How to Dance Salsa

So you want to know how to Dance Salsa? Whether you have been introduced to Salsa through travel, friends or even YouTube videos, if you’re reading this you probably want to join in the fun. Salsa is incredibly fun! It’s one of the most popular Latin dances around the world. We believe in our school, even if you have two left feet, you can learn Salsa. So here are some basic rules that you can follow to start practicing on your own. 

The Basic Steps

Bring your feet together. Take your left foot and step forward, Then pick up your right foot and step in place. Bring your left foot back in together with your right. That is called half a Salsa basic. You can kind of imagine that you’re trying to leave your home and as you’re about to cross the front door, you remembered that you forgot your keys. And so you step forward, you’re like, oh my gosh, I forgot my keys. 

You step back and you step in place. There’s a small pause and then you take your right foot, you step back inside your home. Then you pick up your keys. You step in place with your left foot and then you bring your right back together with your left foot.  You have now completed a Salsa basic. 

This sounds confusing but stay with me. The basic steps of Salsa have you staying in place and you just step in and out of your “home.” Salsa has a total of six steps and eight beats. Let’s talk about that. 

Salsa Beats and Rhythm

Salsa has a total of eight beats and we dance on six of them. Technically, you dance to all the beats, but let’s make it simple. You start dancing on beat one, which is when you step forward on your left foot. Step in place with your right on two and then bring your left foot back in place on three. 

You pause on four. On five you step back with your right. On six you step in place with your left and on seven you bring your right back home. There is another pause on eight. So the count is 1,2,3, pause, 5,6,7 pause. 

Let’s make it simple. Go on YouTube and look up the song “We Will Rock You.”  You might already know the song – that’s the rhythm of Salsa. You can also count the steps as “quick quick slow.” The slow part includes the pauses.  

Walk on a Train Track

 I’m not actually saying walk on a train track (that’s dangerous!), but it’s a great analogy to learn Salsa quickly.

When our students start to learn to dance, they try to imitate dancing and it takes much longer to learn. So think of Salsa as walking on a train track – you can’t move to the side and you are simply walking back and forth on a train track. Try not to dance as if you’re skating by swinging your hips too much. That will come later but when you are first learning Salsa it will just confuse you. Your brain will have an easier time picking it up if you think of it as walking in a straight line on a train track. 

If you want to learn even more about Salsa Dance Moves for Beginners click on the link.

I can’t wait to welcome you to our big family, have you coming in from week to week, having fun, socializing, and letting loose to amazing Latin songs. Click here to check our current schedule.  

If you have any questions you would like me to answer, here are some ways you can contact me: message me on Instagram (torontodanceSalsa), on Twitter (#torontodanceSalsa), on Facebook (Toronto Dance Salsa) or email me at [email protected].