In music, off-beats are the 2 nd and 4 th beats.
Son is danced on contratiempo timing, which literally means “against time,” but what it really means in musical terms is “on the off-beat”. I’m about to drop that knowledge.įirst, let’s examine son dancing. If this is a question you’ve been having, sit forward and pay attention.
The majority of on2 salsa dancers count 1,2,3 and 5,6,7 while people who dance son count 2,3,4 and 6,7,8.īut is there really a difference in the timing of the steps, given that both dances are danced on the 2? Perfunctorily, that seems to be the case. That the basic steps in both dances are done using different timing. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the timing of the steps of salsa on 2 (also known as “mambo” or “New York style salsa”) and Cuban son? Some people would argue that the timing for both dances is not exactly the same.
