But if your partner is a mobile device, none of those obstacles apply.
Mobile apps could be the best thing to hit ballroom dancing since the hurdler’s stretch. The better ones — like LDF Hot Salsa ($1 to $3 on Apple), Pocket Salsa ($3 on Apple and $2 on Android) and Learn Argentine Tango ($10 to $13 on Apple) — offer solid, inexpensive tutorials.
And thanks to the mobile format, you can use them when no one’s watching, or brush up on your steps immediately before you try to impress a date in public.
After a few swings around my living room, I found the Hot Salsa series especially effective. There are three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced), with each anchored by a set of instructional videos featuring Christian Gutierrez and, sometimes, his partner Lien Pham.
The videos are adequate, if slightly less than professional quality. The audio is passable, the lighting is fair and the set is a living room, complete with fireplace. The video is framed from a point that was slightly too far at times for me to see Mr. Gutierrez’s footwork clearly, although that problem was less bothersome when I tested the app on an iPad.
Aesthetics aside, the quality of the instruction was quite good. The 30 lessons featured in each app average roughly one minute each — just enough to cover one distinct movement. Mr. Gutierrez typically introduces a move by demonstrating and explaining it at full speed. He then offers a slower demonstration, along with a more technically oriented discussion.
The videos are bolstered by text explanations of each move, which I found helpful, if occasionally in dire need of proofreading. You can also add notes of your own to each lesson, which is a nice touch.
Hot Salsa also includes a “Salsa Rhythm Interface” feature for practice sessions. With this, users can customize a salsa tune according to their preferred tempo and accompanying instruments, and hear an audible count to help with timing.
Pocket Salsa offers far more instruction for less money, but it has drawbacks. With 100 videos, it teaches all levels of the dance and provides a different instructional style than Hot Salsa. Rather than introduce a move with text, for instance, Pocket Salsa’s instructor and developer, Anthony Persaud, overlays snippets of text at crucial points in the movement.
The videos are shot more cleanly than those on Hot Salsa, the audio is clearer and the lessons cover both the “On 1” and “On 2” approaches to the dance, while Hot Salsa exclusively teaches the On 1 technique. On 1 dancers start the Tango on the first beat of a measure, while On 2 dancers begin the step on the second beat.
But Pocket Salsa suffered from a nagging flaw. Even though I tested it on a strong Wi-Fi connection, the videos paused frequently to load. I switched to Hot Salsa and experienced no such problems.
Pocket Salsa users can download the videos individually and avoid interrupted playback, but that requires patience or advance planning. A single episode of five minutes needed roughly seven minutes to download over Wi-Fi. (There is one upside: If you download only some videos, you’ll save space on your device.)
Salsa students with Apple devices would do well to download both Hot Salsa and Pocket Salsa, as there are benefits to hearing the steps taught by different instructors. For those who are unsure about buying Pocket Salsa, some of the app’s videos are available to download free at Addicted2Salsa.com.
Tango fans, meanwhile, have a good option — as long as they have an Apple device. The Learn Argentine Tango series (seven volumes, $10 to $13 each) features Alex Krebs, a veteran tango instructor based in Portland, Ore. Mr. Krebs leads about 15 lessons that are roughly two minutes each, with most covering a specific movement.
In a welcome departure from other apps, Mr. Krebs also includes tutorials on the history and etiquette of the dance, and he focuses on the small details, like posture, with precision.
“We want to have the hips back over the heels and the sternum over the toes, so that we have a slight forward inclination in our body,” he says.
Students may still find Mr. Krebs moving too quickly at times, however. I occasionally wished for slowed-down explanations, with close-ups on the dancers’ feet from different angles, for instance. But in the current state of dancing apps, users should feel lucky enough to get video from a single angle with adequate sound and lighting.
Android users can expect versions of Hot Salsa and Learn Argentine Tango next year, both developers said. Meanwhile, for the non-Apple crowd, there are a few far less polished alternatives to Pocket Salsa.
Ballroom Dancing Beginners Part 1, for instance, is free — and for good reason, since it is essentially a portal to YouTube instruction videos, complete with ads. Still, it’s useful, as it catalogs passable tutorials of the major dance techniques and thereby saves you the hassle of searching.
A cast of supporting apps can also help both Android and Apple users. Learn Swing, Salsa and Tango (free on Apple or on Android, as Salsa, Tango, Swing Cha Cha) provides diagrams of the basic steps. It’s neither extensive nor especially user-friendly, but if you can figure out that Q is the developer’s symbol for quick, among other mysteries, the app will make more sense.
DanceTime Deluxe ($5 on Apple) also deserves consideration, at least for those who are using apps that don’t include rhythm samples for practicing at different speeds. DanceTime features adjustable rhythms for 23 dances, including Merengue, Bhangra and Cha Cha.
Android users get a free alternative in Dance Line, which covers 10 dance steps. The app shut down unexpectedly on my Droid Razr, however, and you can’t slow the tempo to match your dancing speed as you learn.
Maybe that’s intentional, though. If you dance fast enough, nobody will be able to figure out what exactly you’re doing with your feet.
Quick Calls
Two app developers have adopted Guitar Hero’s moving fretboard approach to help real guitarists improve their technique. Rock Prodigy ($1 on Apple), which teaches popular songs, is one of the more smartly designed guitar apps on the market. WildChords (free on iPad, with in-app purchases) is more cartoonish and is great for beginners. … With Shopkick (free on Android and Apple), you can earn rewards by visiting retailers (offline, that is).
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