En Clave

It means “the key” in Spanish. Clave sticks are used to keep the rhythm in Latin music. Used within dancing, it means dancing inside the music as opposed to outside the music. Huh? Is that sorta like Chevy Chase’s “be of the game not in the game?”

I think so. But I’m not sure yet. Which is exhilarating. And scary.

Gary and I had our first dance lesson at the Organic Rhythms Studio here in Indy (link below). We had seen the owner, Shayne Carter, dance in a couple of videos and fell in love with the style. We didn’t know what that style was, but we wanted it.

So we pulled up to the studio: a karate business. Humm. They all shared a space. But…you are not paying for an independent studio. You are paying for dance lessons. Period. The upside, of course, is that our lesson was much cheaper and longer than our ballroom lesson. We walked in and followed the Latin music to a large plain room. It wasn’t fancy, but it was bright and clean. Then our teacher, Shayne, walked in. She flashed a big smile and had a warmth that radiated about two feet from her body. So far so good.

She shook our hands and immediately started with something called the clave rhythm. With no numbers. Arrgghhh!!! But after I got over my fear, I found I could indeed learn with her clapping the beat. The clave step pattern is…hard. It’s syncopated. But oh so sexy. Your hips naturally move when you are doing it correctly. And if does feel as though you are entering the soul of the music. I had chills.

Then she showed us another form of Puerto Rican style salsa (not only are there millions of styles of salsa, there are ALSO many timing variations within each of those styles. Eek.) This timing was similar to ballroom salsa, except it breaks differently. Again, this felt natural and sensuous.

She could tell we already knew how to dance and (I think) probably adjusted her teaching. She went pretty fast. Needless to say, we do not in any way shape or form “have” the clave down, but we will.

Near the end of the lesson she stated that although she was particular about first learning the basics, after that she encouraged free expression and pushed students to experiment and develop their own style. Gary and I grinned at each other.

Ahhhhhhhh.

Do I wish I’d started here? No. First, I just don’t think I’m a natural enough dancer to have gotten, say, the clave my first time out. I probably would have run out gibbering. Second, ballroom instruction gave us a taste of all different kinds of dance. We learned just enough ballroom salsa to know we wanted to learn the salsa, for example. Third, ballroom gives you a solid understanding of timing, movement, and dance history. I don’t recommend everyone start with ballroom dancing, but I’m sure glad we did.

Here is Bobby Sanabria drumming the clave beat. It feels to me like the blood pounding through your body. Fabulous. And some history too.

http://www.organic-rhythms.com/index.html