Cuban salsa

This article is about the dance style. For the music genre, see salsa music.

Casino is a dance from Cuba, which has commonly been known as Cuban Salsa or Salsa Cubana since the 1970s to distinguish it from other salsa styles.

Casino takes its name from casinos deportivos, the dance halls popular among better-off, white Cubans during the mid-1950s and onwards where the style was first created and popularised. Historically, Casino traces its roots as a partner dance from Son Cubano, which was fused with partner figures borrowed from Cuban Mambo, Cuban Cha Cha Cha, Rumba Guaguancó, and North American Jive. Similar to Son, Danzón and Cha Cha Cha, it was traditionally danced contratiempo (this means that, unlike salsa, that no step is taken on the first and fifth beats in each clave pattern, and the fourth and eighth beats are emphasized, allowing dancers to contribute to the polyrhythmic pattern of the music through their movements). Casino today is more commonly (although by no means exclusively) danced a tiempo, with the dancers stepping on the first and fifth beats.

Casino is closely intertwined with Afro-Cuban dance traditions, and dancers frequently integrate movements, gestures, and extended passages from Orisha and Rumba as well as older popular dances such as Cha Cha Cha, Mambo and Danzón..

Dancing Casino is an expression of popular social culture in Cuba, and many Cubans consider Casino a part of their social and cultural activities centering on their popular music.

Casino is the basis of Rueda de Casino, a lively dance in the round featuring called dance moves and frequent changes of partner.

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