Salsa dance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Salsa dance - Essay Example The Latin Americans are known for their love of spices in their meals. Therefore, salsa just like food is different styles of music and dance patterns put together to produce the beautiful salsa dance. Salsa music is a compendium of different types including guanguancà ³, son, rumba, mambo, cha-cha-cha- conga, Danzà ³n, the rhythms of Carnival, and plena. Salsa was identified as the great chill pepper sauce that makes up the Caribbean music and it designates a movement which is an undeniable music phenomenon (Boggs 190). Over the recent past, various dancing styles have been incorporated into salsa dancing for both men and women including spins, shoulder shimmies, acrobatics, body isolations, leg work, rolls, arm work, body movement, lifts and even hand styling. The process of synthesis and creativity is traced to Cuba where mixing of successive Cuban themes was practiced. Bernada (98) points out that the fact that some of the common music styles such as conga, bolero, guaguanco and even guaracha were all categorized under rumba. Rumba at that time was rhythm and fiesta where various styles of dance including both Columbia and yambu were enjoyed. The similar case is identified with bachata, cumbanchata, and cumbancha which literally mean a fiesta (Leonardo 123). Salsa music main ingredient is Cuban son. The musical structure is made up of piano, trumpets, percussion, counterbass, and backing vocals which are adjusted well with each other to produce salsa music. The salsa fusion and the son transformation into salsa could have been done in the Caribbean quarter of New York City. Several factors played part in emergence of salsa such as the existence of a community with a large population where the Latin and Caribbean cultures interacted, the marginalization of these communities, and the need for a musical and poetic form of expressions for their experiences and express their view regarding the contemporary world