Salsa is a sexy, energetic and fun partner dance. Unlike some partner dances, it is a very sociable dance – you don’t need to have a regular partner. In fact, it is common for salseros to dance with people they have never met before.
Salsa is a dance with origins from the Cuban Son (circa 1920) and Afro-Cuban dance (specifically Afro-Cuban Rumba). It is commonly associated with the salsa music style, although it may be danced under other types of music with an 8-count rhythm.
In many styles of salsa dancing, as a salsa dancer changes weight by stepping, the upper body remains level and nearly unaffected by the weight changes. weight shifts cause the hips to move. Arm and shoulder movements are also incorporated. The Cuban Casino style of salsa dancing involves significant movement above the waist, with up-and-down shoulder movements and shifting of the ribcage.
The Character of Salsa and the Different Styles of Salsa: An essential character element of salsa is Cuban motion. Cuban motion, especially the hip action, comes, comes mainly from the alternate bending and straightening of the knees. Like the basic for mambo, and for rumba, a full basic of the Salsa can be thought of as having a forward basic, which takes 4 beats of music, and a backward basic, which takes four beats of music. So, eight beats of music are required to complete one full basic. Each forward and backward basic can be considered to contain the following three steps: a break step, a replace step, and a slow step usually taken to second foot position. Most salsa dancers perform a touch step or tap step, not entailing a weight change on the second beat of the two-beat “slow” step. In other words, the tap occurs during the “pause” beat. Thus, this tap step precedes the break step.
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