Introduction

I'm not an expert on Salsa. This is a collection of notes that I have made for myself based on observing Salsa dancers and teachers for some time. These things were rarely taught in lessons explicitly and hence I had to work them out for myself, so now I am passing them on in the hope that they may help others to short-cut this process somewhat. Unless otherwise specified these instructions are for the leader.

In Ballroom, the figures were fixed and written down by experts in the 1920s. You can buy a book from the ballroom teachers' association that lists in great detail every allowable figure. That book is only updated rarely after agreement of a global committee of experts. If you dance a figure that isn't in the book, or you dance it in a different way, then by definition you are doing it 'wrong'. There is only right way to do it.

It is important to remember that Salsa is still a living dance: it is defined only by what Salsa dancers are currently doing in their clubs and classes. There is no international organisation ensuring consistency. Regional variation between cities led to separate styles being named after those cities. There will be smaller variations between clubs within the same city. There are few books available that list Salsa moves, and they tend to go out of date very quickly. There is no central authority to say whether you are doing it right or not. That's not to say you should be lazy and not strive for correctness. There are still a million bad ways to do a move. But there are probably several different good ways as well, and they are all 'correct'.

So if you are a ballroom dancer I suggest you do not obsess too much over correctness. The important questions to ask are:
1. Does this move feel good when I do it?
2. Does this move feel good for my partner?
3. Does this move look good to any spectators watching?

I would rank salsa dancers according to how many they score out of three on these questions.

Styles

The two most common styles of Salsa are LA and Cuban. There are other variations such as New York and London but they are mostly very similar to LA. If you search you can probably find a lot of people attempting to explain the differences, but I don't think it's possible to do this clearly in words, so my advice is to watch both styles and to try both styles for yourself. Essentially, there are some moves that are unique to Cuban and there are some moves that are unique to LA. The majority of moves occur in both, although the 'styling' of the dancer may make them look a little different. Some people are style purists, but I see no reason why one cannot mix the styles however one likes.

There is a sub-style of Cuban called La Rueda. Dancers dance in a circle and instead of freestyling they all execute the same moves at the same time, as dictated by the dance caller. The moves of La Rueda are interchangeable with the standard Cuban moves, the only difference being the La Rueda versions are sometimes slightly modified to be more circular. Also a La Rueda dancer has to memorise the names of the moves, while a regular Cuban dancer can get away with not knowing them. Most Cuban lessons regularly feature La Rueda, even if they don't specialise in it, since any move learnt in La Rueda can also be used in Cuban freestyle.

Merengue

Merengue is danced occasionally at Salsa clubs. If the song seems to have a simple marching beat, it's probably intended for Merengue. Originally I expect it had its own set of moves, but since it is now only danced at Salsa events, it is simply Salsa without the footwork. Dancers march on the spot: 'left, right, left, right'. Salsa moves are then performed in slow motion. It doesn't matter how many beats each move takes - do it as slow as you like. The moves should be more sensuous and the body contact closer. Assuming you know your partner does not mind, it is also common to stop in the middle of a move, continue marching on the spot and grind your bodies against each other. Moves like spins are boring in slow motion, so hammerlocks or wraps followed by circular walks are the mainstay of Merengue. Also sunflowers, and marching on the spot while slowly bending the knees to get closer and closer to the ground.

Learning Objectives

The objective of the leader is to learn how to dance 'freestyle', that is controlling the movements of a follower so that she executes a sequence of moves that he makes up as he goes along. He will have practised the individual moves before of course, but the arrangement of them will be unique. (In contrast, the follower may not have even learnt all the moves before, so to her both the arrangement and possibly some of the moves will be novel.)

The objective of the follower is quite different. She needs to learn to follow. She does not need to learn any routines. Routines may be a useful way of gaining practise in following, but they can also produce dancers who can dance many routines perfectly and yet not be able follow the most basic freestyle. In class if the leader makes a mistake and deviates from the routine, the follower should go with whatever deviation he leads. What usually happens, if the leader is not very good, is the follower memorises the routine and then 'corrects' the leader by back-leading him through it. This helps the leader, but damages the follower.

