SALSA EXPLAINED
by Nick Child et al
A new Salsa dancer asked me to explain LA, from NY, from Cuban. So I ended up showing that I am a fully paid up member of the Salsa Anoraks Society. This second version of Salsa Explained includes many other people’s improvements.
It gets more complicated the further down you go here. So give up when you've had enough explanation for one sitting! Of course writing it down is not nearly as useful as demonstrating it.
SALSA DANCE
All styles of Salsa are danced with 3 steps for 4 beats of music (or 6 over 8 if you like) with a pause or tap or whatever on the unstepped beat. This definition also applies to other dances like Bachata, Cha Cha Cha, and Son or (Ballroom) Rumba - dances which are also popular with Salseros!
SALSA MUSIC
All Salsa music has certain things in common. There's its universal 2-bars or 8-beat measures:-
/123(4)/567(8)/
The famous clave pattern, in particular, picks out 5 beats:-
23 / 5 & 8 called the "2/3" clave; or 1 & 4 / 67, the "3/2" clave.
If you can't hear the clave itself, the music always picks out the same clave rhythms.
ONLY PLEASING SOME
It is just about possible to dance any style of Salsa dance to any kind of Salsa music. But in practice, each style of dance goes with its own style of music that emphasises the beats that style of dance wants to use most. This leads to inevitable tensions between different sets of dancers who like the different styles, and with DJs and event organisers who can only expect to please some of the people some of the time.
SALSA DANCE STYLES
The main styles we're faced with in our Salsa world are: Cuban, LA, and NY. LA means Los Angeles. NY means New York. All three of these main Salsa styles are usually danced on the 123 567 beats of the music. So the steps on 3 and 7 are two beats long, giving a “quick quick slow” step pattern. But see further on for complications on this!
There are many other variations of Salsa from other Latin American countries and throughout the world. Puerto Ricans contributed much of the NY style - as you'll know from West Side Story's song "America" with it's Salsa clave opening solo. NY is also known as Mambo, but “Mambo” is confusingly also what people call a brass section of the music, an older Cuban music and dance style, and a name given to a basic LA step pattern.
CROSS BODY LEAD
Cross Body Lead (CBL) refers to a standard way for the woman to "cross" the lead's "body" as he "leads" her to end up on the other side of him with both facing each other still. This CBL is then the basis for most of the fancy moves in CBL styles.
CROSS BODY LEAD STYLES
Both LA (Los Angeles) and NY (New York) Salsa are CBL styles. CBL styles look neater and more sophisticated. NY looks especially swish, because of the way NY's On2 timing works to give a more laid back feel, but also more time for stylish multiple spins and fancy footwork.
SLOT DANCES
The CBL styles are also two of many (not just Salsa) "slot" dances. You dance within a long oblong or "slot" area on the dance floor. You could dance a slot dance along a narrow corridor without banging into the walls. When they swap places, the man makes space to let the woman slip neatly past. You can fit more people on the dance floor in "slots" without banging into each other if you dance a slot dance properly.
Generally in Scotland we don't dance Salsa tidily like this yet. Some of us are trying hard to learn how to dance CBL and behave better on the dance floor. Meanwhile, sincere apologies are due to those others who are not able to dance more safely in "slots" because of our messing about and having other kinds of fun. Unfortunately there are no laws against this "jay-walking" lawlessness on the Salsa dance floor.
When and where slot dancing becomes the culture, there are many benefits to be gained. Fewer bruises and dodgings. You can concentrate better on your partner, the music, and your dancing. More people can fit comfortably in the space. Plus, the more skilled at CBL styles you become, especially NY, the more compact your dancing can be too - a small square not an oblong slot.
MESSING ABOUT SALSA
Mostly what we do in Edinburgh (if not Scotland) is what I call "Messing About Salsa", also called Fusion Salsa. That's our present dominant culture. Joining any dominant culture will get you more dances. I love it because (in Edinburgh anyway) that's how I/you get more dances with more partners of all levels in one evening. That is, it's the local recipe for the best and most wall to wall fun you can get. If I lived in New York I’d be doing NY style, in Los Angeles, LA style; in Cuba I’d be doing Cuban styles - all for the very same reason. More dances. That's me, it may not be you.
"Messing About Salsa" is where you mix in whatever you've learnt from whatever kind of Salsa you've done, and do whatever you find works best with each partner, adding in whatever else takes your fancy. You learn how to dodge yourself and your partner around other people on the crowded dance floor, flying by the seat of your pants! Depending how expansive you are in your dancing, and how skilful you are in the dodging, you might or might not stop people being annoyed or bruised by you. Good "Messing About Salsa" with a variety of moves requires the leader to be a pretty good lead. Sometimes the moves are "new" - that is, mistakes that it's fun to try and find a graceful unbruising way out of.
