What would it take for salsa to have a revival?

Doing a bicycle tour through switzerland this week. Main reason is I ride from social to social - each day. I know these venues already, but normally without having a holiday week some are hard to do for me. Two of them are mambo on2 with festival level dancers, one is 2 floors salsa/bachata with a few good dancers plus I can hit the congas, one is 2 floors cuban/bachata in a classy location, one was last saturday 2 floors salsa/bachata with good music but meh dancers, one is new location and I will see, one is bachata only with good dancers but that doesn’t count here. It helps Switzerland is a small country so going from from city to city is easy.

But in my german hometown there are only mediocre socials where you don't get a good impression of the state of salsa. So it really depends on your location.
 
In the UK it's overwhelmingly SBK or Cuban salsa. Maybe the Cuban salsa scene is of a good quality - I'm not qualified to judge - but the SBK is a nightmare for salseros.

London is, fortunately, a different world. And a few other UK cities also have salsa events, but they are definitely in the minority compared to the country as a whole.
 
DJ Yuca said:
In the UK it's overwhelmingly SBK or Cuban salsa. Maybe the Cuban salsa scene is of a good quality - I'm not qualified to judge - but the SBK is a nightmare for salseros.

London is, fortunately, a different world. And a few other UK cities also have salsa events, but they are definitely in the minority compared to the country as a whole.
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I dance Cuban as well as linear, and outside London and a few big events or the odd good Cuban teacher, generally it's not of good quality. The usual UK salsa issues apply to Cuban scene, mostly the SBK thing.
 
Gaviota said:
"“Salsa… consolidated itself in the ‘70s as kind of a one of the most significant musical cultural contributions of Puerto Ricans to the world, to the United States, to Latin America, but that music was indebted to plena, to jíbaro music, to bomba music into aguinaldos,” says Moreno."

And no mention of Cuba in the whole article.
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Offbeat said:
That shows which generation of salsa dancers you belong to :P.

There was a time when everyone knew or did it!! You saw it everywhere. Don’t know if NYC scene also was infected by it.
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It wasn't part of the social dancer arsenal, but one would ALWAYS witness it among the ballroom Salsa crowd (Eddie Torres dancers, etc). Going back to the 1980s. I honestly couldn't say if it was a reality previously.
Offbeat said:
Yeah we should all start doing t-Stance (10 times in every dance) just to irritate @DJ Yuca :D
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Bad Bunny did 30 concerts in a row in Puerto Rico alone this summer, this is called a residency as I learned. Ruben Blades and others joined him for the salsa part. His fellow puertoricans really seem to like him a lot:

 
Offbeat said:
That shows which generation of salsa dancers you belong to :P.

There was a time when everyone knew or did it!! You saw it everywhere. Don’t know if NYC scene also was infected by it.



Yeah we should all start doing t-Stance (10 times in every dance) just to irritate @DJ Yuca :D
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This is funny but I think it also means people today know what a t-stance is: when I switch hand hold to do salsa caleña, some dancers think I am setting up for a t-stance - then they realize - not - but are still a bit confused.
 
Give a free public salsa lesson in your town, every week, continuosly ! This way you support and build up a salsa scene. I do it since 2 years, and it is so much fun ! The result is more and more salseros at your place. It works !
 
Back to original Q of this thread, Beginner Hell I think is the biggest reason salsa has lost its shine. Sadly schools and teachers don't seem to care, like everyone suffers through to make it, so newbies pay your dues! Well, clearly many look elsewhere instead.

So I'm curious, for those of you also into others dances that seem to have pulled people away from salsa, like Bachata, Zouk, Kis, etc... what's their Beginner Hell? As hellish as in salsa?
 
Another reggaeton star, J Balvin, recorded this reggaeton-to-salsa track with Gilberto Santa Rosa. There's dancing in the video. A small 2M views after a month, is that good?

 
SBK is where we are now. I am going to a small event tonight that advertises 3 salsas and 2 bachatas. No kizomba at least. About the best we have right now for salsa. I don’t mind a mix if salsa is increased!
 
sunsoul said:
SBK is where we are now. I am going to a small event tonight that advertises 3 salsas and 2 bachatas. No kizomba at least. About the best we have right now for salsa. I don’t mind a mix if salsa is increased!
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The most popular bachata social here plays 4 bachatas and 2 salsas. I been to it only twice. It has been going on for ten years or maybe be little more. Very few salsa people go to it because there are multiple options to go for straight up salsa events.

Despite salsa not being what it used to be till early 2010s, we still have plenty of live music and straight up salsa events. Hard to keep track of all different salsa events. My guess is we have at least fifteen or more a week. The only SBK event I can think of is once a month. Never been to it though organizers are old salsa friends. There are different dedicated events for bachata, zouk, and kizomba. I don’t think together they would total more 4 or 5 a week.

Curious how it is in other big metros.
 
Offbeat said:
The most popular bachata social here plays 4 bachatas and 2 salsas. I been to it only twice. It has been going on for ten years or maybe be little more. Very few salsa people go to it because there are multiple options to go for straight up salsa events.

Despite salsa not being what it used to be till early 2010s, we still have plenty of live music and straight up salsa events. Hard to keep track of all different salsa events. My guess is we have at least fifteen or more a week. The only SBK event I can think of is once a month. Never been to it though organizers are old salsa friends. There are different dedicated events for bachata, zouk, and kizomba. I don’t think together they would total more 4 or 5 a week.

Curious how it is in other big metros.
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You are in a city in the US?
 
Gaviota said:
Rauw Alejandro's new album has this banger as the closing track. Probably firmly in the camp of too hard for the linear crowd, but wow

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If you could throw together few tracks in Spotify playlist that are too hard for linear crowd, I'd like to hear.
I assume that's something you'd dance to? With someone else or solo?
Or for listening pleasures?
 
Offbeat said:
The most popular bachata social here plays 4 bachatas and 2 salsas. I been to it only twice. It has been going on for ten years or maybe be little more. Very few salsa people go to it because there are multiple options to go for straight up salsa events.

Despite salsa not being what it used to be till early 2010s, we still have plenty of live music and straight up salsa events. Hard to keep track of all different salsa events. My guess is we have at least fifteen or more a week. The only SBK event I can think of is once a month. Never been to it though organizers are old salsa friends. There are different dedicated events for bachata, zouk, and kizomba. I don’t think together they would total more 4 or 5 a week.

Curious how it is in other big metros.
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The events I havdxzces to are 44% salsa snd Bzchata, the rest merengue, or 40% salsa, 45 bachata, and even split of merengue and kizomba. The only straight salsa option I have is a 6 hour round trip.
 
In Barcelona, there are a couple of salsa only events which I think are monthly. Everything else is bachata or SBK.
 
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