Learn the History of Salsa Dancing and Music

Do you know anything about the History of Salsa Dancing? The origins of the dance? Where and why the different styles originated?

You came to this site to get the low-down on Salsa classes, clubs, teachers and events right?

However, knowing about the history will add that little bit of extra magic and enjoyment to your Salsa Dance experience.

Below you see will read everything that explains the History of Salsa dancing so enhancing your appreciation of this dance.

Ok. Let's begin.

Salsa is a partner dance form that corresponds to salsa music. However Salsa Dancing can also be done solo too.The word is the same as the Spanish word salsa meaning sauce (So that's why they say Salsa is saucy), or in this case flavour or style.

According to testimonials from musicologists and historians of music, the name salsa was gradually accepted among dancers throughout history over various decades. The very first time the word appeared on the radio was a composition by Ignacio Piñeiro, dedicated to an old African man who sold butifarras (a sausage-like product) in Central Road in Matanzas.

It is a son titled Échale salsita. Wherein the major refrain and chorus goes "Salsaaaaa! échale salsita, échale salsita." During the early 1950s, commentator and DJ "bigote" Escalona announced danceables with the title: "the following rhythm contains Salsa."

Salsa is danced on music with a recurring eight-beat pattern, i.e. two bars of four beats. Salsa patterns typically use three steps during each four beats, one beat being skipped.

However, this skipped beat is often marked by a tap, a kick, a flick, etc. Typically salsa music involves complicated percussion rhythms and is fast with around 180 beats per minute (see salsa music for more).

Salsa is a spot dance, i.e., unlike foxtrot or samba. In Salsa a couple does not travel over the dance floor much, but rather occupies a fixed area on the dance floor. In some cases people do the Salsa in solo mode.

Salsa music is a fusion of traditional African and Cuban and other Latin-American rhythms that started in New York, somewhere between the 1940s and the 1970s, depending on where one puts the boundary between "real" salsa and its predecessors.

The dance steps currently being danced on salsa music originate from the Cuban son, but has influences from many other Cuban dances such as mambo dance, cha, guaracha, changui, lukumi, palo monte, rumba, yambu, abakua, comparsa, and some times even mozambique.

It also integrates swing dances. There are no strict rules of how salsa should be danced, although one can distinguish a number of salsa styles.

Did that whet your appetite a bit? Did you look at some of the things and say 'I know that' but then looked at some of the other things and say 'Good grief, I had no idea?'

Well join the club. I am as surprised about many of the things as you are. However in the next section, I will give you the lowdown on all the different salsa steps.

Ok. Let's go.

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