Daily App

Highly rhythmic and social – and yes, sensual in a sly, sophisticated way – Latin dance has enjoyed great popularity over the years. Originating in Cuba and Latin America, styles such as mambo, rhumba, and cha-cha-cha swept the globe in the 1940s and 1950s and they have been relished by casual and dedicated dancers ever since. One major distinction from other styles: The Latin dance scene is 99% about dancing, not dating; very often, complete strangers choose to dance together solely for the sake of dancing, with no strings attached. And truly, there’s nothing like seeing two top-flight Latin dancers out on the floor, moving perfectly to the music.

You probably knew all that already, but what you might not know is that lessons for one of the most popular Latin styles, salsa, are now available for consumption on Nokia phones. That’s right, dance lessons in the palm of your hand – and in the privacy of your own home, if that suits.

CubicVideo’s Mobile Dance Trainer method – aimed at male and female partners alike – uses a clever and effective combination of animations and video of live dancers to instruct beginners in basic steps and movement of the  upper-body. And in contrast to what you’d see on an instructional DVD, these lessons are designed for hand-held viewing, while you’re actually practicing your steps.

The twelve salsa-instruction apps that CubicVideo has made available on Ovi Store, called Salsa Basics and downloadable at no charge, are limited selections extracted from a full-blown app that will soon be released – also at no charge, the company tells us. (And lessons for other Latin dance styles are also in the works.) The 12 intro apps are split equally between men and “ladies” and deal with all the essentials of salsa. We tried a few of them and were impressed at how well they convey the proper movements. It probably helps to have at least some appreciation for Latin music, which we certainly do, but for those who don’t, that’s easy enough to rectify.

CubicVideo‘s main accomplishment is to come up with a way of showing a man and woman dancing the basic salsa form from a variety of different angles at once. With two, four, even six video loops of the professional couple displayed in split-screen fashion, each loop shot from a different angle and all synchronized to each other, it’s possible to study all of the movements required of each partner – and equally important, how each of individual movement meshes together with the others, beat by beat. If only a single camera were used, there’s a good chance that one partner’s body will block the view of the other partner at crucial moments.

What’s more, these videos can be played in slow motion, for even closer study. And in some cases, an animated diagram showing specifically how the man and woman are to move each foot in time to the musical beat gets displayed right next to and in perfect synchrony with the video. This is particularly helpful, we found, because it combines the diagram’s simplified view of the steps with live footage showing related subleties, like the shifting of one’s weight from one leg to another, which is the source of this dance’s intoxicating sway of the hips. For still more guidance, there’s a voice-over counting beats and a visual count, as well.

Although it was developed in Germany, a country where Latin dancing happens to be hugely popular (Germany’s up there with Japan and Finland, it turns out), the language Salsa Basics uses can be switched from German to English, French, Italian, or Spanish.

Criticisms? Our only complaint is that the textual content Salsa Basics provides is displayed in a teeny-weeny font, far too small for comfortable reading even when holding our Nokia N97 in landscape orientation. Fortunately, this text is not vital – it’s the animations and video that make this app as compelling an instructional tool as it is.

The first set of instructions, Salsa Basic Step – for men, is available free in Ovi Store. The lady’s view of the app is available, too. To see the other steps available, take a look at all of the titles available from CubicVideo GmbH.