CUBAN or CASINO STYLE
Cuban (Casino style) Salsa is the one that is NOT a Cross Body Lead style. It's in "circles" not "slots". Partners dance around more in a circle - plus (in Rueda) in a grouped circle of partners too. "Rueda" means wheel - but "Casino" was the name of a Hotel, not the circular gambling wheel thing as you might think. Cuban or Casino style can include highly complicated moves. This style takes up more space on the floor. But danced really well it is also surprisingly compact even with its complicated moves. The complicated moves in Cuban Casino don't depend on spinning on the spot as much as CBL styles do.
DILE QUE NO
The Cuban "Cross Body Lead" is called Dile Que No (DQN) which is Spanish for "say no". DQN is basically a splayed out version of CBL. Or, if you like, CBL is a straightened out version of DQN. In both CBL and DQN the woman crosses to the man's left side. You would need a wider corridor to do DQN or Casino than CBL styles. DQN is basic to Cuban Casino Salsa like CBL is to CBL Salsa styles. But complex Cuban moves are less often built on DQNs. The basic Casino step pattern constantly contains what CBL styles would call an open-break, an extra springy-ness that prepares for a new move. But the next move from Casino basic step pattern is not DQN; it is nearly always a move to the man's right side or past it.
ON1 and ON2
Note that the 1st beat of the bar (of 4 beats) is also the 5th beat of the measure (of 8 beats); the 2nd beat is also the 6th. So "On1" refer to an emphasis on the 1st and the 5th beats of the 8; "On2" refers to emphasis on 2 and 6.
The term "On1" is usually interchangeably used with "LA" styles of Salsa. In On1/LA style, the main emphasis in the triplet of steps is on the 1st beat (and the 5th) - ie "On1". This 1st beat is also when you change or “break” your direction to move back in the other direction - the "break" step. Most people in the UK first learn an LA/On1 style of Salsa.
"On2" usually refers to "NY" style Salsa. You still step on beats 123 567 but the emphasis is on the 2nd beat (ie "On2") and the 6th beat. These 2nd and 6th beats (like the 1 and 5 of LA) are the “break” steps for NY style.
For “On1” LA styles, the step on 1 goes forward for the man. For “On2” NY styles, the steps on 12 go forward for the woman.
The fancy turn patterns of LA can usually be transferred onto the NY timing, and vice versa - LA beat 1 maps on to NY beat 6. But the feel is significantly different. Lots of people find “the other one” hard to do.
Actually Cuban music too is usually taught and danced with the 1st and 5th beats emphasised in the 1st and 4th steps. So it is technically also danced "on 1". The pattern of where you put your feet is different from LA or NY. Cuban, though, is not called On1. (See more complications below - and this is where the complications really start! So don’t read on unless you’re ready for it. At least take a break before reading on!)
CONTRA TIEMPO: "ON4"
Cuban music is often more difficult to get the complicated rhythms of, than other Salsa music is. As I said, it is usually taught counting 123 567 with an emphasis on the 1st and 5th beats, though it's not called "On1". Usually this count is completed into a metronomically regular feeling with a foot tap on 4 and 8.
But if you go to Cuba, or watch Cubans, and (variably) some of the time if you watch Scots doing Cuban style dancing (eg in Glasgow), you will see (and hear) that they are dancing the usual shaped Cuban moves, but doing them while stepping on 234 678. This is natural for Cubans because the 234 678 pattern and body movement comes from the original Cuban grandparent of all Salsa music and dance. This is the lovely older Cuban "Son" dance and music - as in the Buena Vista Social Club music.
Son music is designed for a dance that is "contra tiempo" ("across the beat"). The steps are on 234 678. And the emphasis, in Son especially, is not on 1st or 2nd beats, but on the 4th and 8th "slow" steps of the "quick quick slow" triplet of steps. These "slow" 2-beat steps hit the 4th (and 8th) beats of the music, also then using up the following 5th (and 1st) beats too.
Son is also done in a basic side-step that is different to the other side step patterns you'll have learnt. So, all these major differences from other Salsa put together, can make Son (and contra tiempo Cuban Salsa) quite a big challenge to anyone. Contra tiempo is not unique to Cuba though.
An added difficulty, in Son and other Cuban music, is that these 4th and 8th beats can be hard to find in the music. Can anything help? Just enjoy yourself! The music can change all the time anyway. But if it matters to you, then the 2nd (or 6th) and 8th (or 4th) beats of music are marked by the 2/3 (or 3/2) clave rhythm. The tumbao "slap gu-gung" rhythm gives you 2 4&, 6 8&. The tumbao is what NY (and LA done correctly) work with. It's like a Cha Cha Cha speeded up - counted 234&5, 678&1 . . . 23chachacha, 67chachacha. The 4th and 8th beats of music may also be marked by the bass line too. The 1st and 5th beats are also important beats and are there in the music, of course. But in contra tiempo dance, 1 and 5 beats are not stepped on. They're more felt in the body movement or weight transfer - or that foot tap.
