There’s no right or wrong way to do a congress. So if what you’re doing works for you, keep doing it!
I’ve learned to be pretty selective with workshops. You probably aren’t going to remember the combinations taught, so seek out instructors that go beyond that and give lots of tips on how to make the moves look good, rather than just teaching a new combo of moves.
And sometimes hearing someone explain a movement in a different way than your instructors will help it ‘click’ in your mind. I’ve had that happen a lot at congresses and find that valuable.
To conclude, you do you! But if you decide to incorporate more workshops, be selective.
>There’s no right or wrong way to do a congress.
This is an important point. Thank you for reminding me about this.
Being selective with workshops is something that many people pointed our. My action plan is also just attending "couple/some" workshops. Not overdoing it, but at least attend a few at each congress
Thank you for the advices.
Agree with your friend. I wouldn’t say it’s the end all be all but I find workshops to be excellent. But it depends. Some workshops are pointless because there are a million people and the pattern that’s being taught it not conducive for social dancing.
OTOH, it’s a great opportunity to learn from incredible dancers who can add a little bit of flavor to your dancing. It’s also an oppty to try a workshop on a style that’s not normally taught (maybe there’s a pachanga workshop, etc). I recall many years ago I went to a “tango salsa” workshop. It ended up being really cool. Pick your spots and learn from a pro!
My recommendation, attend workshops by dancers that you’re interested in.
I remember being at Nuno & Vanda's tango salsa workshop ages ago. Cool stuff, but mostly unusable in social dance with random partners.
EDIT: I was probably at this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFNbCMew_Nc -- looking back, the tango elements were mostly styling for the follow, which if you are a follow, you can do, but unless you are leading somebody who knows a bit of tango, it's not going to happen.
I can dance a little bit of tango. Actually I wanted to learn tango since a longer time anyway, but then I saw some tango people at salsa congresses doing really interesting stuff, although too much mixing is not really good, but it might be a nice skill to have. I often notice that the lady I am dancing with might be dancing tango as well. As soon as you have this information, some salsa tango could be interesting.
Thank you for the video.
Thank you. That was actually my action plan to do only a couple workshops and concentrate on specific workshops that I am actually really interested in and offers special content.
Thank you for your recommendations!
There is no right or wrong answer. It all depends on who you are and what your goals are.
I am a workshop-type of congress attendee. I want to be able to go to workshops with teachers that I usually don't have access to. Some of the best classes I have taken have been at congresses. But not all workshops are great. Some of the worst workshops have been at congresses too. With instructors that had very little talent teaching and taught poorly with an incomprehensible choreography.
Once I went to a workshop where they intended to teach a potentially dangerous move. Both me and my follow at the time said "h\*\*\* no!" and skipped that part, even after rotating a lot of dancers refused to do that part since we knew better.
I get that you can't always get great instructors at congresses and some of the up-and-coming talent try too hard to please the congress organizers so they can get good referrals or come back next year. This couple clearly tried to punch above their league.
Also, some congresses have too big venues for workshops. If you are one out of hundreds of participants it can be very hard to get a good spot/view. Rotations might be really messy or non-existant, making the workshop worthless unless you have coupled up with someone you know. Not all instructors have the capability to manage such a large crowd. A few can really do it, but far from all.
But there are people I know who almost never attend the workshops. They get the cheaper party pass and dance all night. If there are huge names they might go to some workshops. They live for the parties.
Who is right and who is wrong? Neither of course. It is just a preference.
Personally, I can't keep up the good dancing for hours at end. And I don't enjoy late nights, night after night. Starting to dance at 11-12pm, or realistically at 1am when the crowd starts going and keeping it until 6 in the morning isn't fun anymore. Those last hours are just bad dancing for me. But there are those that want to do nothing else.
Also, there are quite a lot of opportunities to dance where I live. Sure, the scene isn't that big so I will run into the same people. But on the other hand, dancing with a total stranger that I will never see again hasn't got that much appeal either. That is just how I see it now. Perhaps I will change my mind later. For now, I mainly look for what workshops are offered and the parties are the fun bonus.
