Latin STATUS | Saturdays
(In the Lounge)

@ PERLÉ Nightclub w/ DANY JOSHUA

Saturday , January 21, 2012 – If you are looking for a great party on Saturdays! Now we have the best of both worlds! 2 Parties under one roof. In the Main room –> Mainstream party! In the Lounge –> Latin party!

Doors Open at 10pm

2 Rooms! 2 Parties!
MAIN ROOM = DJ Johnny FX
New Mixes of Top 40, Hip Hop and Vocal Club

IN THE LOUNGE = DJ Dany Joshua + DJ Jochi
Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Reggaeton, Latin Mixes,
Latin Pop, Latin Rock and Samba

Saturdays are ladies nights at PERLÉ Nightclub!
Girls FREE until 11pm MENTION DANY JOSHUA

MENTION DANY JOSHUA for GUEST LIST!
Ladies $10 All night, Men $13 All night
Reg $15

PERLÉ Nightclub, 13 Paterson St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
732.391.1110

Thursday, November 6th 2008 – 10pm

Drink Specials
$5 Capirinas, $3 Buds, $2 Shots

Free Cover before 9pm.
Reduced before 10pm.

DJ Dany J & DJ Leonard
Classic Salsa, Cha Cha, Merengue, Bachata
For serious dancing!

Free Salsa Lessons – (2) Levels
by Scarlet Mambo at 9:30pm

ALSO, celebrating Andrea’s Birthday!

360 Lounge, 120 Albany St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/arts/dance/29sals.html

“Salsa has its own networks. At clubs and socials, dancers promote their events. Camila Danielle Sanchez, 25, who was at the Chelsea social, teaches in Highland Park, N.J., near New Brunswick, where she and her partner, Dany Joshua, also host a salsa night called “Scarlet Mambo.” “If you look at the fliers,” Mr. Joshua said, “the dancers are organized. It’s a lot of ‘I’ll come support you,’ and a lot of ‘you come support me.’ Everything revolves around certain Web sites, and a MySpace and a Facebook effect has also taken place. It used to be rude to hand out fliers; now when it ends you’ll see everyone hand them out.”

(Read Complete Article):
So You Think You Can’t Salsa?
By JULIE BLOOM
Published: August 29, 2008

In a crowded, dimly lighted fifth-floor studio in Chelsea, bodies twisted and turned as a pulsing bongo beat blared in the background. Feeling something like a scene from “Dirty Dancing” without all the bump and grind, the room shook with couples moving across the floor on a Sunday evening in late August. Summer may be almost over, but the dance party has just begun.

On Wednesday, the eighth annual New York Salsa Congress began its five-day series of events devoted to dance. The congress offers live music, workshops, performances, parties and nonstop dancing. It attracts professional salsa dancers and musicians from around the world. But here in the city there are also plenty of places where amateurs can experience Latin dance for themselves.

Salsa dancing in New York has evolved since its heyday in the late ’60s and ’70s, when clubs were packed with Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and other Latinos moving to the voice of Héctor Lavoe and the beats of Willie Colón and other salsa music all-stars. Now people of all ages and backgrounds are learning the basic steps of a partner social dance that is all about great rhythm and individual flair. With almost 200 clubs devoted to Latin music across the city, it’s possible to take a turn on the dance floor every night of the week.

At the Chelsea studio, where about 70 people had gathered for “La Vieja Guardia,” a night of dancing, Daniel Antonio Esquivel, known as DJ Toño, spun a Charanga track from his collection of more than 6,000 recordings of Latin music, much of it on vinyl.

The evening — organized by an instructor, Joel Dominguez; a promoter, Alfredo Felix; and DJ Toño — is what is known as a social. Socials are something like a high school dance for grown-ups. They are open to the public and most often held in studios (the Chelsea party is held monthly), with amateur and more experienced dancers invited for a small fee, usually $7 to $15, to dance with a variety of ready and willing partners. The dancers know how to navigate the geography of the wooden floor in relation to their skills; the experts flaunt their moves in the center, while the slower dancers tend toward the outskirts.

Most of the dancers at the social come prepared for a workout, in everything from tight dresses and hot shorts to T-shirts and sweat pants. Almost all the women wear strappy heels.