So, danced "contra tiempo" like this, the dance is technically being danced "on 2" in some ways. But "on 2" Cuban styles are never called "On2" like Mambo is. Confusingly, these Cuban "on 2" styles are the only ones of the three Salsa styles to start the triplet of steps "on 2". On1 and On2 refers to the emphasised break step; but it is not so clear where the "break" step is in Cuban Salsa's circling patterns compared to the CBL styles.
In many ways, I think it's best to think of Son and contra tiempo Cuban Salsa as being "On4", because of that emphasis in the dance and the music.
HISTORICAL FEETNOTE
The history of Salsa dance and music is complex, not clear, and not linear - that is, its development happened back and forth, between places not just in one place. One authoritative view is that Salsa clave rhythms are not found in Africa as such; they were part of the Cuban original recipe. The clave rhythm from Son got spread around the Americas, including to Puerto Rico. Later, it and the music that went with it, all got called “Salsa”. Some Cubans say “There is no Salsa, only Son”.
And for another confusion: Historically, that Son contra tiempo On4 (with its accompanying less emphasised "on 2" bit) was taken to New York by Cubans - as well as their old bouncy Mambo dance hall dance and music. Puerto Rican Salsa there was also On2 and uses the clave and tumbao rhythm as well. Especially when Cubans stopped arriving after their revolution, On2 became the greater influence in New York than the On4. NY Mambo resulted.
But here's a thing. If you look closely, NY dancers are often stepping on an early "1", a kind of "4 and a half". So this could be "in memory of" that earlier Cuban contra tiempo "On4" step, and the musical rhythms, that it all came from. And NY teachers often don't call the beats strictly and regularly. They often practice calling out something like "One 23 Five 67" in a “slow quickquick” way. If you kept to stricter rhythmic timing, that’s like calling "Eight 23 Four 67 Eight 23 Four 67 Eight 23 etc"! And that's an echo of a Son contra tiempo. So the ghost of Son lives on in New York style!
PARTNERSHIP AND DIFFERENCES
Complicated moves, even in Cuba, may not be common in everyday Latino native dancing. Many Latinos shake their heads at "white" move-obsessed Salsa, preferring to enjoy their music and partner in a more simple way. But every Latino culture also has some specially developed and fancy dancing. It was Latino Puerto Ricans, not "whites", who invented CBL and its fancier moves. Dominicans also dance very stylishly and On2. Venezuelans dance CBL On1. If it's not Salsa, there's fancy Cumbia in Costa Rica, or Samba in Brazil. Each style has its own beauty and sophisticated dancers.
Sometimes the beauty is more for how it looks gracefully or athletically, sometimes more for how it feels to do it sensually in partnership. Usually dancers like some of both. All kinds of partner dances have the joy of teaming up you and your body in a partnership with the music and your partner.
When people say they find that simple Latino dancing, or Cuban, or LA, or NY, is, for example, better for dancing "with" your partner, often this opinion is based on ignorance, maybe even sour grapes, of the other dances. If you don't try it, and can't do it, then it is more accurate to say "I don't know" if one style is better than another in this way or that.
Put it this way: Dance is always a minority interest. Remember that, even in Latino countries, even in Cuba, it is not true that everyone dances, let alone dances well. If a non-dancer were to negate dancing as a whole, we dancers would say "Try it, you can learn, you might enjoy it; otherwise you don't know if it's any good." The same applies to those Salseros of one style who negate another.
REASONS TO TRY MORE
I did some Bellydance classes to improve body movement. The more important lesson I learnt was to listen to the music better and express that in the dance. A Bellydancer does enjoy dancing alongside someone else, but their main focus is on the partnership of their body with the music. The more styles you learn, the better you enjoy your skill, your body movement, the feeling of partnering, and looking good. But, if dancing is your prime interest, the primary overall "partner" is really the music. Always dance “close to” the music and rhythms.
Other activities and learning can also help - get fit and supple through exercise or yoga; learn more about the music; learn totally different dances; travel; learn Spanish language and culture! The more you learn "the language" of dance - as many "dialects" as possible - the better you will be able to express yourself. At every level better technique is a springboard for more fun too. Just as we would encourage non-dancers to try to learn more, so should we.
Within Salsa, try all kinds. Try dancing simply, with feeling but without any turns at all. Do keep learning and practicing all CBL and Cuban styles from good teachers. Whatever style you prefer to come back to, it will improve as a result. Ensure that the Scottish Salsa scene is a thriving space for all. Celebrate and welcome all kinds - don't diss diversity.