or is it, dance on! It was one of those nights when you feel totally burnt out, and if you have the magic of the Internet at your disposal, you can take yourself to your favourite sites you like to visit, or find new treasures while surfing. As I started to surf, I naturally gravitated to one of my all-time passions (outside of dancing), which is music, which is very soothing to the soul.

I don't know about you, but since I love salsa music, it seems I can never listen to enough of it, and what makes it exciting is that thanks to the internet, you can discover new artists while surfing or while listening to clips of songs from various albums, you can find those great songs you always hear and dance to in the clubs. Tonight (in March) was magical and inspired me to write this piece, as I checked out batanga.com which plays non-stop salsa and also gives you the name of the song, artist, and a picture of the album -- what a great way to hear your favourites or discover new ones. And this was before I discovered salsastream.com.

What is so special about "salsa" music? Well, as many of you can relate, who may or may not speak Spanish, your connection is usually how the music makes you feel. And when you love music, what is the next best thing besides listening to it, but being able to dance to it. It's a physical euphoria you can't get away from and possibly feeds the creative side in all of us; and the icing on the cake -- to be able to share that feeling with a significant other or other dancers who share the same love and passion for music. And that's when you get the ultimate dance fix -- the connection with your partner and the music -- when it all comes together!

So as I discover the magic of the classics, you can't ignore the modern Romantica or main-stream salsa as there are some amazing artists with fabulous voices, such as Huey Dunbar, Marc Anthony or Frankie Negron. They sing songs that can tear at your heart and are beautiful to dance to with the right partner. And because many of us do not understand Spanish, even if the lyrics are silly, but the melody or voice is beautiful -- who cares! You must have experienced it at one time or another -- when you hear your favourite song and you naturally look for that dance partner who shares the same love for that particular song.

Here are some of the songs whose voices or songs can tear you apart that I may not have listed before and you may or may not hear in the clubs because they're too commercial or Romantica...

Tony Vega - Esa Mujer
Huey Dunbar - Con Cada Beso
Frankie Negron - Comerte a Besos
Victor Manuelle - La Duena de Mis Amores
Dominic - Lloran Las Rosas
Luis Enrique and Eddie Santiago - Desperado

Something I also learned about the music while driving with some dance friends to and from Detroit recently was how you taste can change depending on your mood. I had three types of music with me and had various responses as we were all regular clubgoers in the car.

The first CD I played were all the favourite regular hits (recent in the last year) you hear in the clubs, such as Puerto Rican Power, El Gran Combo, etc. No one wanted to listen to more than 75% of the songs as we dance to them all the time, including me, surprisingly.

The second CD I played had a compilation of the all the romantic ballads -- some of which I listed above that you almost NEVER hear in the clubs, and we enjoyed all of them, but it was almost too mellow for driving.

The third CD I played was all the classic new and old "on 2" style of mambo, and/or latin jazz salsa; and most of these songs are only ever played by DJ Alvaro or DJ Fab. That CD was the most popular I think because it was so musically beautiful, some are hardly ever played in the clubs, but very uplifting at the same time as they had a wanna get-up-and-dance feel to them.

Note: It took me awhile to appreciate this type of music as I used to think it was a little too mellow and jazzy for my taste. But as I started to learn dancing on 2 and started dancing to these songs (which were slower than what we usually dance to on 1, such as Puerto Rican Power), they become songs which you want to find someone who can dance on 2 and feel and interpret the music differently; as you have more time to express yourself.

And where can you discover about all this great music? Well, you can either wait for me or other DJ's to post their latest music finds... or when you need a new music fix, do some salsa surfing for yourself on some of these great websites to hear and/or read their reviews...

Check out...

- Other Salsa Websites that give CD Reviews
- Descarga.com for latest CD Releases
- Amazon.com and CDnow.com to hear the latest CD releases, you can search by your favourite Artist or Album
- Play Salsastream.com for the old salsa classics
- Play batanga.com for all types of music