History Of Salsa Dance

Salsa is dance style popular internationally and having its roots in Africa, Latin America, North America and the Caribbean. Salsa when translated means the word ‘sauce’, and is noted for its spicy flavor, hence the sensuality of this dance.

The origins of salsa dance began in Cuba when the African rhythms were introduced to the world through their dance rumba. Rumba was an ancient sound used to call forth Gods. The drum rhythms of Africa blended well with Cuban music and their dance of Danzon. This blend produced the Cuban Son as you now know it and became the central juncture of Afro-Cuban music. In 1922 Cuba introduced Radio Broadcasting which exposed the western population to the Cuban Son and for the first time Americans began listening to Afro-Cuban music. By the 1930s rumba dance began to make way into American salons. The rumba is a slower dance version of the salsa dance. Cuba’s Danzon was based on the origins of English social dancing.

In 1943, Perez Prado a Cuban musician formed his own music known as Mambo. There was an African influence to this type of dance music. Mambo had an upbeat style and contained drums and big brass. He later introduced the mambo dance at a nightclub in Havana. The Mambo dance became a craze and Perez later became known as the Mambo King. The Mambo dance was first introduced in the Park Plaza Ballroom in New York in 1947.

The Palladium situated in Manhattan allowed Federico Purgani, a Spanish music promoter to promote Latin music each Sunday. This opened the doors to Cubans and Puerto Ricans where a mixture of cultures could come together. The Mambo had evolved by this time into more of a slot dance and incorporated swing, ballroom, tap and jazz while preserving the elements of the Latin steps. This mixture of wonderful layers made way for a new flavor that would be called Salsa. History states that it was a fusion of a variety of cultures and dance routines which evolved and made salsa dance as popular as it is in the modern world.