How To Salsa Dance For Beginners
Everything you need to know to get out for a night of salsa dancing.
The 4 salsa basic steps
Getting Started With The Salsa Basics
Once inside the course choose PARTNER WORK and select the ABSOLUTE BEGINNER LEVEL.
Here’s what you’ll learn…
Learn from 3X Canadian Salsa Champs and World Salsa Summit Medalists, Patrick and Scarlet.
Beginner Salsa Lessons in This Course
All videos below are demos only. Get the course free for a week.
Lessons: 10 | Duration: 97 minutes
Part I: Beginner Salsa Steps
Lesson 1: Side Basic, Front-Back Basic & Closed Hold
We’ll get you moving with some basic steps and show you how to begin connecting with your partner in the classic closed hold. It’s an exciting beginning!
Lesson 2: Back Basic, Cumbia Basic & Open Hold
After this set of basic steps you’ll have a solid idea of how to move in different directions all while keeping time with salsa music.
Lesson 3: Putting Your Basics Together
Here we bring all your basics together so you can play around and get used to switching between them.
Lesson 4: A Tip for Your Basics
We can’t reveal all of our secrets here now can we?
Part II: Beginner Salsa Turns
Lesson 5: Basic Right Turn & 5 Turn Pattern
The right turn is the first turn you learn in salsa and it’s the foundation for learning double turns. In this lesson you’ll learn 5 handhold variations for the right turn so you can drill it and get it in your muscle memory.
Lesson 6: Cross Body Lead
Although it’s a move within itself, soon you’ll use the cross body lead (CBL) to bridge moves together. It’s essential to linear “night club style” salsa and it’s the foundation for many moves – be sure to perfect it over time.
Lesson 7: Change of Place
The Change of Place uses your Cumbia Basic to switch places with your partner. The more comfortable you are with it the better. In the Experienced Beginner series, you’ll learn more moves that that are based on the Change of Place.
Part III: Beginner Salsa Combinations
Lesson 8: Four Basics with Cross Body Leads
In this pattern, we challenge you to use your Cross Body Lead to transition between your four basics. Once you get it down, you can switch up the order in any way you like.
Lesson 9: Five Turn Pattern with Cross Body Leads
It’s time to insert the Cross Body Lead into your five turn pattern. Adding in cross body leads helps break things up, making your dancing feel more interesting, dynamic and spontaneous.
Lesson 10: Change of Place with Cross Body Leads
As you’re starting to see, the Cross Body lead is a great way to transition in and out of the different moves you do, including the Change of Place. Once you’re comfortable using the CBL to bridge moves together, then we can increase the difficulty.
+ Try the full course with over 300+ lessons for all levels
Learn More About The Fundamentals of Salsa:
Chapter 1: Tips and Technique for Beginners
Chapter 2: Salsa Timing
Chapter 3: Salsa Rhythm
Chapter 4: Different Styles of Salsa
Salsa Tips & Technique for Beginners
Learning salsa online can be tricky, so we want to help you feel successful as quickly as possible so you can fall in love with it as much as we have. We take pride in creating salsa fanatics!
Below is a list of the most helpful salsa tips we have to date. They cover everything from improving your salsa basic to interacting with your partner during a social dance. Give them a peek and you’ll discover the secrets of dancing smooth and looking great.
Watch These Salsa Tips Now:
- How To Ask For a Salsa Dance
- Dance is a Conversation, Not a Fight
- How To Hold Your Partner’s Hands
- How to Collect Your Salsa Partner
- How To Improve Your Salsa Basic On1 & On2
- How To Stay Grounded In Your Salsa Basic
- 8 Benefits of Proper Salsa Posture
- An Easy Drill To Improve Your Salsa Turn Technique 10x Over
- Relax Your Elbows and Everything Will Work Out
Salsa Timing for Beginners
There are two core concepts that differentiate salsa from other latin dances: timing and rhythm.
Salsa timing refers to the counts, or beats, of the music that you step on and salsa rhythm refers to the body movement you create between each step.
Types of Salsa Timing
1. Basic salsa timing
The counts of music you step on are 1-2-3, 5-6-7.