In an Allen Iverson jersey and a Sixers cap, Alfred Okomo, 29, an engineer, was one of the beginners; he’s been out dancing a few times now. “The basics, I get,” he said. “The turning is kind of tricky.” He practiced in a side studio, lined with backpacks and purses. Novices are welcome, as are single women and men.

Nicolette Barber, 25, from San Diego, in a blue halter dress, with her blond hair tied back in braids, was in town for a baseball game but heard about the social from her roommate at the hostel where she was staying. “Everyone I’ve danced with has been patient,” she said. “There are a ton of men. It is quite encouraging.”

Part of the fun of socials is watching the dancers, especially the really good ones. One woman, in a cropped tank top and skin-tight jeans, whose hair, wet from sweat, clung to her neck as she flicked her wrists and swayed her hips — as if she were filming an advertisement for Bacardi — captivated many of her fellow dancers.

Most of the socials include a performance by professional dancers. One of the most famous socials in the city, Jimmy Anton on West 19th Street, in the Flatiron district, has been taking place every other Sunday for the past 14 years and draws upward of 300 people.

There are plenty of other dance floors in the city: at clubs, at outdoor events in the back garden at Tavern on the Green and at Wagner Park, just north of Battery Park, part of the River to River Festival.

And there are classes. There used to be a select few in Midtown, like the well-known Latin Dance Studio run by Eddie Torres, who still holds classes on 54th Street featuring a range of levels from beginning to advanced in the traditional style of New York salsa, emphasizing “on two” — that is, moving on the second beat of the music. Studios in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, and Nyack, N.Y., also offer salsa classes.

If you want to get a real sense of where salsa came from and get a taste of the form’s authentic passion and flavor, consider heading uptown for a class. In Washington Heights, at J’s Big Gym on 181st Street, Ralph Rodriguez, known as Ralphie La Rumba, led a class of mostly men on a recent Tuesday night. Dressed in a newsboy cap, jeans and a black V-neck, Mr. Rodriquez, 31, who has taught salsa for seven years and also works in construction, counted out the basic steps in a mix of Spanish and English. The predominantly Dominican clients of the gym watched from Stairmasters as the students faced the mirror, mouthing the counts. The steps felt pretty straightforward until the music began and a pivot turn was added, and then the hard work started.

Mr. Rodriguez, who studied at Eddie Torres’s school, said timing was the hardest thing to teach. “It is hard for them to find the beat and the music,” he said. His classes, which are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, begin at 9 p.m. and end at 11 p.m., but that doesn’t mean the night is over. After class Mr. Rodriguez usually heads downtown to give his moves a workout. He goes to Lava Gina on Avenue C in the East Village or Club Cache on 46th Street near Times Square, and then, since most of the clubs close at 2 a.m., he heads back uptown to Coco Bongo in the Bronx.

If you had the energy, you could follow such an itinerary almost every night of the week. Each dancer at the social, each dancer in a class, could give you his or her own list of weekly events. Mr. Rodriguez’s other haunts include Session 73 on the Upper East Side on Monday; on Tuesday it’s the club formerly known as Link on East 15th Street near Union Square, which reopened last week as SideBar; on Wednesday Latin Quarter, a classic club in Midtown that offers a more traditional night of salsa dancing, and then Plan B in the East Village; on Thursdays it’s off to Club Cache.

Friday, of course, is a big night: Abakuá in the garment district, Mambo Fateegz in Midtown and S.O.B.’s in the South Village, and El Nuevo Conquistador in the Bronx. Saturday is usually quiet, a night to rest up in preparation for Sunday, which is often devoted to socials. All these clubs are primarily committed to the “on two” style, but elsewhere, at Colombian clubs in Queens and reggaetón clubs in the Bronx, you can see and dance other styles that are less technical. The feel is more like that of a traditional nightclub, but with a concentration of Latin sounds.

Salsa has its own networks. At clubs and socials, dancers promote their events. Camila Danielle Sanchez, 25, who was at the Chelsea social, teaches in Highland Park, N.J., near New Brunswick, where she and her partner, Dany Joshua, also host a salsa night called “Scarlet Mambo.” “If you look at the fliers,” Mr. Joshua said, “the dancers are organized. It’s a lot of ‘I’ll come support you,’ and a lot of ‘you come support me.’ Everything revolves around certain Web sites, and a MySpace and a Facebook effect has also taken place. It used to be rude to hand out fliers; now when it ends you’ll see everyone hand them out.”

