Salsa – A to Z Challenge April 2018 #DanceKaPunchnama

Hello Peeps!!

 My letter for the Day is ‘S’

Salsa is a popular Caribbean dance form. It is originated in the mid-1970s in New York. Different regions of Latin America and the United States have distinct salsa styles of their own, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cali Colombia, L.A. and New York styles.

Salsa dance are generally held in night clubs, bars, ballrooms, restaurants, and outside, especially when part of an outdoor festival.

How to perform this dance?

Salsa is a lively, rhythmic and sensuous dance form. There are mainly 2 Salsa Styles across the globe:

1. The Cuban style (also known as Casino) – The couple is gearing around each other; there is not a fixed line. There are a lot of “knots” with the hands.

   

2. The Los Angeles (L.A) style (In line style) – The couple is staying on an imaginary straight line (good for shows).

The basic steps and rhythm are same for both styles, so one can easily switch between the styles.

In Salsa, the dancer shifts their weight by stepping; the upper body remains level and nearly unaffected by the weight changes. Weight shifts and it causes the hips to move. Arm and shoulder movements are also incorporated.

In basic Salsa dance, the rhythm consists of taking three steps for every four beats of music.

Instruments:

The following instruments are used in Salsa dance music:

The Bongos:  A pair of round drums held in the knees and struck with the hand.

The Botijuela: A bottle used to store oil that was used as a bass in original Son bands.

The Claves: They keep the rhythm in the music and guide the dancer’s feet.

The Conga Drum: A skinned drum played with the palms.

The Cowbell:  Played by holding in one hand and striking with a stick.

The Guiro:  A carved gourd played by scraping it with a stick.

The Marimbula: A finger piano brought to Cuba by slaves from Santo Domingo.

The Quijada: A very primitive musical instrument.

The Timbales: A pair of skinned drums played with a pair of sticks.

Costumes:

The Salsa dance costumes should be vibrant, colorful and known for their flexibility and comfort. Use of patterns, embroidery work and sequins make the costumes more elegant and stylish.

Men wear full sleeved loose shirts with tight pants. The shirt colors are bright like yellow, red, black, purple, white, etc and pants are black or dark brown in color. Sometimes, male dancers wear jacket also. Traditionally, the dancers wear shoes with Cuban heels and are generally pure black leather formal shoes. But color and designs can be changed considering the outfit and comfort.

The female dancer’s costumes are more vibrant and shimmery than the males. There are beautiful embroidery and sequins work on the girl’s costumes and the variety ranging from skirts to cocktail dresses. There are so many patterns like crimped halters, one-shoulder sleeve dresses, full-length and half-length V-sloped dress, O Ring Halter, mesh skirts, tango dresses, and ruffle dresses. Frills and ruffles are used to make it more attractive during the turning and swinging. Shoes can be any high-heeled shoes or stilettos with straps.

Sharing here some videos of Salsa Dance:

See what dance form I have shared for the letter ‘R’

What will be my next dance form for the letter ‘T’?

This post is in association with #BlogchatterA2Z

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Source: Wikipedia,langeasy, dancepoise