Salsa is a type of Latin American dance that involves footwork coordinated in time to jazz and drum beats.
Until a decade ago, if you were to ask anyone about “Salsa”, they would have thought you were talking about the spicy Spanish tomato-based puree that goes with nachos.
But recently, the dance form, Salsa, which has nothing to do with its homonym, has become increasingly popular, not only in the western hemisphere, but throughout Asian countries as well.
“But it is important to keep in mind that salsa is under a category called ‘social dances', that is, dances that take place with a partner,” says Ms. Kokila, who has been teaching salsa since 2000.
Success of Salsa
Many patrons and fans of Salsa operate under the misconception that Salsa can be traced back to Spanish roots, but this is ncorrect. Salsa dancing arose out of Cuba, due to a mixture of West-African and native Latin American influences. The dance continued to have great success in the north American countries, because of its catchy jazz beats, rhythmic footwork and easy-to-learn steps.
A Chennai-ite who took up learning the dance at the Russian Cultural Centre, Chennai, says, “Yes, it was a fun class. There were people of all ages dancing, and it's not difficult to learn at all, especially when compared to other dance forms.”
Styles and Steps
There are many different varieties of Salsa that exist today, each having a unique name that either specifies the geographic location it originated from or the name of the dancer who was the first to popularise it. Each of these individual styles has a distinct characteristic, whether it be a more complex beat to follow or a twist in the basic footwork.
Small steps
The basics comprise small steps taken first by the right foot, then the left, and accompanied by a slight swaying movement of the hips.
Sheela Ram, who has done a course on Salsa dancing, says, “You can do it to any song, basically. When I was doing the course, they had general Salsa music playing all the time. All you had to do was step to the beat.”
As she so aptly stated, ‘stepping to the beat' is considered to be the trickiest part of mastering this dance.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
