The Rumba and the Cha Cha Cha are Ballroom Latin American styles like you would see on TV programmes such as "Dancing With The Stars" or the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing". Whilst Salsa is a Street Latin dance you are more likely to see at a social dance event.
For a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the various Latin dance styles head over to our detailed info page.
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Salsa
Salsa is a fun and vibrant Latin partner dance that emerged from South America. Salsa is generally credited as originating from Cuba. Modern Salsa has influences from many parts of the world.
Today, Salsa is the most popular Latin partner dance in the world!
Salsa is known as a freestyle/Street dance, so once someone is acquainted with the basics they can social dance with others, removing the need to have a dedicated dance partner. Salsa music is upbeat music, that evokes good feelings and motivates you to move your body. The tempo for social dance music is about 160-220 beats per minute, so it's generally regarded as a medium to fast dance style.
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Be warned, Salsa dancing can be addictive. Hope to see you in class sometime soon!
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Here's a couple of our favourite Salsa dancers at the Chile Salsa Congress:
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the Cha Cha Cha
The Cha Cha Cha is perhaps the most popular and recognizable Latin dance style developed and standardised in Ballroom studios world wide. This dance, the Cha Cha Cha is one of the five dances from the Latin American genre in Ballroom dancing. In NZ and most parts of the world we refer to this genre as "International Latin".
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The Cha Cha Cha is known as a fun and flirtatious Latin partner dance. It has a distinctive use of fast straight leg action and pronounced Cuban hip action. Alongside the fun and flirtatious feelings it may evoke, this dance style also has a great sense of poise.
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The tempo of music danced to is in the range of 110-130 beats per minute, and although this may seem a lot slower than the tempo of Salsa, its important to realise there is a syncopated step in Cha Cha Cha. The syncopated step is known as the chasses, in which you step on a half beat. In practice this makes Cha Cha Cha feel quite fast to dance.
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The Cha Cha Cha is a favourite of many dancers, and if only one dance could be picked to sum up Latin American Ballroom dancing we think this dance stands out as an all rounder!
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the Rumba
The Rumba is also one of the Latin dance styles developed and standardised in Ballroom studios world wide. Once again, the Rumba is one of the Ballroom Latin American dance styles from the "International Latin" category of dances.
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​The Rumba is by far the most beautiful and elegant dance in the Latin American style. It is a slower dance style, danced to music at around 100 beats per minute. Having more time to move between steps allows for a greater use of light and shade or expression, with particular attention paid to perfecting foot and leg actions. This distinctive look and use of the legs and feet makes the dancers appear very grounded and connected with one another as they glide across the floor.
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If attention to detail, and perfection is your thing, then come and join us for a Rumba class!
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Please enjoy this stunning show dance performance by former world Champions Troels and Ina.
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