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Salsa, Latin-American
& Ballroom Dance
Lessons in London

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  Salsa Music Is Popular

  Salsa music is increasingly used in a number of films, TV programs & commercials as well as growing in popularity generally. Popular musicians include salsa music amongst their repertoire such as Michael Jackson’s "You Rock My World", Sting’s "Fragile" and Cold Play’s "Clocks" to name a few. Salsa music varies across the world and new clubs are starting up all over the place every month. Click on the "Salsa Music Clips" link to hear free samples.
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  Dance styles develop from particular types of music

  For example Mambo was originally a Cuban dance, but in New York, it is now a totally different dance which has become very popular across Europe in the last 10 years or so. The most common styles in London are now L.A. (also known as New York On1) and the original Cuban, but there are a few who prefer the Miami or Colombian styles whilst New York style is rapidly growing in popularity. Click on the "Salsa Video Clips" link to find out more.
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  What About Ballroom & Latin-American Dances?

  There are quite a few dances which seem to be returning to fashion again thanks to dance programs on the television such as "Strictly Come Dancing" etc. BestSalsa will concentrate primarily on teaching moves which can be used on the social dance floor rather than choreographed moves which would be unuseable with anyone other than a regular partner.
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  Learning to dance Cha-cha-cha will help you improve your salsa styling & timing

  The music is a little slower & will therefore help enable you to learn New York Style Mambo which is becoming increasingly popular amongst many salseros & salseras - especially those planning to become professional salsa dancers. If you are not sure what Cha-cha-cha is, then why not check out our "Cha-cha-cha" page? There are video clips showing how to dance, along with examples of what is good, what is great as well as the not so good.
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  Individual Lessons

  The advantages of individual lessons (or private lessons as they were once known as) are that they are tailor made to suit you. You can learn whatever you want to learn at your own pace in the style & level of your choice rather than take the risk of wasting time. This is particularly useful if your time is valuable. Some people feel too shy to go to group classes until they feel reasonably competent.
  
  Barry Gordon is often available for individual lessons in any of the dances listed on the "Dances Available" page.
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  Salsa Dancing Is Popular

  Salsa dancing has become a particularly popular partner dance and is still growing across the UK and the rest of the world at enormous speed. Salsa dancing is now commonly included nowadays amongst traditional Latin American Dancing and is becomingly increasingly popular over the last few years. There is a lot of freedom to freestyle & include one’s personal styling rather than copy a rigid set of instructions as in Ballroom dancing. Hence some people become competent in salsa dancing relatively quickly.

Most Americans reverse the ladies & men’s timing as compared to International style. There are other styling aspects which are different too. For example, below we can see Frankie Martinez with Lori Perez performing their own style of Cha-cha-cha. Frankie spent several months learning the Modern Ballroom style before creating a style of his own and is regarded by many as being the best of the New York Mambo style salsa teachers and teaches at salsa congresses all over the world. Frankie is one of the best New York Mambo dancers in the world, but his own style of Cha-cha-cha is still not in the same league as that shown by the International style dancers left in the opinion of many outside of the salsa world.

Below shows a basic lesson in the American style. Note that Men step backwards on beat 2 whilst Ladies step fowards in this style which is the reverse of the International style above. As we count normally count Cha-cha-cha over 4 beats rather than 8, it should really make much difference.

Of course, if you know salsa well, and can dance on 2 but can’t be bothered to learn Cha-cha-cha moves it is possible to adopt complex salsa moves to Cha-cha-cha timing, and then you get something like the video clip below which doesn’t look anything like either the Cuban or International styles left. The problem here is that the character of the dance changes - it’s supposed to be playful & cheeky.

Below we see Eduardo (El Mulato) Hernandez & Marta performing Cha-cha-cha with their troup in Cali and then they change beat to breaking on 1 instead of On2 after a pause in the music, spoiling an otherwise impressive show. They should have known better, but Caleños are reknown for breaking the rules of dance. Small wonder why people get confused it often takes years to convince salsa dancers to dance Cha-cha-cha breaking on beat 2.

