Salsa, the music, is a Latin-American mix of Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban music and rhythms, and strongly influenced by big-band jazz. It developed it's modern forms primarily in New York in the 1960s as a dance music.

Salsa, the dance, is not just one dance, but several quite different dance styles. They all, of course, share the same music.

As with other arts, dance styles show certain trends that can be geographically grouped, by country, or by region within a country. Some of the most common styles you'll hear about are:

• Cuban
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• New York
• Puerto Rican