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| Accra's salsa craze |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jul-09 Jive |
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Salsa is a celebrated Cuban dance, which is gaining a great deal of popularity among the youth in Ghana, especially in Accra. Salsa, some believe, plays a vital role in enhancing or maintaining relationships as it creates the atmosphere for intimacy. The dance is referred to by many as a perfect tool for intimacy, excitement and exercise.
Salsa refers to a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the Caribbean (especially Cuba), Latin America and North America. It is danced to Salsa music.
There is a strong African influence in the music and the dance. It is usually a partner dance, although there are recognized solo steps and groups of couples dance, with frequent exchanges of partner.
Creativity and social dancing are important elements of Salsa but it appears as a performance dance too. The name “Salsa” is the Spanish word for ‘sauce’, connoting a spicy flavor.
The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and sensuous as dancers try to express their feelings through a string of movements that create inextricable bonds. So what is it that fascinates the youth about this interesting dance?
Firstly, it looks great! Specifically, it makes the ladies look good. The Salsa moves display the lady beautifully. The moves are stylish and ladies are always showcased as the centerpiece of the dance.
They love it for the attention they get, and guys love it because making their partner look good makes them look good too! Any style of dancing that makes the dancers look good will inevitably be popular.
Salsa performers throughout the world, in their stage shows and demonstrations, display a certain panache that is lost in our local setting.
Again, the moves, or turn patterns, are very simple and effective. Rather than having complicated entwining turns like other exotic styles, the patterns are straightforward and the steps are simple. It is this simple elegance that makes it also easy to learn. It is often said that the best dance moves are the simplest moves that make people look great!
Mike, a teacher of Salsa dance posits that “when doing the partner dance it is graceful thus the partners do not need to travel over the dance floor but usually occupy a fixed area of the dance floor, rotating around one another and exchanging places. Dancing across a large portion of the dance floor is a necessary part of performance, but in most settings it is bad etiquette to take up too much floor by traveling.”
There are a number of joints in Accra where Salsa lovers go to perfect their rhythmic moves. Paloma Hotel, Hypnotiq Lounge and Coconut Grove Regency Hotel are just a few of the places beginners visit.
The gig at Coconut Grove, which is run by Citi 97.3 FM, is called Salsamania and there is no cover charge. It is well patronised by all manner of people looking for respite in the rigorous harmony of this fetish called Salsa.
One of the unique features of Salsa is that it is danced on a core rhythm that lasts for two measures of four beats each. The basic step typically uses three steps for each measure.
This pattern might be quick-quick-slow, taking two beats to gradually transfer the weight, or quick-quick-quick allowing a tap or other embellishment on the vacant beat.
This is not to say that the steps are always on beats 1, 2 and 3 of the measure. It is conventional in salsa for the two musical measures to be considered as one, so the count goes from 1 to 8 over two musical bars.
“This is why there is the usual count, one, two, three, pause and five, six, seven, pause”, instructor Mike explains. “When we start our first step on the first count, we call that ‘dancing’ or ‘breaking on 1’. When we start our first step on the second count, we called that ‘dancing’ or ‘breaking on 2’.”
In Salsa there are moves known as “Shines” which simply refers to footwork or the intricate footwork pattern dancers display when they break away from their partner in the middle of their dance.
Shines is derived from the fact that the dancers will polish their shoes to make them shine in order to show off their footwork! Mike explains that “there are hundreds of shine variations, some are well known and others are challenging & done by only a few dancers. The number of shines available is endless, limited only by the imagination and creativity of dancers.”
Jennifer, a lady who has made Citi FM’s Salsamania, her second home says “Salsa is the best thing that ever happened to me. Ever since my fiancé cheated on me I have found a new love in Salsa. It gives me the opportunity to meet many nice people and also get over the heartbreak when concentrating on the wonderful steps. Salsa gives me the energy to go on and gradually, I am finding myself.”
“My week is not complete without my Salsa,” says Quao, another salsa enthusiast. “It has strengthened my love life and made my leisure more fun.”
Some people outside the world of the ‘salsa craze’ disagree with the assertion that it solidifies relationships. Keith a hotelier says “Salsa can destroy a relationship due to the way strangers even grab themselves on the dance floor. It is too flirtatious.” Sandra Obeng, a national service person also believes that the “way the men brush their bodies against the ladies could be a recipe for disaster in any relationship...”
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