Ultimate Strictly

SALSA

History

Although there are variations on the Salsa, it is the Cuban Salsa that is danced in Strictly Come Dancing. Created by Cuban immigrants in New York, it contains a variety of rhythms including Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, Merengue and Lambada.

The dance

Salsa translates as 'sauce' giving you some indication of what the dance should be - hot and spicy with lots of flavours! It should be fast and rhythmic, and should be a mixture of in hold and apart. Like the Rumba the connection between the couple is important, but a more fun, flirty, sexy attitude is required.

The best of Strictly

While the Salsa was only introduced into the main competition in Series 4, Mark & Karen brought the audience and judges to their feet in the series final with their amazing routine and acheived the perfect score of 40. It was fast, fun and sexy, and a perfect choice of music in the song 'Hot, Hot, Hot', it set the benchmark for all Salsa's yet to come. In Series 5, Matt & Flavia came very close to meeting Mark & Karen's standard, with their fantastic routine, scoring 39 out of 40.

The worst of Strictly

Without doubt, the worst Salsa performed on the show came from Ann & Anton in Series 8. Knowing that Ann wouldn't be able to dance a Salsa, Anton made a comedy routine with lots of gimmicky moments including ripping his shirt open to have Ann then do it back up again and an illegal lift, and at one point, Anton was even visibly trying to count the beat out to Ann to try and get her back on time for the little attempts as dancing in the routine. Craig said there wasn't a word in the English language to describe it, and gave them a 1, bringing the total score judges to 12 points.

Anton appears again and again in the list firstly with possibly one of the most unintentionally comic dances we've seen on Strictly, and the Salsa routine he danced with Kate Garraway in Series 5, which they danced to 'Peanut Vendor'. Having made it to week 6 based on the public voting for them to be save every week, unfortunately, Kate still didn't seem to be able to master the technique of spinning on the spot, and though she tried her best, only managed to get a total mark of 18 points. Then in the ninth series, dancing with Nancy Dell'Olio, and the introduction of allowable lifts in the salsa, the pair managed to perform a routine which Anton seemed to be going for the comedy angle, while Nancy appeared to think she was dancing a straight salsa routine. The resulting performance was not well received by the judges, drawing a 2 from Alesha, the lowest score she'd ever given.

In Series 4, trying to build on previous comments from the judges that they liked the raunchy aspects of his routines with Claire King, Brendan attempted to choreograph the dirtiest, sexiest Salsa we'd seen, but unfortunately, it didn't work, and the judges felt it looked more like a pole dance than something we should see on the ballroom dancefloor, and consequently awarded them only 21 points.

Scores for all Salsa performances:

*Arlene Phillips judged series one to six, while Alesha Dixon judged series 7 onwards.