I went to Kayaköy art camp (Fethiye, Oludeniz) during summer. I chose salsa dancing as my workshop because I used to do ballet and I have always loved dancing. There were seven more campers who chose this workshop. Our supervisor, Mr. Alican, was a salsa teacher who was teaching salsa as a hobby. During the first week, he taught us the basic steps in salsa. I learned that there are several types of salsa. The most common ones differ in the way basic steps are counted. There is On1, known as the LA style; and On2, known as Mambo or NY style. In On1 salsa, the first basic step of the man is forward but in On2 it is backwards. Despite the difference, both are danced to the 123, 567 counts with holds on the 4 and 8 counts of music. At first, it was a bit confusing for me to spot their difference but now I am quite clear. We danced On1 and in order to get familiar with the steps, we had to repeat them again and again. This was very tiring at first because each lesson lasted 2 hours. Each of us had a partner to practice, but sometimes we had to dance pretending to have a partner. I learned the side rocks, back rocks, basic guapea and basic steps as a beginning. Since I play the piano, my musical aptitude is pretty good. Thanks to that, I did not have any trouble catching the rhythm. After we finished the basic steps in the first two lessons, we started to practice the turns. It was difficult to coordinate with my partner sometimes because unlike the steps, we had to do different moves while performing a turn. I had to give a signal to my partner during the men’s turns and similarly my partner had to give a signal to me before leading me to do my move. We completed the first week after practicing the beginner moves and turns. Our supervisor told us that we will use these moves in the upcoming show.
Area: Action
Hours Completed: 12
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