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Salsa refers to a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the Caribbean (especially in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the US), Latin and North America. The dance originated in Cuba through the mixture of Mambo, Danzón, Guaguancó, Són, and other typical Cuban dance forms. Salsa is danced to Salsa music. There is a strong Afro-Caribbean influence in the music as well as the dance.
Salsa is usually a partner dance, although there are recognized solo steps and some forms are danced in groups of couples, with frequent exchanges of partner. Improvisation and social dancing are important elements of Salsa but it appears as a performance dance too.
The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavour. The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and sensuous than its ancestor, Cuban Son. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin. (See Salsa music for more information)
Salsa is danced on a core rhythm that lasts for two measures of four beats each. The basic step typically uses three steps each measure. This pattern might be quick-quick-slow, taking two beats to gradually transfer the weight, or quick-quick-quick allowing a tap or other embellishment on the vacant beat. This is not to say that the steps are always on beats 1, 2 and 3 of the measure. (See Styles below.) It is conventional in salsa for the two musical measures to be considered as one, so the count goes from 1 to 8 over two musical bars.
Typically the music involves complex African percussion rhythms based around the Son clave or Rumba clave. Music suitable for dancing ranges from slow at about 70 beats per minute to its fastest at around 140 beats per minute though most dancing is done to music somewhere between 80-120 beats per minute.
Regular Salsa Workshops are held at:
Text from Wikipedia
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