A History of Salsa

One Man's Word

Latin music was suffering its first major depression in the 1960s. Displaced by Beatlemania, the Twist,
and the Rock 'n' Roll craze, it looked like it was never going to recover. Then, as one of those great
surprises that only life can spring, a single man's inspiration would change all of that.

Izzy Sanábria worked as a graphic designer at Fania Records, which was then regarded as the Latin
Motown. He also MC'd for the Fania All Stars Band and produced the influential Latin NY magazine.

The worldwide sensations of Mambo and Chachachá had prompted a flood of Cuban-derived rhythms
fused with Jazz. But the differences between these rhythms were too subtle, indistinguishable to
untrained ears. They generated a lot of confusion and only served to fracture the market. A case of
jumping on the bandwagon and the wheels falling off.

It was against this backdrop that Izzy realised that all the rhythms needed to be gathered together under
one roof, to eliminate the confusion and make the concept easier to sell. He decided to use a term to
describe them all and needed one that would capture the imagination and make the marketing simpler.
He chose “Salsa”.

His unique access to the spoken and written word proved pivotal in driving the public acceptance of
salsa. Izzy used salsa as an interjection while he MC'd, and as a description of the genre in Latin NY
magazine. His choice of word was not unreasoned, though salsa does lose a bit in its translation. “Sauce”
or “saucy” doesn't quite cut the mustard; our closest equivalent could be to “kick it” or “punch it”. In music,
that's what we might say to encourage a band to pump up the energy of a performance.

Izzy didn't coin the word: there has been earlier documented use of the word “salsa” including Beny
More's parting phrase “Hola, Salsa”, and the song “Échale Salsita” by Ignacio Piñeiro. Many
musicologists refer to the existence of these prior uses, but fail to tackle why he chose it and to what
purpose.

Jazz, a major component of salsa, reveals its roots from the American Deep South with kitchen-derived
words and phrases like “smokin'”, “jammin'”, and “now we're cookin'”; exclaimed by band members when
they felt a real groove going. “Salsa” might be no different. However I subscribe to the view that
exclamations in (the genre that became known as) salsa were used in a more structured manner. The
music has some general properties: an introduction, a melodic phase, a more rhythmic / percussive
phase called a montuno, a reprise of the melodic phase, and an ending. Exclamations were used to cue
changes in phase especially into the montuno, which is the section highest in rhythmic energy. The
common cues include “candela” [fire], “salsa” [sauce], “sabroso” [tasty], and “azucar” [sugar]; the latter
most famously used by Celia Cruz.

So when Izzy Sanabria chose the word “salsa” as a hold-all for rhythms and (by implication) their
associated dances, it already existed as a music metaphor. Salsa was and remains an expression of
greater energy and excitement.

But salsa's definition continues to change, a dynamic that students of the field fail to address. It has
expanded to include non-Cuban music and dances like Cumbia and Merengue. It has become a symbol
of nationhood, political belief, and cultural identity. But what is more fascinating is the rate at which the
definition is changing.
The corners of the world are drawing closer. More people from more different countries and cultures are
accepting salsa and adopting it for their own, redefining it to suit their needs in the process. It is a
phenomenon called transnationalisation. New definitions emerge all the time, join with others, and are
reabsorbed in a continuous process. In essence salsa is now a self-redefining term. This has a special
impact on the concept of ownership (which I'll talk about later). Evidence from Izzy's own webpages
indicates that Izzy didn't intend for it to turn out that way.

Needless to say the idea worked, and through his efforts Latin music experienced a revival. That is until
the Fania All Stars performed at the Cheetah Club in Manhattan, which was filmed as “Nuestra Cosa
Latina - Our Latin Thing”. The revival became a boom, culminating in the now famous concert at Yankee
Stadium to 20,000 people in 1973.

History has not been kind to Izzy Sanabria. The spotlight of our interest seems to have passed him by in
favour of others more powerful or glamorous. Perhaps you might think that I overstate my case. I call it a
response to others who haven't stated his case enough.

Remember… just one word.

Salsa: The Dance

Salsa in its elemental form is danced to four beats using three steps, each one beat long. The remaining
beat can either be tagged onto the end of the preceding step (resulting in a quick-quick-slow count), or
can contain an adorning movement, called a highlight. Steps can be travelling or on the spot; a bit like
groovy walking three paces at a time with a pause thrown in. Walk like that to time and you’re dancing
salsa.

