dance styles - cuban salsa

Cuban Salsa 3 | Higher-Intermediate

What can you expect in Level 3?

The goal of Salsa 3 is to teach you to dance to Timba music, which is modern salsa music that is inspired and influenced by all the AfroCuban & Bailer populares dances such as son, rumba, chacha, etc..

In this level you can expect…

Every new student must go through a quick test before joining our Salsa 3 classes. Check below to see the requirements for Salsa 3.

How to join?

Before joining Salsa 3, we ask all current & new students to come for a 15 min free feedback session where we can allocate you to the most suitable level in DanceDifferent.

Requirements to join Salsa 3

Below is a list of what we expect you to know & what we test for before moving you to Salsa 3. Each one of the points in the list are taught in our Salsa 2 syllabus.

For people that are new to our dance school, we do not require you to know any of the “figures” we teach in Salsa 2. What we test for is technique & your ability to lead & follow at a high enough level.

This is also why our Salsa 2 syllabus is based more on leading & following skills, rather than figures. You may demonstrate your dancing level using any figures outside of our syllabus, having said so, the figures we have selected to teach in Salsa 2 are carefully picked to be well suited for learning the specific skills that are being taught in every class.

First of all…

Begin with the following list and check that you are comfortable with what is written below. Everything in this list is taught in our Salsa 2 classes.

Body movement

1️⃣ Know how to correctly shift your weight from foot to foot while bending the correct knee.
2️⃣ Combine this with the correct chest movement.

Basics of Rumba

1️⃣ Know what is Rumba.
2️⃣ Basic step with basic body movement: bounce, weight forward, arms moving to the correct sides.
3️⃣ Cachan step.

Basics of Son

1️⃣ Know what is Cuban Son & how to change from dancing “on tiempo” (salsa rhythm 1,2,3 5,6,7) to “contra tiempo” (son rhythm 2,3,4 6,7,8).
2️⃣ Be able to stay in the contra-tiempo rhythm for at least a little bit. No need to be 100% comfortable dancing contra-tiempo.

Musicality

1️⃣ Understand that Salsa music tends to be broken down into “blocks/sections” of 4 eight counts.
2️⃣ Know that major changes in music tend to occur between these sections.

Rueda

We need everyone who joins Salsa 3 to know the following Rueda figures:
1️⃣ Enchufala con dame.
2️⃣ Directo.
🙎🏼‍♂️ Leaders: 3️⃣ Dame 4️⃣ Dame dos 5️⃣ Dame por abajo (also referred to as dame por arriba).
👩🏼‍🦰 Followers: 3️⃣ Escape 4️⃣ Escape por abajo.

Skills

You don’t need to be able to do all of the following things perfectly. But we should see that you understand and are comfortable with at least half of the following skills and you are “working on” the rest: