ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a theoretical, contextual and empirically grounded introduction to the transnational salsa circuit. First, it suggests a conceptualisation of the salsa circuit as consisting of several hubs, related through the circulation of people, imaginaries, dance movements, conventions and affects. Second, this chapter introduces the formation of the salsa circuit from a European perspective, which is often glossed over in studies on salsa. Third, it delivers a descriptive account of two of salsa’s hubs: the salsa congresses or festivals and the space of salsa tourism in Havana, Cuba. The fourth part of this chapter builds on the empirical data, to analyse the circulation of people and a specific imaginary of salsa. It describes one group of the circulating actors, whose interest and economic capital keep the salsa circuit going – the self-declared salsa addicts (salsa students and festival participants) – and analyses the imaginary of salsa as the Esperanto of the body.
