Which is why Brian on several occasions called it 'Street Salsa'. By street, I think he means streets in LA?

Given that the ballroom hold is a "Y" shape and the AT hold is an upside-down "Y" shape, it's difficult to see how you can synthesize them. Port some leg moves from AT to BR, possibly?


Mambo?


That's just the basic forward-and-back step - nothing to do with ballroom.

It's the sort you have when you've got your consonants in a twist - possibly entangled with your knickers, but who's to say?

^^^

I believe a very fast rhumba would look more like a cha-cha, but hey-ho what do I know? It's more like an impression I get from watching the SCD versions of Rhumba and Cha-cha.

Hmmm. Could be. I assumed it was just spin, like the people all saying "salsa is a Party Dance / It's all about Party / Let's Party / Party Political / etc" in the training clips.



To me, salsa simply isn't a Party Dance. That's Samba.

Oh boy, I am totally mortified.

For me, Samba seems more like a 'harvest' dance. So yeah, a party dance in that sense I supposed.

Salsa is a FUN dance, much like cha-cha, but less structure to it and less discipline to 'get it right'. You can stoop a little (like John Barnes), be flat footed (Mark's Ramp's problem when it came to ballroom but completely acceptable when doing Salsa), no difficult rhythmic change (like Samba), etc..

Rumba and chacha share the same inherent clave rhythm as salsa - they're all cousins, basically, musically.

But the dances themselves are very very different of course.

So you should be - get your Y fronts sorted out before you get down and dirty, will you?

Had been watching the 'figures' of Salsa dance and that of cha-cha and rhumba in youtube.

I would say Cha-cha and Rhumba are like siblings, but Salsa is more like a twice-removed cousin to Cha-cha and Rhumba.

No, I don't mean they do an AT step in a ballroom hold or vice versa - agree that couldn't work (so synthesis was probably the wrong word). I meant that they will do a routine which has some AT and some Ballroom tango,


Don't pretend to know anything about salsa, beyond having had one or two lessons - just searched for ballroom salsa on youtube.

I never wear y-fronts, jock straps, yes but only on 'special occasions'.

I have no idea about the technicalities of the dancing but based on the training footage I'm most looking forward to Ali & Brian and Natalie & Vincent for the Salsa. I also hope that Phil does enough to get him through this week.

On the Foxtrot side I'm not that excited about any of them really. I would like Craig to make a decent stab at it for his own sake.

Sure - sorry, I wasn't having a go at you, I just wondered what that woman on the vid was on about...

Aaah you guys *group hug* nice

Is Salsa an 'easy' dance or does it just look easy cos there's less emphasis on posture etc

Salsa isn't an easy dance at all. Cross-body (NY/LA) style is extremely technical and can take years to master. Colombian style has very fast and complicated footwork and cuban style has lots of body movement and fast, intricate figures. However the strange hybrid dance they call 'salsa' on SCD does look easy as they just seem to cobble together bits of other dances, don't bother about proper salsa footwork (and I'm talking about the pros here too) and stick in a few turns and shoulder shaking. Even the salsa show they had last week was rubbish - I don't know where they found them. I see better dancing most nights of the week. I suspect they were chosen so as not to make the pros look bad. Or am I being too cynical?

Yes Brian and Ali will be dancing to Quimbara. Not only is it authentic it's also one of the fastest salsa tracks there is and certainly doesn't lend itself to cross-body style. Surely they're going to slow it down? If it's at the original speed and she copes with it I'll be incredibly impressed.

As for Oye Como Va - I've heard a salsa version of it (but then I've heard salsa versions of most Beatles songs - appalling; and part-time lover by Stevie Wonder - surprisingly good - so that doesn't mean much), but it's normally a cha cha I believe. Will one of the couples be using that then?

I think with Salsa (up until Brian joined SCD) none of the pros on the show have done much of it and my biggest pet hate year after year is that they do a mixture of samba and cha cha more than 'proper' salsa - the salsa everyone raves about on here of Mark and Karen's had far more samba than original salsa to it for me.

The dancers who danced last week - well I am a dance teacher from a family of dance teachers and my phone rang hot with my brothers and sisters to talk about how bad was that !! As usual with the BBC it's a case of who you know and sadly NOT what you know when it comes to dance 'experts' and the choreographer who was also one of the dancers in that group know Flavia.

http://www.boogalu-video.com/

I don't really care how 'Salsa' the Salsas are if I'm honest!

If it feels like a good Salsa to me and puts a smile on my face (for the right reasons), then that's me happy!

I can't see it being Cuban - but you never know.


I thnk it was being played over Vincent and Natalie's training footage, wasn't it?

But shouldn't that be what the Samba does? Or most dances, to be honest?

Salsa is as much or more a "proper" dance than the dancesport lot, and I think it'd be great to see - for example - a guest judge with salsa expertise talking about it, rather than Len.

5 series later and I still get me Salsas and me Sambas and me Cha Chas mixed up .But am making progress, I now recognise a Quickstep and a Foxtrot from a waltz
I even now now a Paso from a Rumba.
So this year who knows what I could learn

For me it works for the Samba too!

Other dances I have a much better idea of what I am looking for technically.

Maybe if we are going to see some good Salsas tonight this will change for me!