Every ballroom dancer has either asked or been asked the question, "What is the difference between the Salsa and the Mambo?" The simple answer is that the Salsa can break on either count 1or 3, or count 2 if doing the "New York" style, while Mambo must break on count 2. Another difference is the patterns that are danced. Mambo patterns are codified and copyrighted by franchise dance studios and mostly non-Salsa in appearance. The basic moves are virtually the same patterns in both dances up until the immediate post-beginner stage, where they begin to look different in appearance. The Mambo often looks more like ballroom dancing, with proper dance frame, straight spines, and Latin Motion by the book according to whoever wrote the book (usually a ballroom dancer and not a native Latino). Salsa is often thought of as street dancing and patterns are as abundant as those in the West Coast Swing and are often taught without ever haven been written on paper. Frames are more relaxed and Latin Motion is often second nature and learned from childhood exposure to Salsa dancing. Of course, open competition Mambo is allowed to express Latin characteristics more freely than Mambo school figures. Both the Mambo and Salsa are equally difficult to master, but they each strive to achieve two end results in appearance and execution.
The more interesting question should be, "Why are there two styles of dance that are so closely related?" At least part of the answer lies in imported Cuban and Puerto Rican music and the events that took place in New York City during the late 1940's and mid 1950's. The Palladium Ballroom (1948-1966) was, and still is, known as the "mecca of Latin dance music in New York City" (156). On stage at the Palladium were numerous Latin bands who had taken their homeland music and combined it with the new big band sound and its expectations for profitable dance music, i.e. strict tempos and fully orchestrated sounds. Known as Mambo, it developed into a whole new type of music that white audiences were as crazy about as they were about the developing African-American inspired Swing music down the street at the Savoy Ballroom, which had previously undergone the same procedures of musical blending.
Famous Latin bands that had migrated to New York, such as Earnest "Tito" Puente and Pablo "Tito" Rodriguez, played nightly at the Palladium while dancers, dressed in their best duds, let their bodies do whatever the music impressed upon them...as long as it was dignified and classy. It was here, at the Palladium, that a young and talented dancer named Pedro Aguilar became known as "Cuban Pete" (coined by Desi Arnez) and the best Mambo dancer in the city. To make a long story short, Cuban Pete's style of Mambo dancing caused a dance craze that was picked up by dance studios and turned into a profitable form of Latin dancing that everyone could enjoy...hence, the ballroom dance called Mambo. Perez Prado himself claimed the Mambo music to be his own invention, although there is debate as to the truth of this story.
Out on the streets of El Barrio and the Bronx, and outside of the contraints of the dress codes of the Palladium and the formal mannerisms of elite white society, were other Cuban and Puerto Rican bands that were 1) never seen at the Palladium, or 2) who were featured as secondary acts to the main Mambo big band for the night. To the residents that had migrated from Latin America, these lesser-known groups played the music that reminded them of home. Arsenio Rodriguez was one of these Cuban band leaders who played with Mambo big bands such as Perez Prado, yet never received the same amount recognition for his son conjunto style of music. While the Mambo bands were adapting "similarly structured syncopated sections, while inflecting the melodic and harmonic material with orchestrational techniques from the jazz repertory" (158), Arsenio's style, along with others, went mostly unrecognized by mainstream society. Arsenio was not happy with the lack of publicity that the more "authentic" groups had to deal with, while the Latino groups who watered-down their music with American big band sounds became overnight sensations.
"I wanted to destroy that damned mambo which is putting an end to Cuban composers, since no one wants to buy their boleros and guarachas. We are possessed by mambo mania. I was the Dr. Frankenstein who created the monster, and now that same monster wants to kill me." (158)
Coincidentally, not only did Arsenio introduce trumpets and the piano to Latin bands, but he also introduced the Conga drum. These not-so-popular groups were as influencial to Latin music as those who became famous, if not more, but without the fame.
And this is where the divergence of two separate dance and music styles lies. In the 1960's and 1970's, when the Salsa began to grow in popularity, it was the music of Cuban groups such as Arsenio Rodriguez who influenced the first Salsa musicians (i.e. Johny Pacheco, Eddie Palmieri, and Ray Barretto) with their more-authentic Latin sounds. As the years had progressed, "strict tempo" music had all but completely whitened Mambo music into a sound that was more fit for formal ballrooms, and ballroom dance studios had developed their interpretation of Mambo dancing by writing down patterns in dance manuals and selling the product to eager students who wished to enjoy Latin dancing in the "approved" ways. Although the room for improvisation was all but condemned in the ballroom when it came to Mambo dancing, it still became a huge dance craze with its peak between 1953 and 1955, ending only because of the Rock n Roll and Swing dance craze that took over at that point. However, quietly and without any help from the professional ballroom scene, a new street dance called Salsa was born, its inspiration coming from the almost-forgotten street music that Cuban and Puerto Rican groups such as Arsenio Rodriguez had left behind...and that is a large part of why we now have both the Mambo and the Salsa.
Sources cited
2004 Garcia, David F.
Contesting that Damned Mambo: Arsenio Rodriguez, Authenticity, and the People of El Barrio and the Bronx in the 1950's. Centro Journal, spring, vol XVI(001). City University of New York. Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos, New York, Latinoamricanistas: Pp. 154-175.
Comments
Wow, what a great article. In my 20 years of Ballroom Dance teaching I never knew but now it all makes sense. Good job Patty!
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