By Raul Avila of The Salsa Expert

If the music is clave, and clave is the music, what does it mean to “dance in clave?”

The problem with this question is that as soon as you define it, you have at the same time limited the experience of the clave.  Should we make the basic step the focal point of what it means to dance in clave? If you eliminate the “dancing on2 equals dancing in clave” idea, how do we then define it?

By Raul Avila of The Salsa Expert

Hey Salseek Salseros,

I got nice responses from some of you about the clave articles, but there were requests to know more about how the clave relates to the dancer. So, here we go.  Many dancers have heard the expression “dancing on clave,” or "dancing in clave." However, if you ask the average dancer what

...read more

By Joey Corsica

Salsa is much less esoteric and mysterious than people believe. It is one of the simplest patterns of dance an enthusiast can learn. Proper manipulation of this pattern can make this dance infinitely dynamic.

There seems to be an unneccesary chasm between timings and styles of salsa particularly between dancers who choose or who have been taught to break on the first beat within the rhythm and those who have chosen or have been taught to place the breaking action on the second beat in the rhythm. It is the... read more

By Raul Avila

Clave Direction – What makes it 2-3 or 3-2?

To understand clave direction you have to understand musical phrasing.  Salsa music is written in 8 beat segments, creating the 8 beat phrasing. This means that the music is constantly cycling through 8 beats. It also means that all the sounds in the music revolve around this phrasing.