90% of dance videos you see on Instagram have nothing to do with social dancing
Why it's dangerous to learn from videos on social media – unless you know how to use them to your advantage
If you're an ambitious dancer you probably spend a lot of time on social media watching other people dance.
Have you ever come across an amazing video and felt like you will never reach that level? Or maybe you decided to try one of the cool moves you saw. And once you hit the social dance floor it didn't work at all. That must mean you're a bad lead.
Social Media is the cause for many frustrated leaders. It's especially dangerous if you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate or intermediate plus. These videos create a wrong perception of the kind of dancer you need to be.
The truth is that 90% of videos you see on social media have nothing to do with social dance at all.
Most of what you see is planned beforehand and what you would call semi-choreographed. And you want to avoid those.
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How to spot a semi-choreographed video
Here are the videos that fall into this category
After workshop demos of a dance couple: Demos are a mix between social dance and a choreography. Depending on the couple they are even fully choreographed. It's very rare that such a video is an actual social dance. Easy to spot if a couple dances in the middle of a big circle. These kind of videos got extremely popular lately. But they are mainly one thing: Marketing.
Videos of a professional dance couple dancing together at a social: These people are practicing together on a daily basis. What they are doing can't be taken as a benchmark for a regular social dance.
Overproduced videos on Instagram: A video in a beautiful location with great lightning. Chance are high that some parts were planned and choreographed beforehand.
How to use videos on social media to your advantage
Dance videos on social media can can be an amazing source of inspiration. If you know how to use them well:
👍🏼Great to see how others are interpreting a song: How does he catch the breaks, which parts does he change the energy/intensity, etc… Try looking up your favourite song on Youtube and add “social dance” at the end.
👍🏼Great to learn about styling, posture and footwork: Pay attention to the small things a lead is doing (that have nothing to do with leading) that make him look good. Can be arms, feet, shoulders or when and how to stretch/bend legs.
👎🏼Not great to learn fancy or complicated moves. Especially applies to dips, tricks and moves that look very big in general. In fact, fancy moves are not something to focus on and impress followers.
If you really want to try a move you saw on social media
Make sure you practice it first with multiple partners.
If you practice with just one partner they will get used to your new move. But as soon as you go on the social dance floor no one can follow it.
Practicing the same move with multiple partners allows you to understand if a move is actually leadable. If it is: Good job, you just leveled up! But if it’s not you can be sure it's not because of your inability to lead.
Bonus: How to spot real social dance videos + Resources
There are amazing videos out there that are 100% social dances. But they are usually a lot harder to find. Why? Because these are not the kind of videos that attract hundreds of thousands of views.
Think about it: Spectacular things generate clicks and followers. But social dance in its essence is not about how it looks; It's about how it feels. Therefore the true social dance videos don't produce that many clicks.
Here are some of the tricks to spot and find real social dance videos:
Make sure the people dancing in the video are not a professional couple / dancing together on a regular basis
The video is filmed in a social dance setting. The production quality might even be poor – that's a great sign of an authentic social dance
Youtube is a goldmine to find social dance videos. If there's an artist you're looking up to try searching for "[Artist Name] + [Dance Style] + Social dance" (e.g. Marco Espejo Bachata Social Dance) or "[Artist Name] + Ladies"
Avoid instagram videos unless you are 100% sure it's a social dance video. Instagram = personal marketing.
Here are my go to channels on YouTube to find real social dance videos and get inspired
Lior Levi – A videographer from israel. Most of his videos are authentic social dances. Mostly Bachata Sensual
Social Dance TV – Probably the most famous one out there. Mostly Salsa
SeaSunSalsa – The official channel of the extremely popular Festival in Rovinj. Both Salsa and Bachata
Maria Lilianova – Next to many choreo videos you will find plenty of real social dances. Salsa and Bachata
Want to read more articles like these? I’m Yann and this is my weekly newsletter “The confident lead”. Each week I write about things that make you a more confident leader on the social dance floor. Leave your email address to receive it every Sunday evening.