Why do Salsa and Mambo Dance Instructors teach On1 ?

Most Advanced and Master level Salsa dancers prefer to dance Mambo On2 Eddie Torres Style. The amount of ‘Switch’ workshops – learning to convert Salsa On1 to On2 Mambo – is increasing all over the world. So why do so many Salsa Dance Instructors start teaching On1 if On2 is so much better?

History

Salsa dancers dance On1 when they break on the first beat of the music. On2 dancers break on the second beat. But learning to break on the second beat instead of the first does not make an On1 Salsa a ‘Mambero’. There are more differences deeply rooted in the history and evolution of both dances. For starters, the development of a certain dance style starts with the way the dancers interpret or listen to the music they are dancing. Mambo dancing stems directly from the way Puerto Ricans used to dance during the golden era of the Palladium in New York (U.S.A) in the 1950’s and 60’s. The Puerto Ricans used the Cuban Son dancing as basis, and have the Tumbao – the Conga rhythm –, the Clave and other percussion instruments as guides when listening and interpreting the music. Eddie Torres tweaked the dance and made it a commercial success from the 90’s onward.

Francisco Vazquez, the eldest of the Vazquez brothers Luis and Johnny, created L.A. Style Salsa in the mid 90’s by combining two different dance styles together. First, the dance style the most popular dancers in Los Angeles (U.S.A.) danced at that moment inspired him. Those dancers - Albert Torres, Joe Casini, and Laura Canelias - were dancing Mambo On2 Eddie Torres Style. The Mambo Dance Instructors realized their students found it difficult to find and to keep breaking to the second beat of the music. Francisco, just like Eddie Torres, had no formal dance education, but both of them have a great sense of rhythm. Francisco solved the problem by evolving his dance to breaking on the first beat. He gradually introduced certain characteristics of the Hollywood style of Swing Dance such as the West Coast Swing into his repertoire. The great dancers inspiring the evolution of his dance style were Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and the Nicholas Brothers. All of them used the accents in the melody of the music, which always happens on and around the first beat. This prompted Francisco Vazquez to use the first beat of the music as his standard.
His approach proved to be very successful: LA Salsa is the most danced ‘Salsa Dance School Style’ in the world. There are many variations of On1, but all of them have Francisco’s invention as a basic, except for Cuban dancing On1. 

Difference in listening to Music

Salsa Music is roughly divided into two layers: the ‘skeleton layer’ formed by the percussion, the clave, and the base, and the ‘top layer’ formed by the rest of the instruments and the manner in which the singers sing. Salsa Music is very difficult to listen to because of the melody dominating the senses. Most people in Western societies have problems finding the Tumbao and the clave in the midst of all the other instruments. It takes time to learn and master the music. Most Salsa students aspire to learn the dance and nice dance tricks as soon as possible. Dancing On1 has proven to be commercially more successful because it is easier for the students to find the ‘one’ and concentrate on learning intricate dance moves instead of taking music classes which they find to be a waste of their valuable time. 

The Future

On1 Salsa has made quite a transition from its birth. With current developments such as Musicality, Mambo instructors teaching ‘On1 with On2 Flow’, and the introduction of Cuban Dance elements, it will not matter which style the dancers choose to dance. They will all feel fine and look great. After all, it is just a matter of (acquired) taste.