Sammy’s Salsa Schematics
Sammy Sit is a recent high school graduate and one of Silent Rhythms’s dance students. He is currently a student at the Rochester Institute for Technology (RIT).
I had never thought about dancing. My friend dragged me along so that I have something to do for the summer than just work. My friends and I came to the Salsa in the Park to learn from Silent Rhythms. It was an ok experience on the first day.
Later on, my friends were too busy to come, but I still came by myself. A bit at a time I learned how to do the moves. It felt like finishing a puzzle when I was able to lead Kerry through a difficult move without her guidance. What’s even more, was to have multiple different moves after another so it was not too repetitive. That was then really awesome!
However, I soon realize those difficult moves are only the basics, even more, fun and difficult moves were on the way. To one-up that, those moves demanded me to cue my follower well so they know what move I want to do from all the variety of choices. I learned how to do those subtle cues with the tension that I give with my hands and footwork.
I continued to practice those and finally, I felt confident enough to dance the harder moves with strangers. The height, shape, style, and force are different for everyone. I have to quickly learn how the follower prefers to be led or how I can lead them. While at Salsa in the Park, I quickly overcame the fear of physical contact with strangers. To ask them to dance, however, was a different matter. So usually I dance with people that I’ve danced with a few times or if they approach me. Soon after, the fear was lessened. At one point I was dancing with one of the performers that I saw at the Salsa in the Park. That pressured me a lot because I knew that as a leader, I was not even using half of her potential. So I was motivated to learn more and practice more.
Kerry was very patient with me and taught me and trained me until I was fluent in a certain move. I took it for granted. In my college’s dance club for salsa, they taught differently. I have to learn with my observations and their instructions which kind of fly by my head. And it is really hard to look at the interpreter and the tutor at the same time. For this, I appreciate Kerry and her work of teaching and spreading the beauty of dance to deaf people as well as she does. In hindsight, I realize I loved dancing ever since I could do my first few basic moves smoothly, which wouldn’t have been possible without Silent Rhythms.
My tip for you if you are planning to get into dancing is to go consistently and do not be discouraged when you mess up a move — I mess up all the time!
Love how Sammy was able to break through barriers to learn Salsa? Consider supporting Silent Rhythms’s work to open the world of dance for people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, Blind/Low-Vision or with disabilities.
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