The Salsa is an interesting dance. Similar to the Mambo in that both have a sequence of six steps danced over an 8-count of the music, and the two dances have some common moves, but in the Salsa, the turns are important, giving it a different look and feel to the Mambo. In general terms, it can be said that while the Mambo consists of forward and backward moves, in the Salsa the moves are more side to side. It is believed to have originated in Cuba (Pretell, n.d.).
One day recently at WKU, we had a guest Salsa instructor who taught us all to dance the Salsa, which we found really enjoyable and exciting to dance. I would not mind carrying on with the Salsa by perhaps joining a club or going to classes or similar.
We also found (from our instructor) that there are different styles of Salsa, usually given names after the places or people that made them popular in each case. As in most dances, the man is the leader and the woman is the follower. During the dance the man has to guide the woman using a series of little pushes or tugs known collectively as “claves” so that the woman can anticipate the next movement or change of direction, etc. A great deal of information about the techniques and the actual steps can be found on the justsalsa.com website under the heading “Salsa Dance Steps” (n.d.).
Works Cited
Pretell, J., A. “History of Salsa Dance and Music.” (n.d.). Web. 2 December 2012.
“Salsa Dance Steps.” (n.d.). justsalsa.com. Web. 2 December 2012.
