What country and city should I visit to practice salsa dancing?

Question:May be you can advise some special schools or courses which teach salsa tips to foreigners. Or may be you know about some special events devoted to the subject to happen this summer?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: May be you can advise some special schools or courses which teach salsa tips to foreigners. Or may be you know about some special events devoted to the subject to happen this summer?

I agree with Caballero326. The "foreigen" countries with the strongest salsa cultures are Cuba, Puerto Rico and Colombia. The US has strong salsa culture in New York, LA and Miami.

One thing to keep in mind is that the way people dance salsa also varies with the culture. New York, LA, Miami, Cuba and Colombia all have their own unique dance style. Puerto Ricans dance a lot like New Yorkers due to the extensive contact between New York and Puerto Rico. Miami is a lot like Cuban since it was created by Cubans who moved to Miami.

New York, Puerto Rican and LA style salsa all move in a straight line back and forth. LA style has more dip, flips and acrobatics whereas New York style si danced "on2" and is more "classic".

My personal favorite is Cuban style salsa which is called "Casino" by Cubans. They have been dancing casino since the 50s and the name "salsa" only came into use in the 70s, so they still call the dance "casino". In the US people usually say Cuban-Style salsa. The Cuban dancers move in a circular pattern. Their moves are chacterized by lots of complex tangling up and unravelling which requires rotation to work. If you don't rotate, you break your arm. I personally like the Cuban music better too.

Assuming that you are in the United States you probably can't legally take a trip to Cuba due to the US ban on travel to Cuba. But you can always go to Miami. Miami style salsa is very close to Cuban-style since it is the Cuban population of Miami that has created it.

There are also other options for learning Cuban style salsa outside of Cuba. If you are looking for a fun vacation that you can combine with salsa lessons here are some events you might consider this summer:

There is a 1 week salsa cruise from Vancouver to Alaska August 13-20, with salsa classes, parties at night and stops during the day where you can disembark and hike on glaciers, or whatever you want to do.
http://www.hotsaborcubanodance.com/cruis...

The Cuban world salsa congress, Cubamemucho, will be having various events this summer
http://www.cubamemucho.com

Krakow, Poland May 1-4
Odessa, Ukraine July 4-6
Nottingham, England August 1-3
Toulouse, France September 5-7
Budapest, Humgary November 7-9

Here are some videos of various salsa dance styles so you can see what I mean about the differences and similarities.

New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUSD6yC5P...

LA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B-3YOacP...

Colombia:
Here is Colombian-style and has a lot of things from LA Style and NY style. This couple is basically putting on a show, rather than social dancing. In a crowded club you don't have room for dips and drops. What is unique to this style is the footwork, which I believe comes from boogalu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEuhOR_Ar...

BUT here is how the Colombians I have met ACTUALLY dance salsa. It is much more like Cuban style than the Colombian salsa danced by dance instructors and at competitions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHg-YtrOZ...

Cuban Style salsa (Casino)
You can see that they rotate or she rotates around him. Also at about 1:19 they switch to dancing afro-cuban Rumba for 30 seconds before going back to casino. At 3:00 minutes they do some tembleque followed by rumba again and then back to casino. They do this in response to changes in the rhythm section during the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30RzT2wn...

Here is another look at casino.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850RmnQNC...

And here is Rueda de Casino where they dance casino as a group. One person leads and calls out the names of different moves. The couples have to perform them in perfect coordination because they often switch partners at the end of each move. But it's not the same as choreography because any move can be called at any time, and any couple that knows the name of the moves can join in the rueda, even if they've never met anyone else in the group before. Imagine, if you knew the names of these moves, you could join them in this dance and it would work perfectly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrl1uAGw8...

Mexico

Any South American countries as long as they're not 'communists' and 'militant' and all that...Mexico is the best place because it is very near here...You can try Tampa or St. Petersburg in Florida if don't want to spend to spend too much cash...

I assume that you are a foreigner from the United States, but I can't confirm clearly....

However......

Some of the good salsa dance classes, lessons, and workshops are in Miami, Florida (famous for its Cuban salsa), or Los Angeles, California (famous for its LA style of salsa), New York (famous for its Latin-hustle style of salsa called New York Salsa, known for its very smooth cross-body leads), and finally Chicago, which has a lot of salsa dance classes/workshops, including those focusing on salsa's sister, the mambo, which is now popular thanks to Dancing With The Stars.

Big cities also hold what I call "salsa congresses", which are actually 3-4 day confrences focusing primairly on salsa, through lessons, classes, workshops, CD/DVDs of music for salsa and instructional videos, and spectacular professional salsa dance demonstrations and shows, as well as social dancing featuring salsa dance music either by live bands or by a dee-jay. Congresses may even hold amateur and/or professional competitions focusing on salsa dancing.

Therefore you will gain dividends by attending at least one salsa congress. If you can't afford the hotel rooms for these events, try going to workshops or classes only or get a pass only for events if you don't want to pay for hotel accomodations.

Hope all of this helps and good luck finding a city to salsa dance to.....

Country: You can't go wrong with Cuba or Puerto Rico. It's a tie. Colombia ranks second. City in the U.S.: Miami, Florida.

Estuviera yo en tu lugar me voy yo para Cuba, la cuna de la salsa!!!