On the Beaten Track. Tourism, Art and Place, New York: New York Press

MacCannell, Dean (1976) “Staged Authenticity”, in The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, Introduction, New York: Schocken Books, ch. 5.

Mowforth, M. and Munt, I. (2003) Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World, London and New York: Routledge, ch.3

Tucker, Hazel (2002) “Welcome to Flintstone’s Land: Contesting Place and Identity in Goreme, Central Turkey” in Tourism: between place and performance, edited by Simon Coleman and Mike Crang, Oxford: Berghan.

Footnotes
 [1] Usually what are authentic are the famous names that are endorsed by the Salsa scene in the world, with Los Angeles and New York leading the way. Dances that are a hot favorite among the audience are strongly endorsed and “authenticated” by the salsa population. The “unauthentic” are disliked and not endorsed by anyone. 
[2] Social dance, unlike performance, is deemed to be a natural setting in dance, much like a backstage (MacCannell). This is due to the fact that social dancing is not choreographed with one’s partner or with the music, and deemed to be instinctive and “made up” intuitively to the mood of the music. This is compared to a performance, which is choreographed and clearly staged for the audience (a front stage). 
[3] Fetish is defined in Mowforth and Munt (2003) to be the underlying way in which social relationships of production are disguised or covered up (67).

The Salsa Dancer’s Identity in Singapore

Abstract:
This essay is a study of the social dancing in a Latin dance, Salsa, specifically in Singapore. It looks at the structure of the dance and the social norms within the Salsa clubs to explore how the social forces shapes the identity of the Salsa dancer.

I draw on concepts of play (Huizinga), identity (Hall) and cultural convention (Finnegan) to illustrate how the constant change of partners after every dance influences the dancer to be original and creative in his/her dance and within the culture in general. I also show how the creativity is limited by the structure of the dance.


Introduction
Salsa is known as a Latin music and dance that is largely influenced from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean (Manuel, 1994; Waxer, 2002). Works on Salsa has concentrated on how it is used as an identity marker to draw Latin people together (Portes and Truelove, 1987). As Salsa is a dance that can be found in almost every major city in the world, and is not just danced by Latinos, it piques my curiosity that this dance is so globally popular.

My exploratory interviews in the Salsa scene found much talk that Salsa appeared to have changed people’s lives. William, a Salsa enthusiast remarked when I asked him how it has changed his life, “You see lor: contacts, posture, perfume, styled hair… Before Salsa, I didn’t smile so much; I wasn’t so confident. Now better already.” Instructor Karen agrees,
I have seen many of my students’ confidence grow as they master their steps and realize that they can do them. I see them become happier and more sure of their bodies as they dance; I see their dressing improve and their character change as they seem to realize that there is a whole side of themselves – the body – that was never explored.

Further probing along the lines of the transforming quality of Salsa revealed that all of my informants mentioned “gaining confidence” as something that they have gained through learning Salsa. 16 out of 20 of them listed it as the first point when they were asked how Salsa has changed their lives. Other points include knowing many friends, finding their boyfriend/girlfriend, learning how to dance, reminding them to “enjoy life” and learning how to take care or handle a woman properly.

Although I am a Salsa dancer myself, talking to my informants made me realize that Salsa places great emphasis on individual style and creativity. Jeff, one of the directors of a Salsa club and also a dancer, explained that originality is highly prized within Salsa as it gives the uniqueness or X-factor to the dance that makes others remember it by. He gives example from famous Salsa dancers in the world:
"Johnny Vasquez is known for his quickness and the way he incorporates a Michael Jackson style in his performances; Frankie Martinez is world renown for his unique style in which he calls ‘Afro-Latin Funk’; Alex DeSilva is called ‘Mr. Smooth’ due to the fluid way in which he moves while dancing; and Al ‘Liquid silver’ Espinoza is famous for incorporating hip-hop into Salsa, which he calls ‘Millennium Salsa’. "
These American dancers are known throughout the world for their skill in dancing and the unique style that they have created within the dance.

In my essay, I seek to show how the Salsa dance and its culture encourage individuality and creativity. The main part of my analysis is on social dancing in Salsa clubs and how the cultural conventions there promote originality. The first part of my essay describes the Salsa dance and its cultural conventions. The second part seeks to show how these conventions promote individuals to differentiate themselves from others and be unique individuals. Lastly, I will show how these ‘outlets of creativity’ are inherently bounded by the structure of the dance. To illustrate my points, I use concepts on social conventions (Becker, Finnegan), cultural capital (Bourdieu), identity (Hall, Rose) and play (Huizinga).


