Louis Tirado: Salsa made Simple **/***

Customer Reviews

**** out of ***** stars Review by Fabio SalsaIsGood

When it comes to salsa DVDs from NY we are used to admiring slick dancers, perfect technique, super refined style, dazzling spins and the avant-garde of artistic development. It is not a surprise then that if you happen to travel and dance in NY you may initially feel quite intimidated. In the introduction of this DVD Louis seems to imply that this is not the salsa he likes best. He misses spontaneity in the local clubs he claims and it is this spontaneity he wishes to deliver with his teaching. As the title suggests, Louis also promises such spontaneity via a simplified approach to salsa. Many instructors before have attempted to make salsa ‘easy’ and you may have reasons to be cautiously sceptical. Nevertheless, as long as you do not expect miracles, Louis delivers on his promise. His teaching is to the point and the conciseness allows him to pack a considerable amount of material at a reasonable pace. Basically, all you need to be an intermediate NY style dancer is covered here provided you already know the basics steps. The teaching is clear with sufficient attention to detail on the fundamentals of leading and following. The purists will notice that several technical details are not covered but this is in line with the spirit of the teaching method.

One interesting feature sets the production of the DVD apart from all others I have seen: while the dancers demonstrate the turn patterns, subtitles at the bottom left and right of the screen show the timing and the action of both dancers. I think this is a very clever idea, possibly hard to follow in real time, but extremely useful in slow motion; I believe beginner dancers will really enjoy this feature.

If you follow and practise the material in this DVD you will find yourself managing basic steps, cross body lead with inside turn, basic turns, several checks, hammer lock and reverse hammer lock, some hand drops and a couple of copas, enough to dance for hours and have fun. This DVD won’t make you look flashy, but will let you get going quite quickly.
(Posted on 3/9/2011)