Dear Edie,
Here comes again an upside-down view from the legal alien of Down Under. After browsing thru some articles on Dancing Salsa on "1" vs. "2" and
studying those Salsa instructional videos I have come to these simpl(istic)e conclusions:

• The majority of West Coast USA salseros seem to break on "1" (eg. Josie, Yourself?) and

• The majority of East Coast USA salesros seem to break on "2" (eg. Eddie Torres)

Now, watching carefully my own quick footwork and the footwork of the majority of Salseros in Melbourne, Australia I can clearly see that we all are having great fun here "breaking" on "3"! Hehehe, we are definitely in front in the numbers game!

I am wondering how many people are really out there who dance Salsa on "3" like us? I mean I would like to get some kind of feeling where do we "3"-breakers stand: If You call yourself "Salsa Freak" are we then some sort of THREAKS of Salsa?

Yours totally threaked out,
Damir

HELP!!! I need some people to help me answer Damir!!! Please cc edie@salsaweb.com, and I'll post your responses to him!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
- Edie, The "loss of words" Salsa FREAK!!!

Hi Benjamin and Edie.
I hope that you can answer a small question for me. I recently started to take Salsa lessons from a Brazilian man call JOSE PRATES. I have been doing it now for a few months. I saw on the web that there are videos available from Josie Neglia. I am interested in getting them except that I noticed that the demo clips show her counting form 1 to 6. I have been taught that Salsa is a 4 beat. Can you help clarify this for me.I am living in Sydney Australia and thers quite an active social Salsa comminity here.
- Curious...

From Ben:
Dear Curious,
When I first learned to dance I was taught 1,2,3 - 5,6,7 or 2,3,4 - 6,7,8 (depending on whether it was 1 or 2 dancing.)

What happened is most of the people who want to learn Salsa as a street dance (not ballroom), have no dance or music training. So skipping a number to represent the beat not danced on was difficult for many novice dancers. Many instructors who have specialized in introducing novices into the dance world will count 1,2,3 and 4,5,6. Then they will drop the 'and' all together. There is always a pause between counting 3 and 4.

I personally like to be in sync with the music (because I have some understanding of counts and phrasing.) So I like to know what count I am to the music,1 through 8. Others are just working on the steps and as long as they can find "1", they can get started. No one I know teaches "2" dancing with that simple 1-6 count.
Make sense? Take care,

Hi Marla:
Let me introduce to you myself and my wife; My name is Ron Acevedo and my wife is Anna Maria. We are both from N.Y.( wife was born in Italy). Presently we live in Orange county, having moved here only three months ago. I just love it here. Especially the weather. Just try to get me back to the east coast. No way.

Your Internet article on the 2 beat was most timely, since I ‘ve been discussing the very subject with Edie Lewis just the other day. Your comment and insight to the feel and soul of dancing on 2 is right on. I ve been dancing on the 2 for about 40 years. I'm now 56. However, I stopped dancing about 4 or 5 years ago and only just started again about three weeks ago.

I studied with Eddie Torres and his wife back around 1992 and learned a lot about what you were talking about with regard to the Clave beat. The main difference with the way Eddie taught and the way you described it is that the man steps forward on the 6 beat and steps back on the 2 beat. This means that you have to actually wait almost a full measure before you start dancing. Now let me explain this a little further. Although it's true that there are 4 beats to the measure (1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 etc) allowing you to dance on any 1 or 2 beat you desire, there is actually only one Clave 2 beat that you can dance to in 8 beats or two measures of music. Therefore when you begin to step forward on 6 (Mans perspective) you have to make sure that your stepping on the Clave six beat and not just any old six beat that come along. Many times while I'm dancing on 2 I feel as if some thing is wrong and that instead of stepping forward on 6 I feel as if I'm stepping forward on 2. This is because I ‘m not dancing on Clave 2. I'm a feel dancer. I cannot dance mechanically, and as such there are many times that I don't here the beat(the music sucks) and find it very difficult to dance. I'm not a good dancer by any means, having forgotten most everything that Eddie taught me. But I still must feel the music before I'll get up and dance. This is even compounded worse by the fact that my wife is practically tone deaf, not being able to distinguish between a 2 or a 7 beat.

You idea of a 2 beat dance club is great. Sign me up. Coincidently, I am going to take a lesson with LAURA , this Wed., at the performing arts
studio in L.A. Laura teaches an intermediate Mambo dance class on the 2 beat. It should be fun. I'm sure Laura would be most interested in your new project and will mention it to her when I see her.

Hope to hear from you soon, Ron, E-Mail me at Ronaldace@aol.com

Hi Ron:
It's great to hear from you and I look forward to meeting you. As a matter of fact, I am also going to be at Laura's class this Wednesday. As you probably know, however the way she teaches 2 dancing is different from the NY 2. Anyway, I'm still going to be there and hope I don't get too confused with the two different types of 2 dancing. Laura is a phenomenal dancer and teacher.

Back to what you were saying about 4/4 timing. Although it is true that musical measures are 2 sets of 4s, there is actually a defintite 1 beat that is stronger than the other. Therefore, I don't count music 1234, 1234. I count is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. If the man starts back on 1 and breaks back on 2 then you don't have to wait 4 counts before you start dancing. That's how Eddie taught it when I went to his class last week.

Also, I have to confess that I am by no means an experienced 2 dancer. I only started dancing 2 in NY a couple of weeks ago. Since I have been back, I have not been able to dance 2 very well with anybody here since the ballroom 2 is different than the NY 2. Hence, I'm going to Laura's class on Wednesday.

Since you've been dancing on 2 for 40 years (slightly more than my 2 weeks), I'm sure I could learn a lot from you. I'll add you to the 2 club list and let you know when we plan to have our first meeting.
Talk to you soon, Marla