Salsa Ethnography
My ethnographic research consisted of weekly participant observations in two Salsa clubs in Singapore[1], focusing mainly on Union Square, the more popular club, weekly participant observation (both overt and covert) in two Salsa schools[2] and semi-structured interviews from 20 Salsa dancers, students, teachers and performers[3]. These are information collected over the span of 2 months. All these are aside from my own personal experience as a Salsa dancer, teacher and performer for over two years.


Rules and Conventions of the Dance

(a) Lead and Follow
At this juncture, it is important to describe the Salsa dance. In “Music, Performance and Enactment”, Ruth Finnegan’s (1997) analysis of the musical practices in Milton Keynes highlighted the fact that the participants depended on a set of “socially accepted conventions” to interact with each other (120). Howard Becker in Art Worlds explained that conventions are a standardized set of rules in which participants in the setting rely on to create or produce a work of art. The set of rules, as explained by Becker are not permanent and may be broken, albeit at a cost; they are useful in providing “recognized pathways” in which individuals can interact and participate within the culture, and in this case, in producing the dance (Becker; McKay, 128). The most fundamental “convention” of Salsa is in the rules of the dance itself.

Salsa is a lead and follow dance, where the male generally leads his partner while the female follows his lead. Although people who have never tried a lead and follow dance before find it hard to comprehend the mystery behind how a man can lead a lady and a lady can follow a man, there are techniques behind the mystery, like “tension”, “hook” and “respecting the line” which are taught in the Salsa schools, and most Salsa dancers in Singapore learn their lead and follow techniques from the schools. Put simply, the leader dances with the female as an extension of his body. His task is to direct her into a series of steps that incorporates spins and footwork. The follower must flow with him by following his push or pull, spinning when he spins her, stopping when he stops her, moving when he leads and waiting when he does not lead her. In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (1990) describes flow as a state of being that does not require vigilant mediation from the self, where one’s movement flows fluidly and “there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response”. In the case of Salsa, the follower must merge with the leader and move fluidly to his cues, while the leader must lead her by taking her movements and flowing along with it. The key element in Salsa as a social dance is that it is not choreographed: the leader may execute different steps as and when he wants to, and the follower is expected to go with his lead even if is it variations that she has never done before.

If we see the dance as a game to be played, the “rules” are for the leader to direct her clearly and flawlessly into variations while executing his own steps and for the follower to follow his cue without struggle and in total compliance with his lead. Both may execute additional steps of their own to beautify and personalize their dancing (the term used is Styling), but they have to find an opportune moment to deliver it because it must not affect the lead or the following, which will disrupt the dance. At this stage, there are two layers involved in the dance: the lead and follow, and the styling that is strategically placed to enhance the dancing. When this happens, the dancers do not fall into a ritualized movements and “let their bodies flow with the dance”; rather, “they can, at the same time, have the conscious intention, of pushing themselves… to the limits (or beyond) of their inculcated habitus” (Rostas, 1998: 91). Even so, there are many times when the dance is intentionally disrupted and the dancers break apart and dance separately (this is called Shines). Although the dancers appear to be dancing on their own with their bodies no longer in physical contact, they still maintain connection with their eyes. This happens for a few seconds and then they come back together again when the leader picks the follower up and leads her once again. Advanced dancers favor shines, as it is an opportunity to display their expertise in dancing freestyle, without the constraints of their partners. As can be seen, the rules of the game differ for the leader and the follower. The former sets the pace and the latter complies with it. This is the fundamental rule or convention for the dance.


(b) Changing Partners
The unique aspect of Salsa lies in the fact that individuals do not have a fixed partner[4] to dance with. Most Salsa dancers do not have a fixed partner and they meet up in a crowded club to find different people to dance with. The thrill of Salsa comes from dancing with different people: the participants get to interact and meet up with many people in a night; they do not get bored with the same dance steps because every person they dance with has a different style and way of dancing that they have to get accustomed to; and the constant change in partners results in a lot of interactive playing on the dance floor. “People go to crowded clubs to see and meet new people. Although you have to fight for space on the floor to dance, they still go there because it is the place to go to Salsa. You want to be seen there, to meet new people, to dance with not just one but many people in one night!” says Karen, a Salsa dancer.

