Salsa is the worldwide outgrowth of Cuban Son, popular all over the world, with a large club scene and a musical tradition that is alive and kicking. Salsa's popularity is so great that there have been schisms in both the style of the music and style of the dancing. There is New York Salsa, LA Salsa, Cuban Salsa, Puerto Rican Salsa, and so forth.

Worldwide the two most popular styles are Cuban Salsa and LA Salsa. The Cuban style of dancing is circular, the LA style more linear. The LA style is flashier and some modern variants are specially compact, making them more appropriate for club environments.

A major schism in the Salsa community has occurred over timing. For Cha cha and Rumba we take the leading step of most figures on beat 2 of the bar because this makes most effective use of the rhythmical, percussive, elements of the music, which we favour over the melody. Salsa can be danced the same way and doing so confers the same advantage. However, it is quite possible to dance Salsa nicely by taking the leading step on beat 1 of the bar, and indeed some styles of Salsa music take better to this interpretation, especially where the melody is presented with greater strength that the percussion.

Because the music developed in Cuba, and because the Cuban musical scene is very much alive and developing, inevitably the musicians have continued to push the development of Son. Its modern incarnation is called Timba. Timba is characterised by far more emphasis on the percussive and rhythmical elements of the music, with every instrument in the ensemble being employed with an eye to its role in supporting the rhythm, even the violins. This is fabulous dance music.