Find your way to peoples "Hearts" wtih your salsa dancing.

I am serious! Where ever you are in the world, Salsa is always a small community that everyone starts to know everyone (at least from their city / school) after a while; so you would guess how important it is to leave a good image of yourself. I know that some people have that charm; no matter where they are and when they come to the club, everyone lines up to dance with them.

Trust me, that charming person can be exactly you, only if you know how to behave. Let's review some of my personal experiences on how you can not only get to dance with others, but get them to actually like you for who you are, regardless of your dance skills.

Dancing Salsa is about having fun!

It is important to improve your techniques and you might be tempted to prove your worth by demonstrating the number and complexity of the moves you know, but that is not a turn on for any partner. Put that show off for some other time, probably when you are performing in a competition; flirt with your partner in a non-creepy way; feel the music and instead of using complicated turn patterns and cross-body leads right after you start the dance, try to feel each other's lead/following style and dance level.

I personally think that guys who just follow one routine with every partner, and that one routine happens to be a complicated one, are not confident of themselves; instead guys who smile, start the dance smooth and unhurried, feel the music and let their feeling lead them towards their moves are awesome dancers.

What I am trying to conclude here is that during a social dancing you don't need to pick your partner off the floor to make a good dancer  unless you know them and have practiced the move before hand- what you need is confident smile, eye contact and caring about your partner. The latter applies to both girls and guys, so remember: pick up the fun attitude upfront and then walk over the dance floor.

"Dance like you will never dance again" and by this I don't mean be creepy! I mean ask different people to dance with you. If you are in a higher level, remember how you liked to dance with advanced dancers when you started learning, so ask beginners to dance with you; and if you are a beginner, don't be intimidated by the style of an advanced dancer, so don't hide away when s/he gets free, go ask him/her for a dance, and remember to tell him/her how much you know; as long as your advanced partner knows where you are, he/she can adjust the moves with you level. So don't be shy, "Dance like you will never dance again" (read The Art of Getting Rejected)

"If you are a lead, be a nice one" I always see guys dancing all over the crowded dance floor, trying to show all their moves and skills (going back to the first point), which ends in hitting other dancers, leading their partner to the middle of another couple's dance, etc.

Little accidents are inevitable on the dance floor and everyone tries to understand it to some point, but if it happens again and again people really start to get annoyed and think that you don't know anything about dancing and believe me or not, they'll start having little nicknames for you which spreads our through the whole community very fast!

So if you don't want to ruin your reputation and have yourself finger pointed, take care of your leading on the dance floor. If the dance floor is crowded or small, take small steps, try to stay in close hand hold positions and avoid flashy moves and dips unless you are really sure there is no one behind your partner and no one is going to change direction towards her.

Remember that women's dancing shoes are usually open toe with high heels; as the leader you are responsible for making sure that she doesn't move into a spot where she'll get stepped on or steps on someone else's feet.

Remember that having a slow and pleasure dance with no harm to anyone leaves a much better picture of you in your partner's mind as well as other people on the dance floor and that's what you really want as you progress dancing skills in classes and practice sessions.