Salsa Dancers vs. Ballroom Salsa/Mambo

From time to time, ballroom dancers show up at salsa clubs ready to dance - we know, because they always stick out in the crowd (and not in a good way). There are many differences between salsa dancers and ballroom dancers who learn salsa, including (but certainly not limited to) styling, footwork, movement patterns, and musicality. Please watch the video below for an idea of technical perfection of Mambo/Salsa from one of the leading authorities of Latin ballroom dance. Corky Ballas may be a god of the ballroom dance world, but he goes completely unknown in the world of salsa... for good reason!!

Salsa dancers tend to love the music they dance to, and are familiar with artists, bands, and song titles and lyrics. Experienced salsa dancers are so familiar with the songs that they are able to use what they know to interpret the music or emphasize a certain point in the song. Ballroom dancers, even highly trained ones, are much less concerned with the music, and emphasis is placed more heavily on technical perfection. They practice syllabus steps and competition routines to songs that many of which are knockoffs of real songs by cheap bands for purposes of "strict tempo". Click here to go to danceshopper.com and listen to some examples.

This type of Mambo or Salsa can be nice for performances, such as the Mambo part of the American Rhythm Ballroom Competitions or shows, but is not practical for everyday dancing. Unfortunately, ballroom instructors market this style of Mambo (and usually they teach Salsa similarly, just on 1) as the real deal - but you won’t learn how to dance at a Salsa club from a Ballroom studio. It is certainly not respected as an authentic form of salsa by any type of salsa dancer (whether it be LA style, New York Style, Cuban Style, Street Style, etc.). I feel like I can fairly evaluate this not only from video clips online such as this one, but from my collected experience watching ballroom dancers in Salsa clubs, teaching ballroom and ballroom “salsa” / Mambo, as well as my teaching with SalsaIndy…

If you dance like this in a club not only will you get a lot of strange looks from salsa dancers in the crowd, but you will probably make a lot of people angry because you will be taking too much space and stepping on everyone. Salsa dancers know that space in the club is very limited, and we all do our best to be respectful of those around us (even though we do inevitably run in to each other from time to time)…

Am I coming down too hard on ballroom dancing? I would say no, because I still love ballroom dancing. I can appreciate the differences in style between ballroom and salsa. I just think ballroom studios need to at least advertise that what they teach is not social dancing for the clubs so that students are aware that there is a difference.