CLASSY CLASSES
A measure of the quality of salsa teaching
by Nick Child
Serially using my facebook "What's on your mind" box (from 30 June 2009), I praised all salsa teachers for dedication to a good cause. This is a summary of that list of praises drawn from one class I go to.
It would be silly not to tell you who the teachers are and give them credit. But my main aim is to raise general awareness of standards, not publicise a particular class. Other teachers may be just as good or better. With this list, you can judge that for yourself.
THE CLASSY CLASSES LIST
Taken all together and in my opinion and in my (naturally limited) experience, this list puts Lloyd and Carol Ann’s Monday classes very much above average. They do classy classes. The world doesn't need to like them or their style, or want to be like them, but dancers and teachers do need to know quality when it's there.
The list could also be about any style or partner dance, and any other classy teacher's classes. That is, it's meant to be transferable, a general benchmark that can be used to measure all teaching by.
Put your teacher's name/s in here and see how far it works. Add in extra things they do well. Other teachers may be as good or better. Now you've got a way to tell! Remember that's the main point of it all.
1. Lloyd and Carol Ann are two top class teachers for the price of one.
2. Not only two teachers, but a constant extra team too with Jennifer for a warm reception (chat and laughs!) and Donna assisting and teaching as well.
3. Two teachers means properly integrated, richer teaching for both men/leaders and women/followers.
4. Two teachers means both leaders and followers have someone to watch and model themselves on. So students learn extra things they're not overtly teaching about - things like application, passion, aspiration, commitment, poise, movement, attitude, stories, partnership.
5. Both regularly go to international salsa congresses to bring back high quality, fresh, cutting edge salsa and teaching for us.
6. They can teach up to the most advanced techniques and moves, but remain equally enthusiastic for their beginners.
7. They obviously meet each week beforehand to prepare their teaching plan for the evening – they even have it written down to refer to.
8. The prepared teaching plan integrates from beginner levels through to advanced, so you can bridge across levels on the same evening. Two classes don't cost double and you're allowed to do more than you've paid for if you feel you can manage the level.
9. The prepared teaching plan integrates with what you've learnt in previous weeks, repeating patterns so that they get familiar, and adding variations and new bits each time. It's a formula that makes it as coherent as a course, but you can join in at any time - and you can drop in and out as well.
10. But, for beginners, they do run courses that give cumulative learning with people you get to know, and no newcomers each time.
11. At any level, if you choose your right level, you can be sure that your class will be at that level.
12. They give "5 for the price of 4" offers which gets one class free, means you don't need to bring cash every week, and encourages regular attendance. Other classy classes will give other deals: eg free first time then a booking that means £1.25 per class!
13. Hassle-free payment - Jennifer looks after that when she welcomes you at the front door. So collecting money doesn't eat into class/tuition time.
14. The private venue means there are no gawpers while you learn.
15. They ensure a non-judgmental culture which all students respect and no one ever judges someone else for not getting everything right.
16. They create a very friendly atmosphere; group nights out are often organised.
17. The prepared classes are rich and challenging. You get lots more salsa to learn here than in others that I know of (or have taught myself). But with this planned and integrated teaching, and with students willing to learn, it certainly can be done. Only some will be up for this; others will prefer to pay more for less with other teachers. But - with any teacher - it's best to try them for more than just a first visit.
18. Though their classes are challenging, the teachers are fun, supportive and constructive, they give and take banter and (contrary to some rumours!) they're certainly not "frightening"! They ask your name, remember it, and use it.
19. When they see that students are not getting some aspect of their teaching, they take responsibility; they don't "blame" or give up on any student. They work on it so that next week they will have improved the move or their teaching of it.
20. As a more advanced student you are welcomed to come for free and "help out" in the earlier classes. But you find that, even then, you're improving basics and learning new moves. Note that this is true for me even though I've been dancing salsa for 11 years, teaching it for 6 years, and going to their classes for 3 years!
21. They teach body movement, music, and musicality - you know, the tum-ba:o, the clave, the melody, the phases of a song, the breaks etc. So you learn how to listen to and interpret the music in your dancing.
22. With Donna helping, Lloyd and Carol Ann give everyone personal attention, watch you, dance with you, and give you individual help and tuition.
23. They ask for and welcome feedback and suggestions from students - and then they use them.
24. They teach shines that they integrate into the turn patterns for that class or otherwise explain their use or purpose.
