Line Dancing Vs Salsa

Cultural social dancing has been a vehicle for expression and communication for hundreds of years. While seemingly worlds apart, Line Dancing and Salsa serve a similar function. Within their own respective cultures, both movement styles grew from socially popular music styles that brought people together.

Salsa is a term that references the style developed primarily in the 1960’s and seventies by immigrants from Puerto Rico and Cuba in New York City. It is an umbrella term, as it encompasses the dance, as well as the Latin Jazz music that accompanies it. Translated from Spanish, salsa means “sauce”, referencing the frenzied, vivid and wild nature of the movement and song. This fusion arose in the Latin dance clubs, where immigrants sought to

The music style has roots in Spanish and African music, with the basic structure beginning as a basic melody and transitioning into a “Coro” section where musicians improvise. The sound is characterized by a leading percussive instrument, and is embellished by trumpets, trombones and guitar. Depending on the artist, this can be accompanied by piano, bongo, conga, and timbales. Bands will typically include around 12 members; a band leader, 2-4 horn players, one or more choral singers, vocalists and others to play the accompaniments for the montuno sections of the song. This structure allows for the music to provide a rhythmic ground for the musicians to make their own musical phrases. The music is incredibly lively, with bright tones and fiery accents that ignite the listener.There are usually few lyrics, as the main mission is to focus on the music and the dance that it evokes. Salsa is typically done to eight beat music, while the dances move on three beats, pause for one, dance for three, pause for one. The movement patterns generally follows a

Women and men would stand in opposing lines, facing their partner. Dancers would join in the middle, perform a section of movement, and then move back to their respective positions. The country line dance that we associate with the movement style spread from Texas during the 1970’s and 80’s as a quad square dance that mimics line dance formations of American Indians and some African tribes. Some of the most notable movements were the “the Four Corners” and the “Tush Push”, both of which began as square dances and evolved to fit the line dance format. These grew into a cultural phenomenon through dance caravans, as well as expanded in clubs during the disco era. Modern Line Dance is defined as “dancing synchronized choreographed steps by a group of people not physically touching and which may move to repeat the same pattern, facing up to four different walls” (Strickland) The music that accompanies Line Dance is used to cue a series of tags, phrases and restarts in the patterning of steps. The most common association is twangy, deep sounds that manifest in string instrument strums. hums and accented vocalists. Each sequence, also known as “wall”, will last from anywhere between 32 to 64 beats and signal the beginning of a new section of movement. Line dancing is characterized by each dancer dancing independently by