What is the Dirty Dancing kind of dance called?

Question

Is it salsa, latin ballroom ...?

Answer 1

Salsa,

Answer 2

Which generation? The tango is very dirty! Salsa, meringue, cumbia's can be nasty, too. Anything latin, but I have seen some really dirty rap dancers and grinding is like sex on the dance floor. Are you talking about from the movie with Patrick Swayze? I actually worked at the place it originated from. The woman wrote about the story of the resort in the poconos where wealthy white girls were given an innocent, albeit good time while their folks vacationed. Dancers were entertainment. It was all interpretive dance.

Answer 3

Dirty Dancing Mambo

Answer 4

I’m not an expert, and I only saw the movie “Dirty Dancing” once a long time ago. (I assume you're asking about the original movie, and not the "Havana Nights" sequel. I never saw the sequel.)

But I’ve read some discussions on it. Salsa dancers like to claim “Dirty Dancing” as a Salsa. But knowledgeable people say that the choreographers took a basic Mambo and then created a bunch of individual steps and moves (the so-called “dirty dancing” part of the dance) for use in the dance to give the dance a steamy club look.

Mambo started in the islands, of course, but today it is a ballroom dance and it has some rules and conventions in ballroom. Salsa, on the other hand, is the simpler, popularized version of Mambo that’s danced in clubs.

Mambo can be fast and snappy with a lot of quick turns, or it can be sensual with pauses and closeness. You can alternate from one mood to the other. The Mambo footfalls are sharper and the music is more staccato than Salsa. Salsa, on the other hand, uses the same steps but the dancers emphasize the sensual side by going slower and using a slinkier look with softer footfalls and motions. Since Salsa is a club dance, the moves are more freestyle than Mambo--the salsa in one city or club may be different from the next.

So, for example, in the movie Patrick Swayze’s turns tend to be sharp like Mambo. (Patrick Swayze was a dancer before he was an actor.) Also, the Mambo is traditionally danced off one beat. When “Baby” is first trying to learn the dance in the movie, she keeps jumping in at the wrong beat and Swayze’s character keeps correcting her. Stepping on the wrong beat is a Mambo beginner’s mistake. (I guess you generally don’t worry about the starting off the beat in Salsa because it’s simpler and more freeform.)

As for the “dirty dancing” steps, they involve grinding hips and the woman swaying from side to side and arching her back and waving her hair around. Those are just individual steps separate from the dance, and presumably they could be used with a number of different dances. They were invented for the movie, and afterwards Swayze even came out with a video teaching the steps. (Presumably they hoped to start a dance craze, but the steps never really took hold.) Since the steps are invented, it’s hard to say what dance they were influenced by. Some might say Lambada, but I’m told that Lambada is more of a wave-like up-and-down motion whereas the “dirty dancing steps” were more grinding and side-to-side. I think the “dirty dancing” steps were deliberately meant to be vague and similar to everything and nothing at the same time.

Since the “dirty dancing” steps give the dance a steamy freestyle club look, Salsa dancers are probably right to claim the dance as theirs. But apparently the underlying dance itself is more accurately a Mambo.

Again, I'm not an expert on this. I'm just reporting what I've read in a few places across the years.

This is a tangent, but if you go to a ballroom and the DJ announces that he’s going to play a Mambo, you can get up and dance whatever you want--Salsa, Mambo, or even a fast Cha-cha, slow Samba, Hustle... Ballrooms are pretty loose and easygoing these days. There are people dancing at all skill levels from raw beginner to occasional competition-level dancers working on their routines. Most dancers are at the level of social ballroom dancers, i.e., they know the steps but they don’t really demonstrate the best style and technique in the world. As long as you don’t get in the way of the main line of dance traffic, you don’t even have to dance the announced dance.

My wife and I like a fast, snappy Mambo with lots of turns and spins. The dance is done in close, so my wife lets me really spin the hell out of her since I’m right there to catch her if there’s a problem. But we often don’t worry about technical points like hitting the beat just right. We do the steps that we enjoy most, and we figure we look good enough that we can slide on the technical stuff. :-) So even though ballroom has a lot of conventions and rules, they’re not mandatory at all in the social ballroom environment. The main thing is to just get out on the dance floor and have some fun. The rules really only become an issue at the competition level.

Answer 5

yes its mostly salsa and some bit of the latin ballroom touch

Answer 6

latin ballroom mixed with salsa.

Answer 7

Learn Salsa Quickly From Home!

Answer 8

I would say Latin Ballroom...
There was also some Lambada in there...all that grinding! lol.

Answer 9

Grinding

Answer 10

It is called Lambada, the forbidden dance from brazil