Salsa Choke classes in medellin
While Medellín has a long-standing love for classic salsa music and dance, the city has also embraced the modern style known as salsa choke. Today, interest in learning the history of and distinctions between different salsa styles has increased, alongside a greater curiosity to understand how these urban rhythms connect to the music. As more dancers seek to learn about this popular style, salsa choke classes provide a direct way to study its specific timing, rhythm, and body movement.
What is Salsa Choke?
Salsa choke is an urban musical genre and dance style that originated around 2004-2005 in Tumaco, a municipality on Colombia's Pacific coast. It was born when local artists began fusing the foundational elements of traditional salsa with Afro-Colombian rhythms like currulao, urban reggaeton beats, rap hip-hop structures, and electronic elements. The name "choke" comes from the original style of the dance, where couples would playfully bump their hips together to the heavy downbeat.
As a dance, salsa choke is celebrated for its intense body isolation, creative coordination, and explosive energy. Unlike traditional partner-based salsa styles, salsa choke is highly individualistic and communal. It is danced primarily as solo footwork or in synchronized group lines, allowing dancers to interpret the lyrics, breaks, and rhythms with maximum freedom.
Salsa Choke's Relationship to the Salsa Genre and Colombia
While salsa choke is a modern evolution that incorporates electronic and urban beats, it is tightly woven into the broader fabric of Colombian music and dance:
The Musical Evolution: Unlike traditional salsa brava or salsa clásica, which rely on live big-band acoustic instrumentation, salsa choke utilizes digital programming alongside live percussion and brass. It preserves the classic cowbell, piano tumbaos, and horn lines of traditional salsa but anchors them to a heavy urban downbeat.
The Spread to Cali and Global Recognition: While born in Tumaco, salsa choke was heavily adopted, popularized, and commercialized in the city of Cali. It transformed from a regional Pacific phenomenon into a nationwide phenomenon. The style achieved massive global recognition during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, when the Colombian national football team celebrated their goals on the world stage using signature salsa choke dance steps.
Modern Social Dancing in Medellín: Today, salsa choke is a staple of the nightlife culture in Medellín. It is frequently played at crossover bars, dance clubs, and social gatherings. Because it is highly interactive and relies on catchy, synchronized group steps, it provides a welcoming, low-pressure entry point for dancers of all levels to engage with modern Colombian urban movement.
Key Technical Information for Students
The Urban Downbeat: The defining technical characteristic of salsa choke is its distinct hybrid rhythm. It takes the rolling pattern of a traditional salsa cowbell and layers it directly over a heavy reggaeton and hip-hop downbeat. The movement is deeply grounded, bouncy, and focused on hip and chest accentuations right on the main beat.
The Break from Partner Hold: Unlike classic linear or rotational partner salsa, salsa choke does not rely on a continuous hand hold or standard partner lead-and-follow mechanics. Dancers typically face each other or dance side-by-side, executing synchronized footwork and playful mirror movements.
Body Isolation and Flow: Authentic salsa choke relies heavily on independent isolation of the torso, shoulders, and hips. Dancers learn to move their upper body smoothly while executing fast hip extensions and rhythmic foot shifts to mirror the electronic basslines.
Foundational Vocabulary: Basic movements taught include the essential basic step (the paso básico, which involves stepping side-to-side with a distinct hip accent), the pateaito (small kicks), the brincadito (small hops), the shampoo (passing hands over the head), shoulder rolls, and the classic hip-to-hip bumps.
Music, Artists & Radio: Iconic salsa choke tracks from pioneering Pacific coast and Valle del Cauca artists and groups such as Cali Flow Latino, ChocQuibTown, CJ Castro, Integración Casanova, Los Traviesos, and La Gente Pesada helped shape the genre’s energetic identity and national visibility. This musical movement continues to circulate across Colombia through urban-tropical radio, clubs, DJs, and digital platforms in Cali, including stations such as Tropicana Cali (93.1 FM), which helped expose wider audiences to the genre’s Pacific coast street rhythms.
Advanced Coordination: Progression in salsa choke focuses on speed, polyrhythmic coordination (moving the feet and upper body to different rhythmic layers simultaneously), rapid weight switches, and improvisational call-and-response dancing based on the song's lyrics.
Medellín’s Historical Connection to Salsa Choke
In 2012, DANCEFREE began offering free group salsa and bachata classes, followed by social dancing, and became the first hub for the salsa and bachata community in Medellín. By combining a dance academy offering private and group classes with a bar/venue for socials, listening to music, and watching dance shows, it stood apart from local venues that typically focused on crossover music.
To expand options for dancers, DANCEFREE brought together international styles (like linear salsa on1, salsa on2, and Cuban) and local Colombian ones (Colombian salsa and Cali style). As salsa choke grew into a nationwide dance craze, the academy included it in its class offerings and social events.
At DANCEFREE salsa socials, it is common to experience spontaneous pauses where professional dancers mount the stage to lead energetic dirigidos of salsa choke for everyone present to follow. This interactive tradition has been a staple of the academy's social atmosphere since 2012, a legacy that remains visible to this day in the original signage preserved above the main doors at DANCEFREE's entrance. Through these interactive social nights and private classes, the number of local and international dancers in Medellín learning the steps and rhythm of salsa choke grew steadily.
Class Schedule & Pricing in Medellín
DANCEFREE offers private salsa choke classes, in person in Medellín, and online via Zoom and Google Meet. Our in-person classes are available 7 days a week, and our online classes are hosted on weekdays, subject to instructor availability.
If you would like to take private salsa choke classes, click here to view the steps for beginning private lessons. If you would like to view our calendar for dance socials and events, click here.