25. They are passionate about it. They teach CBL On1 until Edinburgh catches up with their favourite, On2. They've been committed over many years to its teaching and development. But they know that some people do better with other styles or other teachers.
26. They don't do it for the money, but even when a teacher is doing it for money, it's important that they keep their love of it going like this.
27. They welcome other promoters to their venue and put out flyers from any other club night and venue.
28. They are extra-ordinarily reliable - in organising classes, in being there, in keeping you informed, and in keeping to task and to time in the classes.
29. Though they're so organised and reliable, they don't seem hassled or tense about it. They always enjoy teaching you. In contrast, when I teach, I stress more about far less.
30. They run effective web page and emailings, along with other services like selling CDs and shoes, and coordinating congress bookings. Have you tried doing that sort of thing? It's an achievement in itself.
31. They organise a regular friendly event, the Salsa Lounge (1st Sunday of the month at 28 York Place) that caters specially for CBL styles and those learning them.
32. This might seem a boringly obvious point, but isn't it rare to have a venue that is not a freebie in a bar, with the risk of losing it sometimes or for good? By paying for it, they have established a secure and good quality venue (for classes and event) with free iced water in the room, and a cheap bar upstairs too.
33. Amazing and probably unique: For every class, they video the turn pattern and moves they've taught. Then they absolutely reliably send it a couple of days later by email to all those who attended that class. So you have a permanent resource to help remind you ever after what you can do.
34. Other classy classes will likely have other unique features. Here are some: the (un-video-able) quality or content of the teaching at beginner and/or advanced level; the fun and entertainment of a charismatic teacher; the learning from studying a fabulous dancer who may not be very good at the actual teaching process itself; the steady reliable teaching of less challenging ways of dancing; the attractive welcoming personality (see 35) who provides a great social life around the classes. All these may be unique and valued to make a class classy - whether or not they tick lots of the boxes listed here.
35. (Filipe emphasises No 2) A warm personal welcome and goodbye make a big difference. Usually that requires a team to do it. Especially for events (cf classes) a team is also required to support that rare but important factor: a good MC to give it a personality and help punters feel they're more than just bums on seats . . . or feet on floors in our case!
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FURTHER THOUGHTS
BACKGROUND
For a decade I have tried to serve a good overall salsa scene in Scotland and Edinburgh. I run Salsalink and the Scottish Salsa Network for teachers and organisers. For example, see http://groups.google.com/group/SalsaLink And click to the Pages there too.
I teach (mainly Rueda), run a Cuban event (Malecon Matinee), and have developed the easiest salsa for everyone to join in (Salsa Ceilidh). For example, see the MM Group on facebook, and www.salsaceilidh.com.
But I prefer to learn than to teach. Most of all, I just like to dance. In order to dance even more, I’ve kept learning in all styles and none.
For years I couldn't think how to raise awareness of quality in salsa teaching. Salsa teachers, in Edinburgh at least, tend not to praise or publicise themselves - nor to publicly criticise other teachers. That's good for friendlier relations, but it dumbs everything down.
So I say someone needs to speak about it. But if I were to have asserted in the past what an ideal class should look like, it would have been far too abstract, arrogant and annoying to everyone.
Then I started going to Lloyd and Carol Ann's Monday class in York Place, Edinburgh. They were actually doing all that I would have said was ideal - and more than that.
So this was not abstract. To describe it would not be arrogant, and it shouldn't be annoying. It's just a fact that should be known about.
Next, along comes facebook with lots of salseros there. So that was the opportunity to share it - and off I went!
I'm still likely to have annoyed people though. If so, remember it's not Lloyd and Carol Ann but me that you need to be irritated at. They had nothing to do with it, except to take the credit and be an actual example of high standards.
LOVE AND MONEY
To summarise the whole list, I would repeat No 1: Two top class teachers for the price of one. For them though, it's just normal to teach like this, not something special.
About "the price": the classy classes list describes the most professional teaching you could get. "Professional" usually means you do it for money. But if you think about it, Lloyd and Carol Ann will make only enough to cover their costs. They do all this for love not money.
All salsa teachers work unsocial hours so that we can play and learn. Teachers work for love and/or money. Both love and money are valuable motives. Work out what your teacher's "love and money" is like. The universal £5 per class masks big variations in what you get and where it goes. Working for money sometimes takes the joy out of it.
