Product Description

"Let's Dance Salsa - Beginning Lessons 1" takes a new approach to teaching Salsa dancing! Professional dance instructor Marlon Silva teaches beginners and experts alike with his step-by-step detailed instruction. His technique breaks all Salsa moves and combos down into building blocks, which are then assembled into more complicated moves that can be adapted to any music or club atmosphere. Rather than teaching by counting steps, Marlon s method has taught thousands of students around the country to dance in less time with greater ease. Marlon starts the "Let's Dance Salsa" series off at the ground level with the first building block from which all moves stem: beginning Salsa dance steps! With step-by-step instruction and detailed foot and hand movements, Marlon and Susie Neff show how to look good and stay in step with the music. Marlon takes the steps from the first lesson and adds a second building block: spinning. While teaching the beginning steps, he leads the student into the first spins and back into the steps.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20210 in DVD
• Brand: INECOM ENTERTAINMENT CO
• Released on: 2002-04-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 93 minutes

Review
"Marlon Silva is one of my favorite Salsa dance video teachers. He has a wealth of knowledge and shows techniques that nobody else does." --Neal Watson, "Salsa Video Reviews"

About the Actor

Starring Marlon Silva and Susie Neff
Marlon Silva is the host of Inecom Entertainment Company's Let's Dance Salsa instructional film series. His Salsa dance instruction method uses the beat of Salsa music instead of the counting steps method taught by other instructors. This "natural style" of Salsa dancing is easier to learn and more fun on the dance floor. Silva believes that if you can walk, he can teach you to dance Salsa.

Customer Reviews

Less formal salsa style danced by many in Latin America
If you want to be spoon-fed one regimented unvarying way to dance salsa choose another video. (Then God help you when you want to dance with a partner who didn't learn the same exact way you did). If want to learn the more "formal" New York mambo style choose another video. If you want formal ballroom/dance studio salsa look elsewhere.

However if you want to learn a cumbia backstep style of salsa, Marlon Silva's set of videos are the only ones I've found. If you dance with many different dance partners from different parts of Latin America, this will make you a more flexible leader who's better able to find a step to match her style. Or if you teach beginners to dance salsa - once again - I like this step better. Marlon Silva teaches you to switch and vary your "basic step" and later to improvise and find your own personal style. And if you want to watch lots of new moves there's lots of interesting material here that you can incorporate into *any* style of salsa.

I switch back and forth among different steps and styles, but if I had to choose one I prefer this cumbia-style of salsa to the New York mambo style. I won't bother to argue with those who say the New York style is the "proper" style of salsa. I've danced salsa most every week for seven years and dance to have fun with my partner, not to impress dance judges in a "Strictly Ballroom" competition setting. I first learned salsa (and merengue) in a university town with lots of international students right off the plane from Central and South America. And if you dance salsa where there are plenty of dance partners from Latin America (particularly the Caribbean) just look around: this is the style I see a lot of people dancing to *salsa* songs (and not just to cumbia songs).

In my opinion this cumbia-style salsa step feels more smooth and flowing and makes it easier to get swept up in the music than the New York style. And when I'm teaching a beginner to follow, that means this style makes it easier for them to catch onto and enjoy the distinctive feel of salsa rhythms (I often hear "aha" from women who had a quick lesson in New York style and didn't "get it"). Most complete beginners I ask prefer this style if they try both briefly. Later I teach them the New York style too for variety.

Marlon Silva doesn't spoon feed you a single basic step. Before he moves on to even basic turns, he suggests ways to vary your basic step and find your own style. Once you get more experience, he will encourage you to improvise. I chose another simpler video to get my "spoon fed" salsa to start off with, but quickly moved on to this one. Marlon Silva is more of relaxed informal natural street dancer, not a studio instructor. He definitely emphasizes feeling the music rather than precise technique.

I would agree with some of the other reviewers that Suzie Neff appears a little stiff and uninspiring in these videos. Maybe that would make a bigger difference if I was trying to learn the woman's part - I don't know. It doesn't affect my opinion of the video as a way to learn how to lead salsa steps and moves.

If this is a style of salsa you'd like to learn, Marlon Silva's instructional videos fill a valuable and neglected niche.

A Saturday Night Comedy Sketch!
Call Saturday Night Live and tell them to watch this DVD! They'll get a kick out of this one!
Don't, I repeat don't buy this DVD if you want to learn to dance Salsa. More of a comedy sketch, (although I'm sure it wasn't meant to be), this "vanity" production is hilarious. This becomes evident in the poor instruction given by Marlon Silva. What qualifies him as an instructor? Where's the basic step? A legend in his own mind, it becomes clear that he and Susie are having a great time doing what ever it is they are doing but the lesson certainly doesn't help beginners or anyone else! Please don't call this DVD Salsa instruction and save your money for a serious lesson!

a little sloppy..
We thought that it was a little hard to understand because of the strong accent, and the lessons were taught quickly, without much consideration that we were beginners. The steps were shown once, and then he went into the much more advanced way to express them, which made the steps confusing. The tape seemed to focus more on the teachers' ability to dance rather than the teacher's ability to teach. Also, the blue screen in the back made the lines of the dancers fuzzy and distracting. I would consider this "basic" instruction more geared for intermediates.