I am glad to have you here! In this blog I will talk about five different reasons a follow can be out of balance when dancing kizomba, salsa, bachata or any other partner dance and how to fix it. So, make sure you read to the end!

Feet are too far apart in taps
When you tap and you place your feet too wide, you will have some weight on both feet. When you have weight on both feet it means none of them is free to move. And, as soon as you get the signal to move, you will have to put weight on your partner to be able to take that step.

Or you will need to first transfer it 100 % to the other foot to be able to move. And if you do this you will become slow. 

So, always tap with feet together. In general, try to collect your feet under your body as much as possible.

Not walking on a line
When I say walking on a line, I actually mean walking just outside that line.

The inside of the feet are touching on that imagined line. Walking like this moving forward you are in balance...

We all know it. Some people start teaching very early. They have just finished a beginner course. Others even earlier, watching a few clips on youtube they start teaching as they are learning. Not the best way to start, but I believe there are reasons to start early, while you are still very new to the dance, and to be honest, also pretty ignorant about it.  But I will come back to those reasons. 

However, I don't believe there are reasons to stay in that ignorance. I strongly believe that if you want to teach, you need to learn a lot. And there are many reasons to take a teacher training. If I didn't believe that I would be pretty stupid to have taken five different teacher trainings myself. 

Yes, you can be a natural talent. You can learn very fast how to teach. Or maybe you already have the pedagogical skills and just need to learn the dance skills. I believe it is possible to become a great teacher without it. But, a teacher...

Very often people say: "Music is the Master", meaning we have to follow the music. So, if the music is very energetic, we should dance in a very energetic way, for example. But there is one thing that can be even more important than the music when it comes to how we dance.

How crowded is the floor? Sometimes it is impossible to truly follow the music when we dance, because if we did, it would be mayhem on the floor.

We need to adapt to our surroundings and all the couples around us. We have to make sure what we do is suitable for the environment. This is what floorcraft is about - to make sure dancing is enjoyable and safe for everyone. Even if I mainly dance kizomba, kizomba fusion, salsa and bachata, this text is adapted to fit for pretty much any dance. 

This is an excerpt from one of my books - "The Secrets of Social Dance - How to Become a Popular Dancer" which you can find on Amazon.

Floorcraft is the art of adapting your dance to what your...

I am a dancer, and I am a teacher. I dance salsa, bachata, kizomba, kizomba fusion and semba and I give classes and online courses in kizomba and fusion. And I want to tell you something very important. Are you ready?

Teachers are just like everybody else! They are not superhuman. They are not more special than anyone else. The same rules apply to them as to everybody else. This also means that they deserve the same respect.

This is an excerpt from a bonus chapter of one of my books - "The Secrets of Social Dance - How to Become a Popular Dancer" which you can find on Amazon.

Here are some facts:

• Teachers also like to dance. Don't be afraid to invite a teacher to dance, no matter your level. Dressing up, going to the party and feeling ready to dance and then no-one dares or wants to invite you is not fun for anyone, including teachers. Please feel free to ask!
• Teachers also need to rest. It happens that teachers have the problem of not being invited, but...

Nice to have you here! 
This text is for both leaders and followers - it is about communication in dance, about rough leading and what followers can do to avoid it. 

Couple dance is like a language.
There is no doubt about it. When we dance, we communicate. We speak a language. And when we speak this language, there are words, expressions, sentences and grammar that we use. Every move we make sends a signal, like a word or a sentence, that has to be interpreted. And we both interpret different signals. The leaders start the interaction, but it is not just the follower who is listening and interpreting. The leader has to listen and interpret the response from the follower all the time. 

Different languages
Each dance genre is its own language in a way, even if many dances follow similar rules, just like languages do.

One of the most beautiful things about couple dance is that it is universal. It is something we all can understand. We can dance all...

In this post you will learn what leaders really think are the biggest mistakes followers do when they dance kizomba, kizomba fusion and urban kiz.

So, the biggest follower mistakes - this is something I really know about. I dance a lot, I teach a lot, and I give many private classes. But, to be really, really sure I also took some help from Facebook and asked this:

Leaders, in your opinion, what are the biggest mistakes followers do in their dancing? In terms of technique, attitude, anything...

I made the exact same post, but for leaders. Anyway, guys gave a bit different answers than girls did. It was more focused on technique than the answers that girls gave.

So, let’s get to it!

First mistake:

Not keeping your own balance 
This is really bad for the leader because the follower needs to rely on him for balance and it can even pull him out of balance.

There are several different reasons. Some of the reasons can be:
- Feet are too far apart in taps
- Not walking on a line
- Too...

Here you will learn what followers really think are the biggest mistakes leaders do when dancing kizomba, kizomba fusion or urban kiz. 

Originally, this was my plan - to talk about the 5 biggest leading mistakes in kizomba. I was thinking a bit more technical tips, but some other tips too. I had it all ready, I knew what I was going to talk about, but then I asked a question on my Facebook, to get a bit more insight.

“Followers, in your opinion, what are the biggest mistakes leaders do in their dancing?”

I made the exact same post, but for followers. Anyway, the answers I got from followers were a bit different from my original plan.

The answers I got related more to other things, not the actual leading, but more things like attitude, connection, feedback, musicality etc.

So, I decided to include more of that, and instead call it the five biggest leader mistakes. 

Just to be clear, this is not scientific at all, and it is not in any specific order,...

People often tell me that my dancing feels like “flying” or that it looks very soft and fluid. And it might be true.

No matter if I have danced salsa, bachata or kizomba I have always tried to dance in a soft and fluid way, especially if the music tells me to. So, here I will tell you some of my top tips to get more flow in your dance.

Ok, so let’s get to it! How do you get more flow in your kizomba dance and move more softly?

1. First of all - Your step - front of the foot first
The way you step makes a huge difference. If you want to have flow and softness in your dance you need to step with the front of your foot first. Have you ever seen a trained, professional dancer stepping with the heel first? Someone who has danced ballet, jazz or contemporary? No, they are trained to step with the front of the foot first. Why? Because the front of the foot makes for a softer step. It gives you much more control - if you transfer the weight or not, how much you transfer, if...

We are living in a world where social dance is currently a bit restricted, very restricted or outright forbidden. But before we ended up where we are now, kizomba and the related dances kizomba fusion and urban kiz managed to conquer the world, in just a few years. 

Recently I realised that I actually took my very first kizomba steps in 2004, with a friend from Cape Verde. She showed me the steps in a normal club. So, in PALOP communities kizomba has been present around the world for quite a long time, but I didn't start dancing kizomba until 2011 and then there were maybe just 3-5 festivals per YEAR in Europe. In 2015 I had already been travelling to teach in several different continents. So, from 2011 to 2015 we went from having 3-5 kizomba festivals per year in Europe, to having 3-5 festivals every weekend and festivals in many other places all over the world. And in 2019, it was much more. 

There are many reasons for this. I probably...

How we move is another key to create a great connection. This starts from the position and posture we have, and then it is a matter of what types of moves we make, as well as how we make them. 

Posture
Our posture is essential. The more closely we match our postures, the better the connection. If the follow dances like a proud soldier with a good posture and the lead looks like a sack of potatoes, it will definitely affect the connection. Matching postures are better for connection, and better connection makes us more popular on the dance floor.

This is an excerpt from one of my books - "The Secrets of Social Dance - How to Become a Popular Dancer" which you can find on Amazon.

Alignment
Another consideration is how we align our body and our head to our partner. Facing our partner more with our upper body and head will create a better connection. This doesn't mean we should stare our partner in the eyes all the time. That would feel creepy. But we...