Salsa Homepage

iWantToDance, as a nationwide resource, is a unique service. Through our intuitive search facilities you will be able to locate Salsa classes and events anywhere in the country.

About Salsa

Salsa is a dance for Salsa music created by Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean and their immigrant communities in the US. Salsa dancing mixes African and European dance influences through the music and dance fusions that are the roots of Salsa.

Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms, line dancing (suelta), and Rueda de Casino where groups of couples exchange partners in a circle. Salsa can be improvised or performed with a set routine.

The history of "Salsa" dance is peppered with hearsay and contradiction. Although few would disagree that the music and dance forms originate largely in Cuban Son. New York's Latino community had a vibrant musical and dancing scene throughout the '50s an in the 1970s, adoption of the term "Salsa" reduced the linguistic and cultural barriers to mainstream adoption of Latin music and dance.

The modernization of the Mambo in the 1950s was influential in shaping what would become salsa. There is debate as to whether the dance we call Salsa today originated in Cuba or Puerto Rico. Cuba's influence in North America was diminished after Castro's revolution and the ensuing trade embargo. New York's Latino community was largely Puerto-Rican. Salsa is one of the main dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico and is known worldwide.

Resources

Our links page will take you to all of the Salsa resources you will ever possibly need from shoes, dresses, merchandise and event bookings.

New to Salsa? Confused by the terminology? Then why not check out our glossary of terms for definitions on both On1, On2 and LA, NY and Cuban Salsa styles!!