Salsa Dancing Lessons for Adult Beginners Jupiter FL (Palm Beach County)

Salsa has it all – passion, energy, and joy. As a dance form, Salsa has its origins in the Cuban Son and the Afro-Cuban dance, Rumba. As it relates to the popular music style, Salsa is continuously evolving, and new modern dance styles are associated and named according to the geographical areas that they are developed in. Some of the popular Salsa styles are Cuban, Columbian, Los Angeles, New York (or Eddie Torres Style), Palladium, Puerto Rican, Rueda, and On Clave.

As musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and South America came to New York to perform, they collaborated their native musical styles. They also incorporated in American Jazz influences. These musicians traveled back and forth between their home countries and New York with their newfound musical fusion hence generating different styles of salsa music in different places. Even today, Cuban, New York, Colombian, and Puerto Rican salsa all have their own distinctive sounds.

In the early 1970s in New York City, several franchised and independent dance studios, sensing the popularity of the burgeoning dance form, capitalized on the Salsa craze by developing a standardized curriculum in which to teach the dance to an eager public. Much like Salsa music, Salsa dancing developed through various collaborations and cultural influences. Born of Latin and Afro-Caribbean roots, the dance is now celebrated all over the world and has varied defining characteristics most notably in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and New York.

While Salsa dancing did not stem from a specific person or region, a significant part of the dance originated in Cuba. The French who came to Cuba fleeing Haiti brought their country dance, Danzón to Cuba. This dance mixed with African rumbas like the Guaguanco, Yambú, and Colombia as well as a Cuban dance called the Són which blended Spanish guitar and African rhythms. This hybridizing phenomenon also happened in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico on a smaller scale. Some will claim that salsa is Puerto Rican. Others say the dance is Cuban. Some suggest that it’s a New York creation. While the detailed history of salsa dancing is often debated, most will agree that salsa dancing is a North American interpretation of a dance based in Afro-Latin roots.

Today it’s possible to see the many different styles of dancing and music that merged to create modern salsa dancing throughout the world. Salsa dancing socials are commonly held in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, ballrooms, and festivals. The dance is so popular that it can be found in metropolitan cities on an international scale.