I started dancing Salsa dance around 3 years ago. It got my heart from the first classes because of its fast and energetic moves. In this article I would like to show what salsa is about, its different styles, which have gained a lot of popularity recently.
Salsa is a Latino American dance with Caribbean origins and with very strong influences of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Salsa does not mean only dance, it is also a music genre and well-known hot sauce.
It originated in New York City and was danced by immigrants from Cuba and Puerto Rico. As everyone knows (I hope) their sense of rhythm is amazing so it is nothing surprising that they have combined music and dance of their homeland together with the disco fever. It evolved from such dance forms like Cha cha or Mambo which were popular in Latino communities in New York in the 40s.
Unusual name
It is believed that it is called salsa because it is hot dynamic. Some other believe that the name means many different styles mixed together, just like the salsa sauce.
What is the base of salsa rhythm?
Salsa is based on so called Clave rhythm which is present in all of the salsa styles. The Clave rhythm is played with two wooden sticks called clave.
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| Claves |
Even with such basic tool you can generate music for dancing.
If you are eager to hear clave sounds, please check the video below ;)
Most popular Salsa styles
As I have mentioned salsa has many different roots, that's why there are so many different styles of salsa. The most popular in Poland are Cuban Salsa and Line Salsa (LA style, NY style).
Have a quick look at how both of them looks:
Cuban Salsa:
Line Salsa:
If you watched carefully, you could spot the main difference between these two styles.
The first one; as the name suggests; is danced in a straight line. It is all about keeping this line while doing all dance moves. For me, it was very hard to keep the line.
The second one; Cuban style; is very territorial (not like LA salsa). People dancing the Cuban style tend to use more space and they do not stay in one line.
Even if there are differences in the styles of salsa the basic moves are the same. I danced with people practising the Cuban salsa and we didn’t have much problem to understand each other.
Can you dance? What style do you dance?
What do you think about Salsa?
Do you like it? If yes what do you like about it?
Reference:
Comments
I think Salsa looks awesome and I'd love to try it someday. The best in this dance style for me is a great, positive music, the fact that it's quite fast and optimistic and as I said - it all looks awesome.
I love salsa, for me it has the most natural, very intuitive rhythm, thus it's one of the easiest dances in my opinion. I'm not practicing any dance since last year, I really miss it, however now when it's my last year of studies and while working I hardly have free time.
Earlier I attended many different kinds of dance classes,firstly there was contemporary dance when I was 13, then came ballroom dancing, latino solo, classical dance(with a figures from ballet), jazz dance, pole dance and finally my favourite ones: bachata, zumba and salsa, which gives you so much positive energy that they're totally addictive.
I also have a lack of time but I try my best to go minimum once a week for salsa classes, it recharges my batteries. ;)
There are a lot of salsa events in Warsaw and I think you should definitely try them out. :)
Last thing, what salsa school do you attend?^^
I also tried many dance styles, like: hip hop, dancehall, house and also more traditional like tango or quickstep.
For me the most attractive are salsa and hip hop. When I dance them I feel free and relaxed :)
It has changed when I was living in Dublin for some time. There I felt in love with a techno music even more. We were going to clubs almost every night with my friend Fergus(who was a drug killer back then). There I started to understand the sense of dance. Why do we dance? What it gives to you? Why shouldn’t you be shy of doing it? I personally dance to feel the music better. To have a strong bond with the beat. What I love in dancing on techno and trance parties is that people dance there the only solo. Nobody dances in pairs. And suddenly by reading this article I understood that I should try salsa. I should try to experience the feeling of music with a partner. I should just go for it. Thanks for the inspiration.
I mean not only the polonaise but all other dances for people to try :)
I have tried Tango or Jive but they didn't suite me at all. I think that is because I danced hip hop before and I have felt like frame was somehow limiting me.
But I am so in love with music that I don't understand why I still haven't learned how to dance. Sure, sometimes I visit parties and I am not just standing in the corner - but this is club music, not valse or tango, or salsa.. Oh, I should go to the dance school one day. People in these videos are so inspiring..
Overall, I like Salsa dance and I admire people who can dance. I liked the video with 'Cuban Salsa' much more. It looked so natural. There was a lot of happiness and freedom in this dance.
Of course you can easily see the differences between these styles, but I can't really point them out.