Salsa is a partner dance form
that corresponds to salsa music, however it is sometimes done solo too.
The word is the same as the Spanish word salsa meaning sauce, or in
this case flavour or style.
According to testimonials from musicologists and historians
of music, the name salsa was gradually accepted among dancers throughout
various decades. The very first time the word appeared on the radio
was a composition by Ignacio Piñeiro, dedicated to an old African man
who sold butifarras (a sausage-like product) in Central Road in Matanzas.
It is a son titled Échale salsita. Wherein the major refrain and chorus
goes "Salsaaaaa! échale salsita, échale salsita."
Salsa is danced on music with a recurring eight-beat
pattern, i.e. two bars of four beats. Salsa patterns typically use three
steps during each four beats, one beat being skipped. However, this
skipped beat is often marked by a tap, a kick, a flick, etc. Typically
the music involves complicated percussion rhythms and is fast with around
180 beats per minute (see salsa music for more). Salsa is a spot dance,
i.e., unlike Foxtrot or Samba, in Salsa a couple does not travel over
the dance floor much, but rather occupies a fixed area on the dance
floor. In some cases people do the Salsa in solo mode. More...
Dancing can make you healthy,
too!!!
