Where did salsa dance originate from?
That is a subject of contention among salsa dancers, the subject isn’t as simple as it seems. The name “salsa” has only been in use since the 1970s but the dance has been around since at least the 1950s, depending on how you see it. In New York people will say that salsa is just a modern name for mambo. In Cuba they don’t call the dance salsa, they call it “casino”. In fact although salsa dancing has certain universal features, it is danced somewhat differently from country to country and even certain cities have a particular salsa style associated with them. The story behind the dance is something people might disagree on, but in general in the 1920-50s Cuban music styles such as son (pronounced “sown”), mambo and cha-cha-cha became very popular and there was a big mambo trend in the United States, especially in New York. Remember the I Love Lucy show where Ricky Ricardo was a Cuban bandleader living in New York? That’s how popular Cuban music was. Over time the musicians in New York
