Salsa

Indulge in the rich experience of salsa dancing classes at our dance studios in Melbourne.

In 1928, when ignacio pineiro used the phrase ‘echale salsita’ (meaning ‘spice it up’) as the title of a new piece of music with lyrics, he could not have known the impact that it would have half a century later. The phrase was later simplified to ‘salsa’. It was not until the 1970’s that the phrase was recognized as a generic term for a diverse mixture of latino music styles and rhythms previously known as ‘son’(means rhythem of cha cha cha, rumba, mambo, pachanga etc). This simple word suddenly made latin music more marketable and created a greater demand, and inevitably the dance followed.

In 1959, the revolutionary troops of fidel castro entered havana. An era came to an end, and while many cuban singers, musicians and composers chose to stay on, many also left, closing one chapter in cuba and opening another in new york. In new york, the music of cuba became inextricably mixed with the musical variations of puerto rico and american jazz. New styles of music were produced by new types of groups, bands and orchestras. Trombones found a place alongside trumpets, while traditional caribbean instruments were refined in the rhythm sections, giving a wide new dimension to the development of salsa.

Then in 1962, the beatles change everything with the release of ‘love me do’. They became the new sensation of the era and latin music fell into decline. By the early 1970’s, fanta records needed to promote their artists and repartoire, to do this they needed a name with which their products could be easily recognized, and so salsa was born. Since those days, however, the usa has not had the monopoly on salsa nor on new innovations. Puerto rico continues to be a major source of salsa music, and the influence from colombia was also been increasingly marked.