Its very simplicity underlies its extreme flexibility; the sheer amount of personal choice. Just as you can
walk in any direction you choose, so you can dance salsa on the spot, in straight lines, or in turning
paces. The remaining beat can be highlighted with a tap, kick or pause. Note: A step is when you put
your foot down and move your weight onto it (foot placement with weight transfer), a tap is when you put
your foot down but don’t move your weight onto it (foot placement without weight). In many Latin
countries, couples even choose which beat they would like to dance on, and it need not necessarily be
the first beat.

All this might sound like rhythmic anarchy and it would be, were it not for one vital constraint. Salsa
music and its progenitors has always been music for dancing. Its cooperative heritage has
engendered a belief, in Latin America at least, that everyone else has an equal right to enjoyment on
the dance floor. This alone prevents outbreaks of destructive mayhem. Instead this attitude (especially
towards one’s partner) welds the forces of spontaneity, individuality and musicality together to form the
atmosphere that Latin music is renowned for.

Just as the music has maintained its vitality by absorbing other influences, so has the dance. Apart from
other Latin dances like the merengue and cumbia (which the term salsa sometimes encompasses),
salsa bears some marked similarities with lindy-hop, swing and hustle. It has even proved capable of
absorbing elements of ballroom Latin dance and Argentine tango. Quite astounding.

Flavours of Salsa

The way salsa is danced varies significantly depending where you’re from and how you’ve learnt it. In the
main, salseros from different backgrounds can still dance with each other, at least at a basic level.
British salsa is primarily anchored around the back basic, turns are executed on the second beat after a
“wind-up” movement on beat one and are biased anticlockwise. North American salsa is built around the
latin basic and many early combinations contain turns to the right. Salsa from the Caribbean and Latin
America is presented more commonly as a walk, resulting in a much more circular in movement and the
turns being slower. Within this are the main stereotypes of the Cuban and Colombian style, that is having
an action that digs deeper into the floor or one that travels lighter above it respectively.

Before we lose our sense of perspective, these generalisations are mean to demonstrate the richness of
the dance, not to typecast. Bear in mind that individual styles also vary within regions, so adopting a
“definitive” style of salsa and trying to squeeze your students into it would be an amusingly futile gesture.

The problem with learning

People born and raised in a Latin American culture acquire salsa in a passive learning process; through
constant immersion. It is my opinion that they come to understand the dance differently: as a series of
walks instead of individual moves.

For those who are not fortunate enough to have this opportunity (like myself), we have to learn it instead.
As mentioned before, early learning tends to occur best in a structure. To this end you will often find salsa
being taught as a series of steps and moves because it is more meaningful to the student. But at some
point, a different teaching angle should be used to offer the student an opportunity to look at the dance
through a native dancer’s eyes, thereby offering the student the best of both worlds. Often the final
process is not carried out, either because its importance is overlooked, or because it is easier for the
teacher to carry on in the old manner regardless.

A little comment about leading and following

Social dancing in couples is mainly a phenomenon of Western European culture. By social dance I mean
one that has structure but is not executed in the form of routines i.e. basic rules which once understood
allows two individuals to dance together and flexibly determine their choreography, even if they had never
met before. This demands that each move element of the dance possess a unique identifying start
signal. Initiation of the signal and compliance with it results in the co-ordinated execution of the move
element by both partners.

When a couple takes to the dance floor, both partners cannot initiate at the same time, neither can they
both comply. Therefore one partner initiates and the other complies. This is known as leading and
following respectively. Traditionally the lead role has been assumed by men and the following by women,
although this has begun to change: where women are forced to lead due to a dearth of men, and because
the social roles of both genders are being redefined.

The lead (known as la marca meaning “the mark” in Argentine Tango) for a move can take a variety of
forms, usually presenting itself as a change in pressure (increase/decrease) at the points of partner
contact, or in the body position of the leader relative to the follower. The most elegant leads are clear
and considerate to the follower without being obvious to the casual on-looker. The challenge to the
follower, in choosing to comply with the signal, is in finding ways of self-expression whilst dancing within
its constraints.

Consequently salsa demands the abilities of lead and follow of its dancers in order for it to be executed
on our latterday club floors in a social context.