Difference between Salsa and Latin Dance: Musicality

Disaster often happens on the social Salsa dance floor when a Cuban Casino or a Salsa/Mambo leader tries to lead a Ballroom Latin follower while dancing together. He feels as if she is leading herself while she feels he will not give her room to do ‘her thing’. This happens in spite of both being Latin Dancers. 

The difference in dance perception is well portrayed in the movie ‘Dance With Me’ (release date August 21, 1998) starring Puerto Rican Latino superstar Chayenne and the Afro American singer/actress Vanessa Williams. At a given moment, the character of Vanessa is practicing her dance routine around a pillar while Chayenne is watching her. He comments that what she is doing is not dancing. He cannot fathom the idea of people dancing without music.

Ballroom Latin and Salsa both have the same origins: the fusion of African, European, and Native American Dance Forms. The evolution of the ‘Afro’ part of Salsa, classified under the large umbrella of ‘Latin Dance’, is however more ‘Darwinian’ in nature than the evolution of the Ballroom Latin dances Samba, Rumba, Jive, the Paso Doble and the Cha-cha-cha. The need to dance on a certain beat or rhythm is ancient. Most of the Latin Dances such as the Brazilian Samba and the Cuban Rumba developed on their own by following the evolution of music and the ever-changing socio economic developments. The regular beat of the drums has comforted millions of oppressed people, has served as a tool for communicating with the gods, they have been leading instruments used to accompany the narration of history and culture, and the ‘Tumbao’ has been used as instruments to court and celebrate the union of persons in love with each other. The dance has always served the music. Music, and the feelings music evokes, are leading in Latin Dances.

 Pioneering men and women developed Ballroom and Latin Dances with the purpose of entertaining, educating, and for giving people the opportunity to use the dances as means of expression. Later these dances evolved into vehicles for people to compete against each other in a civilized Western society. The excellent work of the Americans Vernon and Irene Castle (1920’s, Josephine Bradley, Victor Silvester, and other English pioneers is very important in this development. From the foundation of the ‘Academie Royale de Musique et de Danse’ by King Louis XIV in the 17th century, to the highly acclaimed on-screen performances by Fred Aster and Ginger Rogers in the 1930’s: the dance went hand in hand with melodious music. Something changed along the way making dancing more important than music.

With the introduction of competitions, most of the instructors and competitors teaching Ballroom Latin Dances introduced intricate dance steps to ‘spice up’ the dances making them more attractive for an audience, and for competitors to get more points from jurors. Some of these dance steps do not follow the 4/4 beat of contemporary Western Music. They travel in and out of the basic the music dictates. The Basic Steps of dances such as the Foxtrot and the Hustle does not have anything to do with a 4/4 beat, but the music is background for performing attractive looking Turn Patterns. Not the music, but the dances themselves were ‘leading’ (and still are today).

Salsa Dancing was evolving in the same direction as Latin American and Swing Dance did.  Salsa and Mambo Dance Teachers, Performers, and Salsa Dance Congress organizers decided to take the dance back to its (Afro Cuban) roots by maintaining the Afro Cuban heritage. The growing popularity of Musicality in Salsa makes it possible for new dance crazes such as the Bachata Moderna to keep evolving around and within the boundaries of Bachata Music.