Cuban salsa is a constantly evolving dance form with new moves being invented somewhere almost every day. While it was a pure Cuban product for a long time it has now transcended national boundaries where dance schools around the world produce new moves on a regular basis. Since there is no regulatory body determining what can be classified as Cuban salsa and what is not acceptable in terms of structural changes, it is easy to come up with new moves but difficult to align all the various moves that are put under the Cuban salsa umbrella internationally. Just because someone creates a YouTube video and writes the words “Cuban Salsa” in the description field does not mean that the move displayed can be led and followed when dancing Cuban salsa socially. As a result, while a lot of YouTube videos try and claim to deserve that title, only few of them do and the quality of dance schools which publish some of their moves online can often be seen directly from the videos they publish.
Generally speaking, there are three stages to teaching Cuban salsa and establishing a Cuban salsa dance school which will be discussed in this blog series:
Initially, students need to learn the absolute basics which are moves that have clearly come from Cuba. Dance schools build a relationship on how well they teach these basic moves and how closely they follow the Cuban structure. While it is true that even within Cuba there are significant differences on how these moves are executed, it is for instance very easy to spot when a dance school teaches some sort of cross-body fusion, executing Enchufla on the spot, leading Exhibela on the 3 etc. That is to say, while styling and certain lead elements may differ to some extent, body position, timing and signals should be very closely related internationally and follow the Cuban template for the elementary moves as they are the building blocks of the dance. There is a fine line between changing small details of certain moves to evolve the dance and doing something that is simply not part of the dance and should be classified as a separate dance form altogether. A lot of people call themselves “fusion dancers”, “improvisers”, “freestylers” etc. hoping that their moves are picked up and copied by others as they are being seen as experts who have the ability to change aspects of the dance without affecting the form of dance. However, few people have the knowledge, skill and experience to really evolve Cuban salsa despite its apparent freedoms and while there is a plethora of videos and resources out there most Cuban dancers will only consult the most established schools with a track record for staying true to the fundamental structure of the dance. Even though many promoters and dance schools will try and entice people by showing how creative they are with a set of brand new moves, it is actually by showing that they have the ability to copy, recreate, teach and perform the fundamental aspects of Cuban salsa before that people will give them the credibility to be able to come up with new Cuban salsa moves.
