Can someone explain the difference between salsa and mambo? I've heard that salsa evolved as a form of the mambo and I know many steps can be used in either dance. Is the difference the speed of the dance and/or the difference betwee the emphasis on the 1 beat or the 2 beat? Are there other distinctions?

I have heard several different authoritative definitions of the difference; and each of them was different. The most common explanation I have heard was that there really is NO difference.

I now await the replies of others more knowledgable than I.

Jerry

Salsa is a combination of many styles so I have read. One version ,just a faster mambo. There are different styles of footwork depending where you are and who is teaching it. So no one can say one kind of foot patterns are correct. Not being a Salsa dancer i'm probley wet behind the ears. Cheers

Here's my two cents on this...

Like cdroge stated, it really depends on where you live and who is teaching. However, I feel Mambo is definitely more defined and consistant than salsa. Salsa is more of a club dance, and can vary greatly from place to place. A lot of salsaleros will tell you that salsa is more grounded in the hips and knees than mambo which is seen primarily as a ballroom dance. There's more of an open or non-existent frame with salsa, while the mambo frame is a typical latin frame.

As far as steps, almost everything is interchangeable between the two. Salsa does start on the one beat, while Mambo is on the two (just like the check forward in cha cha and int. rumba). Therefore, you hold on the 4 in salsa, and on the one in mambo.

Salsa music might be a little faster, but not by much. I think it's also harder to here the beat in a lot of salsa music. That might be due to the incredibly loud volume the music is usually played at in clubs. I've danced a lot of mambo in studios and some salsa in really authentic Latin clubs, and I personally find Mambo easier to dance. I think the fact that you start on the two helps a lot to slow the dance down. You can wait for the one, and then begin to move on the two beat instead of trying to anticipate the one beat and move on it.

Mambo is also one of the five American style ryhthm dances done in ballroom competitions while salsa is usually reserverd for clubs. (Yes, I know, there are salsa competitions as well)

I'm sure many others will have opinions that agree and disagree with mine, but like I said, it's just my two cents. My favorite response on this subject that I've had from professional instructors is someone who told me that salsa is what you dip your chips in.

Great responses. Thanks for helping clear that up for me.

I took a workshop with Bob Powers last week. He described the Mambo/Salsa dancers in different parts of the country dancing to different parts of the music. He then played a CD for us, starting with the basic percussion instrument (I dont remember its name, but the rhythm was something like 23 5 78), then a secondary instrument (its rhythm was something like 12 4 6) and continued to add more instruments, isolating them and showing how each had a different rhythm, so that figuring out just what was one and what was two was pretty difficult. He did admit that if you were in competition, you absolutely had to find the 2 beat and break on that, but otherwise, he said it is an academic discussion.

Jerry

how can i dance salsa because i love her

If you love her, how can you not dance salsa with her?

:)

Jerry

Oh my gosh, that's what amused me, is true that I'm not into ballrooms or dance competitions but Salsa and Mambo are two very different things. I don't even know how a teatcher that respetc herself can mix those two rithms together.

"Oh my gosh, that's what amused me, is true that I'm not into ballrooms or dance competitions but Salsa and Mambo are two very different things. I don't even know how a teatcher that respetc herself can mix those two rithms together."

Not just dance teachers, Tito Puente supposedly denied that there was such a thing as salsa music distinct from mambo music.