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What is Salsa ?

Salsa is Spanish for “sauce”, especially a hot & spicy condiment based on tomato and chilli.

The ‘hot & spicy’ Salsa dance is fast, steamy, & sensual (One of my teachers refers to it as ‘the upright expression of the horizontal desire’). It derives from Cuban Mambo and, like all Latin dances, is based on tight footwork driven from the hips. It is tougher to learn, danced closer, and quicker, than hand-led dances like Jive and Ceroc.

As with most modern dances, the music is in 4-time but, like Rumba and Cha-cha-cha, Salsa tinkers with the beat. It is typically danced as 1 – 2 – 3 – pause/tap : 5 – 6 – 7 – pause/tap.

The ‘hot & spicy’ Salsa sound is a powerful, compelling fusion of African rhythms and Hispanic music derived from folk, gypsy, and Moorish roots. It is a form of contemporary jazz-dance developed in latin New York, where lashings of brassy American big-band sound and tastes of soul, funk, hip-hop, and world music were added to the Afro-Cuban origins. It is bright, fast, exciting, and sensual.