WebSites You May Like

• Salsa Fever: CDs, videos and salsa holidays from Rohan Brown.
• Club Cubana: Cressida’s site with link to Pontins
• Club Dance Holidays: Salsa (and other) dance holidays around the world
• Key2Cuba: Dance holidays to Cuba
• Bacardi Mojito: How to make a Mojito - and much more. Great site! Try it - withsound ON!
• World Circuit Records: Record label that specialises in Cuban and West African music. Good full length streaming music samples.
• Heavenly Dance Shoes: Distinctive hand-made shoes.
• Dean Maynard Clothes: Top quality clothes and top quality service from regular vendorat Pontins Salsa weekenders.
• DanceWeb: The interactive directory of Dance News, Dance Classes, Dance Products, Dance Suppliers and Web Resources for the UK Dance Community.
• SalsaJive: UK "What’s On" guide for Salsa (and Jive)
• UKSalsa.com: Your guide to the UK Salsa scene
• Havana Club: Explore Havana and discover Havana Club Rum, cocktail recipes, music - and much more. The flavour of Cuba captured in a bottle! Novel site- try it!
• Nuevocastillo: Newcastle based group specialising in songs and dances of Afro-Cuban origin.
• Salsa-Amor at the Black Swan, Newcastle: Start your weekend just right at Newcastle’s Friday-night salsa hot-spot. Details of location, classes, resident and guest teachers.
• Salsa - York: Salsa in and around York, and much further - click on the Special Events button for the region s best compendium of forthcoming events Up North.
• SalSeduce at Tiger Tiger, Newcastle: Salsa at Tiger Tiger, Newcastle, every Tuesday. Details of venue, classes (from beginners to advanced), guest teachers and special events.
• MrBongoSalsa: Salsa CD specialist Luis will source new, rare and re-issued CDs that you may not find in other catalogues. Excellent quick and personal service. Recommended.

Well, recommending anything like CDs is dangerous at the best of times, everyone s tastes differ. But for novices .. A minefield!

My first suggestion is: never buy a CD with a scantily clad young lady on the cover - that tends to be the best part of the CD. Believe me, I know, I ve got loads of them!

Salsa, like many things in life, is better when you start off slowly and gradually get faster. So my recommendations to novices are generally of slower tempos. I m not going to write reams about these CDs, there are plenty of comments online. I m just going to point you in the right direction just follow the links.

It may seem logical to jump straight to Cuba but my first and strongest recommendation is from Africa, Senegal to be precise. Where would teachers be without Africando? All their albums are excellent and have a cross-section of tempos. All have distinct, clear rhythms and the slower tracks are great for novices.

Check out Mandali or Martina (opens in same window).

Then perhaps something with a Cuban influence. Cuban compilations usually include Son, which novices may consider to be just slow salsa (wrongly as it happens but don’t worry about it), plus some cha-cha, all of which are easy listening. This compilation, The Beginner’s Guide to Cuba, has 3 CDs and is great value.

Good general salsa compilations are I Love Salsa and More I love Salsa.