What is Salsa?  According to www.dancintime.com, salsa was one the important dances in the 1900s.  It originated in Cuba. Salsa eventually made its way to the United States. The development of salsa completed the “Spanish Harlem” of New York.

Today’s salsa has several styles, ranging from the New York style, Miami style, L.A. style to Cuban style. The L.A style has more flashing dips and flips. The New York is mambo with the use of footwork and a lot of body movement. The Miami style is the style with “taps” between steps. You’ll know this style by the hook of the elbows of one partner to another. The Cuban style is the style of partner dancing with rhythmic music. There are also other styles.  The Casino style is the more circular movement and turn patterns with use of holding hands. In the Columbian salsa style there is not a lot of tricks, spins, or turns; it is a much calmer dance where the bodies of the dancers are almost touching each other.

Carlos Colon, who helped choreograph the musical, taught Bob Jones students how to salsa dance. He started them with simple 1, 2, 3 steps and then worked their way into some spins and turns. Theresa Andrzejewski, a student from the salsa dance lessons said, “It was a lot of fun. I think a lot of kids weren’t expecting to enjoy themselves as much as they did.”

This is Carlos’s third year at Bob Jones teaching students how to dance. He currently teaches dance classes at the Madison Ballroom Dance Studio Mondays / 8:00- 10 p.m., new classes beginning every first Monday of the month. You can learn more about Carlos’s dance classes also at CarlosColonSalsa.com or BBSHuntsville.com.