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Interview with Eddie
Torres on Teaching First I'd like to say what a great pleasure it was to interview Eddie (and I truly mean that)... He is a warm and good hearted person and a very good teacher. Let me now introduce to you, The "King" of SALSA, Mr. Eddie Torres! Jami Josephson: Okay. First of all, how did you get started teaching? Eddie Torres: I started teaching, Jami, when I was about 16 years old. I had a real interest...I had a real knack for teaching. I liked it since I was very young. The fellas that I hung out with...that I grew up with...were always looking to learn new steps and new turns, and I was always inventing, so they were asking always to share with them. And that’s how I [got] the idea of teaching. Just by sharing with my friends. So informally, I started teaching at the age of 16. JJ: Okay, very cool. Did you ever have a mentor in learning to teach or was there someone who really helped you out that you look towards? ET: One person Jami. Her name is June LaBerta, okay. Italian lady who I met way back in the mid-60’s, maybe ’68, somewhere around there. She was a ballroom teacher. I used to call her the “Encyclopedia of Dance” ‘cause she used to know EVERY ballroom dance that you could imagine, and she taught it well. She also taught Mambo very well. So she was the one who helped me get started in the knowledge of technique and timing and clave, and put the academic structure to the street dance we call Salsa. JJ: What’s the hardest thing to teach a beginner student? ET: I would say the hardest thing is to, at first, get them acquainted with timing…understanding how to hear and pick up the timing properly. And besides that, I would say to get them to feel music rhythmically…to have a sense of rhythm. They it’s hard to teach rhythm, you either have it or you don’t. So I’ve kind of developed half a dozen approaches on helping students to pick up timing and learn how to work rhythmically with their bodies. That’s the hardest thing I’ve found. JJ: Someday I want to hear about those! (Laugh). What advice can you give to a beginner teacher? ET: [To] a beginner teacher, I would say…the most important thing that I would have to point out would be to have, especially the foundation of, your work properly understood. Before you speak anything academic to a student, [i.e.:] anything about music, anything that has to do with science...be sure that your information is correct. I used to cross reference all my musical theory with Tito Puente and teachers…people who were really experts at music…[to] be sure that I was speaking with knowledge and real knowing of what I was saying. That’s probably the most important thing to start a student off correctly in their knowledge, and, of course, to really, if anything, know what you’re doing. Teach a student slowly and try to bring them up correctly, because the foundation work is the most important part. Like anything that you learn. If you learn it right then you’re on the right track from the beginning. [If] you teach bad foundation to a student, [he/she] is going to have a problem down the line because it’s going to evolve into being a major problem later on in anything [he/she] is going to do. Proper timing…proper technique. Learn how to do that well. JJ: How would you create a good student? Is that possible…how do you create good students? Is there a certain thing that you do to bring them along and make them somebody who wants to learn? ET: I’d say for me what has worked to develop a…good student…the bottom line should be, of course, to develop into a very good dancer. Someone who can really dance well out there and hold [his/her] own, and really look good, you know, so I would say the beginning part starts with the student’s commitment and dedication…[the student] has to be committed and dedicated. I would say [that] one of the things that helps for that to happen is [that] your teaching has to have a sense of fun and excitement to it. Sometimes I think that if you’re too rigid and you’re too mechanical, and too scientific, or too complicated, you can probably turn a student off. You [have to] keep it simple, as June LaBerta used to always tell me…she’d say, “Eddie, …remember the word kiss, …it means Keep It Simple, Stupid.” So that you don’t get it too complicated and get a student turned off before he really even gets through the foundation work. So that’s very important, you know, you should be a teacher with some type of animation, with some type of humor in your teaching. And the student, if he’s dedicated and, of course, if he has talent…[because] a lot of times the student wants to be very good and if he doesn’t carry the qualifications and the tools necessary...a teacher can be great and may not get good results. So if the student has what it takes [and] the teacher has the know-how, the patience, a little bit of humor and fun [to] make the teaching exciting [so that] the student will continue to grow…that for me is what really works in my teaching. JJ: Okay, moving on…Do you believe that a really good dancer doesn’t necessarily make them a good teacher? ET: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, one of the problems that I find today is [when] a potential student is at a nightclub watching a good dancer or good couple on the floor and he assumes right away that because the couple is dancing good that either one of them must be good teachers. Just simply because they look great on the floor. I know from experience that you can be a great social dancer and be a terrible teacher. Just like I know some very very good teachers that do not dance socially so well…they’re not so flashy and they don’t look great on the floor. But they actually know how to transmit their teaching and get across to a student the understanding of what it is that they are trying to teach them. So that’s what makes, I think, for a good teacher: Someone who knows how to transmit. So, yes, to answer your question…there’s a great dancer who may not be a great teacher and then there’s one who’s a great dancer AND a great teacher. JJ: Do you think it’s important to count? ET: To count? …When you say “important to count”…count while you’re dancing or just simply work with timing and music? JJ: Well, I have to say I’ve run
