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Can you learn salsa without a partner?

Thinking about taking salsa classes, but there is one small problem: you do not have anyone to come with?

That is not a problem at all.

Most people who start salsa come to their first class on their own. You do not need a partner to learn salsa, and coming alone has some advantages.

At Extremos you can join our salsa classes in Amsterdam without bringing a dance partner. During class we rotate partners every few minutes, so everyone gets the chance to dance and practise with different people.

Why we change partners during class

Partner rotation is not just a practical solution for people who come alone. It is also a very good way to learn.

When you always dance with the same person, you start to recognise each other's movements. After a while you know what your partner is going to do before they actually lead or follow it. It feels like progress, and some of it is not.

Change partners and that stops working.

You have to communicate through the dance. For leaders that means learning to make a movement clear without using force. For followers it means responding to what is actually being led, rather than to what you expect.

And because everyone moves slightly differently, dancing with different people is what turns you into someone who can dance with anyone.

What if I come with my partner?

That is fine too.

Plenty of couples and friends start together. You arrive together, take the same class, and practise together outside the lessons.

During the class we still ask everyone to rotate. Apart from helping the whole group, it keeps you from becoming dependent on one particular person. After class you can of course dance together as much as you like.

But what if there are not equal numbers of leaders and followers?

This is the thing people worry about most, and it is the thing that matters least.

A class rarely has exactly the same number of leaders and followers. Sometimes there are a few more followers, sometimes a few more leaders.

Because we rotate throughout the lesson, a small imbalance is not a problem. You might practise a movement on your own for a minute before rotating back in. That is all it is.

You certainly do not need to find your own partner before signing up. Evening out the numbers is our job, not yours.

Can I really come alone if I have never danced before?

Yes.

Our beginners courses assume nothing. You do not need to know the basic step, you do not need to understand salsa music, and you definitely do not need to arrive already knowing how to dance with someone. That is what the classes are for. We start at the beginning and build from there.

And there is another advantage to coming alone. Salsa is social, so you meet people in class automatically, because you are dancing with them. You do not have to walk into a room full of strangers and work out how to introduce yourself. The dancing does that part.

Do I have to choose whether I am a leader or a follower?

Salsa has two roles: leader and follower.

Traditionally men danced as leaders and women as followers, and that is not a rule. You are welcome to learn whichever role you prefer. Men following and women leading is increasingly normal, both in class and on the social floor, and at Extremos the role you choose is yours.

One honest note. Salsa has a long tradition of fixed roles, so a man learning to follow will now and then meet a leader who is not used to it yet. That is changing, and we see it changing year by year. During rotation we ask everyone to be respectful of each other, and nobody is ever obliged to dance with anybody.

If you are not sure which role you want to learn, ask us or ask a teacher. What matters most at the start is learning one role properly, rather than trying to learn both at once.

When can I start?

If you are completely new, the easiest route is a six-week beginners course or a bootcamp, which covers the same basics in one afternoon. Both of them are on the beginners page, side by side, so you can see which one fits.

If you would rather find out first whether salsa is for you, a try-out class is a real beginners class for five euro.

And yes, all three of these work without bringing a partner.

What happens after you learn the basics

This is where coming on your own starts to make even more sense.

Salsa is not only something you learn in a lesson. It is a social dance, which means that at some point you walk into a party and dance with people you have never met. That is the best part, and it is the part that the rotation in class has been preparing you for the whole time.

We run socials in Amsterdam every week, so there is somewhere to use it. The whole week is on the schedule.

Nobody expects a beginner to know everything. Every experienced dancer in that room once walked into a beginners class and had to work out the first basic step. Some came with a partner. Most did not.

So, do you need a partner to learn salsa?

No.

You sign up on your own, we rotate partners during the lesson, and learning to dance with different people is a large part of becoming someone who is good to dance with.

So if "I have nobody to go with" is the thing that has been stopping you, you can cross that one off the list.

Come by yourself. We will take care of the salsa part.

The rest of the practical questions are answered in the FAQ.

Want to start dancing? See what a beginner can walk into, five nights a week in Amsterdam, no partner needed.