The Quick & Dirty Guide to Salsa - 4 DVD Boxed Set

I bought this because, I've worked through all the Salsa Crazy DVDs through intermediate 2 level (which btw are also excellent). But it's been a while and I wanted something to spice up my salsa dancing some more. So I tried this set and I'm very glad I did.There's two caveats that might not make this a good choice for an absolute beginner buying in the US. First, after the first few patterns on the beginner DVD, they basically do what in ballroom dance is called a "change of feet" for the guy. This makes his footwork appear "wrong" for the way salsa is normally danced in the US (it's not wrong btw, it's just the style/culture of the people who made this DVD). However, I've found that if you ignore this part, the patterns pretty much work out anyway.Second, to me the patterns are demonstrated well enough -- but they aren't broken down and explained in the great detail that you'll find on something like the Salsa Crazy DVDs (which I'd highly recommend for absolute beginners through intermediate). On these DVDs you need to be able to watch, and either understand it or else reverse engineer what they're doing. That's probably more than the absolutely beginner is up for.Personally I also find the woman, who narrates most of the steps, amusing to listen to. She often says "then you do this automatically" while she's talking through patterns. Which makes me laugh. I want to know where she gets her partners, because when I dance salsa it seems like almost nothing happens "automatically". But anyway....But especially if you're dancing salsa in the US, and you're looking for some new ideas and patterns to work with, I found that especially the intermediate and advanced DVDs are loaded with stuff. I'm still working through it all (note I have not looked at the team dance DVD yet, I've never seen anyone do that in the US), and quite pleased with it. Lots to chew on and it'll take me a while to digest it all.If you're an absolute beginner, go get the basics down somewhere else first, then come back to this one -- it's worth it. If you're a more advanced salsa dancer in the US, this could open your mind up to a bunch of new possibilities. It almost seems like they dance using two slots, running at 90 degree angles to each other. I'd never seen it done quite that way before.All in all I'm very glad I bought this, and would definitely buy it again given the chance. Kudos to the people who made these DVDs.

I purchased this video when I was starting out with Salsa Danncing in 2009. There are some good things to the video and many bad things about the video. The good is that I liked the multi-angles. I like the clear instructions. Now the bad. The video does not count the correct steps for Salsa. She counts only six steps. Yes, there are only six steps, but there are 8 beats to any Salsa music. That means that she forgets about the 2 pauses, the 4 beat and the 8 beat. In social dancing, the name of the move is not called. The guy has to lead the girl into the pattern or move. There is no explanantion on how to lead a girl from one pattern to the next.I am now an Intermediate Salsa Dancer, but she is teaching a style of Salsa that I do not recognize. With the calling of the move, it more resembles Casino/Rueda than Salsa Dancing on 1, 2, or 6. Also, the Basic Step is totally different than the Traditional Salsa Basic. Now that I am more experienced, I might be able to understand the patterns and incorporate them into my Salsa Dancing.For the True, Beginner Salsa Dancer, I would not waste my money on this product. Overall, the video is of high quality and has some features that you will not find in other videos, but you will not find anybody dancing this style of Salsa. At least not in the North East of the United States. For the Intermediate/Advanced Salsa Dancers, you will be able to bypass a lot of the instuction in the beginning and maybe be able to use many of the patterns that are taught at the middle/end of the first disc and in discs 2 and 3.I should have returned the product, but I was overseas at the time and I was afraid of a problem with returning a video from an overseas location.This DVD could have been a great DVD if it taught Traditional Salsa Dancing. I would download the Podcast, Addicted2Salsa by Anthony Persaud. In these Podcasts, he teaches traditional Salsa Dancing on 1 and sometimes he shows the same step on 2. The Podcasts are free, other than a request by Anthony to donate money to the cause of making High Quality Salsa Podcasts.

The multi-angle function is great - being able to switch between different angles during viewing is just brilliant. Gigi's instruction is nice and clear, Pedro complements her by jumping in and adding his 2 cents' worth from the leader's perspective. This is a very polished production as far as salsa DVDs are concerned, despite a few hiccups here and there (sometimes the cuts can be quite noticeable).Glitches:First off, the hyperlink [...] highlighted in the menu is a dead link. What a blooper.Secondly, Gigi likes to call the moves - now, while this is fine for rueda it does not work for social dancing. Compounding to the problem is the fact that there is little mention about leading, which is a key aspect of salsa partnerwork.Thirdly - and this is a MAJOR omission - the DVD makes absolutely NO MENTION of what type of salsa it is teaching, which is incredibly silly. LA/NY slot-style dancers won't like the feeling of being conned into buying this DVD.One small gripe - Gigi's heels keep making that loud CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! sound all throughout the 3 DVDs. It becomes annoying after a while until you force yourself to ignore it.

I think the steps are pretty cool, but they are absoutley horrible at teaching. I think they suck. How can someone make a video and not stop to show the steps step by step. I Would NOT recomend this to anyone new or experienced. There are way better instructional videos out on the market. DO NOT WASTE your money. TRY "Dvida" Instructional videos

Excellent product. It's not easy to create danse DVDs which are instructive and a pleasure to watch, this one is great.Delivered very quickly internationally.Thanks.

First things first - the style in this DVD is CUBAN salsa. This is not obvious from the title, or other info. If you are new to Salsa, be aware that there are different styles, and this may not be what they teach at your local class ("LA" or "Cross Body" style is the most common in the UK I believe).Having said that, I do some LA and some Cuban - and this is a great DVD set for Cuban style.There are a LOT of DVD's out there that cost quite a lot and only cover the most elementary footwork, and maybe a handful of turns... This is a bit more expenseive maybe, but much better value. It is a set of 4 DVD's covering many many many moves. The first 3 discs are Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. The fourth covers Rueda ("Wheel" -dancing as a group in a circle).The production is very professional compared to others out there. The instructions are clear. There are multiple angles. If you want to learn Cuban Salsa, this will give you plenty to work on for a long time.

First this is cuban Salsa which is very popular in France.Gigi the instructor provides detailed moves and though she counts a little differently from 1 to 6 instead of 1 to 7,it is easy too adjust and moves seem quite easy too replicate.I have only fast forwarded the 4 videos to get a general idea and the content looks great so far and the multi-angle good too.However there are some cons but none that will prevent you from learning the moves and distract from the video:- The videos seemed quite a lot compressed and picture quality suffered,programms are about 30 min longs x 3(because of multi angle) on a single dvd which has only 2.5 Go/8,5 max .Too be fair I could only watch it on a computer since i do not have a tv so in that case image could be better- the packaging for the 4-DVD is on the big side(It is a big box with the 4 DVDS)