into a lot of people that dance, and I will say, “Can you break that down for
me?” And they would not be able to break it down in counts for me. So, is it
important to count or is it not important to count as student? And also, is it
important to count as a teacher? JJ: …knowledge, absolutely. Okay, two more to go (laugh)… here’s a good one…Some teachers, when they teach an intermediate/advanced student, they enjoy it and have a good time and the student enjoys him/herself. But when they are then approached with a beginner student, some teachers, and I get asked this question a lot, have a tough time in teaching a beginner student. They usually prefer to teach an advanced student. I was wondering if you might have any advice to give them. Maybe there is something that they could do that could turn them on to enjoy teaching a beginner student. Or maybe there is another outlook that maybe they can look at that might help them to take a beginner student? Is there anything that you can tell them that you might do? ET: …the key there is PATIENCE. First of all, a good teacher is one who loves what they are doing. If you love teaching, then it seems natural to create [a sense of] patience…it really takes A LOT of patience, especially when you have some beginners who a very slow…and I mean slow being that there are so many different levels [of] beginners. You have a very quick beginner who understands, picks up and goes right along with the foundation work. Then you get those who you have to explain the same thing, maybe a dozen times, in different ways to get them to understand what it is you want them to learn. So I would say [that] a teacher who is now teaching like myself, I teach mostly advanced…when I’m teaching beginners, I just have to remind myself, first of all, to go back to that real slow, very careful, meticulous breakdown. Because you can make a mistake once you’re teaching advanced students and kind of take-off, explain things quickly and not have too much patience because you’re already used to working at a certain level. When you’re going back and forth between beginners and advanced students as a teacher, I think it’s important to remember to change your mode. In your mind know that you’re going back beginner, which means that you have to speak slower, you’re going to have to gear up [with] more patience, you’re going to have to be ready to remember that a student needs you repeat the same thing over and over and over. I find that what works for me is that I try to really explain everything slowly and in detail. Let me tell you something. Explaining and teaching slowly is like dancing slow. It’s actually HARDER to dance slow than to dance fast. It’s harder to teach slow because teaching slow means that we have to be very sure of every word that you say because a student is now comprehending everything that’s coming out of your mouth and when you explain it slow, you better now what you’re talking about. So a lot of teachers, I think, lose their patience because maybe they realize that explaining something slow, they may not always have a pure understanding themselves of that very basic knowledge that they’re trying to [teach]. So teaching beginners, my wife right now is teaching most of my beginner classes, I say this: it’s ALWAYS harder for a teacher teaching beginners than [for] a teacher who [already has] students who have accomplished certain levels. Now it’s more fun and a real joy to work with them…cause the “hard” work is already done. So again, teaching beginners, the key is patience and you have got to LOVE what you do. JJ: Last but not least…Are there any sayings that you have, that you always say to your students? Is there a motto that you’ve run through? I have a little column, and it has “Advice from the Legends,” just little blurbs that someone can read and say, “Oh yeah, that’s a typical Eddie saying.” Is there anything that you have? ET: I probably have quite a few. JJ: I’m SURE you must! ET: If any one of them has to come to mind right at this moment, it would the saying I try to tell students. That no matter how good you get, [and] no matter how great you become, always remember that it’s more important to have fun and appreciate people in the dance world than to become snobbish and…too conceited to dance with someone who is below your level. So my saying would be, “Remember where you came from.” Remember where you came from. And remember that the bottom line should be not so much who’s greater than who, but who has the most fun. Not who dances the best, but who’s having the greatest time out there, because, after all, I think that’s what dancing should be. It should be part of our life in the cultural way that we experienced it – for fun and enjoyment. Thank You Eddie! Your the Best! Click here for another great interview..."Salsamundo Presents, The Mambo King", by Angel Ortiz Contact Eddie Torres: More about The King Eddie Torres has carved out a reputation as the most authentic, innovative Latin Dance performer, choreographer and instructor in America. In January 1987, he created the Eddie Torres Latin Dance Company with the primary purpose of restoring and expanding public enjoyment of the mambo as a vibrant and authentic art form. The company also hosts a dance academy for children, dedicated to keeping the Latin dance culture alive for generations. Mr. Torres' performances have thrilled audiences at such varied and esteemed venues as Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and Ford's Theatre, where he performed for President and Mrs. Bush. He has choreographed music videos for MTV, Ruben Blades & David Byrne, and has performed with such musical luminaries as Machito,Celia Cruz,Geoffrey Holder,Mario Bauza,Nancy Wilson,Wynton Marsalis,Johnny Pacheco,Mongo Santamaria,and Tito Rodriguez. Of course one cannot mention Eddie Torres without thinking of Tito Puente. It is fitting that The King of Latin Music, Tito Puente, and the King of Latin Dance, Eddie Torres, would meet, work together and become ambassadors of this music and dance.
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