Ironically, you’ve been learning dance in exactly the wrong way. Being able to dance well in a Dance Lesson (or dance troupe) environment is only somewhat correlated to being able to dance well in a salsa club. To use your karate analogy, going to a salsa lesson is equivalent to mastering several Kata; going out dancing at a club is like fighting off a dojo of ninjas with your kung-fu skill. In my own case, I took about four semesters of dance classes before I took the plunge and went out dancing. I quickly realized that while my skills were marginally transferable, I was essentially at the bare-beginner level. Terrorized, I would have abandoned the hobby if it weren’t for the fact that I’d made a lot of friends in my dance class and they made me go out again and again.
Fast forward to present day, and I am usually recommended as the best or one of the best dancers in any venue I go to. I use a standard repertoire of less than 10 moves: Woman left turn, woman right turn, hammerlock turn (behind the back), man right turn, cuddle step, slingshot (not sure the name), a reverse (just undo what you last did), and a pause. I also have half a dozen “flair” moves which can be used in combination with any other moves: kick, body roll, arm flair, body shake, arm wrapping, a twist, and a halt. There’s also a handful of special moves like dips, lifts, and leans. That’s it. In total, it’s a significantly smaller move-set to learn than your average Street Fighter or Soul Calibur character. An extremely advanced dancer might have a significantly expanded move-set, but the sum total of all salsa moves is really quite limited. Learning the moves took about a month of going out; learning to do them well is still ongoing after several years of dancing.
A common problem in dance class is that little understanding is given into why certain combinations or flairs work. As a result, each 20 second sequence is it’s own little ritual which cannot be deviated from. Few instructors explain that if you do a clockwise turn on a girl, you should do a counter-clockwise turn to untangle the arms (or turn yourself clockwise to match). Instead you’re given a dozen different routines which all just happen to pair the same two moves together with some different filler in between. In any other field, the worthlessness of these instructions would be readily apparent. Can you imagine trying to learn Spanish by memorizing every possible phrase, instead of being taught how to conjugate verbs and attach adjectives? The best dance class I ever took (later on) was simply free dancing where an instructor oversaw and gave input. If only I’d been to that class first!
You have trouble with learning long, arbitrary sequences of things. You know it’s a weakness and it’s not benefiting you. So just stop doing that. If your goal is possible, then something else will lead you there.
Ironically, you’ve been learning dance in exactly the wrong way. Being able to dance well in a Dance Lesson (or dance troupe) environment is only somewhat correlated to being able to dance well in a salsa club. To use your karate analogy, going to a salsa lesson is equivalent to mastering several Kata; going out dancing at a club is like fighting off a dojo of ninjas with your kung-fu skill. In my own case, I took about four semesters of dance classes before I took the plunge and went out dancing. I quickly realized that while my skills were marginally transferable, I was essentially at the bare-beginner level. Terrorized, I would have abandoned the hobby if it weren’t for the fact that I’d made a lot of friends in my dance class and they made me go out again and again.
Fast forward to present day, and I am usually recommended as the best or one of the best dancers in any venue I go to. I use a standard repertoire of less than 10 moves: Woman left turn, woman right turn, hammerlock turn (behind the back), man right turn, cuddle step, slingshot (not sure the name), a reverse (just undo what you last did), and a pause. I also have half a dozen “flair” moves which can be used in combination with any other moves: kick, body roll, arm flair, body shake, arm wrapping, a twist, and a halt. There’s also a handful of special moves like dips, lifts, and leans. That’s it. In total, it’s a significantly smaller move-set to learn than your average Street Fighter or Soul Calibur character. An extremely advanced dancer might have a significantly expanded move-set, but the sum total of all salsa moves is really quite limited. Learning the moves took about a month of going out; learning to do them well is still ongoing after several years of dancing.
A common problem in dance class is that little understanding is given into why certain combinations or flairs work. As a result, each 20 second sequence is it’s own little ritual which cannot be deviated from. Few instructors explain that if you do a clockwise turn on a girl, you should do a counter-clockwise turn to untangle the arms (or turn yourself clockwise to match). Instead you’re given a dozen different routines which all just happen to pair the same two moves together with some different filler in between. In any other field, the worthlessness of these instructions would be readily apparent. Can you imagine trying to learn Spanish by memorizing every possible phrase, instead of being taught how to conjugate verbs and attach adjectives? The best dance class I ever took (later on) was simply free dancing where an instructor oversaw and gave input. If only I’d been to that class first!
You have trouble with learning long, arbitrary sequences of things. You know it’s a weakness and it’s not benefiting you. So just stop doing that. If your goal is possible, then something else will lead you there.
That sounds encouraging. Thanks! By slingshot you probably mean a cross body lead?