While Jay Z may be singing the praises of New York on the radio, the growing community of On 2 dancers are most definitely stepping theirs. I recently had the pleasure to attend the Beginner to On 2 Workshop held at Empress and I must that while at first I was a bit skeptical, I now can confidently say that I absolutely love On 2 Salsa. While it’s a bit tricky to get the basic, once you do, I bet you’ll find that it’s pretty easy to convert over all of your moves too!
Here are a few observations that I learned from the workshop taught by Gen and Young from Korkoa:
- On 2 is the dominant style of dance in New York (On 1 is mostly West Coast/LA).
- While On 1 focuses stepping on the 1, On 2 focuses on the second and sixth beat and is stepped, slow | quick | quick, instead of quick | quick | slow
- Because of the pausing at the beginning of the step, partnering becomes easier as there’s more time for turns and styling…this makes dancing to fast songs much easier.
- Emphasizing the second beat changes your basic, it feels almost jazzier/funkier when you’re doing your basic.
- On 2 dancers assume more of a ‘walking’ basic and seem to float back and forth whereas On 1 dancers are a bit more bold in their basic.
- Ladies turn on the 2-3 and men on the 6-7.
While On 2 may not be for everyone (many people like to become an advanced dancer before learning this style) I highly recommend that you learn it earlier on as it increases your dance card, will improve your styling and you won’t be afraid to check out the New York Congress next year!
I’m including a pretty solid video of the On 2 Basic that I found on YouTube. I hope that this gives you a sense of how the basic differs from On 1
Do you dance On 2? In your opinion, how does it differ from dancing On 1? Would love to hear your thoughts,
Till then,
Stay Shining Salseros!
