Final Reflection

Final Reflection

Coming into this class, I knew very little about salsa as a dance, music, and culture. Now, after having been in this class for the past eight weeks, I feel that I have learned so much about the many different
types of salsa and all of the rich history and culture of the salsa. Prior to this course and all of its valuable information and discussions, all that I thought of the salsa was that it was just a Latin dance that was danced to a certain type of music. But, now my viewpoint of the salsa has changed tremendously from where it was before. I learned so many valuable things about rhythm, music, types of salsa, and the history of salsa. But, if I had to choose three of my main key takeaways from learning about salsa throughout the course of this past semester would be that salsa is an extremely diverse and inclusive dance and culture, how salsa has changed and morphed into something new in a drastic way over the many years it has been a very popular dance, and that salsa has so many different origins, coming from many different places such as from Africa, Mexico, Cuba, the Afro Caribbean territories, and migrating to the Americas, specifically in New York City. Many of these places that the salsa migrated and transported to put their own little twists and innovations onto the dance to make it their own for their people. In some ways, there are some cases where practically a whole new type of dance was created but it of course still is part of the all-around salsa genre. To live with the "salsa mindset" means to have a passionate and understanding view of life and dance. Sometimes, in salsa you have to take on a very different role, sometimes you have to be the leader, and other times you may have to be a follower. You have to be willing to give and to receive all at the same time. This salsa mindset offers us an amazing and balanced way of life filled with culture and love. The salsa mindset is all about community and dancing and living in the moment with the people you love around you. I find it to be a fantastic way to live and something that I would love to incorporate into my future. Coming into the course, I did not expect there to be as much reading as there was. I found it very interesting and informative and I understand the importance of it. But sometimes it was a lot to take in. I found the videos to be quite interesting and insightful. I felt sometimes they were more useful than the readings. One thing that surprised me that I really ended up enjoying was the zoom casts with our groups. I am normally a shy person and find it difficult to speak my mind. But in this class and with my group, I found it to be a lot easier to collaborate with my group in order to have productive discussions. Overall, I had a great time in this course and I feel that I learned a lot. Thank you!

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