"For one who doesn' t do the American Style and trying to make sense out of it. To me it is how you start off.
If you use S Q Q . it means you are doing the Slow on the RF to the side and continue.
If you are using Q Q S. It probably means your first step is a Front Basic on the LF for a Q and continue. Whichever way you are taught the Slow will have Two beats and the Quicks One beat. I hope this is clear.In the International Style on a Basic the first step forward LF is on beat two. So we have step one on beat two. Thus we have the count of
2 3 (4 1). Not knowing the other styles there is a possibility you are dancing (3 4). 1 2. Which to us is out of time with the music."
While the slow in international rumba crosses the bar line, the slow in either style of american rumba is contained within a single bar. It is 1-2 in one style and 3-4 in the other, never the 4-1 used in international.
You might call that off time with the music from your perspective, but it's really not - because the MUSIC IS DIFFERENT, not just in its tempo. There's a few wishy washy songs that can be danced either way, but when you know both dancers some numbers will scream for international timing with it's cross bar slow, and others will scream out for the american approach with its contained, half-measure slow. Even if you alter the tempo, you really can't turn one song into the other - at a minimum, you'd have to re-record with a different philosophy in the rhythm section.