About 10 years ago Steve Shaw, who is 66, began salsanewyork.com, a virtual salsa community bulletin board full of listings of classes and events that is one of the most established of these sites. Mr. Shaw runs the site with Manny Siverio, and the two men say their listings are carefully vetted. They promote only the events they are comfortable with, and they still attend socials themselves. Mr. Shaw added that one of the joys of salsa is that it can be danced at almost any age. Or at just about any hour.

On Sundays, Club Iguana on 54th Street serves as an official after-party for all the socials in the city. By 11 p.m. the two dance floors are packed with couples ranging from 20- to 50-something. The dancers, many of whom have been going at it since 5 p.m., continue to move as if they can never get enough dancing.

“The cool thing about salsa is, if I go to an American club, I’ll feel like an old fuddy-dud,” said Mr. Siverio, 49, “like the guy with the three hairs on his head. In the Latin club scene it’s cool. It’s about dancing. We’re out there just to have a good time.”

¡Dance Here!

SalsaNewYork.com has listings for clubs and socials as well as dance studios and instructors. Below are the studios, socials and clubs mentioned in this article:

ABAKUá SOCIAL CLUB at Club 412, 412 Eighth Avenue, at 31st Street, garment district, (212) 244-0011; abakuadancers.com.

CLUB CACHE 221 West 46th Street, Manhattan, clubcachenyc.com.

CLUB IGUANA 240 West 54th Street, Manhattan, (212) 765-5454, iguananyc.com.

COCO BONGO, 1353 Edward L. Grant Highway, at 170th Street, in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, (646) 323-5574.

DANCE MANHATTAN 39 West 19th Street, fifth floor, Flatiron district, (212) 807-0802, jimmyanton.com.

EDDIE TORRES LATIN DANCE STUDIO 244 West 54th Street, Manhattan, (718) 319-9317, eddietorres.com/salsa.html.

J’S BIG GYM 625 West 181st Street, Washington Heights, (212) 568-2444, jsbiggym.com.

JIMMY ANTON SOCIAL 39 West 19th Street, Flatiron district, on the first, third and fifth (if there is one) Sunday of the month, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

LATIN QUARTER 511 Lexington Avenue, between 47th and 48th Streets, (212) 593-7575.

LAVA GINA 116 Avenue C, at Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 477-9319, lavagina.com.

MAMBO FATEEGZ at Dance New York, 244 West 54th Street, Manhattan, fifth floor, (212) 246-5797, mambofateegz.com.

PLAN B 339 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 353-2303, planbny.com.

SESSION 73 1359 First Avenue, at 73rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 517-4445, session73.com.

SIDEBAR 120 East 15th Street, at Irving Place, Manhattan, (212) 677-2900.

S.O.B.’S 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village, (212) 243.4940, sobs.com.

‘LA VIEJA GUARDIA SOCIAL’ Held at Chelsea Studios, 151 West 26th Street, fifth floor, Rooms 501-503, (212) 647-1100.

Beginner dancers usually shy away from learning Salsa shines (footwork) because they do not understand their practicality or value. The following video is an example of improvisational fluidity.

Why Salsa shines are good for you:

1. Improve your timing – If you get lost in the middle of a turn pattern, you will be able to get back into the beat more easily.
2. Improve your body movement – If you want to dance salsa like a fish swims in water, shines are a perfect way to loosen your body and look more “latin”.
3. Expand your spinning abilities. – It is more difficult to spin by yourself that to have a partner spin you. If you can spin in shines, then you can spin twice as much in partner work.

It is apparent that the writer did her homework because this article contains quotes from seasoned Salsa gurus in diverse professions in the Salsa industry. But, as many other aficionados and newcomers to the Salsa dance scene, she makes the mistake of confusing Salsa The Music with Salsa The Dance. In my next post (very soon), I will politely disagree with a few assertions that she makes in her article. My disagreements are mainly rooted on the fact that the author groups Salsa participans (DJ’s, musicians, promoters, instructors, casual listeners, casual dancers, and veteran dancers) as one block entity of people, when in reality there are many players with conflicting business interests. More on this soon.

