SalsaEddy's Spinning workshop - Oct 23 2005

The first video here shows the exercises for practising the basic spotting techniques. Spotting is probably the most critical component of spinning in any form of dance. Spinning involves a helluva lot of physics principles in practice. I almost think that any freshman physics major should be made to take dance lessons in order to understand some basic mechanics.

The technique is simple: turn your head around and whip it so that your body follows in a full circle.

After the basic techniques, we did some serious spinning. One and two turns, plus one-and-half turns. The 1-1/2 turns turned out to be surprisingly difficult, with spotting playing a key role. Again, the next video has exercises that Eddy demonstrated for those. That has all the techniques for 1, 1-1/2 and two spins. Plus prep for spinning the ladies. This is going to take some practice since I can barely do more than a single spin, with an occasional successful 1-1/2.

Eddy pointed out a flaw in my technique: Apparently I am pushing off with my feet rather than my upper body, which gives me a linear momentum. Spinning in place is ALL about angular momentum.