HOT SALSA Havana
Salsa includes numerous styles and variants: the word can be used to describe almost any variety of popular Cuban derived genres, such as chachachá and mambo. Though also a fusion of different Latin styles mixed with pop, jazz, rock and R&B, salsa is mainly Cuban in stylistic origin. Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language, and has been portrayed as an expression with “vivid associations but no absolute definitions, a tag that encompasses a rainbow assortment of Latin rhythms and styles, taking on a different hue wherever you stand in the Spanish-speaking world.” Here is what distinguishes Cuban salsa (casino) from other salsa styles: 1. Posture – casineros dance with bent knees and slightly bend forward, not too erect. 2. In contrast to other salsa styles, in casino couples dance very close to each other when they are in ballroom position. 3. The guapea (together and apart step) is the basic holding pattern for couples, not the forward and back step, sometimes called the mambo step.
Salsa music is played in 4/4 time, and has four beats to the measure or bar. New York style salseros dance within 2 measures, so they count 8 beats, and loosely say that they “dance to an 8-beat measure or bar,” although technically it is two four-beat measures. In the basic step, the man’s left foot goes back and the woman’s right foot goes forward on the first beat of this so-called 8-beat measure or bar. Tito Puente was one of those who disapproved of the use of the word “salsa” to designate Latin music. There is no doubt that the term salsa is a vague one, but this is not so in all its senses. It depicts a process of fusion and creation that began in the heart of Cuba, where successive Cuban themes were all mixed together. Cuban salsa flavors the musical menu throughout the Caribbean as well as that “Antillean island” which is the “barrio Latino” (Latin Quarter) of New York.
Other related pages that may interest you
Love and Marriage in Cuba - What is a Jinetera ? What is a Jinetero ?
Cinemas in Havana - Film education in Cuba.
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