What is the difference between

Puerto Rican style, Cuban style, LA style, New York Style, Colombian Style, Newyork razzmtazz Ballroom mambo and mixed style.

Puerto Rican style

Lets start. Puerto Rican style can be danced on the "One" or the "Two" beat of the music, but it involves a tremendous amount of very technical footwork ("Solo" if you’re from LA, or what they call "Shines" in New York.) There is more an emphasis on footwork, than in New York style, however, in recent years this can be argued by many a Mambo maniacs in Manhattan. In New York style, there is a strong Latin Hustle influence. My guess is that in the disco craze of the late 70’s and early 80’s, when Eddie Torres was one of the only instructors in New York, single-handedly holding the torch of "Mambo Dance" with Tito Puente, Salsa dancing almost completely grew extinct to the Hustle dance. Because of the great Hustle craze of that area, many Hustle dancers incorporated a lot of their moves into the Mambo style during that slow transitional period back to Salsa music in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Because Salsa is such a diverse dance, and there are no real "rules" of style, once you learn any style of dance, you tend to stick to that style when transitioning to Salsa.

 

L.A Style

This is found to be true in California for example; the primary influence in Los Angeles is West Coast Swing and Latin Ballroom therefore many of the showy tricks and Caberet moves are taken from Swing and Latin Ballroom, which is very prevalent and highly competitive and influential throughout the Mid and West Coasts. Unlike Miami, there are not many Cuban immigrants in Los Angeles, hence the Salsa dance style is predominantly a hybrid of Swing, Ballroom, and more folkloric Cuban style. In New York, however, because of the high concentration of Puerto Rican immigrants, the Puerto Rican style is much like that of what is now New York style, Latin Hustle, or what we call "Mambo On-Two". The fancy footwork (shines) is really starting to become very strong in New York because of this influence. It is almost an even match now, whether they do more shines in New York than Puerto Rico.

Cuban Style

In Cuba, the music has determined the style of dancing. The contemporary faster rhythms of the more popular bands, such as Charanga Habanarra, and Los Van Van, are taking the style of Salsa to a more non-partner dance. From carefully watching the Cuban style throughout Europe, at least 30% of Cuban style is being danced solo, depending on the song and its rhythms. If there is a tremendous amount of percussion, the woman can shine with her incredibly beautiful and rhythmic body movements. In fact, partner dancing in the Cuban style is so restricting to the woman, that many women can not wait to dance solo for a while.

The way Cuban Salseros hold on to the women’s wrists during the majority of the dance, restricts her from extending her arm and fingers, and displaying a sexy style of her own therefore women develop great hip movement to show her sexyness. Cuban style appears to be a very male-dominated "macho" dance, more so than the New York or Los Angeles style, which fully displays the woman, and allows her to stylize with her arms, hips, and head. "On-Two" dancing to hard-core Cuban music is also a bit more difficult, although it can be done with a very well-trained ear. In recent years, most New York dancers don’t particularly enjoy an entire evening of contemporary Cuban music. They prefer the traditional Salsa / Mambo music, that is more suited to their style of dancing.

The newer sounds of Cuban music emphasize the "One" beat of the rhythm and the "Three" beats of the rhythm, much more than the "Two" beat. The rhythms are also much faster, hence the solo styling done more often than partnering up. With the opening up of Cuba, and more and more Cuban style music and bands performing in the United States, is believed that dancing on "Two" becomes tougher for the average dancer that want to learn, unless they still listen to Puerto Rican style music, and Salsa from Puerto Rico, New York, and Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see how the style of dancing in New York will change with more and more Cuban-style musicians entering the market.

Colombian Salsa Styles:

Salsa is danced differently all throughout Colombia. In Cali, it is more "showy", in other, more rural parts of the country, it is danced more closely and tightly, with heads touching in some cases. However, the underlying commonality is that there is no forward and backward motions of the feet. It is simply what we call "Cumbia" style, which is feet alternating to the back or to the side. There are not too many fancy tricks, turns, or spins in Colombian style - except if you are a professional dancer, dancing with bands, or competing. Casual social dancing, Colombian style is much calmer, closer, where both dancer's bodies are almost completely touching each other, from head to toe.

 

Ballroom Style Salsa:

This is what is officially called "Ballroom Mambo". Here, there are no tricks, fast spins, dips, nor lifts. Ballroom Mambo is normally danced on the "two", "three", "four", beats of the music, where both feet come completely together at an almost stand-still on the "four" and the "eight" beats of the music. This is normally taught in professional dance studios by professional ballroom coaches. The Ballroom Mambo style differs from the New York Razz M Tazz style of dancing on the four, five, six, in that Razz M Tazz style is more showy, and has a big hustle influence behind it. It also differs from the Eddie Torres, "5, 6, 7" method of teaching Mambo on "two", which also has a big hustle influence, and includes a great deal of spins and fancy floorwork (shines).

 

Forget about numbers! - Mixed style

The argument over the "One" or the "Two" is OLD NEWS and frankly, people are getting tired of it. It's causing divisions and problems in the community that we can definitely do without. Dancing to the hits, peaks, and valleys of the song is so much more challenging and exciting than keeping a certain timing 100% of the time.

This new style demonstrates focusing your dance and body movements to hits and breaks in the music, rather than just specific timing. We see it on stage, so why not on the social dance floor? Millennium Style emphasizes tighter footwork, enhanced hip and body movements, and shortened to negligible energy and space-saving steps that are now replacing the dated long front and back steps formally taught in the dance.

Dip at the finale, hit the hits, pause on the pauses, bodywave to the waves, jump to the jumps - interpret the music!!! Go back to the "One" or the "Two" in between the breaks, but focus and interpret the MUSIC - not just the beat.

When you develop dancing or "talking" on the "One" or the "Two", don't develop an attitude about it, and just dance. Do both "Speak" both languages with a smile and excitement, while Mixed Styling to the Hits in between!!

Let's SALSA!!!