Salsa is a popular Latin social dance that is taught and performed across the world. Consisting of eight beats, rests are on beats four and eight with the rest being danced on. Historically, it is a relatively modern genre of music and dance which has undergone considerable development from its early roots, incorporating and celebrating a plethora of cultural and musical influences. Salsa’s foundation is drawn from lumba rhythms, a combination of African, Caribbean and South American rhythms created in Cuba. This allowed people brought to the island during the slave trade a way of maintaining a connection to their homelands. From this, the dance and music style known as Cuban Son emerged. Cuban Son uses traditional African drumming beats in combination with the ring of a clave (often considered the key element of Afro-Caribbean music – including modern salsa).