Q&A with Duncan...
My name is Duncan. I have been teaching Salsa for 14 years... when I was at university I was doing a bit of DJing
and one evening the Dance Teacher didn't turn up. So, I was talked into filling in. The teacher then didn't
turn up again... so I carried on... and it kind of grew from there!
- Do you offer private lessons?
Yes. I've experience of doing this for individuals, couples and small groups. Please
contact me directly if you are interested in these.
- Do you do private party bookings?
Yes; as I started out as a DJ you also benefit from my experience playing music and setting up
good quality mood lighting to fill a large venue (a step up from the tacky disco lights of many mobile DJs). Please
contact me directly if you are interested in these.
- I've never danced before, can I still come to your classes?
Yes. Generally, the classes are designed for everyone to enjoy.
We cover different things every time
so that people who have come before and new people can learn together.
- What does this mean if I've danced before?
A lot of my experienced dancers keep enjoying these classes for a long time
because they find there is still
a lot of benefit from improving their basic skills of timing, musicality, leading, following, creativity, linking,
etc.
- Do you teach lots of routines?
I have been teaching Salsa for over many years and feedback from students
has taught me that people want to learn more than this. I have responded and developed a teaching style
based around basic dancing skills - this is how professional dancers learn and you deserve the same!
You will find that after a few weeks you will be able to improvise moves and sequences even though we've
not specifically learnt them. There are some good reasons for learning routines (and we will do them sometimes)...
but it is like learning to read whole sentences before
you can read individual words. When learning to read your long term aim is to get used to jumbling all the words
up to make new sentences. So, learning to read generally starts with individual words,
then builds from very short sentences, and then onto
longer sentences. I mimic this proven approach to learning with the way I teach dance.
- What should I wear on my feet? I recommend: comfortable, secure and
slippy. Comfortable means you are used to wearing them (so don't get special dance shoes you are not used to or you'll
be learning two things at once... to dance and to move in your new shoes). Secure means they won't slip off your feet while
dancing and also that they will allow your shoe to move exactly as your foot does (so your initial movement is not wasted
by flex in the shoe... for example flip-flops are a bad choice). Slippy means that it slips on the floor a bit (for example trainers are not very good because they tend
to stick to the floor too much).
- Can I come to your classes on my own? You are welcome to come on your
own. About 1/3 of people in my classes come on their own, 1/3 come with their partner and 1/3 come with friends.
- Will we learn routines?
We have a routine-section to most lessons (fun performance routines done
as a class) which last about 5-10 minutes. For the rest of the class the emphasis is generally on
improvisation-skills which (in the long-term) is how people dance as they get better. We will cover
"routine segments" which you can drop into your dancing, but I always encourage my students to find
creative ways to link these and vary them to respond more creatively to the music.
- Will we learn really cool advanced stuff?
You don't actually need advanced moves to enjoy dancing socially.
However, lots of people want to learn them anyway so they can be flash and fancy!
In Improvers Classes we will sometimes look at more advanced things...
it involves a lot of effort for a relatively small benefit, although it is nice to have those
"icing on the cake" moves to drop into your dancing sometimes.
- So, what kind of advanced moves do you teach?
I like to teach travelling turns in a cross-body lead,
which can be combined to make really flash sequences (typical Strictly Come Dancing stuff
that students normally recognise from the TV). Sequences of spot-turns are also nice -
not so flash but for the people dancing they have an amazing flow -
and they are increasingly not being taught any more in Salsa so it is nice to have some retro-moves
that other people haven't seen before! Also, we sometimes spend some time on drops and leans (and other
static-moves).
- Is this your job? Sort of! However, I am also a
Maths Tutor in the Romsey area... this might seem a bit odd but
they are both about teaching and I find my skills cross-over a lot between the two jobs.
- Can't see a question you are wondering about on here? All
the questions on here are questions I've been asked... and I'm happy to add more if you can think of them!
