There are two basic movements to the Mambo - the Forward Basic Movement and the Cross Body Lead Movement. Variously coupled or combined and often with small variations in body position, these two movements create the Mambo moves. A move is loosely defined as any sequence of eight steps. When you combine the two basic movements, they make up the eight steps of the first move. Mambo is written in 4/4 time (4 beats to a bar of music), and therefore four dance steps to a bar of music. In Mambo you don't move on the first beat but on the second.

Quite different in its beat and with more syncopation than the rhumba, the mambo first succeeded in Mexico thanks to the Cuban bandleader Damaso Perez Prado. Prado started to attract local attention in Mexico in 1948 with his first mambo recordings. His popularity quickly rose due to the success of his song "Que Rico El Mambo" a year later. Mambo soon took over Mexico.

The mambo was introduced in the States by the Latin orchestras of New York, who were well aware of its success in Mexico. After leaving the Jose Curbelo Orchestra to form their own respective groups, Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente jumped to make their own mambo recordings which found immediate popularity in New York ballrooms.