The History of Salsa

What is Salsa, you ask? Where does it come from? No, I’m not talking about the tomato based condiment that you dip corn chips into. I’m talking about the seductive and hypnotic dancing style. Salsa is a word that inspires an instant reaction in Latin music lovers everywhere. It is the rhythm, the dance, the musical excitement that sends millions of normally sedate non-Latinos to the dance floor where they meet their Latin neighbors, who are too busy enjoying the music to notice. St Maarten/ St. Martin has recently seen a boom in nightclubs offering ‘Latin Night’ or local bars blasting out Latin music. A common theme is the dancing. And a common dance is salsa, though its origins are anything but ‘common’.

Ok, ok…there is no denying that the word Salsa means "sauce" in Spanish language. Well, more than just sauce. It implies something hot and spicy. Please refrain from rolling your eyes at this point. In all honesty – Salsa is not the easiest style to pin down. Salsa dance history is as contradicting as the history of the music. Salsa is a blend, a fusion of many different dancing styles of Latin and Afro-Caribbean origin. Generally, Salsa is considered to be of a Cuban origin, although many argue that it's more Puerto Rican than Cuban. Its roots can not be easily traced. Salsa is a fusion of many Afro-Caribbean and Latin dances and has evolved significantly over time. One school of thought claims that salsa is just a newer version of older, traditional Afro-Cuban forms and rhythms, so the birthplace must be Cuba. In fact, even today many of the old school Cuban musicians adhere to the belief that there is no such thing as salsa. Tito Puente summed up their general feeling when asked what he thought of salsa by replying: “I’m a musician, not a cook.” But there’s little doubt that if salsa had a passport, the date of birth would be the 1960s and stamped under place of birth would be New York, New York.

First a little island history:

Cuba established its identity by combining the influences of its entire population -- white, black, and mulatto. Music played an important role in the formation of such an identity. The genre that was to succeed in creatively fusing equal amounts of white- and black- derived musical features was the Son, which subsequently came to dominate the culture not only in Cuba, but most of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean as well. The Son originated in eastern Cuba during the first decades of the century. From the start it
represented a   mixture of Spanish-derived and Afro-Cuban elements. The basic two-part formal of the Son has remained the same from the 1920s to the present, and the vast majority of salsa songs, which Cubans call Son or guaracha, also follow this pattern.

From the early 1800s until today, Puerto Ricans have avidly borrowed and mastered various Cuban music styles, including the Cuban danzón, son, guaracha, rumba, and bolero. Indeed, the richness of Puerto Rican musical culture derives in large part from the way it has adopted much of Cuban music, while contributing its own dynamic folk and contemporary popular music. Puerto Rico should not be regarded as simply a miniature Cuba, especially since genres like the seis, bomba,  and plena are distinctly Puerto Rican creations, owing little to Cuban influence in their traditional forms.

Now back to New York, New York. Between 1930 and 1960 there were musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America coming to New York to perform. They brought their own native rhythms and musical forms with them, but as they listened to each other and played music together, the musical influences mixed, fused and evolved. This type of musical hybridization gave birth to the 1950s creation of the mambo from son, conjunto and jazz traditions. Continuing musical fusion went on to include what we know today as the cha cha cha, rhumba, conga and, in the 1960s, salsa. Of course, this musical hybridization was not a one-way street. The music went back to Cuba, Puerto Rico and South America and continued to evolve there.

The metamorphosis of salsa to what is heard and danced in clubs today has been a long, slow, and varied process. If you are listening to today's Salsa, you are going to find the base of Son, and you are going to hear Cumbia, and you are going to hear Guaracha. You will also hear some old Merengue, built-in the rhythm of different songs. You will hear many of the old styles somewhere within the modern beats. Over time Salsa has evolved into many different variations. Styles are usually named after the geographic area from which they came. So today we have Cuban Style, Puerto Rican style, New York Style, Los Angeles Style, Miami Style, Colombian style, and others. Styles differ in many characteristics - they might have different step patterns, timings, moves, dress code, and so on. But whatever the style, Salsa is still Salsa - lively and passionate.

The history tells a story of a style of dance that is really a fusion of many different cultures and the dance continues to evolve this way today, with the newer generation mixing in components of hip-hop, belly dancing, and adding lifts and aerial moves from ballroom and swing. Nowadays, Salsa is among the most popular Latin American dances and still remains one of the primary dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The way to dance salsa varies enormously depending on the dancer’s place of origin and how he or she learned to dance. For example, the salsa danced in the Caribbean and in Latin America is developed like a paseo (walk), which results in a much more circular movement with much slower turns. Similar to those styles are the Cuban and Colombian prototypes. The first dance includes movements that dig more deeply into the floor and the other one requires less contact.. In the U.S., although, the dance’s foundation involved the basic Latin step, many early combinations contained right turns.

Salsa is a terrific dance - exciting, fervent, romantic and incredibly sensuous. If you didn't know it already, it's also a great dance for beginners, because it's probably one of the easiest dances to learn. It’s often said by dance instructors: If you can walk, you can Salsa.