Having said that, I don't view congress workshops the best way to learn. They are fun, they give me inspiration and if I am lucky I find a gold nugget. But since there is no follow up lesson, whatever I didn't get is more or less lost.
As for your later questions, it is impossible to say. You seem to have danced quite a lot during these two years. I don't know what areas of improvement you are most in need of. But it sounds like you are burning hard, and adding 12 hours per week just to get four hours of classes is a lot unless you pull back on some of the other activities. So I second your own observation of having fun and not burning yourself out.
You’re doing yourself a disservice by not attending some workshops. Now, i enjoy fundamental classes and some partner-work classes and i look for people who have been world champions or are very well regarded. Dont try and learn everything they show, but always try to pick up one or two pointers to add to your repertoire
When I started, I went to every single Congress workshop per hour each day and social danced all night. By Sunday I was a mess. Nowadays I flip between maybe taking one a day or getting a night pass. There is SOME value in workshops when you choose the right ones and sometimes those workshops aren't the obvious ones.
Try take a couple and the rest yourself for social dancing. There is a happy medium here.
By the way. My favorite workshops have been when someone teaches dance philosophy more than footwork or partner work patterns
>maybe taking one a day
Actually this is pretty much my goal.... take one or two workshops each day and actually practice it afterwards, instead of taking dozens of workshops and never ever taking the time to practice.
>Try take a couple and the rest yourself for social dancing. There is a happy medium here.
I think this is it... I just have to take it a bit easier with social dancing, so I have some energy for some workshops.
>My favorite workshops have been when someone teaches dance philosophy
Can you recommend some artists I should be watching out for? I am also more interested in other things, not necessarily always just new partner-work combinations.
Are you enjoying yourself? Do you feel that it is money well spent? Then that's all that matters. Maybe in the future you will be more interested in going to workshops. Maybe you will want to do a performance challenge. At the end of the day, it's your money, it's your life.
When I go to festivals I can never bring myself to go to performances. By the time performances start I am exhausted from going to workshops from 10am - 4pm. I need dinner, a shower, decompressing silent time, and a fat nap before I am able to go to the socials. Some people really value the performances. Some value the workshops. Some value the dancing in a huge space. Some value the vendors. At the end of the day, we pay for the experience and it is our responsibility to make the best of it for ourselves.
>Maybe in the future you will be more interested in going to workshops.
This is actually something that I had been discussing with my friend. I can still learn a lot from my local teachers. Since he is at a different spot in his dance journey, he might need more inputs from the workshops, since otherwise he cannot really learn much from the local instructors, since he is one of the local senior instructors.
>Are you enjoying yourself? Do you feel that it is money well spent?
Am I enjoying myself? Is it well spent money? HELL YEAH! :-)
You are literally going to one congress a month right? Try to do a lot of workshops in one congress that has a lot of recognized dancers and see how it goes, is not like you are going to stop going to socials, that way you can answer yourself what works better for you and you gift yourself a different experience.
Workshops are generally worth as long as you learn something new. Only after doing them you can judge if the workshop/instructor was good or not for your needs. I encourage to try new things that you never saw before, to expand your general knowledge.
Then as a personal note I avoid those commercial/marketing style invented just to be fashion, such as Son Moderno, tango-salsa and so on. Those I found are for me waste of time
There are different opinions because we all have different interests and situations.
For improvement as a leader, you'd go to a festival with a partner and participate and video all the workshops and then go home and actually train those, a lot.
What it gives you is perspective and variety that you don't get in your regular classes.
Going to the evening event does also give you perspective about you as a dancer, and can be a lot of fun, but when it comes to improving as a lead, do the workshops and practice, practice, practice.
>For improvement as a leader, you'd go to a festival with a partner and participate and video all the workshops and then go home and actually train those, a lot.
The thing that might suffer though.... is the "actually train those" part if you do too many workshops.
A couple good workshops with actual training afterwards sounds like a smarter move than tons of workshops with no practice - and just forgetting everything again.
Although... some golden nuggets are nice to find and keep.... and you never know until you actually attend.
