Dance Steps

Here is a collection of documents you can view or print out to help you practice at home. These documents do not cover all of the intricacies of each "step," so we would never, never, ever recommend them as a replacement for actual person-to-person learning. However, they do provide much of the details that can be easily forgotten after leaving the classroom. As time goes on, we will be slowly adding to these. Please send any special requests to info@MasYMambo.com

Guide to Reading the Step Charts

Translating spatial and temporal information into a single, flat page of paper is a difficult task. Difficult because there is inherently too much information to fit on the page of paper and the balance must tip to either too much information or too little. We have tried to walk that fine line of high information density while still keeping it all very clear. Of course, it's only clear once you know what to look for and that is what this section is about.

Linear Display - These charts can be thought of as a series of photographs of your feet. Just because the left foot is "moving to the right across the page" doesn't mean that you should move to the right with it! Each beat is shown by itself, with where both feet should be at that point in time

Shadow Footing - In each beat, both the left and right foot are depicted. The strongly colored foot is where the weight should be placed. The lighter foot should be losing it's weight as it is transfered to the stronger foot. The primary purpose of the lighter, shadow foot is to indicate where both feet should be and to indicate whether there is a pivot involved during the step.

Friendly Mnemonics - The Right foot is colored in Red. The Left foot is colored in yeLLow.

Timing & Counts - Both men's and women's timing is shown. It is best to chose one and stick with that for the entire 8 counts.

Relevant Instruments - Sometimes a particular move will fit with a certain instrument. In this situation you will see a picture of the instrument, it's name, and a description of the rhythm it is playing. A word of caution, the instruments usually play 2 notes for each count. If you are familiar with music, then we would say that the instruments usually play 8th notes.

• Salsa Basic Step