SALSA

Salsa is a very popular dance form in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. The word is the same as the Spanish word salsa meaning sauce. Who applied this name to the music and dance, and why, remains disputed, but it is widely agreed that the name fits.

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.

Salsa is usually danced in pairs. In contrary to traditional ballroom dances, the pair does not "walk" over the dance floor, but rather occupies a fixed area on the dance floor.

MAMBO

Mambo is rhythmically similar to the slower rumba, though it has a more complex pattern of steps. The saxophone usually sets the syncopated rhythm, while the other brass carries the melody.

There were two forms of mambo dance: single and triple (sometimes called double mambo). The former one has been retained as modern mambo; the latter one is thought to be an origin of the Cha-cha-cha.

Mambo is at the roots of the Salsa dance and is a part of the American Rhythm group of American Style ballroom dances.

MERENGUE

With monotonous thumping 1-2-3-4 bass drum beat, all steps are on one beat and have a characteristic limping appearance. Sometimes this step called paso "de la empalizada" (pole-fence step). There are also legends about a limping war hero (or El Presidente of a banana republic himself, in some versions) who had to step in this way while dancing because of wounds, and polite (or clueless) public imitated him.

Partners hold each other in closed position and do walks sideways or circle each other, in small steps. They can further switch to a double handhold position and do separate turns never letting go each other's hands. During these turns they may twist and tie their handold into intricate pretzels. Other choreography is possible.

Although the tempo of the music may be frantic, the upper body is kept majestic and turns are slow, typically four beats/steps per complete turn.

CUBAN RUMBA

Rumba arose in Havana in the 1890s. As a sexually-charged Afro-Cuban dance, rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd.

Later, Prohibition in the United States caused a flourishing of the relatively-tolerated cabaret rumba, as American tourists flocked to see crude sainetes (short plays) which featured racial stereotypes and generally, though not always, rumba.

Perhaps because of the mainstream and middle-class dislike for rumba, son montuno became seen as "the" national music for Cuba, and the expression of Cubanisimo. Rumberos reacted by mixing the two genres in the 30s, 40s and 50s; by the mid-40s, the genre had regained respect, especially the guaguanco style.