This concept of constantly changing partners after each dance creates interesting elements within the Salsa world. To ensure that a leader can dance with every follower and vice versa, there must be a certain set of rules by which the dancers follow so that they will be able to dance even with strangers. This convention that dancers abide by is the lead and follow that is taught by the Salsa schools. Salsa dancer Noelle illustrates with an example,
"Say for example that a guy from London is in Singapore for a holiday and asks me to dance. Assuming that he knows what he is doing – that is he knows how to lead properly – and that I know what I’m doing and follow properly, we can dance well together even though I’ve never seen him or danced with him in my entire life."
In other words, social dancing is a spontaneous act and is not choreographed.

Due to the nature of the dance being a spontaneous act, mistakes within the dance are inevitable as dancers occasionally loose their contact and connection within the dance. This is acceptable within the social dancing, as the focus is to have fun rather than to attain perfection, and mistakes are covered up with shines and styling. As such, the convention of lead and follow does get breached at times, especially with beginners who are not skilled in leading or following, but this is usually waived off with laughter and smiles. However, this can be frustrating if the couple cannot synchronize, as they will not be able to dance properly.

This concept of changing partners also brings about interesting interactions between partners and with the audience. The partners are not permanent; it typically changes with every song. As such, an individual dances with one person for 5 minutes where they create a dance together, and then moves on to the next person after that. Often, a dance is used to gauge the capability of the partner and to access whether this partner is good to dance with again later. “When I’m dancing with a lady, I access her proficiency in dancing and cater to that. I will try to make sure that she enjoys herself and is comfortable. If she likes dancing with me, she won’t reject me if I ask her again later on,” John, Salsa dancer declares. Another Salsa dancer, Frank explains that most of the people in the audience are also Salsa dancers, waiting for their turn to dance. They look at those dancing on the dance floor to “check out the moves that others are doing” and also to “watch the ladies and look for potential candidates to ask to dance” for the next song. The partner’s and audience’s gaze makes it so that the individuals have to “advertise” themselves to find dancers to dance with, and I will dwell more on this later.

The notion of changing partners is key to my investigation, as I will show how this affects and brings about other conventions within Salsa.


Formation of Identity

(a) Differentiation through Dancing (Identity formation)
Hanna (1988) illustrates how an individual’s proficiency at particular dances can create social boundaries. The cultural landscape of social dancing where a dancer has to constantly choose different partners and where the audience is looking for partners to dance with suggests a need to make one’s dancing unique so that it will be attractive for people to want to dance with. Many Salsa dancers constantly strive to be good because it will ensure that they will always be in “demand” and seldom lack of people to dance with. Will, a Salsa instructor cited an example in his trip to the Hong Kong Salsa Festival in February this year, “It’s important to have a good girl (in terms of dance skill) to dance with. When we were in Hong Kong, I took Cheryl and ‘showed off’. Because she’s a good dancer and I’m a good leader, the people there were impressed even though we didn’t do anything showy”.

The sheer masses of male and female dancers within a club on a crowded night – approximately 350 people within 2,000 square feet – also cause the participants to differentiate their dancing so that they may stand out among the crowd. This is usually done through interesting variations, styling and shines. Men constantly learn new moves to ensure that they do not lack of moves to dance with the women; women learn styling and practice them to ensure that they can add their own flavor to the dance; both learn shines to add an interesting twist in their dancing.[5] Anya Royce (1980) in The Anthropology of Dance defines style to be “the whole complex of features that people rely on to mark their identity” (157). In the context of Salsa, dancers make their dance unique with their own style and rely on it to differentiate themselves from the crowd of dancers; these styles also alter with the music and the different partners they dance with. My experience as a female dancer reveals that my partner influences my style. If he holds both my hands, I cannot use my hand to style; if he spins me off into a series of shines, I may do my own moves, respond to his moves, or mimic them; his style in dancing (smooth or quick) also affects my style as he sets the mood in the dance. One of my interviewees, Rachel, also mentioned that she dressed up in different themes like hip-hop, elegant, classic or sexy to help her to set her style of dancing for the night. This reflects Kroeber’s concept of the element of selectivity, where people generally make a conscious decision to display certain styles, and where the style complex is constantly altering as people are removing and selecting items from the style complex (Kroeber, 1963; Royce, 158).

The different identities that the dancers try to create for themselves can be related to Stuart Hall’s (1987) concept of the post-modern subject. Hall et al describes the post-modern subject as “having no fixed, essential or permanent identity” (277). Identity is incessantly formulated and re-formulated “in relation to the ways we are represented or addressed in the cultural systems which surround us”. “The subject assumes different identities at different times, identities which are not unified around a coherent self” (Hall et al, 1990). This subject lives in a time of “rapid, extensive, and continuous change”, which is also a “highly reflexive form of life in which ‘social practices are constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character’” (Giddens, 1990: 37-38; Hall, 1992). Nikolas Rose (1998) in Inventing Our Selves writes about the self as an invented construct of a “unified, coherent, self-centered subject” (5). The fact that the post-modern subject has no fixed identity but one that can fluctuate with they way they present themselves in the cultural systems seem to encourage a creation of the identity of a unique self in Salsa. The styles that are selected by the dancers all serve to construct an identity for the dancers through the creation of individuality in their dancing.


