From the origins of European civilization dancing was a very important and habitual activity. It was one of the favorite forms of entertainment and a way of re-enforcing the existing social bonds amongst people. When European people moved to America this tradition was maintained. This fact is true especially up to the first half of the 20th century, when the pressures of modern life and alternative forms of entertainment displaced dance as the principal means of having fun.

In the past, dancing was considered a necessary social skill, and the higher up that person was in the social ladder the more time he/she would spend at the dance floor. Also, dance as a social activity (unlike today), was not segregated by age: on the contrary, at a dance or ball the grandmother, the mother, and the daughter were expected to participate. Since most dances were private affairs to which you were invited as a guest, in the less formal situations even children were welcomed. In this regard Europeans shared with the African people a passion for dance as a means of communal bonding, and not just for entertainment only.

Because most people dance to the rhythm in music, it is the rhythm in the music that suggests the kind of physical movements and expressions that the dancers may adopt. Liberal physical expressions in public situations were frowned upon in western (as well as other) cultures. So, in addition to the constraints imposed by the clothing fashions prevalent in European countries (especially for women) -all the way up to the early 20th century- there was also a great deal of sobriety in people’s physical behavior in public.

This very important fact alone determined some of the rhythmic characteristics dance music would adopt in European culture.

European dances were commonly in the 2/4 or 6/8 meter (i.e.: a cycle of two beats per measure) and in 3/4 meter (three beats per measure.) Most of these dances would be in a moderate tempo that would not make strenuous or scandalous demands on the amateur dancer.

These were the dances that European colonists performed from the 1500’s to mid to late 1800’s, before changes began to be introduced by African influences.

One of the most popular dances in Cuba, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in Latin America was the contradanza, whose predecessor the contredanse, in its myriad incarnations, remained fashionable for several centuries in France and other parts of Europe. The contredanse may have originated in England as the country-dance (think of Greensleeves’ rhythmic patterns, which are in the 6/8 meter.) French and British colonists carried it to America. The contradanse as it was performed in France and elsewhere, was a highly formal and choreographed affair that involved several couples arranged in lines, squares or other figures. Manuals were written with instructions for the steps and movements the dancers were to perform.

Compare this European formality to the ritual and tribal dances in Africa and it would seem unlikely that such different dance concepts would ever fuse. Yet after the gradual introduction of musical influences brought by people of African and Spanish descent in America, specially in Haiti and Cuba, a series of progressive changes would occur to the European-based contredanse that would lead to new dance forms, including today’s Salsa: music whose rhythmic characteristic owes more to the African Congolese than to the French or the British people.

The intermediate stages leading from contredanse to Salsa were, in brief:

- A particular Haitian version of the French contredanse, influenced by African elements, which would later be adopted in Cuba (new rhythmic motives such as the cinquillo were introduced here),
- A Cuban form of the contradanza that would later morph into the danza by slowing down sections of the original contradanza, and by incorporating further African rhythmic concepts (such as the clave)
- The dissolution of the multi-couple formations allowing for individual couples to dance alone.
- Finally, from rhythmic ideas born of the danza the habanera would emerge, also the danzón, and from the danzón today’s Salsa.
- This extraordinary musical syncretism would involve the use of rhythmic patterns born in Africa and applied to the melodic and harmonic vocabulary of western music. It also involves the simultaneous use of European instruments such as the violin, flute, etc. with instruments of an African origin, such as hand-drums and other non-European percussion instruments.

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