Latin dancing slowly catching on

It may be slow in coming, but salsa fever is gradually catching on in Malta.

The Cuban-inspired dance has already taken the UK by storm, with most cities offering lessons as its popularity grew at the end of the 1990s.

It was first introduced to Malta by Fuego, but a group of dedicated followers are now hoping to give it a more professional touch by organising more formal classes.

Instructor Edward Camilleri originally learned to dance Latin at the Fuego Salsa Bars in St Julians and Qawra. He soon got the hang of it and was encouraged to set up classes for those who wanted to learn more.

The classes at Fuego, he said, were different to the ones he was holding at the Naxxar council. Those at Fuego were mostly fun classes, aimed at attracting people to the club. His classes, on the other hand, were against payment and aimed only for people who really wanted to learn to dance.

At his classes more individual attention is given and the classes are more detailed. He teaches salsa, merengue and pachata - all lively Latin American forms of dance.

Mr Camilleri said that, unfortunately, response to his classes was still disappointing in spite of the fact that whenever he told people about them, they sounded interested in taking them up.

Mark and Simon Grima, owners of Entertainments Ltd, which runs the Fuego Salsa Bars said that before they opened Fuego, they had seen an opening for Latin music in Maltese night life.

They took a chance and invested in the clubs, which paid off.

The policy from day one was to have a mix of pure and commercial Latin music.

The clubs immediately started giving two-hour lessons free of charge three times a week, something they still do.

The lessons are attended by 80 to 90 people in summer and an average of 20 in winter.

Lessons at the St Julians club are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and at the Qawra club on Wednesdays and Thursdays in winter and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in summer.

The lessons, they said, contained an element of fun and could be attended by any age group.

Salsa's roots

Salsa has many roots, but the style that gave rise to and shaped it more than any other is the Cuban son.

Son originated in the 1800s in the mountains of Oriente, a Cuban province. It evolved from the changuí, a form of music rooted in African music brought to Cuba by the African slaves in the early 1900s and carried on by their descendants.

As the Africans moved to Havana, the son became a popular music style of the working class.

By the 1920s, son was the most popular music and dance for Cubans at all levels of society. By synthesising African and Spanish music styles and appealing to all Cubans, son essentially became Cuba's national music.

By the 1930s, the popularity of son and mambo spread to Puerto Rico where musicians incorporated the style into their own. As Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians emigrated to the US, especially New York, they took that style with them.