Mastery was a must, a place to be, a place for growth, and inevitably a place of pressure. With time, mastery became more of a game of luck, patience, and a repetitive cycle. Let me try to go back to my years at uni: 12-week terms, 3 per year, a lot of content, always three main check-ups with the teacher, basically learning until the weeks of the assessments when I over-focused and prioritised writing, putting everything aside so I could do my best. I’m happy that I mostly got great results, but to be honest, I don’t think this was the best strategy. Still, it worked for me—so who needs to sleep when the test is the next day? By week 13, I was usually down with some bug due to lack of rest. I repeated this pattern throughout my whole career. Yes, I got the degree, and I can see how I managed those seasons of my life. It was similar when I started producing events for my dance school years later, or when I started competing. I was capable of handling so much pressure on my body, my mind, and my partner, on and off the dance floor. All I wanted was to be the best, the master, the GOAT. Yet mastery only came in my dancing through deliberate practice, not only for myself but for my students. Hundreds of people with whom I practised the most fundamental steps, repeatedly applying the teachings I gathered from some of the best salsa maestros in the world, under whom I had the amazing opportunity to train.
Yes, despite years of constant pressure, in hindsight, I can say that the underlying cycles matter the most. My body and brain were better a year later, and I was able to adjust some of the things I pushed for the year before. In dancing, a lot of my body movements flowed better. I am so grateful for my classes with Carmen Ortiz in 2005 about Afro-contemporary dance. That knowledge cemented a foundation that helped me embrace Afro-Cuban and Salsa in ways that even today allow me to understand the importance of patience. Or when doing a complex trick or lift in a routine that might seem impossible, it became real because I achieved a simpler trick a year earlier and then approached it differently. Sometimes, it took a year or two to improve a specific movement. Learning to activate parts of my body I didn’t even know I had illuminated another series of muscles I had to develop. With that development came new ways to approach movement. I had to relearn and create better versions of steps I thought I was doing perfectly. The important part is that I could always enjoy learning and evolving.
I think I could have been nicer to myself and others. I remember putting so much pressure on my dance partners and not being the nicest to all my students. They wanted to be better, and they became better dancers. Many of them are still dancing all over the world, and I could not be more proud of the connection we built through teaching and dancing. I think, right now, we have created a school that provides more space for growth and improvement. We offer around eight different Salsa classes with varying approaches to cater to different goals. Some classes are more intense than others, but in general, we now prioritise adding longevity to their dance journey. When it is time to push and be honest, we hope to offer a place for building both dance fundamentals and a caring community.
Thank you for the opportunity to create in the industry the way we are creating today. Having a beginner-friendly environment and an advanced technical project keeps me pushing and growing. I like to believe I am still growing.
Pressure helped me but also stopped me from accepting who I was in the moment. That’s one thing that matters the most in anyone’s journey: finding who you are and what you want out of dancing. What is the level or class that allows you to grow efficiently? Finding a way to push and be pushed in a structure that works for you requires self-awareness and questioning what you want out of dancing—or anything. Some people want community, some fun and some improvement. What do you want?
I love the choreographies I have created, but I am aware that I often ask too much of this body and this brain, to the point where my personality could not shine on stage or even during rehearsal. At the end of the day, what matters is enjoying both the journey and the performance. If you are always trying to go too far beyond what you are, you might miss the beautiful opportunity right in front of you: a few people smiling, enjoying the music, and your presence in their lives.
Gracias for reading,
Pedro