Salsa On 1

Styles;

Although we all talk about dancing On 1, one can find many styles of salsa On 1 being taught, be it Puerto Rican style, LA Style, Central American style, Cuban style. One thing these styles share is, in all these dance style the leader is breaking forward On 1.The On 1 dancer, is able to count the 8 beats of the music and the leaders consistently break forward on that first beat. The "1" dancer never swaps beats.

In Music terms;
Musically, the melody is emphasized on beat 1. The "1" dancer is hearing and dancing to this musical emphasis. The On 1 dancer can use similar turn patterns as the New York (On 2) salsero. However, the dancer On 1 is hearing the music very differently. The On 1 dancer dances to the melody emphasis whilst the New York On 2dancer dances to the drum/percussion beat which has an emphasis on 2nd beat.
Basically It is about how the dancer hears the music. In simple terms, the melody of our music is on 1, but the drumbeat/percussion beat has an accent on 2. When you dance On 2, you are dancing with the conga drum.