there are a pcouple of things that are hard for most people to learn: the beat and body motion. The best way to get comfortable with the beat is to listen to salsa music every waking moment. The more you listen the faster it sinks in. If you only hear salsa 1 hour a week at class, it will remain some sort of strange, exotic music and you will still be lost when you find yourself alone without someone counting 1,2,3 5,6,7 for you. Listen, listen, listen!

The body motion…don’t bother worrying about it. This come on it’s own when you do the basic steps properly. It may seem strange, but how you do the steps affects how your hips move. And all the arm styling etc that some versions of salsa teach, well they are not at all important to dancing, they are just something that someone thinks looks cool. If your hands are in the right place at the right to to performs the moves, that’s all that matters. When you are comfortable with the basic steps and the basic turns you will find that you can relax and develop your own personal style taking bits and pieces that feel good to you from the styling tips that your teachers give you.

I would also recommend that you go out to a club once a week. Find someone in your class who is also serious about learning and go dancing! Dance, dance, dance! It gives you a chance to really practice what you learned in class. When you have to work it out for yourself it sticks better. And then you will be ready for new moves at class the next week rather than having forgotten everything. And don’t worry about people at the club watching you. Find a uncrowded spot on the dance floor and go for it. I was scared to be watched until I realized that people were watching the best dancers and not watching me. Just don’t step on the other dancers feet or hit them with your elbow trying to do some fancy arm styling and you will be fine.

Good luck and don’t give up. If you listen, listen, listen and dance, dance, dance you will be dancing quite comfortably within 6 months. Don’t expect it to happen in 6 weeks.
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Cass
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personal expierence

On1 styles always start with a back-break for the lady on1. If it was danced in a linear pattern you can probably rule out Cuban style and Miami Style since they are based on a rotational motion. Although they do include a linear basic step as well so if it was a beginners class it could conceivable still be Cuban style but it’s probably safe to rule that out.

So I’d say probably some generic On1 style or LA Style
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Here is Cubans style salsa (casino)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30RzT2wn64

Here is a group for of casino called Rueda de casino
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrl1uAGw8yw

Here is son (pronounced "sown" not "sun")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI7TDQxMACQ

And here is Afro-Cuban rumba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48156Mf1KSU
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R.I.P Michael we all miss you
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There are 4 beats per measure. What makes beginner dancers confused is that you only take steps on 3 of the beats and pause on one beat.

The beat that is emphasized depends on what country the music comes from. Cuban salsa as well as son and chachacha etc have always emphasized the 4th beat of the measure. Some other styles may put more emphasis on the second beat. Keep in mind that salsa sounds slightly different depending on where it comes from. New York, Puerto Rico, Miami, Colombia, Cuba all have slightly different sounds but are all based on the same basic rhythms.

In the US people dance a lot of "shines" which are solo step combinations. Many of these have names. In Cuban salsa there is a group salsa dance called Rueda de Casino (Casino wheel) where the dancers dance in a circle and perform moves in unison as they are called out, kind of similar to the idea behind square dancing. Each move has a name, so in Rueda there are hundreds of names for the moves for example some well known moves are setenta, dile que no, enchufa, el dedo, vacílala.

There are two main differences in how people dance salsa, the beat they dance on and the direction of motion in the dance. Salsa is usually either danced On1 or On2 but many street dancers in Cuba also dance On3.

As I mentioned Cuban salsa usually emphasizes the 4th beat of the measure. this is because salsa is built around the syncopated rhythm called the "clave". It is three beat followed by two beats and extends over two bars of music. Since the claves takes 2 bars to complete dancers use an 8-count for a complete set of steps.

The traditional way of dancing to clave-based music is called contratiempo, meaning on the upbeat. The dancers pause on the 1 then they step 2,3,4 pause 6,7,8 pause. One the 2 the man steps forwards with his left foot and the woman steps back with her right. You can see why this type of dancing is referred to as On2 because you start dancing on the second beat.

Some people have a hard time "finding the 2". So in New York there is a different type of On2 usually called New York On2. In this case you take the steps on 1,2,3 pause 5,6,7 pause, but you "break" on2. That is to say the first step is almost in place and the second step, which falls on the second beat is when you step forward (or backward). This change of direction is referred to as breaking. So New York 2 starts on1 but "breaks" on2. The idea is that it’s easier for the dancer to know when to start dancing if they start on the downbeat.

Most people in the world dance On1, which is 1,2,3 pause 5,6,7 pause but also with the break step on the 1. So on the 1 a man would step forward with his left foot while his partner would step back with her right foot, thus both starting and breaking on1.

The On2 dancers are often very snobby about saying that On1 dancers are dancing "off clave" and there is a lot of argument between the dancers about what is "correct". I personally think that songs with a strong son feel, where you have a strong son clave feel are good for contratiempo and some more modern salsa is better on1.

The other difference I mentioned is the direction of the motion in the dance patterns. In the US and the areas influenced by the US, people dance in a linear motion moving backwards and forwards and even the turns patterns are done as if the couples were dancing "in-the-slot". This type of motion has the effect that turns are done as spot turns and lots of spinning is done. US dance styles also emphasize the use of shines where the couple splits apart and each one does solo steps. US styles also use a lot of "styling" where dancers are taught to do arm motions to make their dancing "look better". This idea is very ballroom dance influenced.

Cuban salsa is rotational meaning that the couple is constantly traveling as if around the edge of a circle. They travel even through the turns so Cubans don’t do spot turns or spins. Instead they do tangly patterns that require rotation to tangle up and to unravel again. Cubans don’t do shines. When they split apart they often dance afro-cuban rumba or "despelote" which is when they just move their hips or "tembleque" where they shake their hips and torso. This type of dancing maintains a lot more contact with the afro-cuban roots of salsa dancing.

South Americans dance a semi-rotational style: they tend to rotate but not as much as the Cuban and they don’t tangle as much. Cali, Colombia has a very particular dance style where they use a lot of bouncy footwork.

So what can you say about salsa? It’s a commercial name that started being used in the 70s. Salsa music is organized around the clave rhythm and is usually either Cuban son or Cuban guaracha mixed with jazz and maybe pop, hiphop, or various Latin American rhythms such as rumba or bomba. But Salsa sounds different depending on what country/city is comes from. Just like different regions use different spices in their food, different salsa styles have a different "flavor". This is true for both the dancing and the music.

Here are a few videos to show the different styles of dancing. Listen to the music they are dancing to as well. You will see that the dancers prefer different types of music that are well-suited to the dance style.

Original contratiempo danced to son music, the dance and music root of salsa. On2 and a mix of both linear and rotational motion, but much closer to modern Cuban salsa than modern US salsa styles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI7TDQxMACQ

New York On2 – linear includes spins and shines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTIhekjRE1E

LA Style – On1 linear – relatively new style. The Vazquez brothers are credited with creating it. Very flashy and acrobatic and performance oriented. Includes spins and shines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbYn9iJ7GM

Cuban style On1 rotational mixed with Afro-Cuban rumba and tembleque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30RzT2wn64

Rueda de casino – Cuban group salsa where each move has a name and as they moves are called out the dancers do them in unison often switching partners at the end of each move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrl1uAGw8yw

Colombian style with what seems to be a touch of LA mixed in. Not quite linear, not quite rotational, On1 with special footwork probably from boogalu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEuhOR_Arh8

You should look up salsa at Wikipedia for more info. Maybe someone will dare try to say the year it originated.
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