It takes 8 beats to do your basic step but notice how there is no step on 4 or 8?
That’s because the rhythm of the movement is quick, quick, slow; quick, quick, slow. Counts 4 and 8 are used to draw out your body movement and create the “slow” parts of the rhythm.
Using counts 1-2-3, 5-6-7 you can dance salsa in a couple ways…
2. What is dancing “On 1”?
When someone says “I dance salsa On 1” it means they start dancing on the first beat of the bar of music – “the 1” – the first count.
When dancing On 1 you start dancing on the 1, and your break steps (steps used to change directions) are on the 1 and the 5.
[1]-2-3, [5]-6-7
Dancing On 1 is the most common salsa timing used around the world, but it still depends where you live. Ask around to other dancers or studios what’s most common timing in your area.
3. What is dancing “On 2”?
When someone says “I dance salsa On 2” it means they start dancing on the second beat of the bar of music – “the 2” – the second count.
When dancing On 2 you start dancing on the 2, and your break steps are the 2 and the 6.
1-[2]-3, 5-[6]-7
It’s important to know there are various ways of dancing On 2, but the most common way, popularized by Eddie Torres in New York, is what we’ve just told you: step on counts 1-2-3, 5-6-7 with break steps on 2 and 6.
Dancing salsa On 2 is often called “mambo” because it has roots in the original mambo dance which was danced on 2.
4. Is the style of dancing On 1 different than dancing On 2?
Let’s make a distinction…
There’s a difference between Timing and Style:
Timing refers to which counts of music you step on.
Style is a visual aesthetic that you give your dancing.
If you dance on 1 or on 2 you can dance the exact same way and do all the same moves, you just change where your steps are with respect to the 8 count of music.
Learn more about The Difference Between Dancing Salsa On 1 and On 2 here.
In our online Salsa Course, all lessons are taught on 1 and on 2 timing so you can choose which ever you like, or learn both!
The different styles of salsa is another topic entirely.
Salsa Rhythm
As previously mentioned, rhythm in salsa dancing refers to your body movement in between your steps. The easiest way to explain this is to compare salsa to merengue. In merengue, the dancer steps to every beat at the same pace, but in salsa, that pace—or rhythm—changes:
Merengue Rhythm
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
quick-quick-quick-quick-quick-quick-quick-quick
Salsa Rhythm
1-2-3, 5-6-7
quick-quick-slow, quick-quick-slow
The slow points of the Salsa Basic are what make it different than all the other latin dances. It doesn’t matter whether you step on the spot or if you do one of the Salsa Basics, if you’re stepping to the quick-quick-slow rhythm, you are dancing salsa as opposed to the quick-quick-quick-quick rhythm of Merengue.
The quick-quick-slow rhythm is the essence of salsa. That said, a salsa dancer still has the freedom to switch to core beat, full count or syncopated timing in order to play with the music.
Different Styles of Salsa Dancing
In our online courses we teach linear style salsa, a.k.a. cross body lead style salsa, a.k.a. night club style salsa.
The various styles of salsa you’ll hear about are…
Linear style salsa / Cross body lead style salsa / Night club style salsa
When danced on 1 people often say it’s “LA style” and when danced on 2 people say it’s “NY style” but we like to distinguish between timing and style.
Dancing salsa On 2 is often called “mambo” because it has roots in the original mambo dance which was danced on 2.
Cuban salsa (Casino & Rueda de Casino)
Cuban salsa is a more rotational style of salsa.
Casino is danced with a single partner and is traditionally danced on 1, but you can dance it on 2 if you want.
Rueda, traditionally danced on 1, is danced in a large circle made up of various couples. One person calls the moves, everyone does the moves together and you constantly switch partners. It’s really fun!
Colombian salsa / Cali style salsa / Salsa caleña
From the city of Cali, Colombia Colombian style salsa is known for super fast footwork. It’s done with a single partner and is danced on 1. It’s not really danced much outside of Colombia.
Puerto Rican style salsa
As far as I understand, Puerto Rican style salsa is the same as linear style salsa as mentioned above, but it’s danced on 2 to classic mambo timing of 2-3-4, 6-7-8.