(b) Differentiation through the Cultural Competency
There is another layer of convention – the “socially accepted conventions” as stated by Finnegan – that closely relates to the social etiquettes in and out of the dance. These are the behavior or etiquettes deemed correct and acceptable within the social dancing scene. Examples of the etiquettes of Salsa given by my informants are: respecting others’ space while dancing, taking care of the follower in the dance and proper grooming. Although these conventions are not mandatory for dancing, they are important as one’s reputation is built along the lines of such etiquette. A similar term is Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of cultural capital, which is a proficiency in a particular knowledge that is used for access into a social group. Such knowledge encompasses behavior, language and other social habits within the social group. Dancers with a good grasp of the cultural capital with regards to the Salsa social dancing scene do have an edge over others; their proficiency in cultural capital gives them popularity within the salsa crowd and more opportunities to dance. This is reflected by comments made by my informants on the topic of social etiquette in Salsa:
"Showing that you can take care of the girl you’re dancing with and respecting others’ dance space will tell us girls that you will take care of us if we dance with you, and that you will not send us into other people’s dance space, which may us to get (accidentally) stepped on or punch in the face by other dancers because we got in their way." – Natasha, Female Dancer

"I always make it a point to tell the men to be careful where they place their arms while dancing which may make the girls feel uncomfortable. There are some men who purposely choose all the sexy moves to execute with strangers, making many of the women feel distinctly uncomfortable, especially if they end up touching the women in certain areas. After that, they tend to get rejected a lot by the ladies and we all know why." – Wilson, Instructor.

"I dance, I tell the girl:’ you’re in my world, you won’t fall, you’ll feel secure, you can just relax and enjoy the dance’; I make sure I try to take good care of her. – Tim, Salsa Student
Although Singaporeans tend to dress down and are not showy in their appearance, proper grooming and dressing properly does show that you put in the effort to dress well, smell nice and look ready to dance. It shows that you respect the people you dance with because you bother to look presentable; you won’t go for a first date in Bermudas, an old smelly shirt and unkempt hair unless you think it’s trendy and that your date likes it. It’s the same for Salsa." – Jim, Salsa Instructor

The importance of cultural capital within the Salsa world can be seen through the importance attributed to confidence. When asked how they benefited from their experience in Salsa, many of my informants highlighted that they have become more confident of themselves in dancing and in other aspects of their lives. Salsa student, Tom spoke of how Salsa introduced him to various aspects of social life that he was not aware of, thus making him more confident as he learnt and mastered these aspects of the culture. He remarked that he now knows better how to interact with girls and how to Another of my informants, also a salsa student Vicky, 26, spoke of how learning to follow the man while dancing gave her confidence in the dance when she achieved success.

Salsa instructors also educate their students on certain aspects of social etiquette. A world famous instructor from America demonstrated to her students how looking and acting confident – by standing on the edge of the dance floor, swaying to the Salsa rhythms and snapping your fingers – can easily get you people to dance with. Josh, an established Salsa instructor in Singapore described how he made one of his top students yell at the top of his lungs when training for a Salsa competition “to get a fiercer and more confident look on his face”. When asked why confidence was so important, he replied: “because it looks good and you look like you know what you’re doing”. In my experience as a Salsa teacher, the proper posture is one of the most important and fundamental pointers on looking good while dancing, and I find myself constantly poking my students’ backs to get their postures straight while they dance. Looking confident makes a dancer appear to be in control and “know what [he/she] is doing” (to quote from Josh). This makes he/she look like a good dancer to dance with because it would mean that this partner knows how to take care of his/her partner. As a Salsa instructor Carrie, aptly puts it, the trick to dancing well is to make it look easy and effortless, “as if you were born to do this, and born with that talent to dance”; it is for the men to look like a gentleman who treats the lady well and makes her look good, and for the women to follow effortlessly, with the posture maintained.

The cultural capital is important because people get to know each other in the Salsa clubs and they all eventually have a list of most favorite and least favorite people to dance with. Those who master the cultural capital or social etiquette can indeed differentiate themselves from the masses of Salsa dancers because they have the knowledge and confidence – what Thornton (1995) calls the subcultural capital – of how to present themselves within the social club[6].


