This video Cha Cha lesson of Addicted2Salsa will teach you the basics of Latin style cha cha dancing. We will go over the basic step of Cha Cha dance for beginners and instruct you with basic dance partnering. If you are coming from a salsa dancing background, we will show you how you can transfer your salsa dance moves and patterns over to Latin Cha Cha by exchanging the pauses in the salsa dance steps with the Cha Cha (triple) step. At the end, we provide you with a set of intermediate cha cha dance moves for the Latin dance club.
Tag Archive for 'fundamentals'
If you haven’t yet found out – we are hosting our first contest ever on the website in partnership with FOX and So You Think You Can Dance! You only have a few days left to submit your video. Remember, it just has to be a quick video with a dance pattern that you think people will like! You don’t need a fancy camera and you don’t need to explain the move. It’s that simple! It is something you can do at the end of a salsa dance class! Salsa, Cha Cha, Merengue, Salsaton.. anything goes. [Instructions]
In a salsa galaxy, far, far away… let’s just call it Iowa.
To show you an example of a quick video you could take, I have dug up one of the many videos from the very old ‘Salsa History Archives’ of Salsa Anthony version 1.0. This is a video of when I first started to learn how to dance in Ames, IA in a Salsa dance club I started with a few friends called ‘Descarga Latin Dance‘. While I will let you laugh at my XL-clothing attire and ‘boots for dance shoes’ – I hope it shows everyone that with hard work, you can grow your dancing abilities little by little: ANYONE CAN DANCE SALSA. We all go through the same growing pains. Hopefully this serves as inspiration to a few of you out there.
I expect a few funny commentaries or captions below. 
A forum member (Rumnet) found a great video by an instructor exaggerating the salsa basic step on2 timing. Again, if you haven’t already check out the forum post “Salsa Technicals : On1 vs On2. The Difference “. This video shows the example of what I have been trying to explain in words. When dancing on2, the pause happens when your feet are apart – and therefore you actually have two whole counts to get your feet back together. While On1 and On2 are TECHNICALLY the same steps, the way they are EXECUTED are different.
Continue reading ‘A video is worth 1000 words – On2 partially explained.’
Salsa Spinning
I can just feel all the hate mail that is already headed my way. “Oh, here goes Anthony, talking about On2″… but before you hit that send button – first read the article.
I always get asked what is the difference between dancing On1 and On2. Some people tend to have opinions on whether they are different or if its the same thing. Well, again I will preach that there are differences. Today I will be focusing on spinning. From a followers (lady’s) perspective they have differences whether you spin On1 or On2 – especially true when doing multiple spins.
Breaking down spinning On1. When the lady spins on1, she starts spinning on 5 (men’s timing). So, lets break down an axle turn. The ladies do half a basic forward (5,6,7), then take (1,2,3,4) and prep their turn – to then do spins starting on 5. The lady the takes (5,6,7,8) to do her spin, and then immediately step back on their right 1, step 2 in place with left, and then bring the right foot back immediately to center for 3.
Breaking down spinning On2. When the lady spins on2, she (on lady’s timing now), preps her axle turn on (5,6,7,8) and starts spinning on 1. She then takes 1,2,3,4,5 to do her spin (or multiple spins), to then step back with her right on 6, step in place on 7 with her left, pause on 8, and then bring back her right foot immediately to center on 1.
Deciphering the magic. See the difference? First of all when doing multiple spins On2, you have an entire extra count to do the spins. This means either you can fit more spins into a specific turning sequence, or you can use the extra time to smooth-out the spins (so they don’t seem rushed). They ladies will enjoy spinning on2 because they will have more time when doing their multiple spins, which makes them easier because they are not rushed. Second, because you are dancing On2, the pause comes right after you end your spins, therefore the ladies have more time to recover from the multiple spins. Remember, after your 6,7 – its an 8, which is a pause. Your right foot does not have to hit center until 1. Once the ladies really understand this, and are able to control their spins – instead of using the 6,7,8,1 counts to recover, they can recover on 6 very quickly, and use their body and style the rest of the 7,8, and 1 counts – which adds to the flavor of the dance.
Again, this is not preaching, but showing the fundamental differences between dancing On1 and On2 and how there are some benefits on dancing to each. In the following video, you can see Emily and Oliver (in the back in black) social dancing. Emily is one of the best salsa spinners out there, so you can see how she can maintain her control and still have add a little bit of styling (or course done to numerous spins)! Enjoy!.
