Over thew past couple of years, I have spent browsed various websites around the world trying to find an answer this question. One of the things I learned is that there is no simple answer. You can't used timing to separate the two since depending on where you are, salsa dancers may break on either 1, 2, or 3. The salsa dancers at local clubs where I live break on 2. Even some sites (especially from NY) use the terms mambo and salsa interchangably.

I've concluded that "ballroom" mambo is just a standardized style of salsa dancing in the same way that EC swing and jive are standardized styles of swing dancing. In both cases, the club versions are more relaxed and open to interpretation.

Blair

From my limited experience, there are a variety of things getting called salsa. My teachers taught the mambo as being three quicks and a hold; the salsa as QQS -- a sort of sloppy mambo. just my two cents'....

I agree with Blair, salsa breaks on different beats depending on where you are, and who taught you.

[QUOTE}I've concluded that "ballroom" mambo is just a standardized style of salsa dancing in the same way that EC swing and jive are standardized styles of swing dancing. In both cases, the club versions are more relaxed and open to interpretation.

Blair[/QUOTE]

Suprise! I agree with Blair again! Mambo is standardized salsa.

I was once "warned" to be careful about doing Mambo patterns while out Salsa dancing, though. The real Salsa dancers can tell that it is Mambo and sometimes look down at Mambonicks. That wasn't my experience, but the woman I was talking to was more experienced than I was!

No, when you break.

Salsa is break 1,2, 3 hold 4.
Mambo is break 2, 3, 4 hold 1.

Still QQS, as far as I know.

Yes, the timing is different, but the steps tend to be different (although they're certainly interchangeable). Salsa tends to be looser, freer, more liquid in feel. Mambo's sharper.

I was formerly an adjudicator with Fred Astaires', now I perform shows cooking while I'm dancing, and the dance varies from Salsa to Cha cha to Cumbia. First of all, there is a huge difference between Mambo & Salsa, Mambo being a down & dirty dance, and Salsa being suave and sofisticated. Every dance has it's own characteristical style, and should look and feel completely different to you. I have always told my students that I should be able to stand outside a window (not being able to hear the music) and know what you are dancing just by your movement! Steps are a dime a dozen, so do not think that they make the dance.

Also, don't confuse "Standardized" with "Authentic" Latin dancing, has standardized dancing will teach you how to relate on dance to another and not teach you how to interpret the music properly. For more information, feel free to contact me.
Email: Team_ChefLuis@chefluis.tv

Hi TheDitz,
thank you! I didn't know that it was about the break. I thought that the difference was that by salsa a tap was danced at 4.
My danceteacher always teaches mambo (that's what he says), but actually he's teaching salsa, because he counts 1, 2, 3 hold 4.

best wishes
salsalover



Posted by TheDitz:

No, when you break.

Salsa is break 1,2, 3 hold 4.
Mambo is break 2, 3, 4 hold 1.

Still QQS, as far as I know.

I learned Mambo from a New Yorker, Anita Arkin in 1949 while teaching at an independant dance studio in L.A. where we broke on '2' and held '4&1', but Mambo did not become popular in L.A. until 1955 or so. When it finally began being taught at the Chain Studios, they taught breaking on '1' holding '3,4', just like Salsa today.
The BREAKING is really an accenting of the beat; which gives the dance a syncopated feeling when you break on an 'UP' beat '2'.
If you are used to breaking on '1' as they did in the 1950's in L.A. Chain Studios Mambo, then you are on the Salsa beat, accenting the DOWN beat '1'.
As far as the dance moves go, I see no diference except Salsa has evolved into a more flexible dance than Mambo used to be and Salsa begins to look and feel more like Swing/Lindy dancing only done to a Latin beat.
If you do not dance in syncopation to Mambo/Salsa or to Swing/Lindy, you will never experience the rhythmic euphoria of dancing counter to the music.
Syncopated dancing, breaking on the UP beat, is like walking in a refreshing rain in the natural, while breaking on the DOWN beat is like wearing a rubber raincoat in the rain, if you get my meaning!

Joe Lanza

I was wondering what people might think of the "Eddie Torres" mambo style seeing as how counts 123-567 but "breaks on the 2" (the motion/direction)

...and/or what everyone might think about the idea that the dance/music "salsa" really does not exist and that it was just a marketing scheme to repackage an old product??? This is what Tito Puente (The mambo king/ rey del timbal) has stated many times over the years before his death.

my dance teacher alwasy taught mambo as quick, quick, slow, hold

going on beat 2

so its 2, 3, 4, 1 hold

and his salsa is pretty much same technique as mambo, but goes tap, two three, hold

timing going on the 1

so its, 1, tap, 3, 4

ball tap when going forward, and heel tap when steping backwards

he says that that is the way most people do salsa, but he also sed that what we call salsa, somebody else might clal mambo and vice versa

its all very hazy