And still three MORE slow-tempoed numbers good for practicing salsa--

"Todos Somos Equals" sung by Celia

Cruz and Willie Colon

AND

two by Tito Puente -- "Azu Kiki" and "El Cayuco".

T.P.'s "El Cayuco" is often described as a cha-cha-cha, but one can also pick out a slow-tempoed salsa from the instrumentation.

P.S. Looked up "Azu Kiki".

It's a Cuban contraction of "Azul Kiki" = " "blue top", as in "blue beach blouse ", or "blue windbreaker", or "blue jacket ".

Anyway, it's a salsa with a comfortable tempo (unlike Puente's 'jazzy' salsas, which seem to be made more for the musicians than for dancers).

Oh, You're welcome!

In fact, here is another slow-tempoed salsa number from the same Tito Puente album "Party With Puente". It is "Azu KiKi". (Don't ask me what that means, though.)🤔

Here are two MORE slow-tempoed salsa numbers that are good to practice to --

"Mala Mania" by Ruben Blades

"On Broadway" -- the version by Tito Puente and his orchestra (an instrumental)

Oh, yes, by all means!

    Just this morning I suddenly forced my partner to act out "Scratch my back and run your pretty fingers thru my hair" while doing the jitterbug to Elvis Presley's "Treat Me Nice" (and did NOT get slapped! Nor even a disapproving look!") -- Christopher O'Connor

P.S. Here is another slower-tempoed but still VERY groovy salsa number to practice the salsa beat to.

It is a slowed-down version of the old Hector "LaVoe" hit "El Día de Mi Suerte"

("My Lucky Day").

https://youtu.be/9pPKJqYFulA?si=3xd3_47k0WSaERP9

To put up with dancing 'snobs', which on two definite occasions, almost discouraged me completely from learning to dance.

I resolved to myself, if I ever got to master partner dancing, to NEVER become a 'dancing snob' myself, and, so far, I have kept that vow.

I dance with EVERYONE-- with established good dancers, with girls who aren't there yet and have a ways to go, with bellas, with not-so-bellas. I make it a point to ask "wall flowers", remembering the time when I was a wall flower. In doing so, many times, with just a single dance, it will greatly brighten up that solitary person's entire evening. I can often see it in their faces.

Also (and this might be just my personal feeling) -- I would MUCH rather dance with some mousy little girl who may be far from perfect in her dancing ability but who SMILES and LAUGHS than with some technically perfect but un-smiling cold fish.

Kay, Three salsa numbers of fairly moderate but catchy tempo that come to mind (that is, off the top of my head ) are-

"Yamulemau"by Joe Arroyo and his orchestra

"Michaela" by La Sonora Carruseles and

"La Guagua" ("The Bus") by Juan Luis Guerra

Also, Juan Luis Guerra's "Como Una Abeja Al Panal" ("Like a Bee to the Honeycomb") has a nice, slower salsa beat.

For me, the salsa beat was subtle (unlike, for example, the "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! of the cha-cha-cha), and it took me a while to identify it during the song, but I tried to LISTEN to a lot of salsa numbers, trying to first pick out in my head that 'tap (or 'hold') 1,2,3, 'tap' (or 'hold') 5,6,7, until, with time, it became second nature.

While I do West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, and jitterbug (I don't know why some "sophisticated" dancers disparage jitterbug. Yes, it is "easy", but it is still a GREAT fun social dance), my main leaning is to Latin -- salsa, bachata, Colombian cumbia, Mexican cumbia, merengue, cha-cha-cha, box rumba, but I guess my most favorite is the bolero, a truly romantic and graceful dance with a lot of opportunities for the MAN to swirl and sweep and not just 'push around' the woman.

Again, thanks, Brian,  for taking the time to get back to me.

    Well, MAYBE the behind-the-woman's back hand-change whip is called the "Apache" whip because an Apache invented it.

    Sound far-fetched?   Well, here among the dancers in Albuquerque we have a Native American girl from one of the indigenous pueblos north of town who is an EXCELLENT West Coast swing dancer.

   In the spirit of Cochise, sincerely, Chris O'Connor, New Mexico