Salsa and New York

Los Angeles doesn't have its signature type of Salsa. Bands here adopt the classical Puerto Rican music. The dancing style moves are both exciting and sexy. In Cuba, the type of Salsa is called Timba. The movement is fast influenced by Afro Cuban music. Musicians blend in the popular Reggae and Pop music in between the breaks. The dancing style is called "Casino" simply because when it was started it was played in gambling joints or casinos. One notable difference is that Cuban Salsa is circular rather than linear. The man keeps moving around the woman. The Columbians have maintained their Salsa Dura up-to-date. The dancing style is spectacular with a swift movement of feet and tight spins. The dancers stay close; bodies almost touching. The West Africans also have their Salsa. Traditional music instruments are relied upon to give the rhythm. The dancing style is what they call Salsa Mbalax more African than Latino. Some contemporary Salsa musicians are:

What I found interesting about salsa is it grew out of the wish to move away from the norm of Latin music that was already placed at that. The early form of salsa, Latin Boogaloo, allowed young Puerto Rican musicians a chance to express themselves

After dinner, presentations were given by the Student Organization of Latinos (SOL), Black Student Union (BSU), Hmong Student Union (HSU) and the Asian Student Association (ASA). SOL demonstrated the basics of celebrating a quinceanera, including the religious aspects and ritualistic behaviors. To prepare for this coming-of-age party, the family dresses up, goes to church, takes pictures and throws the actual party, where symbolic gifts and actions are reciprocated. Next, the BSU danced to the Cha Cha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle, which were noted to be common along with games in bringing people together at the BSU. The HSU and ASA collaborated on their presentation, performing two graceful dances in traditional Hmong garments. After the amazing performances, the group Salsa Manzana continued to perform until the end of the

At this formal event, I experienced both individual and partner dancing. I would describe this style to be a mix of hip-hop and swing dancing. The dance movements involved fluid arm waving and rhythmic leg stepping. There was no set choreography so our movements were limitless. These movements reminded me of hip hop, because there were moments of jacking and lots of hip movements. Additionally, there were movements that reminded me of swing dancing because of the partner spinning, dipping, and swaying.

With every type of music there is a type of dance to go with it, like the Tango or the Merengue. Dance and music is a way of celebrating in any culture but is most popular in Latin American Culture. Some of the most successful artists today have Latino heritage, and they infuse their songs with Latin rhythms reflective

Kecak dance dancer in motion do not have to have to always follow the rules of dance accompanied by "gamelan" orchestra. So in this Kecak dance gestures of dancers more relaxed because whichever comes first is the way of the story and the combination

Unlike most types of music and dance, breakdancing has a relatively short history. In fact, the generation consisting of today’s youth is the first generation to not know a world without hip-hop or breakdancing. Breakdancing is thought to have been heavily influenced by a Russian folk-dance in Brazil known as the Frevo, which was a combination of martial arts and marching. It is believed that this dance was invented 500 years ago by African slaves working in Brazil. What made this dance so attractive to the African slaves was that it allowed the participants to get away with fighting. The Frevo, which later became known as the Capoeira, would in essence, be a battle between dancers, however when a guard came near the performance it would

Celiz Cruz was a popular salsa singer. Salsa developed in New York City from Cuban songs and rhythms fused with jazz. It became very popular in the 1970s and quickly spread back to Latin America. Salsa uses Cuban percussion and the “son” style of song mixed with the instrumentation and improvisation of the jazz and swing of the 1960s and 1970s. Salsa music generally consists of three sections: son, montuno and chorus. The son is a Cuban song built over clave rhythms. The montuno section is improvisation over an ostinato bass pattern, a practice called “guajeo”. The third section, the chorus, also uses improvisation. These three parts can be played in any order, and transitions between sections are generally marked with signals from the brass

The Charleston and the Black Bottom are dances that

Prior to actually taking Brazilian dance class, I just assumed it was another one of those slow moving ballad dances but for a different culture. This is due to barely being deduced to how the brazilian culture in like in reality, as the only two types of dance I was shown were Jazz dance, which I really enjoy, and New Orleans dance, which I’m actually not very fond of (85% percent of it involves bounce, which I am not a fan of at all). But after a few classes went by, I was proven wrong. Brazilian dance is very different from both Jazz dance and New Orleans dance.

Although this was a hip hop routine, the choreographers also added a simple form of a Reggaeton body wave in the performance. These elements made certain parts of the dance be more connected with the lyrics of the song. For instance, when Mark and Chelsie dipped lower and did the body wave entwined with a snake motion, the girl’s head was on the boy’s back. From this movement and previous movements, you could infer that the boy is venomous like a snake causing pernicious harm to the girl. Another example would be when the boy placed his hand over the girl’s heart, and then she popped her chest out. That made the audience realize the boy had stolen the girl’s heart. These moves were a visual interpretation of the lyrics. If the choreographers had chosen not to add these elements into the dance, the dance would have been bland, and Mark and Chelsie would have been less likely to deliver the message of the

I am from Colombia, where dancing is part of our culture. In Colombia each state has a month where festivals take place. In these types of festivals there is food, music and a lot dancing. As mentioned in class dancing is ceremonial in these types of festivals. Our typical dance for Colombians is Cumbia. According to Discover Colombia, Cumbia brings together three cultures which are Africa, Indigenous and European. Discover Colombia mentions that Cumbia was born from a cultural mix of black and indigenous backgrounds, but the music and dance became very popular in the 1950’s in Colombia. Another typical dance for my culture is Salsa. According to Colombia reports the history of the typical Cali salsa began in the 1930s. This website also states

Literally, salsa translates as "sauce." In the context of Latin popular music it has two

Each dancing master had a sequence of dance steps, and they also constructed steps over time. This would be defined as "Step dancing" because 8 measures of music are considered as one "step", hence the name! Anyway, at a local festival, dancers would regularly compete against each other, winning

The Cha Cha Cha Dance, also known as the Cha Cha Dance or Triple Mambo, is a spin off of two dances that were very popular in Cuba in the 1940s. The reason for this combination can be linked back to a musician named Enrique Jorrin when he combined the Mambo and the Danzon dances. Margolie noticed the fact that many had issues with the relation of a slower beat that the mambo-danzo combination created, along with the acute syncopated rhythm that was hard to sync up with. To resolve the problem, Margolie decided to compose new music that better matched the movements and lessened the intensity of the syncopated rhythm that had stopped the dancers before. Doing this caused the dancers to develop what they called a triple step which made a ‘cha-cha-cha’