Ok. I am done debating and getting technical… for now.

So, enjoy the article because it DOES tell a colorful story with good quotes from important Salsa figures.

Salsa Spins beyond its Roots – NY Times

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A15FE38550C7A8EDDAE0894DF404482

By JULIE BLOOM

(Salsa, which once ruled nightclubs across New York City, has trouble finding havens there today. The Taj Lounge, in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, offers salsa dancing to live music once a week.)

SOON after Héctor Lavoe, the great salsa singer, arrives in New York in the new biopic, “El Cantante,” he finds himself immersed in a vibrant scene in the Bronx: a nightclub crammed with bodies drenched in sweat moving to the pounding beat of congas. As the film, which is to open nationwide Aug. 3 and stars Marc Anthony as Mr. Lavoe, shows, it could have been any night in New York in the late 1960s, when dancing was a genuine physical manifestation of the energy of the streets. Read the rest of the story…

(Salsa moved from the rough streets to the refined studio.)

But salsa dancing has changed dramatically since the heyday of Mr. Lavoe, whose career thrived throughout the 1970s and early ’80s, when hundreds of clubs throughout New York were packed nightly with Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and other Latinos dancing to the music of people like Mr. Lavoe, Willie Colón and Ray Barretto.

Salsa is experiencing a revival in popular culture, with “El Cantante,” and “In the Heights,” the Broadway-bound musical that’s set in Washington Heights, along with moves spotted nightly on television shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.” But the dance form has largely disappeared from the New York clubs where it was born. The Cheetah Discotheque, Ochentas, Corso Ballroom have all long been closed. The last holdout, the Copacabana, was shuttered early this month. Like many mercurial dance trends, the demise of salsa’s club life was due in part to the changing times. Hip-hop began to attract young Hispanic-Americans who might otherwise have gravitated to Latin music. At the same time ballroom denizens began to embrace salsa as a serious dance form, which further alienated young clubgoers. Today salsa is kept alive by an ardent band of semiprofessional dancers, not only in New York but around the world.

“Salsa has gotten bigger in the sense that more people are taking lessons, but the people who came up in the streets and know about the music aren’t dancing,” said Henry Knowles, a D.J. who has been spinning salsa for more than 30 years. “In the ’80s and ’90s you could go out every night of the week in New York and have four or five places to choose from, and all of them had live music, and you don’t find that, especially in the Bronx, which used to be known as the barrio of the salsa.”

Maria Torres, the woman responsible for bringing the dance scenes in “El Cantante” to life, has lived through the evolution firsthand through 20-plus years as a salsa dancer and choreographer. She danced on Broadway in “Swing!” in 1999, choreographed “4 Guys Named José … and Una Mujer Named Maria!” in 2000 and now teaches salsa and her own brand of Latin jazz throughout the world.

Over cups of café con leche at a Cuban coffeehouse near her home in Edgewater, N.J., Ms. Torres, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, recalled the days when salsa emerged.

“My father played the congas and on Saturdays my mom would cook and then we would spend the rest of the evening, all five of us, dancing,” she said of her early childhood in the ’60s. “The music and the dancing was a norm, and I knew young that I wanted to be a performer.”

When she was 12, she got her mother to sign her working papers early — the legal age was 13 — so that she could earn money to take dance lessons. Still, “there was no salsa at the time,” she said. “There was African, there was ballet, there was jazz. But there was no Latin.”

By the mid-1970s the 15-year-old Ms. Torres and her peers had begun to fuse mambo steps and movements with a grittier street style that reflected the changes people like Mr. Lavoe were making to salsa, giving it a harder edge.

Until then, she said, there were primarily only two styles of Latin dance known to the public: mambo and cha cha. “I went to this competition, it was freestyle, they were doing mambo, and I started laughing because I was like, ‘You don’t know what the kids are doing,’ so I started doing street stuff.”

With a new freestyle club background and formal dance training, Ms. Torres and others represented a new era of Latin dance, what has come to be recognized as salsa today.

