The Music. The instrumentation, alone, is facinating. Many of the instruments used to compose salsa music are older than recorded history! Take the claves (translation: "the keys"), for example. They're the oldest percussion instrument--consisting of 2 sticks simply struck together. Prehistoric, and yet they're still played in almost every salsa group today.

Salsa music is complex. If you listen to it in a club or through your headphones, pick out just one instrument and listen to how it's woven together with the many other instruments that are playing. Each instrument seems to be playing its own song; but when they all play at the same time, one song happens.

If you speak Spanish, you'll hear songs about all of the usual topics: love, friendship, agony, history, politics, and even food. The great thing about salsa music is how these themes are brought to life by each group's sonero (or singer). The sonero is often responsible for being able to sing tonally and percussively while at the same time spontaneously creating verses like a free-style rapper!

The Dance. Just like the music, it's older than old school. The word "mambo," for example, is an ancient Yoruban word that literally means "dancing with or for the Gods." Today's salsa dance has a lineage that can be traced all the way back to Africa. Rumba, an ancient dance from East Africa, was carried over to Cuba during the days of Caribbean slavery. When rumba arrived in Cuba many years ago, people danced it to perform complex rituals. And elements of rumba moves are still taught today in salsa lessons around the world.

Rumba is the the spirtual father of salsa music. However, the rhythm and dance of today's salsa are very different than traditional rumba. Salsa dancing is an amalgam of dance movements borrowed from Afro-Cuban dances and--believe it or not--many dances from the United States. Swing dancing and tap were two of the most defining influences in the evolution of salsa dancing.

The People. Salsa is everywhere. It's big in some places that might surprise you. Sweden. Germany. India. Russia. China. Japan. Africa. Singapore. Dance is a universal language, and salsa is considered one of the most multicultural social dances in the world. It's highly likely that you'll meet people from everywhere on the globe when you go to a salsa club anywhere in the world. Salsa clubs are magnets of multiculturalism.

In addition to the different ethnic and cultural backgrounds of today's salsa dancer, every person has a different professional background. Some people build houses, make cappucinos, operate on brains, mow lawns, couch surf, invest in the stock market, flip burgers, or practice law. But salsa is the equalizer. We're all together on the same dance floor.

Exercise. What would you rather do: run on a treadmill for an hour or have fun dancing for an hour? Have you ever enjoyed doing hard cardiovascular workouts for two hours straight or more? You will on the dancefloor.

You'll sweat. But you'll enjoy it. There are some male salsa dancers that are notorious for bringing one or two extra t-shirts to the club; they have to change into a new one every hour or less. Dont' be embarrassed. Everybody sweats at the salsa club. If you're not sweating then you're either just getting to the club or you've been hiding in the bathroom all night.

Salsa dancing is extremely good for you. It's one of the only exercise experiences where you're not thinking that you're exercising.

You'll Smile. A lot.