(c) Differentiation through social pressure – the audience gaze
Individuality and creativity also stems from the social pressures or expectations that are inherent within the Salsa club. The social landscape is such that the dancers frequently change partners, and when an individual starts dancing with a new partner, they are seizing each other up, checking the ability of their partners.

Salsa dancer Roy described his anxieties when he first learnt Salsa,
"The girl is looking at you, waiting for you to make the first move. You’re so nervous that you can barely remember how to do the step correctly. Then after that, you have to try to think of the next step; and while you’re doing that, you’re worrying that she becomes bored because you know so limited variations."
Shirleen, a Salsa student describes how she “panicked” when she danced with an experienced dancer,
"When he asked me to dance, I was so nervous! He was one of the best dancers there, and I was just a beginner. I was really stressed and nervous; I totally panicked! I was so nervous that my hand tensed and I couldn’t read his signal. I started second-guessing him and we started struggling on the dance floor because he was trying to lead me into variations while I was trying to second-guess the variations. As you can imagine, that dance felt like a total disaster!"

As can be seen, the partner dance does impose an expectation on the dancers to do well in their dancing (or their partners will suffer!). The fact that there are no fixed partners can bring about an anxiety to perform well in the social dance. This perhaps pushes the dancers to be better faster, so that they can dance well and will not let their partners down. An interesting phenomena that arises out of this social landscape is that the dancers actually “market” or advertise themselves while dancing. During the dance, the dancer “sells” to his/her partner that he/she is a good person to dance with, and is someone worth dancing again in the future. Jeff, instructor comments,
"You always see smiles on the faces of Salsa dancers, and they are always very friendly. This is because they love to dance, meet new friends, and are enjoying themselves. But it is also important for them to smile or at least look friendly because if they don’t, the partner may think that they don’t like them. Other people are also watching from the audience and these are potential dance partners who are looking for people to dance with."

As such, the gaze of the dance partners and the audience commodifies the dancer into an object to be acquired. As a result of this, many dancers, especially the advanced dancers flaunt their individual style and character while they dance through they way they confidently interact or play with their partners while executing the variations, shines and styling they choose in the dance.


(d) Play Element within the Dance – partner and audience
As put forth by Johan Huizinga (1955) in Homo Ludens: A Study of Play-Element in Culture, there is a strong element of play within dance. This, in addition to learning the lead and follow, is a second layer within the salsa dance, which in my opinion, makes Salsa a dance rather than merely a series of steps to be executed. The factor that differentiates any series of steps from exercise and dance is the mind, which somehow labels salsa as “dance” rather then a form of exercise. The mind acknowledges Salsa as a form of dance due to its aesthetic appeal and the feeling of fun and enjoyment that is involved in the dance. McRobbie (1984) in “Dance and Social Fantasy” speaks of dance as something that places emphasis on the body and its promised pleasures for the dancer and the audience (140). Those that embrace the sub-culture are acutely aware that Salsa is a sexy dance, which involves close body contact, and the dancers thrive in the realism of it. As Royce puts forth, dance is one of the few opportunities in the modern world where displaying the body is acceptable by society (160). In Salsa, the dancers daringly embrace and explicitly acknowledge the sexual overtones in their dance by maintaining eye contact while sexily dancing, constantly challenging and teasing their partners and the audience. It is a common saying, quoted by Carrie, a Salsa instructor that “Dancing Salsa is like doing it right on the dance floor”. This bold front is one of the attractions of the dance: those who Salsa, dare. She states, “As Salseros, we are a different breed of people who are not afraid to embrace our sexuality, and in our dancing, confidently flaunt it”.

With this concept in mind, we can now explore how these dancers express themselves in the dance, which makes the dance so “hot”. As the dance is that of lead and follow, the couple apparently flows together as one body moving to the music. Yet, beneath the surface lies a constant tension, a game of courtship. Here, I use Huizinga’s concept of play to derive my analysis. The man woos the lady with his charm while he dances, showing off his confidence and style while leading her like a gentleman; the lady may choose to accept the “courtship” or play hard to get and challenge him with moves of her own. As the leader brings the follower into a series of steps, he challenges her to the moves, and she accepts the challenge by executing the variations he leads. However when they dance, they are not merely executing variations or choreography, for that would be “boring”, as stated by advanced dancer Zach. Rather, what is essential to the play and makes this dance unique is that the teasing reactions are on the spur of the moment; i.e., they are not choreographed but spontaneous. The dancers taunt and tease each other throughout the variations executed: one dancer would give the other a cheeky look as he/she suddenly does a sharp turn or a body-wave, hoping to catch his/her partner by surprise and gain the upper hand in their play. The other may choose to respond with something of his/her own, or choose not to do anything and keep a cool face, seemingly unfazed by it[7]. As it can be seen, the “play” within the dance causes impromptu and spontaneous interactions amongst the dancers, which is similar Finnegan’s analysis of the Jazz musicians who improvised the music during their performance: “composition in performance” (127).

