What is lady style?

Lady style, also called ladies styling, is the individual technique of the person who follows in a couple: how the arms, hips, shoulders and feet move, and which flourishes go between one figure and the next. It is not a separate dance. It is the same salsa or the same bachata, worked on from the follower’s body.

It is taught without a partner. The whole group faces the mirror and repeats, the same as a technique or choreography class.

The first thing is posture and weight: turning without losing your axis, finishing a spin on time and not falling into your partner. Then come the arms, which is what people notice most from the outside, and the hip and body movements that bachata uses far more than salsa.

Many classes end with a short choreography. It is not meant to be danced as it is at a social, but to practise the styling with music until it comes out without thinking.

The name comes from a time when the follower was almost always a woman, but the class works for anyone who follows. And although it is usually recommended after a few months of regular classes, there are beginner groups: knowing the basic step is enough.

What it is not is a substitute for learning to dance as a couple. Lady style improves how you look and feel on the floor; the connection with whoever leads is learned in partner classes.

Our calendar has 131 events with lady style or ladies styling in the name, and 117 of them are classes or workshops. There are almost twice as many in bachata (52) as in salsa (28). The country with the most is the United States (35), followed by Spain (27) and Mexico (11).

In Spain, among the classes that publish a price, half cost 20 € or less, ranging from 8 to 30 € for a single class. Weekend workshops and month-long courses cost more.