Learning to Dance Salsa
A little while ago, at the strong urging of an acquaintance, I started learning salsa. Up until then, I had had absolutely no connection to dance. I never went anywhere near even the dances of HOT and GOD, which supposedly everyone who spent their teenage years in that confusing turn-of-the-millennium era tried imitating at least once. Still, deep down I was confident I would do well. That’s because I trusted the knack I’d built up from all my years of working out. “Since everyone’s arms, legs, and joints are put together pretty much the same way, how different could it really be?”
But by the third week of lessons, I could no longer avoid the painful truth. My talent for dance didn’t even reach average. As it turned out, that great workout knack I’d boasted about was nothing but a horrible dead weight. No matter how I moved, the movements that had become ingrained in my body through years of exercise kept popping out, and when they combined with my clumsy salsa moves, the result was a hideous hybrid of a dance. Even so, there was one thing I was sure of: namely, that this was exactly how NOT to dance. As a result, with every move I had no idea whether I was doing it right, and I ended up losing all confidence and flailing about. Just as I thought this was the end of it…
Unexpectedly, I wound up joining the beginner class’s performance team. I had no choice, out of a sense of obligation. After the two months of lessons end, they take volunteers from among the students to put on a performance, and there were far fewer male volunteers than female ones. With all the camaraderie we’d built up together, how could I turn my back on them? I was worried about my embarrassing skill level, but on the other hand, I had this thought: “A performance is really just stringing together the moves we’ve learned and dancing them well, so if I keep at it, it’ll somehow work out, right?” It didn’t take long to realize what a foolish thought that was.
Beginner class or not, a performance is still a performance. From the very first session, faced with one high-difficulty choreography sequence after another that I’d never seen or heard of before, I had no idea where or how my arms and legs were even moving. After scrambling through the first rehearsal, a sense of crisis came over me that this wouldn’t do. But what other choice did I have? If you don’t have talent, all you can do is work hard. I resolved to memorize the entire choreography right then and there. After all, if I memorized everything and followed along, even if I couldn’t do it exactly, I could at least get close, right?
Of course, it was no easy task. I watched the video again and again. That’s how I memorized the dance moves second by second. As I went about it, mastering a mere 10 seconds of choreography required an hour of practice. By the time I finished, it was 3 in the morning. I was thoroughly fed up with how terribly inefficient it was. Still, there was a payoff. I no longer wavered, not knowing where to put my hands and feet. Now I just had to do it as I’d memorized it. My body didn’t always move exactly the way I’d memorized, but at least I had established a principle for how I should move.
That said, I hadn’t suddenly become a master. Since I had memorized the moves just by watching the video without understanding anything, the whole thing was riddled with things I’d memorized wrong from the start. The rough movements of other workouts ingrained in my body weren’t easily corrected either. By any generous measure, it was not the beautiful, subtle line of salsa. Still, the fortunate thing was that now I could finally correct things one by one. If the fixed principle I always followed was wrong, then the next time I could establish a different principle and move accordingly. I practiced like this, staying up all night, for two weeks.
And finally the day of the performance came, and I pulled off every move without a single mistake. What came over me was a sense of fulfillment, and a thrilling sense of elation. So does that mean I became a dance master? Of course not. The line of my dancing is still horrible. But the one thing I can say with confidence is that I’ll get a little better bit by bit. Because I’ll move according to my principles, and if they’re wrong, I’ll fix them. Of course it won’t be easy, and I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. Even so, since dancing is fun, I’m willing to gladly take it on. Finally, I’d like to once again express my gratitude to everyone who was with me all the way up to the performance.
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