Partnering Dancing

Willy, my dance collaborator, amazing performer with extensive training in Contemporary and African Dance, does not have experience with social dancing, and that is why I am particularly interested in exploring with him salsa and other partnering dance styles. My intension is not to teach him how to dance salsa, or merengue, but to witness a body making choices within a foreign territory. I have noticed that no matter the movement background and the long term experience in dancing, keeping the ongoing pattern of the lower body within the rhythm, independently from the interaction that is happening with the other person in the upper body, it's always a challenge.

I learned how to dance latin styles and particularly salsa at a young age in my country Colombia. I never took a dance lesson for that. The skills were gained by dancing in parties and gatherings, and by interacting with other bodies in "real time".  Back then social dancing was a fundamental part of social life. I studied in a "girls only" school until I graduated from high school, so my interactions and connections with boys throughout my teenage years happened almost exclusively in parties and through dancing. The gender roles in dancing were very strict and well defined: Females would wait until a male invited them to dance, and males lead, while females follow. It would basically mean that as a female you would have to always listen your partner's movement proposal,  process the information, and accept any movement initiative that the male would generate by delivering with your body the expected movement or some movement would matches his own.

Sometimes when I have explained "the follower role" to people that did not grew up in the culture of social dancing, the idea of being a follower arises strong reactions while they perceive the movement power dynamics, as unfair. I can see why, and I understand the social and political connotations of someone having to follow over and over someone else's ideas with out a space to disagree or state openly their own statements. However, there is little in this world that gives me more pleasure than following a good salsa partner.  I feel complete freedom in my 'submissive role" of doing what my partner is asking me to do. I feel relieved from having to answer the question "what to do", while I am only focusing in how to do it. I can direct my attention in little details such as delaying an action (that I am not even been very concious about what it is), to hit an accent in the music, or making a decision about how much strength or resistance I am going to bring into the "conversation", or how much weight I am going to release to my partner at any given movement. I can also chose not think anything at all, just listen to the music while paying attention to my partner's body. I is like a guessing game. The What is often not part of my experience, nor are the specifics about the movement or the space in relationship to the directions in which I am turning, nor what arm or leg I am using at any given time. All of that is taking care for me by my body/non conscious brain. My body knows better than my conscious mind how to handle that, so I don't have to think rationally to be able to  deliver a movement while in this context, it just happens automatically. I could think rationally about what I am doing, but I don't have to, and I am often amazed by the level of difficulty in the tasks that my body performs while salsa dancing without the help of my rational brain. It feels like having the chance to experience the joy of movement without having to even think about it. So putting that rational brain on pause, definitely feels like a liberation instead of a subjugation.

But pausing that rational brain and trusting the body you are interacting with takes time. I have noticed that the issue is precisely overthinking about what is happening. Throughout the weeks Willy is starting to trust and allow his body to take control over the situation. It is very interesting when we arrive into blurry places where the partnering is something in between contact improve and social dancing. Those are the events I am interesting in capturing in the piece: Physical interactions that are stylistically undefined and that can belong to more than one place.