In fact, every Pre-Intermediate Class recaps the routine Gloria teaches in Beginner Salsa, and every Intermediate Class recaps the Pre-Intermediate Salsa routine. People look kind of scared when Gloria demonstrates what they'll learn in the next level, but most of them usually get through the class if they take it.
Occasionally, someone will come to Gloria and ask to start in one of her higher level classes. Or, Gloria herself will notice someone is already beyond the Beginner Class level and suggest a change in classes. Even though I have watched Gloria take a student from one class to the next (and just this month she invited a 14-year-old girl into the Advanced Class after the girl had been with Gloria for less than two months).
So, I asked Gloria: How do you know where to put the better dancers?
"If the student has taught themselves," she says carefully, "they are often missing key steps like the crossbody lead so if they jump into the higher levels too fast they just get discouraged and it actually takes longer to get really good than if they had taken the time to learn the basic patterns." Fair enough. But someone like me would obviously have had no business trying to bypass the Beginner class. Gloria agrees: "It is a lot harder for a guy to skip levels than the ladies because [the guys] are leading."
As best I can recall, out of something like 20-22 classes, I have seen only one man successfully skip the Beginner Class, and he struggled for a couple of months to master Gloria's style. He is now in the Advanced Class.
Of course, it's not always that simple. For example, Gloria points out that "some students will take private lessons so they can comfortably move up a level." True. I did that myself. However, "with students who have taken Salsa classes elsewhere, it's difficult to determine what level they belong in by a phone conversation, so if someone ends up in the wrong level on the first class, we move them to the correct class the following week."
In short, Gloria has to see you dance before she can determine how much you know. And, to be honest, I am sure every teacher would say the same thing.
How much of an impact does taking Salsa with someone else have on your placement as a student with Gloria? I've occasionally wondered about that, because there are different styles of Salsa. I asked Gloria to compare the difficulty in moving from one style of Salsa to another with the difficulty of moving from, say, East Coast Swing to West Coast Swing (and Swing dancers will know from the question that I know very little about Swing).
"The differences between east coast swing and west coast swing are very different as they are two completely different dances," Gloria pointed out. Okay, so my career as a Swing dancer is not off to an auspicious start. Still, she adds, "the basic [between the Swing styles] is totally different and even the music they are danced to is different.
"With salsa, the differences are less, since they are danced to the same music and have 6 steps for 8 beats of music. In our classes we teach Salsa 'on l', which is the most common type of Salsa in Houston and worldwide".
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Club Nights
2003...2005
After spending months together in classes, Gloria's students often meet up at clubs during the week or on weekends to practice their dance moves and strengthen bonds of familiarity and friendship.
It's not always easy to remember everyone's name, and we have joked about wearing name tags. But the club nights are fun and relaxing, and we eventually get to know each other pretty well.
On any given night, at least 10 to 20 students may meet at a chosen club. Gloria sends a weekly email to people who request to be on the list, and we announce up to three venues for each week.
Someone who is well-known to many students often agrees to make it to one of the venues and be a contact. Occasionally, we have sometimes joined with students from other schools. Our largest combined group had nearly 50 people.
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