Still, salsa remained a dance of the street, not taught but absorbed. That changed when Eddie Torres (no relation to Ms. Torres), brought the street into the studio in 1987. Mr. Torres, who runs the Eddie Torres Latin Dance Studio in Midtown Manhattan, grew up in Spanish Harlem and performed as a dancer with Tito Puente in New York throughout the 1980s.

“During the ’70s there was such a need for the education of this dance, and I was one of the guys that wanted to learn this, but there were no schools available,” he said in a phone interview.

Mr. Torres began teaching salsa as a dance technique after he choreographed a show for Puente at the Apollo Theater in 1987. “I hand-picked about 60 dancers from the nightclubs and I started teaching these dancers a routine. Afterwards I asked 12 dancers to stay with me and we formed the Eddie Torres Dance Company.”

For the most part Mr. Torres taught the dance as it was performed in clubs and on the street, but he made it more sophisticated by changing the emphasis of the steps to the music’s second beat, now known as breaking on two.

“There’s something in the rhythm section in a Latin dance called the tumbao,” he said. “It’s a time pattern that the conga player plays, and you’ll hear an accent, and it’s always on the second beat. This is why Tito Puente said breaking on two is natural, there’s a feeling in that beat that you gravitate to.”

Mr. Torres’s dancers soon started their own schools, spreading the more formal approach to salsa that is practiced today.

All the emphasis on technique has had a negative effect on the clubs. That change is evident at the Taj Lounge. For the past year this Indian restaurant in the Flatiron district has converted itself every Monday night into one of the city’s few remaining salsa clubs with live music.

Under billowing saffron canopies one recent Monday, one couple moved seductively around the dance floor, the man guiding his partner with his fingertips. The band, members of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and well-known salsa musicians like Bobby Allende and William Torres, played for no more that 15 people, all at some point expertly spinning and snapping around the dance floor.

Mr. Knowles, the D.J., was lukewarm about this new, serious breed of dancer. Most focus more on moves than on socializing and drinking. “The clubs depend on the bar,” he said, adding that if the dancers “want nice venues to go to, they need to understand what it takes to run a venue and support it and buy a few bottles.”

Franklin Ayala, a professional dance instructor who had come that night to perform a salsa routine for the other clubgoers, was also nostalgic about salsa’s grittier beginnings. “In the new age of dancing salsa mambo, the heart and soul are disappearing,” he said, sipping a bottle of Perrier. “Most of the people lack the cultural knowledge. The Copa used to be really great. Now everything is in the studio.”

But Mr. Torres said he believed that the changes are for the better. “Young salsa dancers are becoming Olympians, athletes in the dance, so they’re not thinking of drinking and doing drugs, like we did years ago.”

He admits that dancers with such strong technique can be intimidating. “You see people spinning like tops and flying in the air and gyrating, and doing this amazing movement and you want to run for your life,” he said. “It’s gotten so sophisticated. Before, we’d give the girls a little turn here, a little turn there. Now we start her off with 14 spins in the first bar.”

Besides the studios, salsa dancing is also thriving at salsa congresses, several days of workshops and performances that attract thousands of dancers from around the world. The original Salsa Congresso started in Puerto Rico in 1997; there are now congresses held in places as diverse as Los Angeles, Chicago, Britain, Romania, Dubai, Israel and Japan. New York’s annual congress is set for Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 at the Hilton New York.

John (Choco) Knight, who started as a vendor at the salsa congresses selling T-shirts and is now the promoter for this year’s New York congress, hopes that the presence of salsa in pop culture will encourage young people to return to the clubs and reinvigorate the scene. “The youth like the hip-hop culture,” he said, “so we have a program for kids all over New York City and part of this is going to be the basics of salsa dancing and the other part is showing the kids how to play the congas.” The name of the seminar, he added, is “Salsa Is the New Hip-Hop.”

Ms. Torres joins Mr. Knight and Mr. Knowles in hoping that a resurgence of salsa in the mainstream draws back people who have turned away from it. “It’s not about 5, 6, 7, 8,” Ms. Torres said, “I tell people, ‘Close your eyes, move.’ Right or wrong, with that music, you can’t help it. I feel that, now more than ever, this generation wants to go back. We need to relax, simplify it, and hopefully it will come back here.”

