Myth of the Clave

Contrary to popular belief, the clave does not favor any one style of dancing. In fact, when it comes to dancing on clave, all styles are mathematically equal. Lets take the example of the two most common claves... 2/3 and 3/2.

In order to demostrate how this works, we'll need some notation. I could spend some time making fancy graphics, but I'm lazy. Anyway, here is the methodology. First, I made a strip that indicates the beats. Because the clave falls on half beats, I used half beat resolution:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

(YES, I am a big fat salsa nerd)

Then, I made 'X' marks to indicate where the clave falls on that beat:

| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   |

Beneath the 'X' marks, I marked how the dancer would actually move in relationship to the clave. If the person actually stepped, then I marked it with an asterisk. If the person just weight shifted, then I marked it with a period:

| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   |

Still with me?

Then, all I did was add up the scores. If a step fell on the same beat as the clave, I marked it with an 'a'. If it fell on the same beat as a weight shift, I marked it with a 'b'. Then, I just added up the a's and the b's. Check it out:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   | On 1
                                                
a                   b   a       = 2a+b                


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   | On 1
    b   a       a               = 2a+b                   


| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
| * | * | . |   | * | * | . |   | On 2
a                   a   b       = 2a+b                 


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
| * | * | . |   | * | * | . |   | On 2
    a   b       a               = 2a+b                   


| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
|   | * | . | * |   | * | . | * | Ballroom 2
            a       a   b       = 2a+b                   


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
|   | * | . | * |   | * | . | * | Ballroom 2
    a   b                   a   = 2a+b              

As you can see, every style expresses the clave equally. More specifically, all styles express it with two steps and one shift. I've run experiments with other forms of clave as well, and this seems to generalize fairly well.

There ARE differences between the various styles out there... differences that can be exactly and logically described. But, I will explain those in a future article. For now, just rest assured that no matter what style of salsa you are dancing, YOU are dancing ON CLAVE :)