How dancing on2 when the 1st beat is missing?

P

Platon

Changui
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iDb9sWagZY

This song has a strong beat on the 8th count and no 1st beat. An on2 dancer should of course focus on the "2". Does it matter if you do the 1st step on the 8th count? How do you dance to such songs?
 
You have a clave and the repeating pattern of the base and piano is anything but ambiguous. Seems quite clear to me.
 
If you break this down into the more elementary 'quick quick slow' then your foot placement on the '1' is still important. I'm sure you would get away with being distracted by the dominant beat, but strictly you should still be aiming for the quick to start with the '1.'

It's still troublesome for the on1 dancer, very easy for us to be distracted and take our first step on the 8 too. Yes we could probably get away with it, but we should strive for rythmic perfection imo. :)

Just a question of getting your ear used to hearing those implied beats, as well as the struck ones.
 
wildbill20056 said:
It's still troublesome for the on1 dancer, very easy for us to be distracted and take our first step on the 8 too. Yes we could probably get away with it, but we should strive for rythmic perfection imo. :)
Click to expand...

How I'm thought is to hit 2-3 and 6-7 but 8-1 and 4-5 beats can be stepped less strictly. I mean you you can step on 8 or 1 doesn't matter as long as you hıt 2-3. For the quick quick slow feeling, I skip 8 and step on 1.
 
I learned recently that traditional mambo dancers would try to do their best to dance on the clave- that is, on 2, 3, 5, 6&, and 8. This song seems to be very clave-focused, so if I were dancing in a club, all of my styling or movement would try to stay with the music. For partner dancing, I would agree with olamalam where the most important steps are 2-3 and 6-7, because this is where most of the "action" in your on2 dancing happens.
 
Platon said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iDb9sWagZY

This song has a strong beat on the 8th count and no 1st beat. An on2 dancer should of course focus on the "2". Does it matter if you do the 1st step on the 8th count? How do you dance to such songs?
Click to expand...

On-time. :rolleyes:

Found this absolutely no problem to dance on1 to. The majority of the song has the piano counting out the 1-8. It's only bits of the intro, some of the break sections and the phrase between 2:18 and 2:30 that have the missing accent on the 1, some of the time and not other times. Though your brain may get fooled into thinking it's always missing (this is common trick by musicians). They do often have syncopated clave, congas, timbales which are really close by and make it no problem to keep track. The timbales part definitely hits the 1.

I went through the track over and over and counted the number of obvious missing accents where there was definitely nothing on the 1. I counted around 10 missing 1's. That's all. Just because they are mostly after breaks you notice them big time.

Interestingly there was some bits of percussion at the end of the track and I started adding a bit of cha cha cha steps for styling/reflection which fit perfectly.
 
Platon, I think you should listen to more music. Through more experience you'll realize that this song is no problem at all, whether you dance on1, on2, P2, ...
You should have your "inside metronome" for the beat anyway, and the music only "confirms" it
 
Hi platon,

it's great that you noticed this strong emphasis on beat 4. It migt interest you to know that in Cuban percussion beat four is called "el ponche" or "the punch". It was really key in son music and this song, although it has jazz and cha cha cha influences is also strongly son influenced.

As to how to dance to this.

(1) Cuban son dancing steps ..2.3.4...6.7.8... note the emphasis on 4 and 8.

(2) remember that Afrocuban music is polyrhythmic so it is not necessary to exactly match the music. It is quite OK to interact with the music, e.g. to dance a beat ahead or behind, provided it relates in a way that you find enriches the dance.
 
you should have a problem if you wanna danca on1 when the 1st beat is missing kkkkkkkkkk

ok, the beat is always there no matter if any instrument is giving emphasis on , 3,4 or 7and a half
 
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