Salsa y control: donde la danza clásica y la salsa convergen

Abstract

Nowadays, Latin rhythms are avant-garde in dance championships around the world, which has been encouraging high levels of practice and education. Versatility and awareness to execute are essential within the current bodily demands of dancers from various techniques. Ballet and Salsa are two dance genres with different origins, however, from a technical perspective and considering the evolution of both throughout the years, they both meet at the interpreters’ performances when searching for body stability and technical execution, according to settings’ demands. The following work shows evidence from the creation process of seven salsa choreographies, performed by nine dancers at an international championship context. This project was developed by a Training Laboratory, designed to integrate Ballet technique and Salsa dance technique. The methodological approach for this process was a qualitative assessment about the dancers’ individual performances, through participant observation, aiming to identify the development of the dancers regarding versatility and body awareness.