Welcome to my iPhone Salsa App Design and Developing blog. Happy New Year 2011!. Here are some design, production, ideas posts related to our iPhone Salsa App. Enjoy!
For Salsa related topics outside the iPhone App, please visit our Salsa Chronicles Blog
May you reach all the goals you have set for yourself this year!
Sincerely,
Christian
So the plan seemed simple. Get a camera and start recording right? I wish. A lot of unpredictable factors were slowly appearing each time we tried to shoot the videos. To start, we could not dedicate all the time during a week to create the videos, that was a no-brainer simply because we both worked during the day. So we agreed to meet on Sundays at 10am and work until 4 or 5pm (sometimes until 8pm).
Now, out of all the days that we spent creating videos, I may forget some details for some of them, but rest assure that I will never forget the very first day of our video project due to one simple reason: I didn’t know how to say Hello to you guys =) We got stocked in the intro phrase – “Welcome to Latin Dance Factory, we are going to share some salsa moves with you, etc.” Honestly it took me almost 3 hours to get that done. After a seemingly successful entry, we decided to celebrate by having lunch. When we returned from the restaurant, I got stocked again, trying to explain a very simple move – “The Basic Step.” I don’t think it was because I didn’t know what I was doing, but because I wanted to share so much information that my head felt like spinning all the time. At the end of the day, we got nothing! What about the intro message? Well at the end of the day when I reviewed I ended up not liking it that much. Almost 8 hours gone just like that! I was so angry at myself for my lack of organization.
Aside from my vocal difficulties, my tolerance for “hot” was approaching zero. I had to keep the house at 70 degrees to feel comfortable recording, dancing, talking, breaking down every step, etc. I had a towel close to me and of course different changes of clothes. The moment I started to break a sweat, I would stop and dry myself up. That killed a lot of time as well =) I could not keep a fan running all the time because of the background noise it was emitting.
In several occasions, we had an almost great shot, I was tolerating the temperature, I didn’t have any vocal problems, my partner and I performed the move quite well, and then all the sudden my dog would start barking or the AC would come on, or somebody would knock on the door. I wanted to kill myself. I was just speechless.
Well, even though I had moments where I wanted to just give up and never get back to it again, we persevere. My partner was so nice and patient with me. I think any other person would just walk away and call me crazy. Video editing and text writing are another topic. Thank you for reading, enjoy!
We are looking to improve these applications to discuss the needs of our students. Two heads think better than one – so what will over 1000 heads come up with? If you have ideas, suggestions, corrections, additions, bugs reports, etc Share them with us – whether it is on the iTunes Store, my website, or email. We would love to hear your opinion.
Also take a moment a minute or two to rate the iPhone Salsa apps. We are not looking at having a perfect score because our work is not perfect and it will always stay “in progress”, but we also do not think that an extremely poor rating is applicable if you take in consideration the value of the app and the efforts that took to bring it to life. The essence of this application is quiet simple – it is an organized way to present moves with a defined nomenclature. Have you ever gone to class or workshop and the instructors leading the class say at one point – “Cross here and add a turn” or they stop to think for a second which way the follower is turning and on what beat after the move was made? It is more common than you think and it happens to instructors at all levels – even in master level classes. That is the reason – especially at the Beginner level – we try to have a defined nomenclature for the follower’s footwork (e.g. Outside turn, Hammerlock turn, Half Inside turn, etc) to cut the first confusion from the Leader’s point of view. I’m not sure if these terms will be adopted widely, but at least we are giving it a shot and if you continue with the course at the intermediate and advanced level, you will see how that terminology fits in place and make a move far easier to grasp than figuring which way the follower is turning after or while you are performing the move.
Oh no! We got “One Star” rating :-\ Okay, so either we really screwed this up or you are punishing us for having an idea that didn’t occur to you and you see us as heavy competition. . . First, critics are present in every discipline, so this is to be expected. We just hope that people who truly value the content of this app can give us their honest rating and comments. Again, we want to always improve, so rather than just marking, please share your thoughts. Second, we are looking to make any competition with anyone. I mean people are not going to leave their instructors to come dance with us (or maybe =) ); the point is using technology for 2 things: One: aim at standardization, Two: bringing a growing dancing community together.
We do not have trophies or titles in regards to Salsa dancing. We are not claiming to be better dancers or complete experts in the subject of dance and music. Myself, just like anybody else, started by going to a club, finding a girl who I want dance with and making a mess on the dance floor by not knowing what the heck I was doing. Sounds pretty bad eh? Yet, even after failing several times, I fell in love with the dance, I was always eager to learn more, and I never gave up on it.
