In all of dancing, no name causes more confusion than the term "Salsa Dancing" ! 

The problem is that there is more than one Salsa dance. Salsa Dancing includes two dances, Salsa and Merengue.

Just as Western music has its Twostep and Polka, Salsa Dancing has two dances as well. Unfortunately one of the two Salsa dances just happens to be called "Salsa"  (for example, visualize the confusion if Western dancing was called "Western" and "Polka"). For that matter Swing Dancing has Swing, Jitterbug, Lindy.

To help keep the two dances apart, we generally call Salsa by its other name Mambo. Although technically there are some differences between even Salsa and Mambo which involves mostly an extra flick of the foot to Salsa, but not Mambo, for descriptive purposes we refer to them as the same.

Now did that make any sense ?

Mambo is another name for Salsa. When someone says they dance "Salsa", they usually mean "Mambo", not "Merengue" (see Salsa Dancing above).

Brought to fame in movies like "Dirty Dancing", "Mambo Kings", and "Salsa" as well as the recent Vanessa William's movie "Dance With Me", the Mambo and its amigo, Merengue, are the two major dances used in Latin clubs.

Danced to the sexy, pulsating Salsa rhythms, Mambo has patterns similar to Cha Cha, but is danced much more quickly with lots of hip motion.

We offer Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced classes.

Salsa Dancing is exceptionally popular in Houston. Salsa music with artists like Gloria Estefan, Tito Nieves, the Mambo Kings, and Tito Puente is on a big upswing these days and so is the dancing ! Salsa / Mambo uses syncopated footwork combined with quick flick kicks and lightning turns to express the incredible energy of the music.

Merengue and Mambo are the two major Salsa dances, handling different ends of the music tempo spectrum. Merengue is known as the "Walking Dance" since you take a step on each beat of the music. Featuring terrific hip motion and fun patterns, Merengue is a major dance in the Latin clubs! If you are a gringo, "Hot Hot Hot" by Buster Poindexter is a well-known example of a Merengue song.

Merengue is lots of fun and very easy to learn.

We offer Beginning and Intermediate classes in Merengue.

The Latin Carnival is the SSQQ name for "An Introduction to Latin Dancing" class, a sort of Latin Potpourri. 

We cover 4 famous Latin dances : Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, and Bossa Nova. Each week we will teach one of the four dances for four weeks. The class is aimed at Beginners who simply want to become more familiar with the various dances without having to spend an entire month on just one type of dance.

Cha Cha is a longtime SSQQ favorite because it is easy to learn, fun to dance, and it can be used to a wide variety of music. including energetic Salsa rhythms. "Oye Como Va" by Santana, "Cuban Joe" by Tito Puente, and the more recent "Hollywood Nocturne" by Brian Setzer are good examples of Cha-Cha music.

Cha Cha works perfectly to Disco music and many hits from the '50's and '60's with Latin rhythms ("See you in September", "Johnny Angel", for example) and even works well to certain Western music using a Latin background tempo such as Brooks and Dunn's "Neon Moon".

Noted for its sexy Cuban hip motion, Cha Cha has a light, flirtatious feel to it, plus it's easy to learn and follow.

We offer Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced classes.

Cha-Cha is an all time favorite dance because it is easy to learn, simple to dance, and can be used to a wide variety of music including Salsa music.

Noted for the flashy Cuban hip motion, ChaCha has a light, flirtatious feel that makes it sexy and fun at the same time !

Cumbia has many forms ! There is a Mexican Cumbia, a Colombian Cumbia, and Cuban-born Desi Arnaz once danced the Cumbia on "I Love Lucy". Let's just say the Cumbia has many different South of the Border influences.   

Many of the songs sung by the much-missed artist Selena are considered Cumbia music. Cumbia is very popular in Mexico. The Cumbia most closely resembles Samba rhythm, but the footwork and hip motion are distinctly its own

Tejano Dancing is very popular in the Houston area. A cross between Salsa Dancing and Western dancing, Tejano is a Walking Dance also known as the Mexican Polka. Frequently Tejano is taught in a class that also includes Cumbia, another Latin-American dance step.

Samba is the national dance of Brazil. It is most famous as the featured dance in the fabulous "Carnival" held annually in Rio de Janeiro. We might add the "Dirty Samba" was renamed "Lambada". 

Samba is a very sexy dance when done right. Using Triple Step footwork to fast-paced music, Samba is also pretty tricky to learn. It is characterized by pulsing hip motion with an up and down bounce to it as well.

Rumba is the romantic Latin Dance with Afro-Cuban origins. It is danced to gorgeous, highly sensual music. Celine Dion's recent song "Falling Into You" is a popular song with a Rumba-feel to it.

In addition Paul McCartney's "And I Love Her" and Elvis' "It's Now or Never" are also classic examples. "Besame Mucho" is a famous instrumental Rumba as well. 

Featuring a lovely swaying hip motion, the essence of Rumba is control because the music is slow which requires great concentration.

Similar to Rumba in many respects, Bolero differs from Rumba in that is slower and much more dramatic. Bolero is more of a performing, theatrical dance.