You may think that Ceroc has a lot of Salsa moves. Well, then you can also say Ceroc has a lot of Jitterbug moves, Ceroc has a lot of Jive moves, Ceroc has a lot of Roc n Roll movers, Cwroc has a lot of Hustle moves, Ceroc has a lot of Mambo moves... Because Ceroc keeps 'borrowing' from figures from other dances. The word 'borrow' here may not be exact, because all dances are influenced by one another, not only Ceroc. It had been heavily influenced by the Le Bop which is the French version of Roc n Roll, also influenced by the slow Swing, West Coast Swing, it in fact got its basics from them.
On the other hand, Salsa is basically Mambo, no matter then or now, it is definitely Mambo, and if you mute the music and drum beat, they look the same. However, if you mute the Ceroc, you can't see Salsa, you see it Swing.
Now, you may be confused. Ceroc shares some moves and actions with Salsa, why would the dances look so differently from each other? To answer this, you must learn that all dances share a great deal of actions and moves, for instances, all five International Latin dances share the chasse, spiral and spin. The toe-heel swivel is used in Jive, Salsa and Line Dances. You might be surprised that the Camel in Belly Dance and the Ripple in Latin could look the same, and Line Dancers and Latin Dancers can do the multiple spin as the Ballet dancers do their pirouette, and we all do developpe! And I am sure your jaw gets dropped to know that Line Dance, Jazz Dance and Street Dance share the hop, leap, chug, jump, skip and twist turn. Even the dances share common actions, we can still easily distinguish them, because the major difference does not lie on the actions, but on the way the dancers implement the actions which is largely governed by the music.
Let's take the chasse as an example. In Waltz, it looks relaxing and elegant; in Cha Cha Cha, it looks lively and sharp; in Jive, it looks energetic; in Paso Doble, it gives tension and full of suspension; in Samba, it is just Sassy and tempting. You can do a chasse in timing 12&3, 2&3 4&1, 123 and they all look differently. Why? Because the music drive you to a particular type of timing.
Now look at some Salsa and Ceroc basics. They both use the open break action, the footwork looks the same, but when music comes, you should see that a real Salsa dancer moves the hips but Cerocers just take the steps (Well, but I also admit that many Salsa-ers do not know how to move the hips). Another difference is the music, Salsa tempo is much much faster, technique book says Salsa tempo can range from slow (160 beats per minute) to very fast (240 beats per minute), while Cerocers tends to find 120-150 beats per minute danceable although they claim they can fit any music. Ceroc was faster before 1990, it then caught up with the chart's trend, as the most popular charts are around this tempo, as the rock step gradually evolved into just a solid step Ceroc now can't be danced to really fast music.
So, the second question, are Ceroc and Jive alike? Well, it depends on what your Jive definition is. Jive itself tends to refer to the European Jive (funny that this Latin dance does not have much Latin influence except the fact that it inherited the chasse from Mambo), the Swing family is a broader term, it includes Shag, Boogie-woogie, Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, West/East Coast Swing, Six/Four Count Swing, Roc n Roll, B Bop and Hustle. However, I know a lot of people see Swing same as Jive. If you mean Jive the same as Swing, then yes, quite similar. And among all, Ceroc looks more like Jitterbug and and slow Roc n Roll, which later becomes East/West Coast Swing (especially the WCS which goes with a slower tempo). The music and the footwork (Modern Jive does have footwork) are basically the same. Jive, I mean the Standard Jive is much faster and more complicated than Ceroc.
As a matter of fact, one can easily tell that Ceroc is more like Swing, merely by looking at its history. It emerged as the time when music trend changed from super fast Roc n Roc to slower rhythm at the same time when Michel tried to simplify the fast Rock footwork to promote the dance. Footwork, when being kept to the minimal, can mostly do weight change every beat and hardly take the 'and' beat and 'a' beat, the QQS rhythm were kept but the complicated timing was eventually eliminated. Another significant difference that Ceroc dancing has is the lack of hip actions. From beginner level to intermediate level, men mostly stand like a lamp post. Salsa, on the other hand, derived directly from Mambo and influenced by the other Latin dances, keep the Cuban hip motions and most Cuban rock actions. Although many dance Salsa without hip actions, they are all taught to use Cuban hip action.
Dance is a very dynamic thing, it evolves and changes all the time, but we can always trace the origin. Do you know why? It is because when we find it go too far from the original version, we will give it a different name. Think about the colours, there are only three primary colours, but we can have more than three colours. I will not mistaken orange as purple even though they are both from the tricolour; same reason, I will not say Ceroc is Salsa just because it has a 'Mambo Step' - an actual syllabus figure which was borrowed from Mambo. I personal, incline to the way LeRoc Modern Jive Federation introduce this dance genre.
If you want to know more about Modern Jive/LeRoc/Ceroc, check here.
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