Some teachers, DJs, and organisers earn their living by it - your money is their income. Many salsa teachers, DJs and organisers have "day jobs" and do it for love. They may turn any extra income back to our benefit, eg into their CD library, or running congresses even.
People need to be able to earn a living in salsa. Part of what keeps salsa mediocre is that salseros like it being free, and teachers do it too much for love. But (see No 26) even if a teacher is doing it for money, it's important that their love of it keeps going!
COMPLAINTS?!
Any complaints about L&CA's classes? Yes actually.
No 1. I wish they (or anyone classy) would give up their day jobs, shout about themselves more, and take Edinburgh salsa to classier heights. But if this was their living, we'd have to flock in larger numbers to their classes and events, or we'd be paying a more realistic higher price for them. And then maybe they'd lose their passion for salsa through worrying about money. In which case, it's been important for someone else to shout about their classiness now! Mind you there's nothing to stop us flocking to their classes anyway!
No 2. The student still has to work hard! How come they've not invented an injection or brain implant to make it easier for us to learn and remember things?! ;-)
No 3. They don't teach Cuban style. But then nor do they teach flower-arranging or accountancy. ;-)
No 4. They stop for the summer. But I reckon that, despite their extraordinary classiness, they must be human really. And no one can be this good and please everyone all the time! :-)
A BENCHMARK FOR ALL
Even if I've missed things, the list is now there for everyone to apply to their class or teaching as a benchmark of what quality looks like. It is hard for students or teachers to talk about standards in the disorganised world of salsa. I'm pleased at last to find a place, a reason, and a way to say all this. If people are irritated by me, that’s a small price to pay.
Students and teachers can now run through the classy classes list to "tick" what they similarly do in their classes. They can note what they do differently or better - and, if so, tell the rest of us please. And teachers can note what they might like to do to get better.
If you tick even half of the list, then your classes are pretty good, I'd say.
Of course you'll look elsewhere if you want to learn a different style. Of course it would be unreasonable, where the teacher is earning a living from it, for your average small class (ie 20 not 200) to support two professional teachers. Of course you can learn lots from a singleton brilliant or charismatic dancer; for example, Cuban teachers often dance brilliantly but don't always teach too well, yet it is still worth breathing the same air and watching them like a hawk to learn what they do.
However, you might also want to come and try these "benchmark" classiest classes for yourself. For details of the Monday classes, including videos of what they teach - and evidence that students learn it - go to:
http://www.mambolloyd.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/4c.html
PUBLIC STANDARDS IN SALSA
Lloyd and Carol Ann demonstrate above all that being a good salsa teacher is much more than being a good dancer. Of course they're qualified, which means a teacher has some skill and back up. But lots of salsa teachers join the UKA or whatever - on its own, it doesn't mean a lot. My list here gives you a better measure of actual quality.
This use of facebook could be a good way to market something. But that's not my motive. Lloyd and Carol Ann were as unprepared for this facebook serial as anyone! I'm praising any and all teachers because I know what it takes to do it. I'm listing what L&CA do as a high benchmark for all teachers to aim for. I am using, not publicising, L&CA's classes. They've not given me a word or a penny towards this!
It's unavoidable that as soon as anyone can put three steps together they feel free to set up as a salsa teacher. That's just how it goes, and there's nothing wrong with enthusiasm. But neither the teachers, nor their students, have any way of rating what qualities make a good teacher or class.
Describing informally what good teachers do - like this list does - is the only way to create a more discriminating culture for those teaching and learning salsa. And, yes, I think it's crazy that people don't get to hear about the best, so they don't know to come to try it!
The implication of this list is that anyone and everyone else is invited to praise their teachers and identify their good practices. I certainly do not want anyone to start being negative and critical of anyone's teaching. Anyone who teaches salsa is part of the diversity of salsa, and deserves praise!
And another thing while I'm at it! I'm on public record in support of diversity and fun of any kind in salsa - including "Messing About Salsa" in social dancing clubs. I'll dance with anyone! So there's absolutely nothing wrong with people just having fun without going to salsa classes.
But I know that there are quite a few regular social dancers who are really missing out on even more fun because they haven't been to at least a few more salsa classes. Any kind of extra salsa teaching would let them have a more relaxed and enjoyable dance with more people and more styles. Edinburgh would then continue to be even more enjoyably mediocre and friendly, as well as become a classier place to dance salsa!
Nick Child
July 2009 (Added to October 2010)
You can find versions of the facebook list and discussion also on:
http://www.mambolloyd.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/