Frequently Asked Questions World Salsa Federation

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q) Who is the World Salsa Federation and what is its purpose?

A) The WSF is a corporation with World Headquarters in Miami, Florida, and was legally formed in August 2001, and is the recognized World Governing Body for Salsa. The WSF endorses breaking on one and two only as the standard for certifications and for syllabus competitions, with the exception of Salsa Showdance, Salsa Team, and Salsa Shine competitions which allows couples and singles to compete on any beat or style and allows lifts and drops (anything goes!)

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The purpose of the WSF is to promote, encourage, publicize and facilitate the art of Salsa dancing including leisure and competitive style, by giving demonstrations, holding competitions and exhibitions, by organizing or sponsoring lectures, lessons and examinations, awarding certificates, prizes and scholarships and doing all such matters and things as will conduce to raising or improving the standard of Salsa dancing, including leisure and competitive styles, and by promoting uniformity of instruction in the basic and advanced steps of Salsa through a uniform Bronze, Silver, and Gold Syllabus. To encourage, foster and increase public interest in the art of Salsa dancing. To formulate and secure international recognition and adoption of official international rules and Syllabus of Competitive Salsa dancing, and to encourage the promotion and proper conduct of competition, and the recognition of established championships. To do all such things as are likely to promote and improve the standard of Salsa dancing. To encourage the general public to obtain instruction only from qualified teachers, and to do all such things as are likely to promote and improve the standard of conduct to raising or maintaining the professional status and ethical standards of all persons engaged or seeking to be engaged in the teaching of Salsa dancing.

Q) What is the difference between a Salsa Congress and a WSF event?

A) The major difference is that the WSF holds competitions as its main ingredient. Competitions include all the lower levels in the syllabus as well as the championship divisions. Workshops, parties, and performances are secondary while it is quite the opposite with a Congress.

Q) Why and how did the WSF "standardize" Salsa?

A) The WSF decided to standardize Salsa in order to open new avenues for Salsa. Before actually finalizing its syllabus, the WSF requested and purchased videos from the top exponents in Miami style, L.A. style, Colombian Style, Puerto Rican style, New York style, and Cuban style. We then picked common steps in each and picked them apart to be able to teach every step in a detailed way. Some steps we modified in order to make them more practical in leading and following. The WSF syllabus is a conglomeration. We are very proud that the largest amateur sporting organization in the United States has accepted the WSF syllabus as its standard for the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

Q) I have been teaching Salsa for over 10 years and have a large student following, why should I join the WSF and become a certified teacher?

A) In a word, CREDENTIALS. There is almost no profession, especially a teaching profession, where the educator did not receive some sort of degree in their field. Most State and Federal governments even require it. Would you have someone fix your car without credentials? Would you have someone perform surgury on you without credentials? Of course not. Being certified just shows that you have taken the time to study your field of expertise. It is not the end but just the beginning. Once you have graduated High School, it does not mean your learning is complete, nor does certifying mean your the best teacher either. It just means your the type of teacher that continues your studies to give your students the best possible instruction possible.

Salsa vs. Salsa
The different Salsa styles explained

Salsa is a direct descendant of Mambo. Mambo originated in Cuba in the late 1940s, and had a brief run as a super-popular fad here in North America in the 1950s (especially 1954). At the end of the 1950s, a slowed down and syncopated version of Mambo -- the Cha-Cha (originally called Triple Mambo) -- usurped Mambo's popularity. Then suddenly, in 1961, everyone in North America started doing the Twist, and partner dancing, including Latin partner dancing, fell completely out of fashion for about 15 years. In the mid-1970s, the Disco craze created a resurgent interest in partner dancing, and Mambo was revived in the New York Latin dance communities under the new name Salsa. The new dance was primarily Mambo, with noticeable influences and borrowings from Disco (which was itself primarily a slicked-up and polyesterized verion of Swing). The new Salsa form of Mambo spread throughout Latin America and became the universal Latin club dance, with occasional modest regional differences.

