Salsa dance is a mixture of Latin and Afro Caribbean dances, an evolution of a variety of music from several cultures. These fusions of different dance styles and expressions generated dances such as Mambo, Danzon, Guaguanco, and Cuban son originating on the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Additionally, salsa dance styles combines African rhythm with Spanish melody for the freedom of expression and joyful exuberance found also in the dances of the Caribbean and Latin America.

Make no mistake, salsa dancing is fun, very socialable, and has a passion that will stay with you for a lifetime! The benefits of salsa dancing to health, fitness, coordination, are shown to be excellent especially for improving fitness, flexibility and toning leg muscles.

Salsa classes and social dancing will make you burn calories, increase metabolism and of course make you sweat. Salsa dancers tend to be healthy and keep their weight at a reasonable level. If you do salsa dancing as an exercise you will also develop good agility, balance and coordination as well as losing weight.

Not only that, salsa dance is popular because the salsa couples doing the salsa dance steps are not required to travel around the room. In fact, couples who take up too much space on the dance floor are seen as rude and inconsiderate to other salsa dancers.

Salsa dancers usually dance in a slot and do many flowing continuous circular turns. The basic footwork is a fairly simple with a walking motion pausing on every fourth beat and is a playful dance that is not difficult to master.

Dancers are a bit like collectors, picking up patterns and steps from instructors, friends, new acquaintances, and videos and adding to their knowledge of dance movement and technique. It does not take long to build up a repertoire of salsa dance moves that will impress your family and friends.

It is important to note when starting out with salsa that dancers are not concerned with making sure to follow the correct dance steps, but are more concerned with enjoying salsa dancing.

There is of course competitive salsa dancing for those who wish to participate and there are world class competitions which feature the best dancers in the world. This requires a lot of training and dedication and competitors normally start from a very young age.

For anybody who is thinking about starting salsa remember salsa dance is a great aerobic exercise, even for those who are dance challenged. Salsa dance is great and fun aerobic exercise and is suitable for anyone and any age. You and anybody else can easily salsa your way back to having more energy, increased muscle tone, less weight and most importantly good health.

Patricia Meira

Patricia Meira is a professional Latin Dance Instructor who has ten years experience in teaching Aerobic Latin Dance.

Patricia Meira
06 Sep 08

For more information on Aerobic Latin Dance and to sign up to the MeiraFitness Aerobic Latin Dance Newsletter send your message to Patricia at :

info@meirafitness.com

Source: http://meirafitness.com

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