Dancing Salsa - How To Salsa

The origin of Salsa is to a large extent Cuban. But, salsa means sauce and the music can be seen as a mixture of ingredients like Latin & Afro-Caribbean dances, rock, pop, jazz and R&B. Salsa's closest links are Cuban mambo and the son orchestras, as well as the Latin jazz. Salsa dance is the most important dance in both Cuba and Puerto Rico and is known in the whole world.

Good concentration on the rhythm and the steps is essential as the steps and moves are changed often and suddenly in salsa. There are several different salsa styles that all have different characteristics. In the Cuban styles the dance in taken place in a circle with the male dancer closer to the center of the circle than the female.

On the counts 1, 2, and 3, the male steps forward, replaces, and steps backward. On the counts 5, 6, and 7, the male steps backwards, replaces, and steps forward again. The female do the opposite. This gives for both of them the steps as left-right-left-pause/tap then right-left-right-pause/tap. The tap could be seen a small step that just help the dancer to follow the rhythm. It is often replaced with a pause.

The cross body styles are danced on a back and forth on a straight line. Salsa is a partner dance, but there are also solo steps. Solo salsa steps are often called shines. Shines are mostly show-offs and involve body movements and fancy footwork. Shines are more common in the cross body styles than in the Cuban style.

One popular form of the Cuban dance is Rueda de Casino that is danced in a group of several couples, with repeated exchanges of dance partners.

When you start to learn salsa it is recommended that you stick to one style of salsa and that you don't mix it with other styles. When you are getting better you can try other styles. The best way to learn salsa is to take salsa lessons regularly. It's often better to take several short classes then to take one weekend course.

You have to keep on practicing. That's very important. If you just want to try salsa you can look on a salsa video on internet. When you get better at salsa you will want to learn as many steps and moves as possible. The best way to learn many more moves is to find salsa videos with new moves on the internet. And remember to keep on practicing. (Article Source)