Salsa
Salsa is probably the most popular of all Latin dance styles and is full of rhythm, life, joy and flavour! It's the perfect entry to the fun world of the Latin American culture and dancing.
Combining a fitness workout with socialising, growing your self-confidence, stress relieve and meditation, Salsa should be part of everyone's life! Once caught in its magic, students often wonder how they went without Salsa dancing for so long before - so come and find out for yourself!
Another fun fact, Salsa is so popular all over the world with Salsa clubs spreading the love everywhere, that it will make your travels so much more fun as you'll be able find and connect with your fellow dancers from other parts of the world instantly, making you feel home and connected wherever you are in the world.
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Like Salsa sauce being a melting pot of different flavours, Salsa dancing also has it's different flavours providing the dancers with various ways of expressing themselves.
To give you an idea about which styles we teach here at Latin Soul and what these look like, we've implemented some videos and explanations below to show you what the characteristics are.
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Cuban - is a very popular style of Salsa around the world. With Salsa having its first roots in Cuba (Cuban Son etc.) and Cuba having lots of afro influences, it's the most "earthy" and traditional style of Salsa. Watching Cuban dancers, you might notice a more circular structure (as opposed to linear dancing) and the use of the 4th and 8th count. You might also notice that it has more of a free and relaxed feel to it, which is why it is still so popular all over the world.
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Rueda de Casino (Cuban) - Rueda de Casino is type of Cuban Salsa danced in a circle with other couples. The leader of the Rueda will be calling out the moves which include changing dance partners all through the song - such a fun way to dance!
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Salsa on1 - probably the most popular style (also called "LA style") around the world as it can be taught and learned in a quite methodised way, giving the beginner dancer a structured and reliable base to go from while still giving room for creativity and self expression later on when the basics become natural. The "on1" part references the count in the music on which the dancer breaks forward.
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Salsa on2 - accordingly to having a Salsa on1, there is also a Salsa on2. Originally evolved from Mambo in New York, it is also known as "NY style". Breaking forward on the second count of the music, gives it almost a jazzy feel. Unfortunately, we don't dance a lot of on2 in the bottom of the South Island, so we don't offer on2 classes (yet) but we thought we tell you about it already anyway, so you have heard about it before if someone mentions it.
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There are also a few other styles that (Colombian, Puerto Rican etc.) that are still popular in places, but not as popular as the ones mentioned above, so we will spare you from any more information about these.
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