How To Salsa Dance: Front Break Step
The front break step, or forward rock step, is a key element in salsa dancing. Professional dance instructors and award winning competitive dancers Michael Kuka and Natalia Lind will show you how to do this basic salsa step.
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Step 1:
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You will need:
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Step 2:
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Basic Footwork
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You start the salsa front break step by placing your feet together with equal weight on both. Now move your left foot forward about a foot or two, placing your weight on this foot. Keeping both feet where they are, now replace your weight to your right foot. Now bring your left foot back to its original position next to your right foot.
Repeat this in the reverse, now moving your right foot forward, replacing the weight, and bringing it back together with the left foot.
Dance instructors like to call this out as, "Left foot - forward, replace (the weight), together. Right foot - forward, replace, together."
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Step 3:
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Salsa Timing
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The basic movement timing of salsa dancing across most salsa styles, is a step quick-quick-slow over a 4 beat measure. The quick steps are on the beats one and two, with the slow on the three beat. The four is a pause, or a tap. So you would step left, right, left, pause/tap then right, left, right/tap. When you count, you will say, "one, two, three," pause, then, "five, six, seven" and pause. The four and the eight are still there, we just don't say them. We pause a beat instead.
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Step 4:
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Natural Opposites
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The leader (usually male) will start off with his left foot. The follower (usually female) will do the natural opposite, so she will start with her right foot.