Salsa is the most popular social dance in the world. On any given night in any big city (including Adelaide) there's more people dancing salsa than any other dance. The reason for this is that salsa is relatively easy to learn and can be a lot of fun. It has a simple rhythm that most people pick up quickly and almost all the step patterns, even the advanced ones, stick to that one rhythm making the dance very "user friendly". It also means you can dance salsa with complete strangers and still have a great time as long as you both stick to the rhythm and a few simple rules.
So it turns out there's more that one type of salsa. Here in Adelaide there are two main styles you can learn: Cuban Salsa, which is more traditional form of the dance. And a linear style which is often referred to as LA Style or "On 1". There's also New York Style or "On 2" which is places the slow step of the rhythm in a different part of the step patterns.
Although salsa did originate from Cuba and the music coming from Cuba and Latin America, at SA Ballroom & Latin we teach the more modern version of the dance: LA Style. The reason being is because of the linear orientation of the step patterns it has a very nice flow of momentum that can be led with minimal input from the leader ie: you don't have to push and pull someone with a lot of force to lead the step patterns. In other words it just feels really nice to dance, especially for someone that's following.
At any Salsa night they'll play almost exclusively Latin music which often has a very fast tempo and can be rhythmically complex. Believe it or not you can dance Salsa to just about music that has the correct tempo and rhythm. Not being particularly traditional in our approach to all the styles (we believe it's important to be inventive and keep pushing things forward) we often dance to music you wouldn't normally think of as Salsa music. Just check out our Salsa playlist on Spotify. Regardless of which style you prefer and what music you like to dance to, the main focus with Salsa (and all the other social dances) is to ensure you and the person that's been kind enough to have a dance with you are having fun. Happy salsa dancing !
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