One thing that I’m really good at is scientific thought and dissecting. I have gone to graduate school for nearly 5 years now and, as a scientist, we were taught to have careful thoughts on the conclusions suggested by repeated data analysis. I mean you have to look at a dog 100 times before you can declare it is a dog =) And this is the approach, or better – a value, that I use in teaching classes at the grad school, in my salsa studio, and now in this application. I’m a strong believer in methodology and technique and I’m always looking at ways for improving in those two areas within myself and the classes that I teach. To me this app, perfect or not, is my contribution to a Salsa scene and community that is ever-growing and that has blessed me with so many gifts.
Modifying the Salsa moves is highly possible and 100% recommended. Why? Well, you don’t want to be dancing like “him” or “her” you want to add your own spice, you want to highlight your speed, your range of motion, your strength of support, your way of interpreting the music, your presence in the dance floor.
You may not realize it, but several new moves often come from making mistakes or from practicing “trouble shooting” techniques. There are points that you are in the dance floor and often just let go of your concentration and enjoy your time with your partner – and BOOM – a new move just appeared out of no where. You realize it because it is new to you and you now you are trying to figure out how to do it again! Haha, that happens a lot actually. What is really happening can be explained with this metaphor – When you learn a new language, let’s say French, at first you have to think about it in your native language and then translate it in your mind and then speak your thoughts. over time that middle process (thinking or translating in your native language) fades away and you can just communicate naturally. Over time the language have become more of a natural process for your brain. That will also happen to you while dancing. There will be a time where your body, mind and rhythm will just connect will take over you and your partner. This level of dancing is very much attainable, but again, it takes time to develop naturally.
When you start – at least at the beginning level – you should realize that you will be exposed to something that perhaps you have seen before, but not tried as much in person. Just as any form of learning new material, it is a bit frustrating and confusing at first and that is to be expected.
Review the videos several times and “read read read” the descriptions – You’ll be amazed how you learn something new every time you watch or read the material.
Do not overload yourself with the course trying to “mimic” everything in one hour. If you have not realized, people take a couple of months to just learn maybe up to 10 moves, so there is no use trying to push yourself beyond your limits.
It is not wise to jump straight to Vol 2 and 3 without having a good grasp of Vol 1. It would feel like trying to do a marathon without the proper training phase. You will actually get more frustrated with yourself or partner and even blame the application for not transforming you into a Salsa dancer. Remember to take your time.
Start with one or two lessons per day. Practice all the time. Find your “sweet” spot when it comes to balance, weight distribution, coordination, and timing. Once you reach that point, try adding some styling – coordinate your steps with a shoulder shake or hip rotation. Again do it settle maintaining a good flow and making sure it would fit with your personality and dance floor attitude.
There is a system to the way we posted the lessons. Like “ladder steps”, the next lesson will be slightly harder than the previous one. What we are trying to do is to give you a good foundation that you will later apply to develop your own moves and patterns. And trust me you will. Once you realize how 90% of the dancing falls within a few core footwork steps for the follower, you will be able to design different “leading angles” while dancing. This simply means that the Leader is able to lead a particular move (e.g. Outside Turn) from different positions or angles from the follower’s perspective, using different hand hold or frame connections, and with the option of including self-turns in either direction. If it happened to us, it will happen to you. The key words are patience, time, and practice.
From an early point, I think I had a clear view on what the application would look like. I wanted it to be simple, straight forward without any major bells and whistles as they are often distracting and not really necessary to the learning experience.
One thing that I wanted to stress was the inclusion of text description and introducing the idea of building blocks and not the sequence to a long pattern. These are two very important things in my opinion.
Having a text description along with a visual effect actually enhances your learning experience. You can always review the material to learn things that you do not necessarily see at first on the video.
Now, building blocks vs long patterns on the other hand served a dual purpose. First it dealt with the issue of app size limit and second it made the material more manageable in terms of breaking it down. The beauty of building blocks – let’s call it A, B, C, D – is that you can arrange them in several forms and fashions, thus giving you the opportunity to be creative in the dance floor. I mean, you can create a sequence of D, A, C, A, B or any other combination keeping in mind the flow, speed, hand hold and body posture. More on that later… Here is the first look into the app (coming soon).
Salsaludos and welcome to our Salsa Chronicles Blog! Happy Holidays. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. We will start blogging pretty soon. Our topic will revolve around Salsa events, socials, congresses, videos, stories and more. Stay tuned. I hope that you carry out all those goals that you have set for yourself during 2010! Happy Dancing!
Save me a dance!
