Introduction

The word "Clavé" is Spanish for "Key". It is a rhythm is often played both in Latin American music and Afro-Carribean music - usually on Clavé sticks. The 2 common types of Clavé are known as the 2 - 3 Clavé and 3 - 2 Clavé. This article describes Barry Gordon's opinion on how to interpret the Clavé rhythm.

I was given an explanation on a "Salsa Dance Weekend break" about how to dance Salsa on Clavé, although I hadn't previously heard of Clavé but was not entirely satisfied that is was entirely on Clavé. I couldn't find any teacher to explain how to dance it to my satisfaction so I decided to analyze it myself mathematically in the late 1990's. I subsequently heard then well known International salsa dance teachers from LA discussing dancing on Clavé in London. They confirmed my feelings about dancing on Clavé. I subsequently calculated 24 different ways to dance Salsa on Clavé when counting over the standard 8 beats. I presented my findings to another very well known Salsa teacher from LA in early 2002 who asked me to write this article showing how. It was posted on her website for years (I think it is still there), but I am not in a position to keep that article updated.

I was taught 2 common ways to dance on 2 (not including womens' timing), so it occurred to me that there was another possible way to dance On 2. Consequently there would be more ways still to dance on Clavé. I then realised that there was also a third way that one could dance salsa On2.

It is actually possible to dance Salsa in one of 3 ways on any beat because one can pause on any beat except the one on which you break. If we count over 8 beats and as there are 3 ways to dance on each, it is therefore possible to dance in 24 different ways if we simply repeat the steps in the first 4 beats on the opposite foot for the second 4 beats. E.G. If we dance on beats 1, 2 & 3, starting with the left foot, then we generally dance on beats 5, 6 & 7 starting with the right foot.

In order to reduce the size of the table below, the 8 beats are shown as groups of 4 beats i.e. rather than count 1, 2, 3, 4,   5, 6, 7, 8, count 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. It is possible to expand the table below to show all of the 96 possible ways to dance Salsa and then pick out the 24 ways of dancing Salsa on Clavé.

To dance Salsa on a 3-2 Clavé, one needs to step on either beats 1, 3, 4,   5, 6 & 7   or   1, 3, 4,   6, 7 & 8.
To dance Salsa on a 2-3 Clavé, one needs to step on either beats 1, 2, 3,   5, 7 & 8   or   2, 3, 4,   5, 7 & 8.

Since writing the above article, I have also heard of a few more ways of interpreting the Clavé rhythm. I'd be pleased to explain them in person if you care to hire me to teach.