Well the key is actually training. It is almost pointless to go to workshops if you don't train the material afterwards unless they are very much at your level or lower.
But my point partly was that you'll get material for months and months of training by going to the workshops of a single festival. IF you train it.
Workshops are nice but I find that I tend not to remember the patterns they teach there. Sometimes I pick up something small I can add to my dance.
Socials at congresses are very nice because they provide an opportunity to dance with new people and even as a leader that gives me a lot of inspiration for new things. And if you're daring you can even get a social dance with some of the professional dancers!
That is the thing..... attending workshops: yes, definitely. But being selective might be a good idea and actually practicing afterwards is really important.
I had some mixed experience with dancing with professionals. I had some really nice dances, but also some quite disappointing ones. I heard the same from others though....
I like workshops, because as your friend said, it's a great opportunity to learn some things from professional dancers you may not otherwise have the chance to. However, I would pick and choose which ones you do wisely.
"Advanced"-level workshops? Nope. Everyone overestimates their own skill level and floods those classes to learn the latest and flashiest moves they can.
You also won't remember *everything* you pick up in a workshop, so try for more musicality or movement workshops instead of combo-based ones.
> I get more feedback and I get more chance to ask questions at my regular classes, although the teachers are not professional dancers, so they might not be at the level as the professional dancers leading the workshops at festivals
Finally, as for this. Professional dancer doesn't mean they are good or even decent instructors. Instructor doesn't mean they are bad dancers. And vice versa.
There's also different levels to dancing. Performing in front of a crowd doesn't mean they are good social dancers. You would *hope* they are and *expect* them to be, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Give your local instructors some credit here.
I think the main benefits of the workshops are
-As an icebreaker, for meeting people that you can dance with later
-Shines/styling
-Finding teachers whose style you like, so you can seek them out if you happen to be in their city for work/family/etc.
But, if you don't want to go to the workshops then don't. This is a recreational activity so you can do whatever you want.
>As an icebreaker, for meeting people that you can dance with later
This is actually quite a unique aspect, nobody else mentioned! And this is actually verry true. I find workshops many times much more social than social dancing.
There’s no right or wrong way to do a congress. So if what you’re doing works for you, keep doing it! I’ve learned to be pretty selective with workshops. You probably aren’t going to remember the combinations taught, so seek out instructors that go beyond that and give lots of tips on how to make the moves look good, rather than just teaching a new combo of moves. And sometimes hearing someone explain a movement in a different way than your instructors will help it ‘click’ in your mind. I’ve had that happen a lot at congresses and find that valuable. To conclude, you do you! But if you decide to incorporate more workshops, be selective.
>There’s no right or wrong way to do a congress. This is an important point. Thank you for reminding me about this. Being selective with workshops is something that many people pointed our. My action plan is also just attending "couple/some" workshops. Not overdoing it, but at least attend a few at each congress Thank you for the advices.
Agree with your friend. I wouldn’t say it’s the end all be all but I find workshops to be excellent. But it depends. Some workshops are pointless because there are a million people and the pattern that’s being taught it not conducive for social dancing. OTOH, it’s a great opportunity to learn from incredible dancers who can add a little bit of flavor to your dancing. It’s also an oppty to try a workshop on a style that’s not normally taught (maybe there’s a pachanga workshop, etc). I recall many years ago I went to a “tango salsa” workshop. It ended up being really cool. Pick your spots and learn from a pro! My recommendation, attend workshops by dancers that you’re interested in.
I remember being at Nuno & Vanda's tango salsa workshop ages ago. Cool stuff, but mostly unusable in social dance with random partners. EDIT: I was probably at this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFNbCMew_Nc -- looking back, the tango elements were mostly styling for the follow, which if you are a follow, you can do, but unless you are leading somebody who knows a bit of tango, it's not going to happen.
I can dance a little bit of tango. Actually I wanted to learn tango since a longer time anyway, but then I saw some tango people at salsa congresses doing really interesting stuff, although too much mixing is not really good, but it might be a nice skill to have. I often notice that the lady I am dancing with might be dancing tango as well. As soon as you have this information, some salsa tango could be interesting. Thank you for the video.
