Dance Styles – Salsa

By Katie Gregory

The most frequently used descriptions for Salsa are an alliteration-lover’s dream. Saucy, sexy, and slinky, Salsa dance is characterised by snaking hips and sinuous body movements. The music is fun and flirtatious, with infectious rhythms to fill any dance floor with smiling faces. The fact that it lends itself to poetic prose in this way is more than mere coincidence, and the emergence of the name “Salsa” in the 1960s is actually considered to be the result of a carefully engineered marketing plan.
In fact, there’s a whole lot more to Salsa than the
feel-good factor, which today masks a complex history as well as roots of a much darker nature.

THE BASIC RECIPE
Where did Salsa originate, and to which culture does it therefore “belong”? This is a question that has been answered over and over again for centuries, yet none of the numerous theories is universally accepted. Perhaps the best way to paint a simple picture of the history of Salsa is to look at the original meaning of the word. In Spanish, salsa means sauce – a condiment, usually made up of a variety of ingredients, to create a hot and spicy accompaniment for food. While Salsa dance is certainly known for it’s “saucy” nature due to the emphasis on hip movement, this is just one side of the story, and it is in fact the other element, the mixture of various ingredients that make up salsa as a sauce, that also makes up Salsa as a music and dance genre. This vast array of ingredients – influences, cultures and traditions – is what makes Salsa so unique, creating a difficult foundation to base a strict chronology of its history on, and particularly one that doesn’t leave itself open for debate. However, it is also part of the reason why the dance is one of the least formalised styles taught today, which makes Salsa ideal for beginners, as well as more distinguished salseros, who are able to put their own personal stamp on the dance.

Salsa’s history is rooted in improvisation, personalisation and a continuous process of evolution, and as a result there are a variety of different styles of Salsa dance taught around the world. Nevertheless, there are certain key elements that are common to all the styles, which developed in direct relation to pivotal moments in history as well as through the influences of important music and dance styles of the time.

AFRICAN BEGINNINGS
The many music and dance styles that paved the way for Salsa each contributed to its birth in varying degrees and in different ways. However, the catalyst for the process of evolution each style emerged in was the same: the coming together of European and African traditions when millions of African people were transported to the Caribbean as part of the slave trade, particularly throughout the 1700s. Drumming rituals that formed an intrinsic part of African culture provided a rich rhythmical base that later became evident in Salsa’s speed, vibrancy and energy. The African people introduced new instruments to the Caribbean to achieve this sound, as did native Indians at the time, who adapted natural materials from the world around them, such as gourds, to accentuate the African rhythms. When combined with influences from European dances as well as Hispanic music and song traditions, this began a process of musical evolution right across the Caribbean.
While many variations evolved from this basic formula, in Cuba – perhaps the most significant area for development at this stage in time – the music and dance of the Rumba emerged at the beginning of the 19th century. The African influence in Cuba was the primary factor in the creation of this genre, which is one of the earliest predecessors of Salsa. The complicated African drumming patterns involved numerous drummers playing complex individual rhythms simultaneously, and in order to keep in sync, each drummer followed the same master pattern – the “clave”, which is Spanish for key, and the name of the instrument originally used to create the rhythm.

Elements from the drummers’ accompanying rhythmic stamping movements are believed to have led to the creation of what is now known in Salsa as “Cuban motion”, an essential part of all the Latin American dances. The gyrating hip movements of Salsa are based on a natural opposition when dancing the basic step: moving the hip in the opposite direction of the leg that the weight is transferred on to. The rest of the body then responds in the same way, and this is how the rippling, fluid quality of movement is created.

These two African elements – the rhythmic pattern of the clave, and the method of body movement and transfer of weight – were the primary elements of the Rumba, where the footwork is merely the basis of what truly comes to life in the body movement that follows, a feature that is also true of Salsa. The same African elements, combined with and further developed by European influences, created two other music and dance styles that were vital in the development of Salsa: the Mambo and, primarily, Son.

THE ORIGINS OF SON
A dance called the Contredanse, thought to be derived from the English country dance, became popular in the court of King Louis XIV of France as well as with the general public in the 17th century. The dance’s Spanish counterpart was called the Contradanza, and the two became part of the developmental process taking place across the Caribbean, providing the basis for the formation of the Habanera (another important music and dance style which became one of the Tango’s predecessors in Argentina), and the Danza. The latter is an important link in Salsa’s chain as it is thought to be the first dance where couples came together in the closed hold, which was first seen in the patterns of the Contredanse, and then developed in response to influences from other dances emerging at the time, such as the Polka. The Danza became the Danzón in the 1880s, which prompted the creation of the Cha Cha Cha, yet another important dance in the history of Salsa.

Most importantly, the Danzón, combined with the Rumba, created Son, which was to have a crucial impact on Latin music. The couple dances that came to accompany the Danzón and Son also spread through Latin America, where other styles were emerging – notably the Bomba and Plena in Puerto Rico, and the Meregue and Bachata in the Dominican Republic.