Steve, Thanks for your email. I appreciate the invitation to discuss the starting step for men in mambo (Salsa On2). But first I think I need to address the music, then the different styles of dancing.

Musicality

Your assertion that salsa is written in 4/4 timing is correct. For a musician (piano, bass, trumpet player, etc.), the music is best organized with a 4-beat measure. Wearing my guitar player hat, I like to feel salsa music in 4/4 time (count 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4…) because I’m interested in the harmorny (chord) changes and basslines of the songs. I come from a rock/blues background and I like to hear the chord changes on the 1st beat of every measure. So, Yes I agree with you that I can feel 4/4 timing in salsa. In salsa, it is very common to hear chord changes in the 1st beat of the 4/4 measure (or the 1st and 5th beat of the dance measure).

Rhythm and Dance

Things change, however, when I listen to melody and rhythm. Let me differentiate by defining the following:

Musical measure is 4 beats. Following is two (2) musical measures

|1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4|

Rhythmic and Dance Measure is 8 beats

|1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |

Two (2) musical measures equal one (1) dance measure in terms of length of time.

When listening to the general rhythm of the music, one can hear that various elements of the song repeat every 8 beats (i.e. clave, piano montuno, melody hooks, conga tumbao, bass rhythm, trumpet phrases). It is to this general feel of the music to which we really dance since we also repeat our dance movements every 8 beats.

Notice that I have not addressed any style of dancing yet!

One can make the argument that the rhythm repeats every 4 beats in the music, and therefore salsa is in 4/4 timing. This is true for songs that have a very strong 1 3 5 7 beats. While sometimes the conga tumbao (8 AND, 2, 4 AND 6) seems to repeat every 4 beats there are other elements in the music that give a voice to this tumbao rhythm and turn it into an 8 beat feel.

When I first started learning Mambo (salsa on2) and hence listening to the music, I had a lot of trouble finding the difference between the 1st and the 5th beat. But after listening to all the intruments as a whole, I am now able to clearly differentiate the 1st and the 5th beat.

On beats 1 2 3 4 of the dancers measure a tension is created with a bit synchopation. This rhytmic tension is resolved on beats 5 6 7 8. The rhythm of the 1 2 3 4 and the 5 6 7 8 is similar but there a difference between the two. So we agree that there is a difference?

If you were to transcribe songs, which I do for choreographies, you would notice that salsa songs are mostly arranged in blocks of four (4) 8-beat measures. Salsa music treats 8-beat measures just as regular western music treats 4-beat measures.

On this post, I wrote “assuming an 8-beat measure” because I didn’t want to type a lengthy answer. Ha! But it came up yesterday and today, so I hope this helps understand why 8-beats makes a dance measure.

Keep in mind that this is only my way of making sense of the music.  It works for me for the reasons that I explained.  If counting in 4/4 time works for you, then great !  The important thing is to dance and have fun!

There is no right or wrong way of dancing salsa. The most important thing is to be able to enjoy dancing Salsa with your dance partner. Listen to the salsa beat, pick a style, and throw down!

But given the fact that some people dance On 1 and other people dance On 2, it’s important to dance well in both styles. In Salsa congresses, I have noticed how certain dancers only dance with a specific few dancers of the same style. Let’s not limit ourselves to dancing on only one style.

So how do you dance On 2?

Short Answer:

In musical terms, assuming an 8 beat measure (or 2 repeating 4-beat measures), the simple answer is trivial: On 1 you break on the first salsa beat, On 2 you break on the second salsa beat. This is the I-don’t-feel-like-explaining-it or I-really-don’t-know-the-answer answer. But the real answer has various layers in depth.

Succinct and Complete Answer:

If we expand a bit more, the answer can be contained in the following diagrams.

One measure of salsa is danced on 8 beats.

| 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 |

This 8-beat rhythmic pattern repeats throughout any given song.

| 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 …

You actually only step on the 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7th salsa beats. The 4th and 8th are pauses in the step.

| 1 2 3 pause | 5 6 7 pause | 1 2 3 pause | 5 6 7 pause |

Salsa Dance Classes in New Jersey
Check Schedule Here:

You can break down any song in this manner. The ability to listen to the salsa beat and being able to count the salsa beats is very important. I will make another post regarding this. In the meanwhile, let us assume that we have this ability. So let’s move on to the dance steps.

