History of Salsa Dancing

Series Summary

Salsa is a Latin dance and musical style that was introduced to the United States during the Cuban and Puerto Rican immigration, between the 1940s and the 1970s. There is some debate as to the origins of salsa, but the rhythm is a fusion of traditional African and Cuban and other Latin-American rhythms, including the Mambo and the Rumba. Salsa dancing is one of the most popular dances worldwide, and because the rules of the dance allow for a lot of creative improvisation, many different styles have developed, including Miami style, Puerto Rican style, New York style, L.A. style and Cuban style.

In these free Latin dancing lessons on video, learn how to do beginner salsa dance steps and moves. Our expert dance instructors will teach about the history of salsa; then learn how to do basic salsa moves like the progressive, under arm turns, cross body leads, transitional steps and more. Spice up your Saturday nights; learn how to salsa dance the easy way—for free!

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Christopher from Mr. Dance Pro of South Florida, and I'm Kelly Anne from 56Dance. We're going to be showing you and explaining and teaching some salsa basics and techniques and how to enjoy salsa dancing on every dance floor you may go. A little history about salsa dancing for you: salsa dancing has been around a very long time. It comes from mambo, and even though the style and the way it's danced is quite a bit different than in original mambo, all the patterns and the basic stylings are still coming from mambo. There's been a lot of new and different added. New drops, new arm stylings, new patterns. Salsa is mambo extravaganza. It's probably a hundred years old, but the word salsa as a dance is new on the scene. Mambo has been around forever. They're almost identical, but they do have some flavor differences. Mambo is danced on the two beat and they're starting to dance salsa on the two beat as well, but right now in South Florida, dancing salsa on the one beat is what socially is done all over. So we're going to continue on with some salsa and show you how easy it is to dance. "