The Slot

LA style dancers like to imagine they are dancing in a 'slot', about 1 meter wide by 3 meters long. This enables many couples to dance side-by-side without fear of moving into each others' paths. Cuban style clubs don't worry about this, but it's still a useful concept when learning moves for cuban dancers.

For the lady it is important to remember that most of the time you will be facing 'north' or 'south', i.e. the long dimension of the slot. Any big travelling movements will be in these directions. If you complete a spin and find yourself facing each or west, something is probably wrong, and you should try to work out if your leader intended for you to turn 90 degrees more or 90 degrees less than you did, and get yourself back into position.

Hold

The most common basic close hold is similar to that seen in ballroom, except with the frame a little more relaxed and the hand not held so high. Leader's left hard raised and clasping the follower's right hand. Don't squeeze your partner in a vice grip and be sure to leave the thumb open and relaxed. Leader's right hand a little below the follower's arm pit, grasping the ridge of the shoulder blade. Follower's left arm rests on top of the leader's right arm. The exact placement of the follower's hand will depend on the length of her arm: it could be on the shoulder or the biceps, but it must be relaxed and light, never forced into a position or weighing down on the man.

However, there is a lot of variety seen in how Salsa dancers hold each other. It was this that first led me to realise that other people could be taught quite differently from me and yet not be 'wrong'.

The left hand need not be a ballroom clasp. Instead the follower may make a fist, and the leader insert some of his fingers into the top of the fist. Two or three fingers are common, but some advanced dancers suggest only one is necessary, and that this will make it easier for the lady to turn. Try it, applying the three rules listed above to decide if you prefer it.

Placement of the right hand can also vary. The important thing is that the leader feels a strong connection and is able to control the lady. If the leader wishes to dance closer to the follower, then this will necessitate moving the right hand further around her back. I have also seen leads move the hand lower, even on to the hip.

While executing a move the leader is not restricted to these two points of contact. The hands can be moved anywhere (except for the erogenous zones) that he feels will give the best lead for a particular move. Directing the lady by pushing on her hips, stomach, back and shoulders are all common.

Following are some frequently used open holds, where the space between the leader and follower is a little wider.

Double hand hold (Two hand hold)

Leader holds follower's left hand in his right and vice-versa. The arms should not be floppy; there should be sufficient tensions so the leader can still lead the follower forward or backward by pushing or pulling. To switch smoothly into DHH from close hold it is usual to lead a move such as a spin or cross-body-lead that breaks off the right-hand contact, and then when it is time to re-establish contact grasp the follower's hand rather than shoulder blade.

Right hand hold (Handshake hold, Right to right)

There are actually two different holds here, one that is thumb-to-thumb as in a traditional handshake and one that isn't. I am probably guilty of refering to them interchangable, when in fact some moves are better with one or the other.

Cross hand hold (Right over left)

Used quite a bit. There is a nice entry to it from handshake hold: cross body lead, over turn the lady into promendade position, then step back grabbing the left hand and going straight into a CHH move.

Reverse cross hand hold (Left over right)

Very rare.

Rhythm

If you've never played a musical instrument you will probably find it difficult to count in time to a rhythm at first. Do not worry - this is a skill that can be learned. But also do not underestimate how essential it is. You can practise counting out loud to music at home, or tap out the rhythm with your fist on your chest as you listen to your walkman on the bus. It may take many months, but it is absolutely essential that you do this before you leave the beginners class. There is nothing sadder than the 'intermediate' dancers who learn routine after routine but do them all out of time. Your partner probably won't point out that you're out of time - she or he will just not dance with you again. It's like having bad breath.

Salsa music is rhythmically complex, and the notes are not always even played on the beats of the rhythm, so if you are having trouble I would suggest starting by listening to something simpler like rock music.

Rock and pop music are written in 4/4 time which means the song is divided up into bars which each contain 4 beats. The beats are usually marked with a drum pattern, which repeats every bar. If you tap your foot or clap your hands along with the music you will usually find you are tapping on every second beat, because these beats are emphasised. That means you are able to pick out beat 1 and beat 3 in every bar. Beat 1 is emphasised more than beat 3, and once you notice this you will be able to count along with the music '1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4'.

Salsa music is also 4/4 time, but most songs are divided into phrases which consist of two bars each. It sounds 'wrong' to start counting in the middle of the phrase. Start counting on the first bar, and count the whole phrase '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8'. If you get it wrong and start in the middle of a phrase don't worry, your dancing will still be in time.

