Salsa! Salsa is a dance style which has easy, smooth and stylish movements. Salsa dance music is little bit difficult to follow as it does not follow any constant or standard rhythm. It keeps changing now and then and becomes slower and faster at the times. Salsa music is essentially the melody of enjoyment and people love to dance with melody music. With Salsa, you automatically start following the music and dance to the rhythm; change steps and gives your best moves that any dancer has ever rocked to.
History of Salsa Music and Dance
Salsa is a dance form with origins from Cuba as the unique meeting point of European and African cultures. This word motivates an immediate response in Latin music lovers all over the world. It is the rhythm, dance, musical excitement which inspires people to the dance floor.
Some Interesting Facts to Know:
· Salsa dance was created fairly recently, mixing many different dancing styles. It all started in Cuba at the very end of 19th century.
· In the U.S., Salsa dance had its peak of popularity in 1970s, coinciding with the influx of many Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants.
· Salsa dance was popularised by Johnny Pacheco, Fania All-Stars, Reuben Blades and Willie Colon.
· Nowadays, Gloria Estefan is among the most effective Latin music promoters in the U.S.
· The solo breaks during the performance are known as “shines” because it looks as if the male dancer is shining his shoes on his trousers.
· Salsa helps shy people deal with their insecurities.
· Salsa is usually a lead-and-follow partnered dance, although solo forms like line dancing (Salsa Suelta) do exist.
· While dancing Rueda de Casino, groups of couples exchange partners in a circle.
· The beat of Salsa music is 4/4 however there are only three weight changes in each measure. What happens during that extra beat differs a lot from style to style.
· Colombian Style is also known as Cali-style salsa. Dancers stick very close to each other while performing unbelievably fast and complex footwork and tight spins.
· L.A. Style can be traced back to the Cuban immigrants to the U.S. who borrowed plenty of elements from Mambo and Swing.
· In the late 1970s, dance instructor Eddie Torres developed New York style Salsa.
· A Tango dancer decided to “shine” his dirty shoes on his trousers, while dancing in a competition. The “shine” was born as everybody thought it was a new dance move and started replicating it.
· Despite being both called Latin dances, Jive came from the U.S. and Paso Doble actually originated in Spain.
· In 1909, first radio recordings of what would be later known as Salsa came out of Cuba.
· In 1960s, Fania Records – a small music studio in New York – reshaped Cuban music to match the tastes of Latin New York, and called the sound “Salsa.”
· The movie “Dance with Me” first featured Cuban Salsa (Rueda) dancing and thus popularised the dance in the U.S.
· Men’s clothing should not compete with female partner’s costume as the lady has to be the star of the dance.
· West African style Salsa is called Salsa Mbalax. It has more African than Latin features.
· Cuban music in fact originates from West Africa. Many wonderful African rhythms were transferred to the New World during the era of slave trade.
Interesting Facts of Salsa
