salsa dance is a mixture of a variety of
different styles and cultures hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re at central
paws dance school to learn more about
salsa dance
tell us who you are and how you first
discovered dancing I’m Sonia kiraku and
I first got into dancing when I was kind
of young and my parents put me into the
folklore classes to learn a little bit
about you know where we’re from that
kind of got me started I liked it I
didn’t think it was the best thing under
the Sun but then as I grew up and
started seeing different forms of dance
I realized like it’s something I really
like it came easy to me and since then
I’ve been marked tell us about the style
of dance that you do
I’ve been training a little bit of
everything but the style that I really
specialize in was salsa & salsa is a
dance that I would say allows you to
explore different dances at the same
time example you can put in some tango
moves into your salsa or some moves from
Brazilian Zook or some moves from
cha-cha that’s why it’s called salsa you
can kind of mix it in and therefore for
me that’s very interesting because I
don’t get bored and don’t feel like oh
my god it’s one-dimensional and this is
it there’s always room for exploration
and creativity so that’s like really my
favorite part about that dance what
would you say is the foundation of salsa
dance well the roots of salsa are coming
from African and Cuban dancing basically
it’s a mix in Cuba you know way back
when they started calling it Afro Cuban
dance and that’s where I would say it
evolved from many other countries also
want to claim a little bit of credit for
what they used to call Mambo is now
called salsa and yes what evolved into
that word it was originally known as
Mambo different terms were used and so
you know that the history is that we
started in Cuba and that dancing spread
is slowly but surely as people start to
travel more and there were more there
was more immigration you know those
dances started to go everywhere namely
New York and in New York you know you
have a meltdown of all these cultures
and what happens is they started to
share each other’s rhythms and music and
styles of dance and slowly but surely
it’s start to become more mainstream
where is salsa dance today today salsa
is probably one of the most dance dances
around the world which is it’s crazy to
imagine that when even I started to
dance it was still kind of underground
you knew it if you were Latin American
or if you know you went to Cuba for
vacation or Dominican Republic you came
back it wasn’t in all the dance schools
it wasn’t in advance it wasn’t in all
the clubs now everywhere you go there’s
a dance school there’s a dance event I
mean there were also the artists like
Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez at the
time that had the Latin vibe going on
it’s just something that I think you
know whether you’re a child or an older
person you can appreciate it
what is its relation to merengue and
bachata it is a different rhythm a
different dance it’s not the same it’s
just that it’s it’s connected in culture
I would say you know you have Dominican
people that are dancing merengue is kind
of attributed to to their culture but
they also listen to salsa explain to us
the difference between dancing with a
partner versus dancing alone that’s the
beauty of this dance you get to dance
with people you look at them you share
you know something with them you know
it’s fun to dance by yourself you go out
to a club and you get your groove on and
you don’t have to worry about you know
if it’s right or wrong and if it
affected your partner
salsa you know there’s a real connection
you’re actually following the guy that
the girl is watching for certain signals
and leads as we call them and he will
decide you know she’s turning if she’s
going this way if she’s going that way
that’s what makes it exciting because
you really have to be in focus with your
partner you actually really share that
song and that dance and that touch with
the other person which was great it’s as
special thank you very much thank you
different styles and cultures hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re at central
paws dance school to learn more about
salsa dance
tell us who you are and how you first
discovered dancing I’m Sonia kiraku and
I first got into dancing when I was kind
of young and my parents put me into the
folklore classes to learn a little bit
about you know where we’re from that
kind of got me started I liked it I
didn’t think it was the best thing under
the Sun but then as I grew up and
started seeing different forms of dance
I realized like it’s something I really
like it came easy to me and since then
I’ve been marked tell us about the style
of dance that you do
I’ve been training a little bit of
everything but the style that I really
specialize in was salsa & salsa is a
dance that I would say allows you to
explore different dances at the same
time example you can put in some tango
moves into your salsa or some moves from
Brazilian Zook or some moves from
cha-cha that’s why it’s called salsa you
can kind of mix it in and therefore for
me that’s very interesting because I
don’t get bored and don’t feel like oh
my god it’s one-dimensional and this is
it there’s always room for exploration
and creativity so that’s like really my
favorite part about that dance what
would you say is the foundation of salsa
dance well the roots of salsa are coming
from African and Cuban dancing basically
it’s a mix in Cuba you know way back
when they started calling it Afro Cuban
dance and that’s where I would say it
evolved from many other countries also
want to claim a little bit of credit for
what they used to call Mambo is now
called salsa and yes what evolved into
that word it was originally known as
Mambo different terms were used and so
you know that the history is that we
started in Cuba and that dancing spread
is slowly but surely as people start to
travel more and there were more there
was more immigration you know those
dances started to go everywhere namely
New York and in New York you know you
have a meltdown of all these cultures
and what happens is they started to
share each other’s rhythms and music and
styles of dance and slowly but surely
it’s start to become more mainstream
where is salsa dance today today salsa
is probably one of the most dance dances
around the world which is it’s crazy to
imagine that when even I started to
dance it was still kind of underground
you knew it if you were Latin American
or if you know you went to Cuba for
vacation or Dominican Republic you came
back it wasn’t in all the dance schools
it wasn’t in advance it wasn’t in all
the clubs now everywhere you go there’s
a dance school there’s a dance event I
mean there were also the artists like
Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez at the
time that had the Latin vibe going on
it’s just something that I think you
know whether you’re a child or an older
person you can appreciate it
what is its relation to merengue and
bachata it is a different rhythm a
different dance it’s not the same it’s
just that it’s it’s connected in culture
I would say you know you have Dominican
people that are dancing merengue is kind
of attributed to to their culture but
they also listen to salsa explain to us
the difference between dancing with a
partner versus dancing alone that’s the
beauty of this dance you get to dance
with people you look at them you share
you know something with them you know
it’s fun to dance by yourself you go out
to a club and you get your groove on and
you don’t have to worry about you know
if it’s right or wrong and if it
affected your partner
salsa you know there’s a real connection
you’re actually following the guy that
the girl is watching for certain signals
and leads as we call them and he will
decide you know she’s turning if she’s
going this way if she’s going that way
that’s what makes it exciting because
you really have to be in focus with your
partner you actually really share that
song and that dance and that touch with
the other person which was great it’s as
special thank you very much thank you
Please follow and like us: