Salsa Dancing

Where the Gringos meet the Latinos

and dance beneath the Disco lights to the latest Latin beats. Wide range of abilities; easy to learn; takes time to master. Lots of upper body wiggling; lots of high heels; Just as fun to watch; Hot! Hot! Hot!

Learning Salsa Dancing

Portland Dancing lists many Salsa Dancing events that include links to sponsors that teach Salsa Dancing classes and Salsa Dance lessons in Portland, Oregon

Salsa Trivia

1. What does the word "Salsa" mean?
2. What food product overtook ketchup as the top-selling condiment in the United States in 1991?
3. Where was salsa invented?
4. What is the salsa dance pattern?
5. What is the basic rhythm of salsa?
6. True/False: Salsa hasn’t changed from its inception.
7. True/False: The most widely heard and influential form of music from Puerto Rico today is called salsa.
8. Who is Arsenio Rodríguez and what was his contribution to Salsa?
9. True/False: Latin Jazz is a subcategory of Jazz.
10. Name these instruments and their function in Latin Jazz
Trivia Answers

1. What does the word "Salsa" mean?
Answer: The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavor. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin.

2. What food product overtook ketchup as the top-selling condiment in the United States in 1991?
Answer: Salsa.

3. Where was salsa invented?
Answer: Cuba. While salsa has many roots and its primary exponents are Puerto Rican, the Cuban son is clearly the primary foundation of salsa. It is here where Contra-Danze (Country Dance) of England/France, later called Danzón, which was brought by the French who fled from Haiti, begins to mix itself with Rhumbas of African origin (Guaguanco, Colombia, Yambú). Add Són of the Cuban people, which was a mixture of the Spanish troubadour (sonero) and the African drumbeats and flavora and a partner dance flowered to the beat of the clave.

4. What is the salsa dance pattern?
Answer: Six steps over eight counts of music. In Salsa, turns have become an important feature, so the overall look and feel are quite different form those of Mambo. Mambo moves generally forward and backward, whereas, Salsa has more of a side to side feel.

5. What is the basic rhythm of salsa?
Answer: The basic rhythm of the salsa is the clave. The clave is the basis of all salsa music. In its African roots, it is fundamentally different to the square rhythms dominating much European [son clave] music.

Just as folk/rock musicians tap their feet on the 1st and 3rd of a 4 beat bar, jazz musicians on the 2nd and 4th, salsa musicians tap the clave, which is a syncopated rhythm across 2 bars in European 4/4 notation.

6. True/False: Salsa hasn’t changed from its inception.
Answer: False. As a tree, Salsa has many roots and many branches, but one trunk that unites us all. The important thing is that Salsa is played throughout the Hispanic world and has received influences of many places within it. It is of all of us and it is a sample of our flexibility and evolution. If you think that a single place can take the credit for the existence of Salsa, you are wrong. And if you think that one style of dance is better, imagine that the best dancer of a style, without his partner, goes to dance with whomever he can find, in a club where a different style predominates. He wouldn't look as good as the locals. Each dancer is accustomed to dance his/her own style. None is better, only different. Viva la variedad, Viva la Salsa!

7. True/False: The most widely heard and influential form of music from Puerto Rico today is called salsa.
Answer: True. It could be said that "salsa" is primarily a commercial tag for contemporary Latin pop music that connotes a feeling that sums up the variety of redefined and reinterpreted styles at its roots. It encompasses a broad range of musical genres, instrumental combinations and cultural influences, ranging from Cuban son montuno, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Dominican merengue, Cuban Yoruba ritual music and Afro-American jazz and rhythm and blues.

8. Who is Arsenio Rodríguez and what was his contribution to Salsa?
Answer: In the late 30's, Arsenio Rodríguez (one of Cuba's greatest musician and composer) began reconnecting son with its African roots. Through his many innovations in style and instrumentation, Rodríguez expanded the son sound to emphasize or reincorporate many of the African elements which many of the earlier son conjuntos had either omitted or simplified.

9. True/False: Latin Jazz is a subcategory of Jazz.
Answer: False. Just as jazz emerged from New Orleans and developed into a national music with diverse styles, Latin jazz grew from its roots in Europe, Africa, and the Americas into a strong musical tree with its own stylistic branches.

10. Name these instruments and their function in Latin Jazz

The guiro is a scraper made of a dried gourd. It’s played by rubbing a stick over the grooves etched into the side of the gourd. It’s used more for coloring than timekeeping.

The conga drums emerged in the African Congo region. Their function in Latin jazz is both percussive and melodic. The small quinto drum is used primarily for soloing, while the mid-size conga and the larger tumbadora support the clave with their tumbao (Spanish term for the groove) pattern.

The timbales are a pair of tunable drums that emerged in Cuba and are descendants of the larger European tympani. They are also called paila. Mounted on a stand and played with sticks, the timbales produce a repetitive cascara (“shell”) pattern that is performed on the side, or shell, of the drums. The drum heads and cymbals are used for accents and to support the groove.

The piercing double bell of the cowbell, or agogo, is the centerpiece of many African and Afro- Latin musics. In Afro-Cuban jazz, the cowbell rhythm is closely related to the cascara pattern of the timbale, and it serves as a constant reference to the clave.

The maracas are the icing on the cake of the percussion section. A pair of dried gourd rattles filled with seeds or beads, the maracas play a circular pattern that complements the polyrhythms of the percussion section.

The bongo, a small double-drum, fulfills both a time-keeping and improvisational role. The two drums, usually situated between the calves of a seated musician, are tuned a fourth apart and their short, syncopated patterns offer a counterpoint to the clave.