A brief overview of salsa, the dance, the music and the passion

Salsa has evolved into 3 primary style around the world, these are Cuban Style, LA Style and NewYork Style.

Cuban Style

In essence the Latin American styles which originated from cuba are called Casino where it is considered part of social and cultural activities centering around their popular music. Historically, Casino traces its origin as a partner dance from the Cuban Son dancing and its rhythmic body motions from Afro-Cuban Rumba heritage. Son is considered an older version and ancestor to Salsa. Culturally, Casino is danced as an interplay between male and female gender, and feeling the music ("Sabor") as its main ingredients. Almost all casino dance routines are named in latin cultural context with emphasis on sexual interplay, teasing, and everyday experience which in combination make it often to personal or suggestive for most western societies so therefore and watered down version is usually danced where by the sexual interplay and teasing is removed.

This style of salsa is relatively easy to learn, and thus popular among beginners. However, to master Casino require dancing and mastering from influences such as Rumba, Son, and Mambo. This takes a long time, and is further compounded by lack of teaching materials in other languages other than Spanish.

NewYork Style (often referred to as On2)

Musically, the old Mambo (Mambo Tipico) is fused with New York Jazz and Swing to create a new salsa genre but retaining much of its original percussions. The addition of new musical instruments such as xylophones, jazz saxophones, and steel drums added new melody to the evolving genre.

In New York Style, the tempo and timing of the dance is strictly On-2 (based on delay tempo, on the first slap on the tumbao / conga).

The etiquette of New York Style is strict about remaining in the "slot" and avoiding traveling dancing in a sandbox area with a lot of spins, turns, and styling. There are greater emphasis on performing "shines" in which dancers separate themselves and dance solo with intricate footwork and styling for a time -- suspected origins from Swing and New York Tap.

New York Style dancers are typically very serious about the musicality and timing of their dancing. To satisfy their tastes, "socials" are often held that cater to almost exclusively playing Salsa Dura (Hard Salsa)

Los Angeles Style (often referred to as On1)

Los Angeles Salsa Style (L.A. Style) is born from recent developments in North American dancing following Latin-American musical hits of the late 1980s and 90s. L.A. style is danced On1, usually in a slot but with a measure of easiness and adaptability to it.

L.A. style places strong emphasis on sensuousness, theatricality, aerobics and musicality. The lifts, stunts, and aerial works of today's salsa shows are derived mostly from L.A. Style forms with origins in Latin Ballroom and Ballet lifts. The two essential elements of this dance are the forward–backward basic as described above, and the cross-body lead.

L.A. Style has been credited for the popularity of salsa as the middle-class choice social activities in the western world.

The three Vazquez brothers are claimed to have started L.A. Style in Long Beach, California. It is said that Francisco the oldest created the L.A. Style, and then taught it to his younger brothers by combining Mambo, theatrics, and Mexican dancing.

Major L. A. Style instructors include Mexican-born Francisco Vazquez, Luis Vazquez,and Johnny Vasquez "Prince of Salsa", the controversial Brazilian Alex Da Silva, Ronny Medrano, and Josie Neglia