The Almasabrosa style

THE ALMASABROSA TECHNIQUE AND STYLE

Almasabrosa represents a stylistic identity that, although constantly evolving, is the synthesis of many years of study and experience, during which the elements deemed most valid and pleasing have been selected according to a particular artistic taste refined over time.

Study with some of the best teachers in the world (according to a few generations of dancers) has been developed over the years to pass on what has been learned.

Cuban salsa, afro, rumba, son, “in line” Salsa, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, New York, cha cha, pachanga, men’s style and women’s style.

For each of these dance styles a basic technique has been developed for the steps, the figures and the body movement, one that leaves room for each student’s expressiveness, and then progressively adds stylistic elements in relation to the level of learning.

Technique is the foundation on which to build style. Over the years the Almasabrosa style has been appreciated by world-renowned teachers and dancers, and the choreographic choices are always particularly appreciated by experts and non-experts alike.

THE ALMASABROSA METHOD

The Almasabrosa method is the result of research into the best way to succeed in passing on both technique and style.

By studying and experimenting with different approaches, a precise method has been developed for each phase of learning which, despite the excellent results, continues to be updated in some details and perfected every year.

The teachers who follow the Almasabrosa method, once they have acquired a certain preparation to be able to pass on the basics, are constantly supported by the artistic direction in overcoming any teaching difficulties or in best adapting the programmes to the individual classes.

The uniformity of the method allows everyone to follow different teachers with the same confidence and to more easily access the more complex levels.

Stylistic differences in salsa

Salsa, which musically was born between the Caribbean and New York, as a dance blends its Afro-Cuban roots with some distinctly European characteristics.

For several years now, some competitive dance federations — which under the name of Latin American include salsa, mambo, rumba (comparable to the bolero but at the complete opposite end from the traditional Cuban rumba) and cha cha — have begun to distinguish “Caribbean dances” from Latin American ones, doing justice to the tradition of these dances which, regimented and somewhat distorted by federation rules, lose the characteristics of a social and popular dance and above all the “sabor” typical of Afro-Cuban influences.

In any case, the attempt to codify the dance in order to pursue a competitiveness typical of sport, giving rise to the hybrid of competitive dance, then clashes on the level of taste and art, provoking inevitable divisions that translate into a multiplicity of federations, none of which can claim the privilege of being worth more than the others, since no stylistic primacy is recognised in any of them.

Salsa, together with cha cha, mambo and rumba, is an expression of popular culture and therefore of traditional Caribbean folklore.

Although it is a universal language, because it has common foundations shared all over the world by many different peoples distant from one another in culture and geography, it naturally takes on different styles depending on the place where it is danced and on the various artists who, over the years, have brought their way of interpreting it to the attention of audiences worldwide.

One can observe, for example, how in Miami, where the main Latin community is of Cuban origin, the style is similar to the traditional Cuban one, while Los Angeles has a strong Mexican influence, unlike New York, where the main Latin community is of Puerto Rican origin and where the mambo in particular, undergoing important influences from other dances (modern jazz, tap, pachanga …), has found a further evolution of its own,

One of the effects of the multiplication of salsa schools over the years has been to generate a bit of confusion among students who, moving from one school to another for various reasons, wonder why dances called by the same name are sometimes so different. This diversity is natural, since even in the places of origin themselves stylistic differences can be found between different schools.

To give another example, in Puerto Rico one may find a great stylistic difference between the dancers of various schools and the people who attend the patron-saint festivals, where one can instead appreciate a popular style in some respects similar to the Cuban popular one.

In Cuba itself one can appreciate different styles between those influenced by an academic training from the national school of art, by dance, by cabaret or by afro, and the simple street dancer influenced simply by popular traditions, by rumba or by santería, rather than by hip hop and reggaeton.

It also happens that in different cities, or even in different neighbourhoods of Havana, the same Rueda figure is called by a different name, or that different figures are associated with the same name; we can therefore imagine what may then happen around the world. This in itself is not a bad thing, because diversity is a richness.

It can be said that, just as in the past Salsa was born from the meeting of two such distant cultures, today it continues to undergo constant evolutions with influences from various dances. But perhaps the phenomenon is made so popular around the world precisely by this interpretability. The fact remains that it originates as a popular and socialising phenomenon and should be considered as such.