For leaders the steps that correspond to these beats are: left, right, left, pause, right, left, right, pause. The followers always mirror the leaders, so swap the left and right. In ballrooms terminology, the count is 'quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow'. Until and unless you become an 'advanced' salsa dancer this pattern will never change. This is why salsa is such an easy dance. We usually count out loud '1,2,3,5,6,7', keeping silent on the 4 and 8 since there is no step on these beats. A leader knows that no matter how complex the move he is performing, when he says '1' he has to be on the left foot, and when he says '4' he has to be on the right foot. This makes it easy to quickly recover if footing is lost.

On2

You may also hear the terms 'on1' and 'on2'. In Cha-Cha (a different dance) these refer to which beat the dancer starts on. (Standard ballroom Cha-Cha is 'on2', but some Salsa teachers have been known to teach it 'on1', which causes a lot of confusion when their students try to dance ballroom and arguably doesn't match the music.)

Salsa always starts on the first beat. In Salsa, 'on1' and 'on2' are variations in the direction of the basic footwork. Google it if you care about the difference, but all Salsa dancers in the UK dance 'on1' so I suggest you don't worry about it. If you ever travel to the US you will find some dancers dancing 'on2' and you will have to learn a different footwork pattern if you want to dance with them.

Very occasionally you may see people dancing what looks exactly like Salsa and starting on the second beat, but they call this dance American Mambo. (But it's nothing like the original Cuban Mambo, and it's not danced to Mambo music!)

Dividing a routine

Unlike more complex dances such as Ballroom, Salsa moves are very rarely taught individually. Most classes will teach a whole 'routine' consisting of ten or twenty moves that have been chosen to flow well together. Thus the simplest method of freestyling is to perform the entire routine you learnt this week, followed by the routine you learnt the week before, etc. etc. This does not provide the greatest variety, and there is redundancy in memorising the same move over again in multiple routines.

Thus you need to break the routines down into smaller blocks or chunks. Then like lego blocks you can rearrange them to build up new routines of your own. Even if you don't have the opportunity to practise the routine physically between lessons, you must go through this mental process or else you will see little improvement.

The easiest and coarsest way of dividing blocks is to note where the routine is interrupted by a basic step. Let's say a routine has some spins, then it has a basic step, then some cross-body-leads. Immediately you can see that this is not one indivisible whole - it's just two shorter routines stuck together. You could rearrange it by doing the cross-body-leads first. You could make it look more complex by skipping the basic step and going straight from the first sub-routine into the second.

Any time a routine returns to a basic step (or it has a point where you are back in close hold and you could insert a basic step if you want) you at that point have a free choice to begin any other routine or move.

Some moves have certain pre-requisites. Let's say you have a block that consists of a spin followed by a hammerlock. You should note here that the reason for the spin is that it enables you to switch to double-hand-hold, which is a pre-requisite for the hammerlock. So you can divide that block up into two sub-blocks. These sub-blocks are not completely generic and interchangeable like the larger blocks were. You can swap the first block (the spin) for any other block, provided that block gets you into double-hand-hold. So you could swap it for a cross-body-lead, for example.

Then, once you have the blocks as small as you can get them, you need to give them names! Many teachers will not bother to name moves, but if you want to remember them you will need to invent names of your own.

If one move is always done only after another move, you might like to think of it as a 'variation' of the first move. For instance, you learn a hammerlock followed by a circular walk, so you think of that as "hammerlock variation circular walk". Then you learn that you could also do a round-the-world step while in the hammerlock, so you think of that as another variation. As you learn more variations you may want to remember them as 'move X with prerequisite hammerlock'. Or you may want to keep a mental list 'moves which can be used to get out of a hammerlock'.

Note that some moves taught in classes are impossible to lead, or at least beyond your present leading ability. They will work in class because the follower is expecting them and knows what to do, but if at the end of the lesson you are not confident you are doing a lead correctly and unambiguously then in my opinion you should immediately forget it rather than waste time and clutter your memory with something you won't be able to do positively in freestyle. If the move is a good one your teacher will probably repeat it eventually and you'll have another chance to pick it up then.

My own list of moves is available here.