Why do people give up salsa?

T

tchaguito

New Member
Why do people give up salsa for good or at least temporarily?
Here are some reasons I came up with:

-people who begin a relationship with someone who could not care less about dancing
-Boredom. Few places to choose from, and repetition of the same venue over and over again (in small scenes, naturally)
-Dissatisfaction for the salsa environment. People who find in it a dominant group culture, elistism and snobbery.

What are your views?

Tiago
 
People who have a child... they have the tendency of leaving the scene one the child is conceived.

People who have a relationship in the local that ends badly (if they blame it on the other).

People who have a more demanding job and cannot go to clubs anymore, not to mention dance lessons - my best friend is like this. :(. But she goes out every now and then... not "entirely lost for dancing".

People who don't adjust to the Salsa scene.
 
Example (from my experience): I had a new students, she seemed like a very nice girl (too aggressive, but helpful and willing to know us better). I and my partner have this sort of "group" of students and assistants and anybody can join it. We go out together (Salsa and non-Salsa related), organise parties and generally have fun. She seemed to want to become a part of this group, stayed with us for beers after class, went to Salsa club with us, invited us for parties at her place.

Even I (who didn't like her at the beginning) had started to accept her and even like her. Suddenly, scandal breaks out! This mutual friend (part of the group) gets all angry and starts telling the gang how this woman has a habit of talking behind one's back... that she said all kind of bad things about people in the group to their closer friends... actually she "implied" more than "stated" things... and some other started to raise their voices and say she'd been doing the same in their presence. She was no longer welcome. We didn't throw her out (as she deserved) and preferred to give her the cold shoulder. She gave up coming to the lessons first and then even calling us. We hardly ever saw her again. She's not going out with us nowadays anymore.
 
A tiring job might be a very good excuse for a while. Sometimes things just doesn´t fit together :?
 
tj said:
Welcome to DF, Nikita!

In some ways, people get bored with salsa, too. Just like someone can get bored with any hobby.
Click to expand...

But isn't salsa less prone to boredom than a conventional hobby?
 
tchaguito said:
tj said:
Welcome to DF, Nikita!

In some ways, people get bored with salsa, too. Just like someone can get bored with any hobby.
Click to expand...

But isn't salsa less prone to boredom than a conventional hobby?
Click to expand...

I'd say it depends on the individual... (note that since we're pretty fanatical about our salsa passion, we'll be more likely to stick thru with it)
 
I don´t know how to explain. I think for people, for which salsa is just a hobby- they will disappear sooner or later from the scene. The moment they found something else.
For me salsa is passion, attitude, a way to express my life.. I really can't imagine any reason, do stop dancing salsa completely.
Short breaks sometimes are not to avoid. Job, health, kids...But it's temporary.
 
from my experience there are certain "dance groups"...

Salsa, WCS, AT, Lindy, Ballroom (there may be more)

people who like Salsa, WCS, AT, Lindy really like to stick to that genre. they may move in and out of the others but generally return back to that dance (or form of dancing).

Ballroom dancers get bored with just one dance and like to mix it up between several forms of dancing that may or may not include Salsa, WCS, AT, and Lindy.

i for one get bored dancing one style of dance all night long. if i hear latin music over and over i like to have it broken up with some "American" music (Blues, Rock, whatever) but the same goes the other way... if all night is one foxtrot after another i really welcome a Salsa or ChaCha to break up the monotony.
 
nikita said:
I don´t know how to explain. I think for people, for which salsa is just a hobby- they will disappear sooner or later from the scene. The moment they found something else.
For me salsa is passion, attitude, a way to express my life.. I really can't imagine any reason, do stop dancing salsa completely..
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Well said, Nikita! People, for whom salsa is as I have said before, a way of life and a way in which to view the world and your place in it, don't usually give it up. People who see it as a neat little hobby will sooner or later give it up and move on, and that's fine too. Hobbyists don't usually get too deeply into the musical aspects of salsa, just the dancing, the mechanical aspects. I don't think less of those people, it is what it is, salsa is whatever you want it to be for yourself.

But, I think salsa is like flamenco in that certain people are called to it, in almost a spiritual way. It's something you are born with. In flamenco, it's called the "duende". You either have it or you don't. Here's a definition of duende lifted from a flamenco website:

"The mysterious and indescribable spell or trance of cante, dance or the playing of the guitar". This rather poetic expression tries to describe the power or magic which is assumed to be essential to flamenco"

Well, there is no test to see if you have the duende, it is evident in your actions, in your passion, in everything you do. If you don't have the salsa duende you can still feel it's magic, you can still enjoy it, but then you will probably move on one day. I personally think that those that do have the salsa duende never give it up. Even I was paralyzed, god forbid, one day, I still wouldn't give it up, because it lives inside me. For people that have the salsa duende, they don't just have passion for only the dance aspect of salsa, or just the music part, they have a lust for every part of salsa, dance, music, cultural, spiritual, everything. People who integrate all these different parts into their lives are not prone to giving up salsa, for any reason.
 
Like Squirrel suggested, I left the scene because I had a child. The Latin Music scene is intoxicating. It's a long life passion that intensifies in the beginning but gradually decreases with responsiblities, life choices and locality. I spent 13 years in the scene, left, and after raising my kid, I return for a visit only to see how different the scene has become. People no longer dance with anyone. Everyone is a professional so to speak, and the lifestyle was gone, replaced by competition and spandex. The music scene has it's cycles and era formed by each new generation. What is boring to someone like me can be exciting to a 20 year old. And I'm only in my 40s. A lot of my reasons for not going out was stated on another thread..it was having to do with the sitting arrangements at a nightclub. I refuse to spend over 50 dollars for myself and have to stand up all night long.
 
The not sitting is an "American" thing... It is done purposely to keep people moving around and socializing with each other. "Forcing" people to do that which they otherwise wouldn't sitting down.

In a latin country there is more emphazis on sitting than there is on not, for us latinos dance 'till the wee hours of our age, where as in American culture a person is "forced" to out grow the club scene which is completely different than that on a latin scene. It is comon to visit a repectable latin club and see people of all ages enjoying the night without all the tabloid material following them home as a 50 year old married american person would, it is simply not acceptable; latinos, we got to shake until we break it, whether our mate is there or not. This opens up a can of worms with the jealous type though.

I think it fascinating to see the union of cultures in a melting pot.
 
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