from Salsa Dancers Missing Manual by Raul Avila

“In Africa, and throughout many parts of the world, the drum and dancing is a meditative type vehicle for bringing down the spirits of gods and ancestors, and for healing and creating balance in life…
Dancing alters our consciousness. In its own way, it helps to heal us and balance us. It lifts us out of our mundane, everyday life. ..
Dancing salsa is a way to celebrate life.”

Raul goes on to explain a bit about the Clave, the instrument that beats two against three in alternate measures of music, using 5 beats that are arranged as rest, beat, beat, rest:  beat, rest, beat, rest, beat. 

“Clave (meaning “key”) is a relatively simple rhythmic phrase, and yet it is the heart and soul of salsa rhythms and music. It is the matrix and archetype from which springs forth the logic and structure that is salsa rhythms. Clave is the reason salsa music exists the way it does. It is a primal rhythmic force that
generates the infectious swing that inspires bodies to movement…
An interesting correspondence is a vibrating string. When held down at a point that divides the string in a 2:3 ratio, it will produce the interval of the perfect fifth. The perfect fifth is known as the perfect interval of nature.
The point to all this is to realize that the clave was originally conceived as a rhythmic device that reflected the order and process of universal patterns of creation.”