Salsa is not easily defined. Who invented salsa? The Cubans, Puerto Ricans? Salsa is a distillation of many Latin and Afro-Caribbean dances. Each played a large part in its evolution.

Salsa is similar to Mambo in that both have a pattern of six steps danced over eight counts of music. The dances share many of the same moves. In Salsa, turns have become an important feature, so the overall look and feel are quite different from those of Mambo. Mambo moves generally forward and backward, whereas, Salsa has more of a side to side feel.

There are many styles of Salsa taught today. The most popular ones in London are the Cuban Style and the CrossBody Style. Both Styles use the same steps but combine them in a different way. Cuban Style tends to be more round and cross body more linear. Also cuban style can be danced on any beat of the music and dancers often switch between the beats, while CrossBody stays on the first beat of every bar.