In sum, the essence of Salsa lies in its play. Rather than merely displaying their sexual prowess, the dancers turn it into a game, involving not just their partners, but also the audience. In doing so, they break the mundane seriousness of the dance (which otherwise may be called exercise) and have spontaneous “fun”. And since this dance is merely a game, it is acceptable to openly “flirt” with different people throughout the night. Many dancers actually “play” at seducing their partners and then give a cheeky look or laugh to indicate that this is just a game, and that they are not really flirting but merely frolicking.

This game of Salsa is an established convention that Salsa dancers learn as they advance in their learning. What is interesting is that the teachers actually do teach their students how to play the game. In one of my observations of Salsa classes, I see the teacher explaining to her students that they should either tilt their chins down or up and not keep their head straight when they look at their partners because the former conveys a certain “attitude” and character to the face while dancing which the latter lacks. She also instructed the men to look at the women and smile “as though you care for her deeply” but not stare at her constantly as that would frighten her. Salsa Instructor Josh also taught his student to wink at the audience during a competition, clearly recognizing the “play” at work with the audience. The play within the dance helps to construct the identity of the individual. As there are many ways in which one can “play” while dancing, it encourages individuality and a personal character to develop.


Restrictions bounded by the Structure
So far, I have shown how the Salsa dance and its social conventions have molded the concept of originality and creativity within the dance. The fact that one seeks different people to dance with in a night causes one to differentiate oneself from others both within the dance – through the selection of variations, styling, shines, the commoditizing of oneself and the concept of “playing” – and outside of it – through the mastering of cultural capital within the club. The expectations of creativity within the dancing is strong as Jeff, a club owner remarks,
"Salsa dancers like to tease and play, and also shock others too, with unique and moves. Some men like to ‘fake’ a variation, to trick the ladies, others like to stop suddenly in their movements to test the ladies’ sensitivity in their following, some ladies like to suddenly do a ‘butt-up’ (a styling that requires a sudden bending down that sometimes startles the men; i.e., their partner suddenly ‘disappears’ to the floor) or a head toss (another styling that requires the hair to whip in a circle). Other people like to use moves from hip-hop, belly dance, or tango to add twists to their moves, and the audience watching the dance likes it because we get to see something different. Sometimes, the shocked look on their partner’s face is also very fun to watch, especially when the girl suddenly pushes the guy away and goes into her shines."

Ironically, these expectations also limit the depth of individuality and creativity within the individual. No matter how creative they are, the dancers still do have to abide by the rules of the dance. The men still have to lead the women; the women still have to follow the men. Although there are times when each can take a break from leading and following respectively when they choose to do so, they cannot bend the rules too often or they will be considered a “spoilsport” in the Salsa game (Huizinga). Rather than going against the rules, salsa dancers seek to find their individuality within the dance instead. The advanced dancers frequently use styling. The reason this is so is because styling is incorporated in addition to the lead and follow. One must be able to style without affecting one’s lead or follow; the style is meant to beautify the dance and not to impede its flow. Advanced dancers who have a better grasp of the fundamental lead and follow techniques can therefore style to beautify their dance, while it may not be in the beginner’s capacity to do so.

Furthermore, even though the promotion of creativity is strong within the culture, in reality, many dancers imitate other better dancers both in Singapore and outside of it. Like fashion, Salsa follows trends and these trends are set by the well-known dancers and copied by the rest. This concept of individualism is a moving target, since others will imitate a good move that is created. As such, one is constantly pursuing new moves and the self is always under construction through the re-forming its image and identity. Although creativity and originality are bounded by the rules of the dance, they still serve to add individuality to the dancers and improve their confidence because the scope and style of Salsa within the boundaries of its rules is very broad. An individual can and does construct an identity not only by creating something new, but by also choosing the styles that he/she wants to adopt. In this sense, Salsa as a game has strict rules, but there is genuine freedom within the rules whereby styles are constantly created.


