What Is Salsa?

Salsa dancing is a dance style associated with the salsa style of music, now popular worldwide. Salsa music has its origins during the 1950s to the 1970s, with the truly distinct salsa style coming out of New York, USA in the 1970s. The music fuses a number of Cuban styles, particularly the Son but also draws from a number of other Latin American musical styles. Salsa is usually danced in groups of couples, sometimes with frequent exchanges of partners.

Salsa dancing is done on eight-beat music, with dancers moving on three beats, pausing for one beat, dancing for three beats and pausing for one beat. The movement style is left-right-left-pause, and then right-left-right-pause. During the pause in most salsa dancing, some sort of flourish is used, be it a stomp of the foot, casting out of the hand or kicking of the lower leg. Salsa dancing is mostly a stationary dance with little movement around the dance floor. Dancers rely instead on the subtle movements of their legs and upper bodies to convey the energy of the dance.

Salsa is incredibly popular in Latin America, the United States and Europe, and is gaining popularity in Asia as well. Many clubs in Malaysia specialize in salsa music and several towns offer classes in salsa dancing. While not the easiest dance form because of its relatively fast tempo, the salsa is not particularly difficult to learn and dancers of all skill levels should be able to gain proficiency within a matter of months. Salsa is a feeling, salsa is fun, salsa is life!

This article has been re-published with the kind permission of SCAsia Sdn Bhd, the organizer of the "Salsa Cruise Asia 2009", a 6-days 5-nights vacation on board the cruise ship Legend Of The Seas from November 22 to 27. This dance-themed cruise will sail through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and will make a stop in Phuket. Participants will get the opportunity to learn various styles of dance like the salsa, Latin American, zouk lambada, west coast swing & Afro-Caribbean, and watch exciting dance performances by artistes from around the world.


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