It was in Wiki ?-- oh then I guess it must be right !--

Firstly -- the discussion is about MUSIC-- not technique .

And , if you wish to discuss the techn. differences-- many of the teachers in the states, abandoned the " bent knee " theory and adopted a much softer approach to the execution of Cuban style motion . --Yes , its still around to some degree , but you cant change it over nite .

And lastly , your cavalier approach to the latin genre, is much of the reason why todays proponents really dont get it !!

You also should know why that approach was used-- it dates back from the late forties/fifties , and was thought expedient ( mainly for the over sixties, the large majority of the clientele ) .

Not ALL teachers subscribed to that theory . I, for one , trained all my teachers with a totally different concept .

And by the way-- a micro dot ? -- do you really believe that the number of people subscribing to the Intern.. style of latin, outnumbers the whole of the latino population ?-- what fantasy world are you living in ?

( I am not, by the way, condoning the way they dance in general.,just an observation )

I would say that the International Style of dancing which Social Dancing is based on as well out numbers Street Latin by a mile. In Moscow alone it was reported there are a 100,000 registered dancers. Just from memory I believe the IDSF claimed to represent a million. It was reported on their web site and is most likely still there.Lets be asolutely truthfull here. Isn't it a fact the the best exponents of street latin have come from a grounding in the International Style which includes yourself.

Are you actually saying that there are more people dancing Intern. latin world wide than dance " street " forms ?-- how preposterous !

Compared to about 40 million latinos ??

Ya know-- Cuba, PR, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, etc. to name but a few-- not even mentioning the states or europeans , who ALL dance salsa for e.g. and various forms of Rumba and Son

Your estimate cant even begin to compare .

Organizes dancers. What is the population of China or Japan plus the whole of Europe. Thats if you are going to mention Cuba and so on as an estimate.That doesn't sound so preposterous now does it.

Yes it does

By the way, why do you make statements on which you have little or no knowledge and is only hearsay and because one of the Soc. says so ?-- I belong to 2 majors-- and most everyone in higher positions that I have spoken with, have little if any exposure;--so- if it were empirical, I might entertain any other thoughts--

but-- the best exponents of street latin NEVER, EVER danced Intern style ( Intern. was barely around in the states , when I started in the fifties and that is empirical ! )

Those of us who took the indigenous route ( and in the b/room world, that number is still minute ) at a different point in our careers, have tried to pass on, and also engender, the the core elements of the genre .

Terence. 1.37 Billion Chinese alone. Add to that 127.77 Million Japanese

They are not" ALL " dancing anything !-- the (true numbers are not even comparable), let alone Intern. style-- whereas 95% of latinos grow up dancing a very basic form with their parents .

The number of congresses in salsa for e.g. outstrip, world wide , the B/room comps by in an inestimable margin-- not to mention the weekly attendance on a world wide basis-- no contest !!( and, unlike b/room comps-- they ALL dance for 3/4/ 5 days, many times till 4 and 5 a.m.)

You need to check out the salsa site locations on the web, in the u.k. alone is staggering-- the b/room world is still stuck in the fifties ( but without the numbers ! )
London, has more people attend Salsa clubs in one nite than the b/room world does in a month-- and this is a universal happening.
Why do you think the major Soc. have incorporated it into their Syl ?-- and it grows week by week .
Add to this, the production of latin music ( salsa-- merg-- bachata etc ) is light yrs ahead of the B/room in sales .
You are really out of touch with reality .

Something that's being largely forgotten in this debate is that dances ultimately come to reflect the people doing them - their own culture and traditions of their immediate teachers.

Ballroom latin is not really a dance of the latin american countries, it is a dance of the British teaching tradition, inspired by ideas those teachers saw, that has further evolved under the influence of competitors, first from Britain and later from other, mostly European, countries.

Similarly, Chinese ballroom. The inspiration may be English style ballroom, but if people are doing these dances out in the countryside, they are doing local versions of them. Sure, there's a resemblance and probably literal compatibility of some patterns, but the look is different. When ballroom becomes a folk dance, it becomes a folk dance through a process of style transition - not unlike when the folk dance ideas were transitioned into studio dances to become the "international" (as a euphanism for British Imperial) ballroom tradition.

exactly my point !