Conclusion
The analysis of the social dance shows how the identity of the Salsa dancer is shaped. In this essay, I drew out the much taken for granted factor of changing partners within the club, and showed how this influenced the style of Salsa and propagated individuality and creativity within the dance. Naturally, as with all social settings, this is not the only factor that creates the strong thread of originality within the dance, but I feel that it is a factor worth considering because it shows how the simple rule of “changing partner” can affect tonality of the Salsa dance.


Bibliography

Becker, Howard S (1982). Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press).

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Finnegan, Ruth (1997). “Music, Performance and Enactment” Consumption and Everyday Life, ed Hugh MacKay. London: Sage Publications, p113-158

Giddens, Anthony 1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Hall, Stuart (1992). “The Question of Cultural Identity”, Modernity and its Futures, ed Stuart Hall, David Held and Tony McGrew. Cambridge: Polity Press in Association with the Open University, p273-325.

Hanna, J. L. (1988) Dance, Sex, and Gender: Signs of Identity, Dominance, Defiance, and Desire. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Huizinga, Johan (1955). Homo Ludens; A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston, Beacon Press.

Kroeber, A L (1963). Anthropology: Culture Patterns & Processes. New York, Harcourt, Brace & World.

Manuel, P. (1994). “Puerto Rican Music and Cultural Identity: Creative Appropriation of Cuban Sources from Danza to Salsa", Ethnomusicology 38, p. 249–280.

McRobbie, Angela (1984). “Dance and Social Fantasy”, Gender and Generation ed Angela McRobbie and Mica Nava. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan; Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Distributed in the U.S.A. by Humanities Press

Portes, A. & Truelove, C. (1987). “Making sense of diversity: research on Hispanic minorities in the United States”, Annual Review of Sociology 13, p. 359–385

Rose, Nikolas (1998). Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood. London: Cambridge University Press.

Rostas, Susanna (1998). “From Ritualization to Performativity: the Concheros of Mexico”, Ritual, Performance, Media, ed Felicia Hughes-Freeland. London; New York: Routledge, p85-103
Royce, Anya Peterson (1977). “Symbol and Style”, The Anthropology of Dance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p154-174.

Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Waxer, L. (2002). Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin American Popular Music (New York and London: Routledge

End Notes:
[1] The two Salsa Clubs are the only two clubs in Singapore that has Salsa everyday. My observations were mainly on Friday and Saturday nights, where the club is at its most crowded. Occasionally, I went to Union Square on a Tuesday where it is beginner’s night.
[2] I sat in and also participated in the Salsa schools’ weekly basic classes, intermediate classes, advance classes, styling classes and shines classes. While both schools wished to remain anonymous, one of them is the largest Salsa school in Singapore, boasting more than 10 instructors and clocking on average 3,000 student-hours a month.
[3] The names of my informants have been kept anonymous and fictitious names have been used.
[4] Throughout the essay, I use the term “partners” meaning a person’s partner for one dance because most people do not have constant partners but find different people to dance with throughout the night.
[5] Refer to above for explanation of shines, styling, etc.
[6] However, one has to note that for a dancer to look good and confident while dancing, he/she needs to be proficient in leading or following to a certain standard before being able to really be in control while dancing.
[7] These were actions that were both observed and experienced in the salsa clubs.

PS: My final essay for the University... Could be better, as they alwiz can, but the best I could come up in the time I had.

Salsa – The Game of Playful Seduction

What is it about Salsa that makes it so “hot”? Why is the dance so popular? Here, I seek to explore why…

In this junction, it is important to describe the Salsa dance. Salsa is similar to Ballroom social dancing in the sense that it is a lead and follow dance, with the male typically leading and the female typically following his lead. The leader dances with the female as an extension of his body. His task is to direct her into a series of steps that incorporates spins and footwork. The follower must flow with him by following his push or pull, spinning when he spins her, stopping when he stops her, moving when he leads and waiting when he does not lead her. The crucial element in Salsa is that it is not choreographed: the leader may execute different steps as and when he wants to, and the follower is expected to go with his lead even if is it variations that she has never done before. If we see the dance as a game to be played, the ideal scenario is for the leader to direct her clearly and flawlessly into variations while executing his own steps and for the follower to follow his cue without struggle and in total compliance with his lead. Both may execute additional steps of their own to beautify and personalize their dancing (common term used is Styling), but they have to find an opportune moment to deliver it because it must not affect the lead or the following, which will disrupt the dance. Even so, there are many times when the dance is intentionally disrupted and the dancers break apart and dance separately (this is called Shines). Although the dancers appear to be dancing on their own with their bodies no longer in physical contact, they still maintain connection with their eyes. This happens for a few seconds and then they come back together again when the leader picks the follower up and leads her once again. In sum, the rules of the game differ for the leader and the follower. The former sets the pace and the latter complies with it. This is the bottom-most layer or what can be considered the ground rules for the dance. (physical sphere?)

