Archive for August, 2002
Salsa Clothing Advice for Men
August 1st, 2002 | 
Author: Shoes
Shoes are an essencial accessory for men to dance salsa, although they’re not quite so important as they are for women, as men do not spin as much as women. My recommendation for male dancers is to have a pair of shoes dedicated to dancing, though not necessarily dance shoes per se.
One possibility is to just use a pair of comfortable leather-soled city shoes. What I did with my dance shoes was replace the leather sole with suede soles. Suede is the best kind of sole for dancing.
Another possiblity is to buy dance shoes from any dance supplies store. Personally, I don’t like the shoes they sell, they feel too flimsy for me.
The third option is to buy dance sneakers, which have a rubber sole with a special thread. There are to main brands: Bloch and Caperzio. I have a pair of Blochs, which (possibly because of sensitive feet) tend to hurt after a couple of hours, so I only wear them in studio environment.
One last tip I have for you, is to buy your dance shoes half a size too large, and place a sports insole inside. That makes your shoes very comfortable.
Update:I have since converted to wearing Jazz slippers (by Bloch). I took some convincing, as I felt very unsafe initially. I kept being afraid that I would get badly stepped on. However, once I got used to them, I can’t return to any other kind of dancing shoes. I highly recommend them!
Clothing
Guys, when we dance, we sweat. That is not as much of a problem as we’d think The main issues regarding swear are (1) B.O. and (2) sticky clothing.
To deal with B.O., well, just be clean, and perhaps bring several changes of shirts.
To deal with stickiness, my advice is to wear two layers. Inside, a tight-fitting cotton T-shirt, and outside a loose shirt. This will prevent the shirt from sticking to your back and will be nice to girls who won’t feel sticky hands after dancing with you.
As for trousers, I recommend avoiding jeans, although most people figure it out sooner or later. Jeans tend to become heavy and sticky when wet (with sweat, obviously).
My personal taste is for cotton trousers, the looser the better.
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