There are generally two categories of people out there. The first one is that group who loves dancing and are dancing freaks. These are the people who know theoretical as well as practical knowledge about the same. The other section of the group is who does love the idea of dancing but does not have intricate details about the different forms of dance and the in-depth knowledge about the same. For most of the chunk, who do not know Salsa as a form of dance, the difference between Latin dance and music can get very confusing. Some people confuse Salsa with kizomba or kizomba with Tango. There is also a common notion about Salsa that one cannot do Salsa without a partner, which is also wrong. It is one confusion that has been going ever since forever. Salsa, as a dance form, is seen influence by the different genres of music and does travel through many of the places. The 8th person out of the ten people gets the exact origin of Salsa very wrong. Salsa comes from Latin America, which is the originator of samba, bachata, and tango. Moreover, these different genres of music have many things in common such as language Spanish, percussion, horns, and trombones.
What is Salsa, and How Does One Tanzen Lernen?
Salsa, as a dance form, is a social dance form that is practiced by people across the world. Salsa is generally considered to be a street form of dance, which is not very difficult to tanzen lernen. The roots of this dance form found in Cuba, which was later brought to America by the immigrants from the Latin. The people in social gatherings dance this dance form with a variety of people. One can also practice this dance form all by himself or herself. The common question that can Salsa only exercised in the presence of a partner is a common one. The answer to this question is that Salsa can be either done with or without the partner as well; there is no hard and fast rule of having a partner along.
The salsa footwork is exciting as it contains a total of 6 steps over a total of 8 count bars. These steps include 1…2…3…, 5…6…7 with just a plodding step on 3 and 7. It indicated that in Salsa, one needs to be very focussed on the rhythm. The rhythm here of the entire dance is super quick, then slow, then quick, and goes on. It is this fast pacing rhythm which gives an altogether different feel of doing Salsa. Just like its music form, the dance form has also borrowed many of the elements from other sources such as tap dance, swing, jazz, etc. So, the individual, along with the partner, can turn patterns and see a vast range of solo footwork’s with a pinch of Salsa added to it.
The Salsa Music
Here, salsa music refers to all the music from Latin, which was originated in Cuba initially. Then later it was seen travelling to parts of New York in the USA around the year 1930. In New York, the Afro-Cuban rhythm is seen getting mixed with jazz and the other genres of music to produce a distinct sound of what Salsa is. It was in the late 40s and early 50s when this Latin music played as the very famous cha-cha, Latin jazz, mambo in the famous night clubs out there. Salsa has greatly influenced by jazz-like music and various other music forms. Some of the examples are rock n roll, pop music.
It was right after the early 70s that Salsa as a term introduced that refers to the various other Latin rhythms of music. Salsa can commonly term as an umbrella term used under many different forms of music such as mambo, son-montuno, guaguanco, charanga, son, etc. As a common man out there, one does not get into deep and know the different forms of Salsa music. The only thing one should know is that Salsa is a combination of multiple music forms and does not stick itself to just kind of music. Identifying the whole salsa music is not a very easy task altogether. It is because many of us have never heard of it. Another reason why salsa music considered a little tricky is that as many distinct styles seen being covered in Salsa. There are even chances that one might get different feels from the two separate salsa songs. The individuals can go onto ponder how both the different songs fit into the same genre. However, in Salsa, there is one general rule seen underscoring all the other salsa music. The government is Clave Rhythm. All the salsa music out there has a very distinct rhythm of the clave, on which each song built up.
The best part about salsa music is that it generally sounds very chirpy and happy as it involves the involvement of a number of instruments. One obvious thing which an individual will notice about this music form is its distinct percussion, which makes the most amount of noise. This eventually means that one person listening to salsa will hear conga, timbale, drums, bongo, bells, etc. One can also go on hearing the repetitive sounds of piano patterns and a few sections of the horn.
The differences between Salsa and the other dance genres of dance and music is like a thin line. The dance forms spoken here are about the original and authentic form. The various dance forms are:
- Bachata
- Tango
- Kizomba
- Flamenco
- Samba
- Merengue
- Swing
Hence, the above-stated dance forms are the simplest and popular ones. Generally, these are the forms of dance which are regularly compared with Salsa and have things in common. Hence, anyone can practice this dance form as it is one of the very easy and attractive dance forms to learn and get your hands now. So why to wait? Just get on with the dancing shoes now.
