Salsa Dance

What is Salsa?
Salsa is a sexy, energetic and fun partner dance. Unlike some partner dances, it is a very sociable dance - you don't need to have a regular partner. In fact, it is common for salsaros to dance with people they have never met before. That's part of the fun of dancing Salsa.

With it's sociable nature, Salsa has become highly popular, all around the world. Today, you can easily find Salsa clubs wherever you go; in Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

History of Salsa
Salsa is not easily defined. Who invented salsa? The Cubans, Puerto Ricans? Salsa is a distillation of many Latin and Afro-Caribbean dances. Each played a large part in its evolution.

Salsa is similar to Mambo in that both have a pattern of six steps danced over eight counts of music. The dances share many of the same moves. In Salsa, turns have become an important feature, so the overall look and feel are quite different form those of Mambo. Mambo moves generally forward and backward, whereas, Salsa has more of a side to side feel.

Feeling towards Salsa
Some of them called it romance dance. The male dancer has to lead the female dancer. In order to have a natural dance, both must feel comfortable and connect with each other through their body language.

When I first try out Salsa dance, I didn't really like it. It's kind of strange having to dance with a male stranger. I need to stand really close to him so that he is able to lead me with the dance. After few round of rotating of male partners, I'm getting slightly more used to it. But I'm still having an uncomfortable feeling, esp you got to look at your dance partner and dance with the flow.

It's kind of uneasy for me to dance with the guys. Some guys were too tall and some were too short. Having to stand so close with a stranger, just feel so weird. Certain steps I have to lean on my partner and he will have to support me. There was turning involved too! Of course, everyone is so new to the dance, so its inevitable that everyone esp the ladies, are feeling uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the dance instructors from two left feet are very jovial and friendly. They not only explain in great details and they care enough to explain what are the mistakes we did wrong.

Overall, I think I will continue to try until either I overcome it or I will stop going to such classes anymore...