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Some like it hot: Salsa is spicy, sexy, and making waves in dance.

Article Excerpt
Ask any salsero and they will tell you salsa is more than a dance. It is life, the motion of intense rhythm, being in the beat and on top of things. Today's salsa is unquestionably shaping tomorrow's social dances. The passion for salsa is worldwide: It is danced throughout Europe, South America, Canada, South Africa, Japan, and China--with as many variations as there are people dancing it. There are so many conferences, congressos, classes, and clubs that a salsero can be busy 24/7.

Salsa is an addiction. So claims Juliet McMains, a professional ballroom competitor and teacher, dance scholar and assistant professor at Florida State University, and a devoted salsera. "As a dancer, you are looking for a dance where you, the music, and your partner can lose all boundaries. Where you become danced by the music, where you cannot tell who initiated what--ending in a space that is outside any intellectual discourse."

However salsa can begin with an argumentative discourse. It goes like this: "Do you dance on the '1' or the '22'?" (meaning do you step out on the "1" or the "2"?). Whichever count is stepped on determines which beat will be held, since salsa has six steps to eight counts.

Beware the answer. It can make of break a potential partnership. It can determine the logo on your T-shirt. It determines whether or not yon can flip the "V" (the old victory sign) with two fingers. It will stereotype and geographically situate you: The "2s" are New Yorkers; the "1" are from Los Angeles and Miami. Passions run high but, in the end, as one...

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