Foundations are important in anything you do. For those who are willing to persevere, the treasure at the end more than makes up for the effort required at the beginning. The trick is to make the foundational work fun and interesting.

The foundational topics covered in this series are:

• Footwork
• Partner Hold
• Body Posture
• Timing

In this article, we discuss the foundational footwork for learning cross-body on one salsa. 

Small Steps for Great Footwork
Basic footwork patterns are used in many salsa sequences up to and including advanced. Whenever you make the steps, keep them small (or tight).Men, this will come in handy on crowded dance floors and help you to protect your lady from colliding with other people. Ladies, keep your steps small. This will prevent you from yanking your partner’s arms out of their sockets and from colliding with others. There really is only so much your partner can do to protect you.

Back-and-Forwards
In cross-body style the back and forwards move is the most fundamental move consisting of eight steps.  There are a variety of ways to count the steps, find the counting method that you understand best. Most teachers use 1-2-3, 5-6-7. Old school teachers use 1-2-3-kick, 5-6-7-kick whilst others use quick quick slow, quick quick slow, where quick represents one beat in the music and slow represents two beats in the music.

In Cross-body on one or LA style, these beats translate for men into a foot work that begins with the

1. left foot forward (quick),
2. right foot replace also known as step in-place (quick),
3. left foot back (slow)
4. right foot back (quick)
5. left foot replace (quick)
6. right foot forward (slow) and repeat.

For ladies it is right foot back, left foot replace, right foot forward (slow), left foot forward, right foot replace, left foot back (slow).  The basic foot step can be seen in this video.

Videos and Other Footwork
There are many other videos in Youtube and Videojug that will teach you the basic moves for salsa. Do make sure that the video you’re watching is the style of the class – there are more than five different styles of salsa so if you are unsure do check with your teacher.  If they don’t know which style they are teaching – get out of their class fast and go find another teacher. Some teachers also host their own videos if you join their Facebook group.  In addition to the backwards and forwards moves, look for video clips that teach you:-

• Side-to-side
• Left-Turn and Right-Turn
• Back-Break
• On-The-Spot
• Cross Body

You can see all a full sequence of these moves in the Big Dance sequence on the londonsalsa website here.

In the beginning, some moves such as on-the-spot and back and forwards basics can be particularly great for getting you out of situations when:-

• you’re out of time with the music and trying to recover
• you have no clue what your partner is doing

The main advice here is to practise all of the basics whenever you can. Many in salsa will practice anywhere from their kitchen sink whilst washing the dishes to the train platform waiting for a train... and do remember to read part 2 in this series!

Cover picture is called Footwork from Br3akthru