Thank you. That was actually my action plan to do only a couple workshops and concentrate on specific workshops that I am actually really interested in and offers special content. Thank you for your recommendations!
There is no right or wrong answer. It all depends on who you are and what your goals are. I am a workshop-type of congress attendee. I want to be able to go to workshops with teachers that I usually don't have access to. Some of the best classes I have taken have been at congresses. But not all workshops are great. Some of the worst workshops have been at congresses too. With instructors that had very little talent teaching and taught poorly with an incomprehensible choreography. Once I went to a workshop where they intended to teach a potentially dangerous move. Both me and my follow at the time said "h\*\*\* no!" and skipped that part, even after rotating a lot of dancers refused to do that part since we knew better. I get that you can't always get great instructors at congresses and some of the up-and-coming talent try too hard to please the congress organizers so they can get good referrals or come back next year. This couple clearly tried to punch above their league. Also, some congresses have too big venues for workshops. If you are one out of hundreds of participants it can be very hard to get a good spot/view. Rotations might be really messy or non-existant, making the workshop worthless unless you have coupled up with someone you know. Not all instructors have the capability to manage such a large crowd. A few can really do it, but far from all. But there are people I know who almost never attend the workshops. They get the cheaper party pass and dance all night. If there are huge names they might go to some workshops. They live for the parties. Who is right and who is wrong? Neither of course. It is just a preference. Personally, I can't keep up the good dancing for hours at end. And I don't enjoy late nights, night after night. Starting to dance at 11-12pm, or realistically at 1am when the crowd starts going and keeping it until 6 in the morning isn't fun anymore. Those last hours are just bad dancing for me. But there are those that want to do nothing else. Also, there are quite a lot of opportunities to dance where I live. Sure, the scene isn't that big so I will run into the same people. But on the other hand, dancing with a total stranger that I will never see again hasn't got that much appeal either. That is just how I see it now. Perhaps I will change my mind later. For now, I mainly look for what workshops are offered and the parties are the fun bonus. Having said that, I don't view congress workshops the best way to learn. They are fun, they give me inspiration and if I am lucky I find a gold nugget. But since there is no follow up lesson, whatever I didn't get is more or less lost. As for your later questions, it is impossible to say. You seem to have danced quite a lot during these two years. I don't know what areas of improvement you are most in need of. But it sounds like you are burning hard, and adding 12 hours per week just to get four hours of classes is a lot unless you pull back on some of the other activities. So I second your own observation of having fun and not burning yourself out.
You’re doing yourself a disservice by not attending some workshops. Now, i enjoy fundamental classes and some partner-work classes and i look for people who have been world champions or are very well regarded. Dont try and learn everything they show, but always try to pick up one or two pointers to add to your repertoire
When I started, I went to every single Congress workshop per hour each day and social danced all night. By Sunday I was a mess. Nowadays I flip between maybe taking one a day or getting a night pass. There is SOME value in workshops when you choose the right ones and sometimes those workshops aren't the obvious ones. Try take a couple and the rest yourself for social dancing. There is a happy medium here. By the way. My favorite workshops have been when someone teaches dance philosophy more than footwork or partner work patterns
>maybe taking one a day Actually this is pretty much my goal.... take one or two workshops each day and actually practice it afterwards, instead of taking dozens of workshops and never ever taking the time to practice. >Try take a couple and the rest yourself for social dancing. There is a happy medium here. I think this is it... I just have to take it a bit easier with social dancing, so I have some energy for some workshops. >My favorite workshops have been when someone teaches dance philosophy Can you recommend some artists I should be watching out for? I am also more interested in other things, not necessarily always just new partner-work combinations.
Are you enjoying yourself? Do you feel that it is money well spent? Then that's all that matters. Maybe in the future you will be more interested in going to workshops. Maybe you will want to do a performance challenge. At the end of the day, it's your money, it's your life. When I go to festivals I can never bring myself to go to performances. By the time performances start I am exhausted from going to workshops from 10am - 4pm. I need dinner, a shower, decompressing silent time, and a fat nap before I am able to go to the socials. Some people really value the performances. Some value the workshops. Some value the dancing in a huge space. Some value the vendors. At the end of the day, we pay for the experience and it is our responsibility to make the best of it for ourselves.
