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Battle
of the Mambo Is Bruising Some Toes
by Mireya Navaro, New York Times
Pedro Reyes, 26, an electronics technician,
was clinging to his fellow 1's on a recent
Wednesday night on the first floor of
Nell's, on West 14th Street near Eighth
Avenue in Manhattan, which has Cuban
soul nights once a week.
The ''on 2'' aficionados were in the
basement.
Once, Mr. Reyes said, he ventured into
''on 2'' territory only to be told by
a woman that he did not know how to dance.
''It's just the opposite,'' he said.
''I can't dance like that. They're from
the dance studios. It's more cabaret,
more show. That dance has been created
for Broadway.''
The upside is that there is a good
deal of great dancing going on in many
places. At clubs like the Latin Quarter
on the Upper West Side and the Copacabana
in Midtown, ''on 2'' dancers are easy
to spot: their style is skillful and
flashy, with men spinning women like
tops and partners separating every now
and then to show off fancy footwork known
as ''shines.''
But some couples look like clones of
one another. And many ''on 2'' dancers
will not dance with just anyone. In this
subculture, dancers often take classes
every week. They hold socials where no
alcohol is served. They even have their
own Web site, SalsaNewYork.com,
which lists dance events and includes
''on 2'' dancers in an e-mail list ''as
long as this is their preferred and dominant
way of dancing to salsa.''
Ben Rapoport, 34, Web master of Salsaweb.com,
a popular salsa site, knows and appreciates
both styles, but he said he understood
why the ''on 2'' dancers wanted to stick
together. ''As soon as you start learning
moves, dancing becomes another world,''
he explained. ''It becomes much more
athletic, more exciting, and you want
to do that with people who dance at your
level.'' Good looks are no longer enough
to entice a man across the dance floor.
At a club once, Mr. Rapoport said,
he had to vouch for a girlfriend's competence
as an ''on 2'' before one of his friends
would dance with her, ''and she was very
attractive!'' »
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