Take a look at this Salsa video. I like these dancers a lot and I watch their videos. It is fun to watch them dance.

At 0:44 he starts to describe how to lead a behind-the-back turn, in Swing called a Texas Tommy. I have a fondness for this, because it was one of my Dad's moves.

Watch his explanation and see if you can see what is wrong before you read on.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtWyfFWfrA

This is not a criticism of these teachers, because I think they are good teachers and I learn a lot from them. This is illustrative of a problem with how social dancing is taught in general.

When it comes to communicating, literally, people often do not know what they are doing. People do not understand the subconscious clues they use to communicate.

Consequently you get instruction that is incorrect and does not work. This causes all kinds of problems, including injuries, conflicts, frustration, slow progress and people dropping out.

Communicating unambiguously with your dance partner is simple, if you know how. It takes time to train your body to do it automatically, but you can learn the principles of how to communicate every step in every social dance in only a short time.

I often find communicating with beginners easier than more experienced dancers, because beginners have not learned a lot of unnatural things that create problems.

Have you figured out yet what is wrong with this instruction?

I was taught this move in Swing exactly like it was taught here and I could not do it. My head kept getting in the way and we were always slow.

At 0:46 he tells you to reach behind the woman's back and switch hands.You have to bend over the lady to reach both hands behind her at the same time. If you try to do that, you can bang heads.

At 0:51 he tells you to pull on the woman's hand to unwrap her. You cannot unwrap the woman in time to the music in this position. She will turn late. Plus it is dangerous. Look at the position of the woman's arm and shoulder. If a lot of men pull on a lot of woman's hands in this position, some women are going to end up with sore shoulders.

He does not do the things he says he is doing. There is no problem with their dancing. He signals the move correctly. You can learn how to signal the move by doing what he does, not what he says.

Watch the first ten seconds of the video and see if you can figure out how the behind-the-back turn is led.

Have it yet?

Now stop the video at 0:07. Look at the woman's hips and shoulders. The woman is already turning. Now look at the man's right hand. He has not yet made contact with the woman's right hand, so he could not possibly have led her to turn by pulling with his right hand on her right hand behind her back.

Stop the video at 0:08. The woman has already turned nearly 180 degrees when he makes contact with the right hand.

The correct explanation is you must signal the woman to turn before you switch hands. You use your right hand to catch the woman's right hand behind her back to reconnect after she has already begun turning.

How you create the turn is up to you. There are many ways, but one way you do not signal the turn is by pulling the woman's right hand behind her back.

Note: In fairness to the Salsa instructors, it took a lot of effort to make these videos. They do a great service to the dance world for making them available for free. I certainly appreciate their efforts. Anybody's work, whether videos or articles, can easily be picked apart by critics for flaws. There is an obligation by the student to attempt to understand the meaning of the instructor and look for what is right, not what is wrong in the instruction. In this case, I am using this video to illustrate a problem in all social dance instruction and not to find fault with these excellent instructors.

By Andrew Weitzen, Bronze Inc. (c) 2010

Andrew Weitzen is the author of Partnership Dancing™, How to Communicate Every Step in Every Social Dance Unambiguously.