Men’s and Women’s Basic Salsa Step

Update (May 30th, 2008):

I have posted a new video of Jai Catalano explaining How to Dance On2. The video is an excerpt of the ESPN 2007 World Salsa Championships. Men’s and women’s basic step.

Excerpt: from SalsaNewYork.com
ON 2 Basic Step – In our basic step, the man’s left foot goes back and the woman’s right foot goes forward on the 1st beat of this so-called 8 beat measure or bar. We step with our feet on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, 6th, and 7th beats of the measure . We do not step on the 4th and 8th beats. We actually “break” our movement, in other words we change body direction, on the 2nd and 6th beats of the measure. We call it “breaking on 2″, or “dancing on 2″, or “bailando en dos”. This is mambo, danced forward and back, in a line or slot, not side to side or in a circle or square. You can see this step precisely demonstrated and broken down into its separate elements in the Eddie Torres Teaches Salsa videos.

Our basic step is as follows:

1st beat of the measure – The man steps back with his left foot. The woman steps forward with her right foot.

2nd beat of the measure – The man steps farther back with his right foot, then changes direction, starting to lean forward with his body = “breaks forward on 2″. The woman steps farther forward with her left foot, then changes direction, starting to lean back with her body = “breaking back on 2″.

3rd beat of the measure – The man steps in place with his left foot, while his body is moving forward. The woman steps in place with her right foot, while her body is moving backward.

4th beat of the measure – No steps.

5th beat of the measure – The man steps forward with his right foot, in front of his left foot. The woman steps backward with her left foot, behind her right foot.

6th beat of the measure – The man steps farther forward with his left foot, then changes direction, starting to lean backward with his body = “breaks back on 6″. The woman steps farther back with her right foot, then changes direction, starting to lean forward = “breaks forward on 6″.

7th beat of the measure – The man steps in place with his right foot, while his body is moving backward. The woman steps in place with her left foot, while her body is moving forward.

8th beat of the measure – No steps.

Technically, it is proper to start the dance in the following way: You walk onto the dance floor with your partner, set up the standard partner position frame, and then begin on the 6th beat of the measure, with the man stepping forward with his left foot and the woman stepping back with her right. On the 7th beat, the couple changes direction, with the man rocking back onto his right foot and the woman rocking forward onto her left foot. They then go right into the basic step pattern which is maintained through the rest of the song: the man’s left foot goes back and the woman’s right foot goes forward on the 1st beat of the measure, and the pattern continues as described above in detail. Although this is technically the proper way to start, most New York dancers simply begin on the 1st beat of the measure as described above, sometimes not even setting up the partner position first.

Update (May 30th, 2008):
I have posted a new video that explains How to Dance On2, men’s and women’s basic step.

So what can you do to solve the problem? I found a great article that outlines all of the quick fixes and permanent solutions to many of the problems that dancers face. Everything from do-it-yourself suede soles to purchasing a different shoe for every type of floor out there (too expensive though). This article also addresses all of the things a dancer should NEVER, and I mean NEVER EVER do to alter the surface of a dance floor.

Fast floors (Slippery floors)

1. Try wearing shoes with more of a grip.
2. Scuff the bottom of your shoes. Alternatively, go to the bathroom and wipe clean the bottom of your shoes with wet toilet paper. Then dry the soles of the shoes with dry toilet paper.
3. Takes smaller steps, bend your knees more than usual.

Slow floors (Sticky floors)

1. Try wearing shoes with non-rubber soles or actual dance shoes.
2. Stick a name tag on the bottom of your shoe or add some tape (masking tape, packing tape, duct tape, etc).
3. Take bigger steps and when you turn or twist lift your feet up rather than keeping them in place.

Never ever ever do the following:
Every Dancer should read this section. Yes that’s right… No more dumping powder on a dance floor to add some slip to your grip!

1. Make sure to prep (be warned to spin a whole lot)
2. Keep your legs closed, and slightly bend your knees
3. Make sure your arm looks like this–} L facing your partner
4. Keep your stomach tight and butt tight (You can squeeze a penny if you do it right)
5. Never take your eyes off him: SPOT!!!!