A note on regional differences. You'll find that many Latin Americans have fierce ideas that only their own country dances "authentic" Salsa. Why regional differences? Simple: in the 1950s, new music traveled much faster than new dance steps. As the original Mambo music spread through Latin America in the 1950s, people quickly adapted local dances to fit it. For example, in Colombia, the sidewards steps of one form of Cumbia became the basis for Colombian-style Mambo/Salsa, and many Colombians still dance a Cumbia-like Salsa. The most interesting story involves the island of Curacao (a colonial possession of Holland), where a local dance called Tumba was adapted to the new Mambo music. Tumba is danced with a "break forward on the right foot" action -- the opposite of Mambo/Salsa dancing everywhere else. And because of the migration of people back and forth from Curacao to Holland, Salsa in Holland is usually danced on the "wrong" foot! (The Salsa teachers in Curacao have recently started teaching conventional Salsa footwork. Let's see how long it takes Holland to catch up.)
The cross-border migration of influences continues, now in reverse. Over time, dancers in the main Salsa centers of New York and Miami have cheerfully incorporated every idea they see that helps them look good, including moves from almost every regional variation. The cross-pollination also operates beyond Latin dance borders, of course: Salsa, recall, came about from an infusion of Disco (Hustle) into Mambo in the 1970s. More recently, Salsa dancers have swiped moves from the revival form of Swing dance called Lindy Hop, and West Coast Swing dancers have returned the favor by swiping their fanciest spins and wraps directly from high-end Salsa.

How close is Mambo to Salsa? Both the music and the dance are closely related. Tito Puente, one of Latin music's greats, used to say at his concerts, "We play the same music. Before, it was Mambo. Now it's Salsa." Most Salseros would disagree a little -- you really can hear a difference between classic Mambo and the Salsa of today, but not a lot. Mostly the differences reflect the passage of time: new instruments added to the mix, and new musicians adding their interpretations to the music and rhythm forms.

The dance steps have also evolved, although, again, most of the changes reflect the passage of time. The most significant difference between dancing Mambo and dancing Salsa: nearly every Salsa community has simplified Mambo's relationship between the footwork and the music. This simplification is what characterizes the different Salsa styles.

MAMBO style

Originally, Mambo was danced like this:

"1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4" vs. "1 2 3 4, 5 6 7 8" Why two different ways of counting the music? Almost all Mambo/Salsa music has a recurring 8-beat structure that comes at you in two chunks of 4 beats. Salsa dancers typically count the music in 8's -- they'll talk to you about "1, 2, 3" and "5, 6, 7." Many Mambo dancers and almost all Ballroom dancers count the music in 4's -- for example, they'll count the Mambo Basic step as "2, 3, 4 - 1; 2, 3, 4 - 1." So we have included both. Sometimes it's easier to think in terms of 4's, sometimes in terms of 8's. The discussion below will switch from 4's to 8's as is convenient.

That business of doing a Rock-Step* on "2 - 3" and a Slow Step on "4 - 1" (that is, stepping on "4" and pausing during the next "1") is the hallmark of Mambo timing.

Here, the footwork is directly matched with the clave ["KLAH-vay"] beat that underlies all of the major Latin dances that have their roots in Cuban music -- Rumba, Mambo, Cha-Cha, Salsa. Notice that during the first 4 beats, the footsteps of the Rock-Step exactly match the clave beat. During the second 4 beats, the footsteps of the Rock-Step fall neatly in between the clave beats. In both cases, the dancing is very much in tune with the clave.

The clave was originally 2 wooden pegs -- now, any instrument might do -- that were struck together on the following beats: 2, 3, 5, 6-1/2, 8. (You'll notice that for clarity, we are now counting the music in 8's.) That is, during the first four beats you'll hear two pulses, on "2" and "3". Then you'll hear three pulses evenly spread across the next four beats: on "5", then halfway through beat "6", and then on "8". It sounds a bit like 2 claps, followed after a brief pause by 3 slightly slower claps. Occasionally the music has the combination reversed -- first 3, then 2 -- but the principle remains the same, and, at least in theory, the Man will start his Forward Rock-Step during the part that has the 2 pulses.

In practice, it is usually almost impossible to hear the clave beat in the music until you are very, very experienced in listening to Latin music. The complex overlayment of rhythm patterns usually masks it -- especially in contemporary Salsa. It is easier for most people to hear the "1" beat of a phrase and then count from there. Alternatively, you can ignore the counts completely . . . and match your feet to nearby good dancers.

This pattern is not danced by very many Salsa dancers any more.

It is still danced by older-generation authentic Mambo dancers. It is also danced by most Cha-Cha dancers. And the British have preserved this pattern in their very strange and very British (but pretty) versions of Rumba, Cha-Cha and Mambo, which the British have incorporated into what they humbly call their International Style of ballroom dancing. There are also still some Cubans and children of Cuban emigrants (in the Miami area) who dance Salsa with this Mambo timing -- however, many of them adjust the steps by evening them out, yielding 3 steps almost evenly spread across 4 beats of music.