To add to the possible confusion over timing, there are also line dances such as the cha cha slide shown below which isn’t really Cha-cha-cha at all although it bears the name & some similarity. The timing may different in these line dances as they were invented by people who dance Cha-cha-cha incorrectly with the break on beat 1 one instead of beat 2.

It also seems to be common for people to socially dance Cha-cha-cha & Rumba sequence dances incorrectly (on1) e.g. Sally Ann Chacha although competitive & professional dancers would only dance on 2.

Cha-cha-cha dancing was first introduced to the UK, from Cuba in 1952 & developed in the 1960s by top competitors of the time. In the same way Salsa music was introduced to the UK in 1984 - about 4 years before the dance. New dances are created when a new genre of music is produced. The principle is that there is an ideal dance style to suit a particular type of music. Occasionally there may be more than one type of dance to suit a particular genre of music, so it is not that unusual for salsa dancers to dance salsa when Cha-cha-cha music is played, but is not the best suited dance. Similarly Modern Jivers would probably dance Modern Jive to almost any type of music including Salsa & Cha-cha-cha.

Both Son & Cha-cha-cha dance timing was always with the break "on 2". Thus the "chassé" (triple step) should correspond to the rhythm of the Conga Drum and be danced on beats 4, and 1. The Conga drum is also widely acknowledged as the main instrument of Cha-cha-cha as well as Salsa. As people become more aware of the rhythms of instruments used in any music, their dancing improves. Good dancing is the visual accompaniment of music. Percussion instruments (drums, cowbell, triangle etc.) determine the rhythm of the tune. A good dancer concentrates mostly on this rhythm rather than the melody of a tune to correctly interpret how to dance to a particular tune.

There seems to be some confusion over the timing of Cha-cha-cha so the following is designed to clarify the difference between the various styles. If you thought that it was correct to dance by counting 1, 2 Cha-cha-cha, then you have been misled. If your teacher taught you that timing, then you have wasted your time, effort & money even if that teacher is qualified &/or well established! Some qualifications don’t seem to count for anything nowadays!

Cha-cha-cha music evolved from a change in the older style of music - Son where the musicians added syncopation immediately before beat one. Son is also considered to be the main origin of Mambo & Salsa.

There were no Salsa clubs until the 1970’s. Until then there were Mambo clubs. People needed a break from Mambo which is relatively fast dance, so Cha-cha-cha was danced in these clubs alongside the Mambo. Eddy Torres said that, in the New York Palladium era, they would normally play 2 or 3 Mambos, then a Cha-cha-cha, then a few more Mambos & another Cha-cha-cha, and an occasional Merengue too.

The video clip below shows this original style performed by professional dancers in Havana, Cuba.

The International style (modern ballroom) technique of Cha-cha-cha, like other ballroom dances, is a result of gradual evolution, and in many respects the technique differs significantly from the earlier days. I.e. correct International style technique is with the knees kept straight rather than bent. The stance & hold is also different. Also, the International Style diverged from the technique of the American Style Cha-cha-cha as can be seen in the video clips below.

Even the best Cuban salsa dancers widely acknowledge that if you want to see good Cha-cha-cha performance, watch a ballroom dancer. This is why BestSalsa are showing what we consider to be the best first. The video clip below shows a stunning International style Cha-cha-cha routine by the present professional World Latin Dance Champions Michael Malitowski & Joanna Leunis.

The video clip below shows another awesome International style Cha-cha-cha routine by Donnie Burns & Gaynor Fairweather. This couple were 14-time World Professional Latin champions: this is by some way the record for this title. They were also eleven times International Latin American Dance Champions, and this is also a record.

Here is an equally brilliant video clip showing an International style Cha-cha-cha routine by Bryan Watson & Carmen Vincelj.

The following clip shows the basic step & its correct timing for International style. Note that Men step forwards on beat 2 whilst Ladies step back.