Salsa City Forum » Salsa Music and Dance » Dancing on the 1 or the 2?

Well, I promise you what I wrote is an accurate description of what's on the video, as far as that goes. I just wanted to get on record that I was wrong earlier in the thread.

Hugh,

You said it - didn’t you? “ET looks as if it was simply made to be simply different” and here we are back to my origional point concerning Salsamafia.com which says a-hem “On Two dancers just want to be that little bit different.”

I can kinda agree with Brendan about less room. Loosing the “backstep” prevents a lot more encroachment but I can see Hugh’s view as well as you can fly across the floor with the time you potentially “save” but wait for this new bit of news...

Was talking to Paul G-S on Monday who says that in Cuba “On 2” is soooo last year darling! Now they’re dancing “on 3”!!! OMG! Don’t ask how, or why... (sad people) I didn’t get it, HE DIDN’T GET IT but that’s the new thing. Ha ha ha.

That's nothing...

Some dancers I've seen are amazing they dance on the 1 the 2 the 3 the 4 the 5 the 6 the 7 & the 8 and at any point within one dance... I'm just assuming they must be the real professionals.

Yes, there were a few of those in the Toad last night...

I’m thinking about moving to Cardiff with my lady who is a strong on 2 dancer - Eddie Torres style as described above. Is there much of an on 2 scene in Cardiff or not?
Was interested to hear about power 2 or cuban on2 - never heard of that before, though this was what I assumed on 2 was before having on 2 lessons.
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Hi, I’d be grateful if someone could explain exactly what on2 is?
Thanks in advance,
Jo

In simple terms Jo, On2 is where a dancer ‘breaks’ on the second beat in the bar of a given piece of music instead of the first beat in the bar!

Some music allows this, as the emphasis in the rhythm is more evident on the second beat to the ear! In truth it is perfectly possible to dance on the 1 or the 2 to any piece of relevant Salsa music though it is correct to say some music does lend itself to one or the other more readily!

If you set out to learn On2 (There are no classes that I’m aware of in the South West) you’ll gradually understand this and eventually hear the differences in any given piece of music! A good teacher will be able to guide you in both interpretation and understanding of the principles involved!

If you can make it to the Midlands I would recommend you seek out Gary Thomas & Jayne Emily Turpin who are excellent On2 instructors :-)

We used to provide On2 Classes in Bristol with Gary & Jayne but sadly we could only manage 50 - 60 people each week which wasn’t enough to sustain the night :-(

We may start these classes again soon in a different location which was previously part of the reason we couldn’t get sufficient numbers … So if you’d like to be kept informed of any updates on this please join SalsaMania through either our website http://www.salsa-mania.co.uk or if you’re on facebook our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19046454943

Hope that helps :-)

Steve (eldj) - Salsa-Mania

To answer Maria’s question, I think you could learn on2 faster than normal since you already have learned the basic turns and partnering techniques on1, so you know how those work, for on2 you just need to count it out differently.

For your friend though, on2 will perhaps take more time than on1 because you have to learn to feel the clave sound, and it is not as natural to dance as on1 is.

I however enjoy dancing on2 more so it is definitely worth the effort to learn how to dance on 2.

I also agree with Brendan that on2 dancers don’t really take up more room than on1 dancers, if anything it is the other way around.

If you look at salsa in L.A. They all dance on1 and take up a lot of room with their tricks and such. In New York they dance on2 or the Eddie Torres style and dance in more of a slotted position which allows them to take up less space but still have the ability to perform moves.

So once again, there shouldn’t be any difficulty learning on2, just be prepared for the learning process to take a bit longer than normal.

Hope that helps.

OK got to have my 5 cents worth lol. Dancing On2 is not one beat back, it is dancing on the slap of the conga beat on your break step, the step is accented therefore its more like a slow quick quick type step.
When I was 1st told about dancing On2 and not educated about the conga beat I danced One beat back thinking it was correct belive me you will look like an On1 dancer trying to dance On2

If you dance On1 it is really easy to convert if you know this. Just download yourself a conga beat, listen for the slap which will be when you accent the 2 and 6. The 2 is distinguished from the 6 by the clave majority of the mambo music is on a 2/3 clave and the first beat of the clave is the 2. This again makes the 2 easy to find for someone learning.

The step length is also different small step on 1 what we call the break step which is a slightly longer step on 2,3 then small step on 5 and break step on 6, 7

Preparations for spins happen on counts 7, 67 or 567 depending on style, there are many styles of dancing On2 even different techniques chosen by the New York dancers. Frankie Martinez for example uses different techniques than say Santa Rico
The one thing they do have in common is the timing

Is On2 better LMAO You will hear a lot from On2 dancers that its much more ‘with the music’ Personally I think being with the music depends on how good you are at interpreting it and improvisation through your social dancing, but the one thing it does to for the woman especially is give her different time to add styling,

I’ll explain. In an On1 cross body you step back and fwd 123 fwd on5 turn on 6 small back step for balance on the 7. When you take a cross body On2 as a woman you come fwd on counts 1,2 and are turned by count 3, unless the man is putting you into spins it tends to give you some time on the 45678, which is why quite a lot of ladies prefer it. Whilst when you dance On1 you are putting styling into possibily 123 although as you have to step back there is not as much freedom and maybe you can fit something into 45 as you cross the man.

Although I prefer to dance On2. I have watched advanced competitions where the On1 dancers were better than the On2 dancers, just because they were better interprting the music. When you start to dance On2 the conga beat becomes ingrainned and it becomes not so much fun to dance On1 to certain songs that are predominently mambo songs. Knowledge of the music is key. The best dancers here dance all styles as do I. On1 On2 Mambo and Cuban

ON2
Your cross body AS A MAN is fwd 6 step back out of the line 7 open on 1 lead on 2
Cross body inside turns similarly the basic being to dip the hand on the two bringing it above the ladies head for the start of the turn by count three
You will find that not all your moves are easily transferable from On1 to On2 but that a lot of them are :)

Hi I am moving to the southcoast.

Is there anywhere that teaches on2 regularly? There’s a night in Southampton which I will try but anywhere else?

Thanks!