Learn to Salsa with Two Left Feet Singapore

If the person I'm dancing with is off-beat, what should I do?

Eric says:

Ask the person to relax and enjoy herself and the music. More often than not its probably because the person is kinda stressed and trying to count the beats. So put the person's mind at ease, smile, laugh, relax and try to make it fun and enjoyable for her. :)

Mary says:

Just dance off-beat with him. It's part and parcel of being a good follower. But if I know him well, I will feedback to him after the dance.

Zoe says:

I have a number of strategies for this: If the person really can't dance (sometimes non-dancers do ask you to dance!) I just do my own thing as if they aren't on any beat it doesn't matter! - and just follow whatever they try to do. Second option is obviously to follow the guy as they are "leading". If I know the guy I'll kinda say "oops i think we're off beat" and blame it on both of us! If the guy continues to dance off-beat and i can't fix it by either stopping and pretending I've gone off the beat or if saying something doesn't work, i just follow the guy and start counting and kind of blank out the music as best I can. At this point i really concentrate on looking at the guy's body so I can follow his movement / timing. Sometimes it happens that the guy is a beginner or just having a bad night (can happen to us all) but I'm not going to worry about it, and certainly not going to not dance with that person again - we all mess up - it's part of the learning process.

Jean (Lee) says:

Grin at my partner and count "1,2,3_5,6,7". Just to get the beat back. And keep on counting until both of us are on the beat. I lose my beats on many occasions too, and all my partners have been so kind to count with me!

Marcus says:

I guess there are two options: 1) either you continue to dance at off beat mode or 2) speed up or slow down to match up the beat again.

Jacquelyn says:

If I'm dancing with someone who knows he's offbeat, I'll help by counting whenever he goes off-beat. But when I'm dancing with someone who's off-beat and doesn't know it, things can get interesting. I'll start by:
1) Smiling and calling out "1" & "5" so that he knows he's off-beat

2) Using my thumb/ fingers to tap the rhythm on his hand

3) Stopping the dance and start it on the correct count. Hopefully he'll get it right the second time round

4) Telling him after the dance that he's dancing off-beat and hope he'll accept the feedback and work on it

5) Backleading him but not recommended since the backlead may backfire and I'll end up injuring myself!

When all else fails and there's no way I can pretend that I'm dancing on 1.5 anymore, I'll wait till I observe that he's dancing on-beat before dancing with him again. Lucky for me, that hasn't happened and hopefully it won't!

Tina says:

Hmmm... Stop and storm off?? OF COS NOT!! Usually, I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt that it is one-off or that the music is difficult to find the 'one' . I understand... I have been thru a time when I can never find the 'one' Nowadays, I will just ask nicely, "Am I off beat?" That way, I assume responsibility. Makes the guy feel better, improve and we get to dance on beat after that. Win-win.

Rachael says:

If you're a girl, and the guy is off-beat, there's nothing you can do except follow, after all, the guy is the lead. but if you're the guy, and the girl seems off beat, I suppose you could try adding more pressure to your guiding.. and hope that she'll notice that she isn't following properly.