The broad category of “Latin American dance” is characterized generally as fast-paced and sensual, with obvious hip movements and distinctive partnered steps. However, this label encompasses a very wide range of styles. The term “Latin America” encompasses the nations of South and Central America and the Caribbean, so the diversity among Latin dances is great. What all of them seem to have in common is a blending of various influences. Dance choreographer Anthony Shay explains that “many of the Latin American dances have folk dance or social dance roots, some of the dances of African origins have spiritual and religious roots, and local as well as Spanish, European, and African origins.”# Latin music dance is a convolution of the beats and rhythms of many different cultures, blending Indigenous, European, and African forms together into a truly mestizo, or mixed, creation. The history behind this goes that European conquerors imported African slaves from various parts of West Africa into a large part of the Americas, mostly because they had a difficult time persuading the indigenous populations to work for them. By 1553, the numbers of imported African slaves outnumbered the Europeans in Mexico,# so there was a substantial influence from three distinct ethnic groups. Dancing was an important part in all three of these cultures. A gradual fusion of the three cultures occurred through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this produced a new culture: Creole. Many foreign traditions were “creolized,” including dance and song. The danzón was one of the first creole dances, featuring adopted syncopated rhythms that become more complex over time. This syncopation is now a feature of all the Latin-American dances. A slower, more refined version of the danzón evolved with the abbreviated name of the son. This dance is said to be the closest relative to the salsa in its relatively recent history.
Although la salsa may seem to most United States residents to be a quintessential Latin dance, it is interesting to find that its modern form developed here in America. This Cuban- and Puerto Rican-style dance music was produced in New York City and elsewhere in the 1940s. The birth of what is now considered to be the salsa really was not until the 1960s. It evolved from various other Latin dance styles like the son, as previously mentioned, along with the rumba and guaracha.# These constitute the backbone of what is now the salsa.
The marriage of European, African, and Indigenous rhythms had a love affair with American music, and salsa was one result. “Salsa” is translated from Spanish to mean “sauce” and specifically refers to a spicy spice, which is especially appropriate considering its multi-cultural origins. The syncopated beats and the blending of African drum rhythms and Spanish guitar combined with American jazz instrumentation and improvisational skills. With heavy use of complicated percussion rhythms, including sounds from the clave, maracas, conga bongo, tambora, bato, and cowbell, to name a few, the instruments and the singers often mimic the call and response patterns of traditional African songs, and the segue into the chorus. Other traditional salsa instruments include the vibraphone, bass, guitar, violin, piano, accordion, flute, marima, and a brass section of trombone, trumpet, and saxophone. Salsa is danced on music with two bars of four beats, with the basic steps on the 1-2-3, 5-6-7. Songs may be fast at up to about 240 beats per minute or slow at around 140 beats per minute, but it is always upbeat and energetic.# Salsa is a spot or lot dance, meaning that a couple occupies a fixed area on the dance floor and is not required to travel over the dance floor like in the samba. “The same rhythms are in all salsa music,” according to singer Celia Cruz,# dubbed the queen of salsa music. This standard of salsa basics is simple and easily recognized, but with all of the various instrumentals and vocals layered one over the other, there are limitless possibilities to work with the essential rhythms.
“If there is no dance, there is not music,” asserted the king of Latin music, Tito Puentes—and certainly he out of anybody would understand this sentiment. Known as the sultan of salsa, or the "high priest of the salsa music,”# Puentes paved the way for salsa music with a handful of others. "Innovations made by Puerto Rican musicians such as Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Willie Cologne, and Hector Lebold transformed the Afro-Cubano music to a unique New York-Latin music. Modern salsa was something that evolved here from different cultural influences making what some might consider a home grown American phenomenon!"# Musicians utilized the ground works of earlier Latin music and made it their own, coining a unique style.
The evolution and proliferation of the modern day salsa was influenced by two major factors: Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants coming into the United States, and Americans experiencing a hint of Latin culture at its origin and taking some of it home with them. In 1898, U.S. soldiers got a taste for Cuban music during the war in Cuba. Later, during the Prohibition in the United States, Americans went to Cuba where drinking was legal and became enthralled with the Latin rhythms. So the foreign style was not completely unknown to Americans when Latin immigrants moved north and brought with them their music. However, the dance had more than an aesthetic value for migrants; certainly, the salsa and its predecessors brought a little reminiscence of home for many people, and “dance became a vehicle for displaying specific national identities.”# An estimated quarter of the population of New York has roots in Cuba and Puerto Rico,# and dance is one way to keep their culture alive. The origins and meanings attached to such recreations are often lost on the United States populations who flock to classes and workshops to get their dance on.
The salsa has evolved into a dance craze here in the United States, but “many, if not most, of those mainstream Americans who dance Latin American dances have little idea of the specific countries and societies in which a dance originated.”# They regard the dance styles as dangerously sexy and try to reflect that when they dance the exotic Latin form, but do not realize there is a history and purpose in the beats and rhythms. Ruben Blaze, salsa singer, songwriter, and activist, says that he sings of the political prisoners of Latin America, of “the sadness of losing all their freedom.”# Music and politics go hand in hand in Latin music, as sometimes that is a peoples only reprieve—to sing and to dance. Latin immigrants experienced much oppression in earlier parts of this century. Of course, that is not to say that Americans should not partake in the exotic dance forms; like food and laughter, music and dance is best shared, be it with a partner or across an entire society. On top of that, Latin music is at its core a multiethnic phenomenon, with its Afro-Indo-European roots, so Americans just add to its diversity as it constantly evolves through time. People should enjoy the cross-cultural dances, but perhaps they might also keep in mind that these songs originate from a past fraught with turmoil. With an understanding of its origin, perhaps people can greater appreciate the art form.
Bibliography
Beats of the Heart: Salsa: Latin Pop Music in the Cities. Dir. Jeremy Marre. Perf. Ray Barretto, Ruben Blades, and Willie Colon. Harcourt Films. 1979. Film.
Brill, Mark. Music of Latin America and the Caribbean. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011
Chenn, Todd. “The History of Salsa Dancing.” NYSalsa101. 2008. Educational series. .
Duany, Jorge. The Puerto Rican Nation On the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Herbison-Evans, Don. “History of Latin-American Dancing.” Linus Education. 2011. University of Sydney. 1 May 2012.
Manuel, Peter. Popular Musics of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1988.
Mian, Tariq. “Salsa and Bachata.” Salsa Twist. 2012. The Dances. 1 May 2012.
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