There is a second layer involved within the salsa, which in my opinion, makes Salsa a dance rather than merely a series of steps to be executed. The factor that differentiates any series of steps from aerobics, martial arts and dance is the mind, which somehow labels salsa as “dance” rather then a form of aerobics or martial arts. The mind acknowledges Salsa as a form of dance due to its aesthetic appeal and the feeling of fun and enjoyment that is involved in the dance. There is something that the mind relates to so that all those dancing and watching the dance actually associate themselves with it. In Ballroom dancing and Ballet the dancers are focused onto a far-off something, a dreamy realm of fantasy or creation that they play in their minds as they sashay around the dance floor. This creates the dreamy, illusive and ethereal atmosphere you feel when you step into a Ballroom or watch a ballet performance. The dancers flow as one, melting together to form a series of fluid movements that delivers the body elegantly in consonance with their dreamy fantasy. In these dances, the mind is deported into an alternate realm of dreamy, almost surreal and timeless fantasy that somehow dominates the western forms of dance (so that it’s not explicitly sexual and thus appropriately suitable).

Salsa, however, takes on a different mental approach. In contrast to Ballet’s and Ballroom’s ethereal overtones, the Salsa dance revels and thrives in the present. There is no “far-off something”, nor a timeless quality that the dancers project out in Salsa. It is realistic and authentic, sometimes explicitly so. As such, those that embrace the sub-culture are acutely aware that Salsa is a sexy dance, which involves close body contact, and these people thrive in the realism of it. They daringly embrace and explicitly acknowledge the sexual overtones in their dance by maintaining eye contact while sexily dancing, constantly challenging and teasing their partners and the audience. It is a common saying that “Dancing Salsa is like doing it right on the dance floor”. This bold front is one of the attractions of the dance: those who Salsa, dare. So as Salseros, they are a different breed of people who are not afraid to embrace their sexuality, and in their dancing, confidently flaunt it.

With this concept in mind, we can now explore how these dancers express themselves in the dance, which makes the dance so “hot”. As the dance is that of lead and follow, the couple apparently flows together as one body moving to the music. Yet, beneath the surface lies a constant tension, a game of courtship. The man woos the lady with his charm while he dances, showing off his confidence and style while leading her like a gentleman; the lady may choose to accept the “courtship” or play hard to get and challenge him with moves of her own, etc. As the leader brings the follower into a series of steps, he challenges her to the moves, and she accepts the challenge by executing the variations he leads. However when they dance, they are not merely executing variations or choreography, for that would be boring. Rather, what is essential to the play and makes this dance unique is that the teasing reactions are on the spur of the moment; i.e., they are not choreographed but spontaneous. The dancers taunt and tease each other throughout the variations executed: one dancer would give the other a cheeky look as he/she suddenly does a sharp turn or a body-wave, hoping to catch his/her partner by surprise and gain the upper hand in their play. The other may choose to respond (retort?) with something of his/her own, or choose not to do anything and keep a cool face, seemingly unfazed by it.

In sum, the essence of Salsa lies in its play. Rather than merely displaying their sexual prowess, the dancers turn it into a game, involving not just their partners, but also the audience. In doing so, they break the mundane seriousness of the dance (which otherwise may be called exercise) and have spontaneous “fun”. And since this dance is merely a game, it is acceptable to openly “flirt” with different people throughout the night. Many dancers actually “play” at seducing their partners and then give a cheeky look or laugh to indicate that this is just a game, and that they are not really flirting but merely frolicking.

As can be seen, there is a sort of dual layer to the dance: 1) the ground rules of Salsa which establishes the fundamental physical techniques of how to dance, and 2) the second layer which sets the cultural norms of how to behave while dancing. These two are the socializing “norms” within the dance, and they work together – usually cohesively and sometimes destructively – to form the dance we call Salsa within the context of Singapore. The latter occurs when the ground rules are sacrificed for the fun of the game; e.g., the follower disrupts from following the leader by pushing him away or refusing to take his hand, teasing him and playing “hard to get”. However, this form of play cannot be done too frequently or she will be seen as being a “spoil-sport” by not allowing her partner to play the game.

Discliamer: This is only a very, very rough draft, so please don't quote me on this... It will be subjected to a lot of change.