THE AMERICAN INFLUENCE
The music and dance of Son developed in the mid 19th century. When Cuba gained independence in 1902, an important link was established with America, and the transference of music and dance styles began to take place in both directions. As well as this, Cuban styles were taken to America by Puerto Ricans who moved there in the early 20th century. Puerto Rico itself had been “adopting” and developing Cuban music and dance styles for many years, and indeed the Puerto Rican influence on the development of Son is often overlooked.

Son found its way to New York, where another vital transformation took place, and the Mambo came to life. Emerging in its earliest form in Cuba, the Mambo really took off in New York as a development of the Son, with the added ingredient of American jazz. Throughout the 1950s all the Afro-Cuban dances emerging in New York were influenced and shaped in this way – according to the other music and dance styles around them – which included anything and everything from rock and roll to swing jazz. The process was mirrored in Cuba until 1959, when the communist revolution meant that Cuba itself became cut off from the rest of the world, and so the link with America, and therefore the sharing of influences, came to an end. As a result, the ensuing developments that took place in New York were based on those music and dance styles that were already established in the city. Although some exiled Cubans moved to America, it was primarily the Puerto Ricans living in New York who continued the next stage of the development of Cuban music.

SALSA EMERGES
The 1960s first saw the official use of the word Salsa as a music and dance form, and although it’s unclear who actually coined the phrase, most agree that it was probably a commercial creation. The title came about as a way of classifying the various Cuban music genres under one heading, and so the sounds of Son, Mambo and Rumba were grouped together under the general umbrella term “Salsa”. The term had previously been used by musicians as an unofficial reference, but in New York it was a Puerto Rican record company, Fania Records, who propelled the title into the limelight. “Salsa” was a suitably catchy title to market Cuban-Caribbean music without the need for specifics. This is just one of many claims to ownership – another theory suggests that in Venezuela, the term was already in use on the radio as early as 1962.

Whoever was the first to use it, the new name certainly had the desired effect, and in the 1960s and 70s Salsa music and accompanying dance – a combination of all the different styles – became hugely popular whilst continuing to develop. But, by the end of the 1970s other music styles like Merengue, and American influences such as Hip Hop had overtaken Salsa in the Latin music market. In an attempt to revive waning interest, it was given another face-lift, and emerged as “Salsa Romantica” – this time the songs sung of love, rather than politics. Although disliked by those who favour the authentic style, this new branch of Salsa music spread worldwide, reviving interest and, as ever, sparking further development.

A CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION
And so we have Salsa today. A homogenisation of influences and styles brought about by cultural and political overhaul. As a result, there are many different styles of Salsa danced today, the most common of which are: Ballroom (also called the Ballroom Mambo), New York, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Cuban (also called Casino), and LA or Cross-Body style, one of the most commonly taught in the UK today. The main way in which these styles differ is through the complexity of the footwork, and most noticeably for beginners, in “the count”, which relates to the beat that the first step is taken on.
Salsa music and dance is still evolving in bars and clubs around the world, as well as being part of a thriving competitive scene. By its very nature, Salsa can’t be attributed to one particular place – indeed, it represents different things in different places, and similarly, although there are important pioneers in Salsa’s history, it’s impossible to define a single individual responsible for its creation. Salsa was created as a social dance, to be nurtured and developed in social settings – its roots aren’t documented in historical texts for our perusal, as it was taught and passed on by word of mouth, and step of foot. In light of all this, it’s only natural that when you dance Salsa, its colourful history all but melts away, right back to the natural rhythms at its foundations. Such a multi-faceted dance spanning so many cultures and traditions is impossible to pin down. That’s the beauty of Salsa.

 

Find out more about Salsa

For books and instructional DVDs on Salsa history and technique, as well as a range of other products and dance styles, visit www.dancing-times.co.uk and click on the Webstore link

www.uksalsa.com features a useful calendar of Salsa classes and clubs around the UK listed by day of the week

Salsa UK organises the biggest annual Salsa congress in the UK. Visit www.salsa-uk.com for further details

www.salsajive.com also covers modern jive, and features an extensive list of Salsa-related links. Search for Salsa classes by region

The United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing offer professional examinations and medal tests in Salsa as well as a range of other styles. UKA member Paul Harris developed the Salsa syllabus – visit
www.ukadance.co.uk or call 01253 408828
for classes in your area

 

Order dancewear directly from:

Dance Shoes 2U – www.danceshoes2U.com
Dancia – www.dancia.co.uk
Fit to Dance – www.f2dance.co.uk
Salsa Chillout – www.salsachillout.com
Supadance – www.supadance.com

This article was first published in the CD sleeve notes of Universal Music’s Salsa CD, currently on sale in Marks & Spencer stores.

 

Picture captions:

All of the photographs for this article are taken from the musical Lady Salsa. Photographs by Stefan Malzkorn.