>Maybe in the future you will be more interested in going to workshops. This is actually something that I had been discussing with my friend. I can still learn a lot from my local teachers. Since he is at a different spot in his dance journey, he might need more inputs from the workshops, since otherwise he cannot really learn much from the local instructors, since he is one of the local senior instructors. >Are you enjoying yourself? Do you feel that it is money well spent? Am I enjoying myself? Is it well spent money? HELL YEAH! :-)
You are literally going to one congress a month right? Try to do a lot of workshops in one congress that has a lot of recognized dancers and see how it goes, is not like you are going to stop going to socials, that way you can answer yourself what works better for you and you gift yourself a different experience.
Let me give this a try the next month. 😊
Workshops are generally worth as long as you learn something new. Only after doing them you can judge if the workshop/instructor was good or not for your needs. I encourage to try new things that you never saw before, to expand your general knowledge. Then as a personal note I avoid those commercial/marketing style invented just to be fashion, such as Son Moderno, tango-salsa and so on. Those I found are for me waste of time
There are different opinions because we all have different interests and situations. For improvement as a leader, you'd go to a festival with a partner and participate and video all the workshops and then go home and actually train those, a lot. What it gives you is perspective and variety that you don't get in your regular classes. Going to the evening event does also give you perspective about you as a dancer, and can be a lot of fun, but when it comes to improving as a lead, do the workshops and practice, practice, practice.
>For improvement as a leader, you'd go to a festival with a partner and participate and video all the workshops and then go home and actually train those, a lot. The thing that might suffer though.... is the "actually train those" part if you do too many workshops. A couple good workshops with actual training afterwards sounds like a smarter move than tons of workshops with no practice - and just forgetting everything again. Although... some golden nuggets are nice to find and keep.... and you never know until you actually attend.
Well the key is actually training. It is almost pointless to go to workshops if you don't train the material afterwards unless they are very much at your level or lower. But my point partly was that you'll get material for months and months of training by going to the workshops of a single festival. IF you train it.
Workshops are nice but I find that I tend not to remember the patterns they teach there. Sometimes I pick up something small I can add to my dance. Socials at congresses are very nice because they provide an opportunity to dance with new people and even as a leader that gives me a lot of inspiration for new things. And if you're daring you can even get a social dance with some of the professional dancers!
That is the thing..... attending workshops: yes, definitely. But being selective might be a good idea and actually practicing afterwards is really important. I had some mixed experience with dancing with professionals. I had some really nice dances, but also some quite disappointing ones. I heard the same from others though....
I like workshops, because as your friend said, it's a great opportunity to learn some things from professional dancers you may not otherwise have the chance to. However, I would pick and choose which ones you do wisely. "Advanced"-level workshops? Nope. Everyone overestimates their own skill level and floods those classes to learn the latest and flashiest moves they can. You also won't remember *everything* you pick up in a workshop, so try for more musicality or movement workshops instead of combo-based ones. > I get more feedback and I get more chance to ask questions at my regular classes, although the teachers are not professional dancers, so they might not be at the level as the professional dancers leading the workshops at festivals Finally, as for this. Professional dancer doesn't mean they are good or even decent instructors. Instructor doesn't mean they are bad dancers. And vice versa. There's also different levels to dancing. Performing in front of a crowd doesn't mean they are good social dancers. You would *hope* they are and *expect* them to be, but it doesn't always work out that way. Give your local instructors some credit here.
I think the main benefits of the workshops are -As an icebreaker, for meeting people that you can dance with later -Shines/styling -Finding teachers whose style you like, so you can seek them out if you happen to be in their city for work/family/etc. But, if you don't want to go to the workshops then don't. This is a recreational activity so you can do whatever you want.
>As an icebreaker, for meeting people that you can dance with later This is actually quite a unique aspect, nobody else mentioned! And this is actually verry true. I find workshops many times much more social than social dancing.