[UPDATED] For those confused about the steps in timing, this article might be useful: Salsa On1 to On2 Steps transitions.
[Added Note] The lady does not need to step until 6 when dancing on 2. Ladies stop spinning with control by having their left foot forward and right foot back. On1 this happens in count 1. On2 this happens on count 6 – so the lady does not need to step on 5 (if not, it would be the same as saying the lady has to step on 7 in the On2 case).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHxsLkVzvpY
So I thought I might post something that is pretty useful for me right now. I actually wrote this on a napkin at a club while I was working on my on2. Sometimes I go to the club and I see a move that I like and decompose it. Now, I can’t only decompose it now, but I have to ‘translate’ it to the beat pattern I need to dance on. For example, if I see an On1 move, I need to figure out how to do it On1, and then translate the steps On1. If you have this similar situation on how to translate moves, I give you this useful table:
| On1 Steps | NY On2 Steps | PR On2 #1 | PR On2 #2 | |||
| 1 | <-> | 6 | <-> |
2 | 2 | |
| 2 | <-> | 7 | <-> | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | <-> | 8 (pause) | <-> | 4 (pause) | 4 | |
| Neutral | 4 (pause) | <-> | 1 | <-> | 5 | 5 (pause) |
| 5 | <-> | 2 | <-> | 6 | 6 | |
| 6 | <-> | 3 | <-> | 7 | 7 | |
| 7 | <-> | 4 (pause) | <-> | 8 (pause) | 8 | |
| Neutral | 8 (pause) | <-> | 5 | <-> | 1 | 1 (pause) |
One thing you’ll notice is that from On1 to any form of On2, there is no direct step-correlation. Why? Well, its mainly because the pauses taken are in differnt locations. Therefore, dancing On2, is slower than dancing On1. I will write an article later on about what I call ‘hang-time’ in order to explain this effect – but I hope this table helps some of you trying to decypher any moves you see. The amount of Hang-Time is shown in yellow for each type of style.
[UPDATED] Not sure about #2 PR, but it was submitted by a user. There might be more than 1 style in Puerto Rico.. funny, I’m Puerto Rican, and I should know… too bad that when you are growing up in PR, all you hear is reggaeton/rap. Sad that most of my childhood friends never really danced salsa.
Well, it finally happened. I can dance on2 much better than I started. I really don’t have to think about counting that much anymore (I do have my screw-ups, but I quickly realize and fix them). It happened this week. I went dancing every day except Monday for at least 2-3 hours (on2). But, guess what? I had to dance on1 with some ladies in the crowd – and OH MY… I couldn’t. I literally forgot what on1 was. My feet didn’t feel right, they didn’t step in the right spots – I ended up autocorrecting myself to go back on2. I guess I’ve built the new ‘on2′ white blood cells and they are kicking the on1 cells out… in the words of Rodney King: Can’t we just all get along?
What is interesting (other than I can’t dance on1 anymore) is that I have very few moves on2 – however, I have more body movements and footwork on2, than I do on1, which works pretty well (I end up having more fun because I like adding body motion styling). Its interesting because the stuff I do on2, I cannot do on1 – mainly because there is more (what I call) hang-time between beats.
The question is, what do I do now? How do I train myself to switch between on1 and on2 on the dancefloor. Practing at home is one thing. Being at the club and having to turn on the on1 switch and turn off the on2 switch.. and vice versa.. I’ll need to figure that one out.
Salsa Clave
[UPDATE] So, I forgot to mention what the schedule was for Week 3. I went to the club, and something funny happened… I could dance on2 ok with some girls, and others – I ended up screwing up (could be the song or the follow too). I also ended dancing on1 (after warming up) and I did very well with some girls, and others – completely sucked. What I can attest to is that I now prefer on2.
So this week (week 3), I will be focusing on 2 things: one, keeping the timing correct while doing footwork and combos, and working on naturalizing my on2 footwork (I’m saying goodbye to On1 for a long time). Mainly because I really want to start feeling more comfortable.. (and hopefully not have to count while I dance on2). I’ll start arriving around 11:40 pm at the club, because thats when most of the great dancers show up (which do on2) — there is no point getting there early in this diet if I can only dance on1.
2 weeks left… can I make it? I might have to add more gas on the fire to make it happen…
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