You'll notice that in the chart we've marked a pause during the "1" and "5" beats. Do people really pause? Well, it depends on what you mean by "pause." It's not a complete dead-stop, like being flash-frozen. In actuality, you are still in motion a bit as you get ready for the next Rock-Step. Many dancers will add little foot flicks or taps during this beat, purely for fun. This is also the time when almost all leads begin for whatever is coming next. But relative to all that's happening on the other beats, it feels rather pause-ish. In Cha-Cha, of course, you are finishing up the end of the cha-cha-cha, rather than pausing.

* You have probably noticed in your dancing that the term "Rock-Step" is a bit of a misnomer. In fact, you step on the first beat of it, and then rock back onto the other foot without changing its location, on the second beat of it. It might be more accurate to say "Step-Rock." But the universal practice is to call it a Rock-Step.

BREAK ON 1 style

Almost all Salsa dancers today dance simplified versions of Mambo timing, of which "Break on 1" style is the most common. This style moves the Rock-Step to "1 - 2" and the Slow step to "3 - 4" -- which most people find much easier to hear in the music. Thus:

The advantages to this style are (a) it preserves the authentic dynamic dance structure of Mambo, and (b) it makes it much easier for most people to find the starting beat in the music. The disadvantage is that the relationship to the clave beat is heavily diminished. Switching the Rock-Step to the "1" beat reduces the complex interlocking relationship between the dance and the music.

BREAK ON 2 style

Also known as "New York" style, or "dancing on the clave" or "dancing with the clave"

The large New York Puerto Rican community of Salsa dancers -- along with the substantial Cuban contingent there -- eventually adopted a different simplification, called "Break on 2" style, or "dancing on (or with) the clave." From what we've heard so far, this style was evolved by Eddie Torres, a self-taught and terrific dancer in New York, who did more to keep Salsa alive than anyone else after the initial late-70s/early-80s fad passed; virtually all Break on 2 dancers and teachers in New York are current or former Eddie Torres students. Within New York City, this style is usually referred to as dancing "on 2" (without the word "break"). Outside of New York, it is often called "New York" style. Thus:

Break on 2 style preserves Mambo's dancing of the Rock-Step on "2 - 3" -- which maintains the close relationship to the clave beat. It changes the Mambo timing, however, by giving the dancers something definite to do with their feet on the "1" beat. And it changes the Mambo dance structure by grouping the steps together at each end of the structural pattern, instead of spreading them dynamically across it.

At first glance this seems not very different from the Mambo style. And at second glance it even overlaps with Break on 1 style, in that the same feet are hitting the floor on the same beats (although in a completely different pattern). But in practice, it is tremendously difficult to get your body to accept the change from either Mambo timing or Break on 1 timing to this Break on 2 style -- your feet will constantly want to jump back to the pattern you are used to. You'll notice this especially whenever you come out of a turn.

Note another important difference in Break on 2 style: the man characteristically starts forward during the second half of the musical cycle, that is, during the "5, 6, 7." In all other styles, the man starts forward during the "1, 2, 3, 4" phase of the 8-beat musical cycle. (On the dance floor, the really expert gents will start forward on the "6, 7." In the classroom, however, the men will usually be asked to start the easiest way possible: they'll start on "1" with the backward half of their Basic.)

Break on 2 Salsa has a different feel to it from Break on 1, mainly because all three foot-falls are bunched together at one end (before the "pause"). This eliminates much of the dynamic and percussive shifting of your balance point that gives Mambo (and its Break on 1 Salsa descendant) its rich and characteristic flavor. There is less of a "structured" feel to Break on 2 style, which has both advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage (beside the loss of the authentic dynamic structure itself) is that the men, and sometimes the women, tend to lose track of the footwork, since there is much less structural guidance. This is especially true at the Beginner and Intermediate levels. Another disadvantage is that many standard Salsa/Mambo moves are harder to do with the "on 2" footwork. The main advantage is that on-the-spot maneuvers are much easier, now that the footsteps are grouped at each end, and whole categories of on-the-spot turns, spins, wraps, etc. become easily reachable from within the Break on 2 context. Which leads to another disadvantage (or advantage, depending on how narcissistic you are feeling) -- Break on 2 dancers tend to be more "solo" oriented than Break on 1 dancers. The partnering aspects can fall away almost to nothing, unless the two dancers maintain a strong psychological connection to each other.

Final note: there are actually several different styles calling themselves "Break on 2" style. The main other one that we have seen is identical to the original Mambo style except that the man starts forward during the second half of the musical cycle, that is, during the "6, 7, 8" instead of during the "2, 3, 4." A third flavor makes one tiny adjustment to the New York Break on 2 style charted above: it requires that the man start forward whenever the clave is in its '2 pulses' phase -- which is sometimes on the "1" beat; sometimes on the "5" beat, depending on what the musicians are up to in that particular song.

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