The whole article was written by Erika Briones and can found in addicted2salsa.com (Thanks for the tip, Randy)

What makes salsa dancing so great for the ladies? Is it the beautiful styling which includes beautiful arms, isolations, and body rolls? Yes, styling is fun to do but that also can be found in many dances such as tango, flamenco, jazz. Can it be the ability to spin endlessly? The answer is yes. The great quality of dancing in salsa is doing multiple spins. This may be an opinionated answer, but there are many great female dancers which capture how spins can be one of the best aspects of salsa dancing. These ladies you will find on the addicted2salsa website are known for not only being spun by a partner, but spinning on their own and “stopping on a dime”. Some of these salsera have not obtained that gift of spinning over a day or weeks, but sometimes month or even years. Some people I recall speaking to about spinning have told me it took them either 2 or even 5 years to do multiple spins. Other people who have a well-developed dance background can obtain that skill earlier that a few months or even within a year.

What is so great about spinning? Here is there scenario. You are dancing with a partner and leads you to do multiple spins, but you stop yourself from spinning so much. Some girls who I have spoken to told me that some problems of spinning include: out of balance, are dizzy, or can’t control the spin. The other girls who I have spoken with have different reactions to spinning and state that it is many factors that attribute to great spins. In the beginning I remember almost falling out of a spin, almost knocking the guy out with my arm, or wobbling out of a spin (not spinning in place). I’m not an expert yet on spinning. However after a year on focusing on this technique I discovered the key to spinning. I have taken jazz classes, private lessons, group classes, and as well as advice from friends on spinning. After experience and observation I have found 5 steps to doing multiple spins.

1.) The Prep: Some ladies I have spoken to told me that the prep initiates the spin which helps maintain ones balance and creates momentum. How one preps also determines how fast one spins. For example, when a gentleman’s arm goes down and up like the letter K (called the J-hook) he is warning you that he is about to spin you more than one time. Get ready ladies. One prep that I learned is that the right leg swivels to the right (twist your torso and right leg slightly to the right) then shift your weight all on your right foot keeping your left foot close to your right (feels connected). Finally push off on your left leg. Ready for lift off, I mean spins

2.) Keep your legs closed: When first learning how to spin, some girls tap while spinning. This is in order to keep the spins going. Tapping is like the training wheels for spins. However, if you keep your legs together and knees slightly bent, you will see a huge difference. Make sure your weight is all on one foot (right or left) which depends which direction one is spinning. This really helps with balance.

3.) Keep a 90 degree angle: Make sure your arm looks like an L which is a 90 degree angle facing your partner. Also you want your arm to be nice and strong. No spaghetti arms. You don’t want your arm behind your body. If you feel your arm upwards, create an arm bar. For example, have your right arm in a 90 degree angle while having your left arm hold your right arm in place. This bit of advice ensures that you will wobble less and also have the lead have more control of where you are spinning. This may even prevents the guy to get injured like an uppercut.

4.)Keep everything tight: It does not matter how fit you are because if you keep everything tight the faster you will spin a lot faster and smoother. In order to keep everything tight make sure you keep your stomach nice and strong (hold it in girls) and keep your fanny tucked (squeeze). This also enables guys to have a better control of the spins.

5.)SPOT: This is the best piece of advice not only because it keeps one less dizzy, but it makes one spin so fast the guy will think you have disappeared. I’m just exaggerating, but it is very important to spot. Spotting is “process of delaying the rotation of the head, relative to the body’s rotational speed, by way of visual focus on one or more fixed points in space. ” (http://www.ballroomdancers.com/). Spotting is when you look at an object in the room or your partner and make sure that when your spinning that object or partner is the first and last thing you see. While spinning your head should be the last thing to turn. The faster you spot, the faster you will spin.

You got that ladies:

* Make sure to prep (be warned to spin a whole lot)
* Keep your legs closed, and slightly bend your knees
* Make sure your arm looks this–} L facing your partner
* Keep your stomach tight and butt tight (Your can squeeze a penny if you do it right)
* Never take your eyes off him: SPOT!!!!

Pretty soon you will do multiple spins and it will feel great because it feels like you are flying in another world.

- Erika Briones a. k. a. (Latina Skin) http://www.myspace.com/esb_2005