On the eve of the Dublin Salsa Congress, Michael Seaver finds out why the dance craze is more than the line-dancing of the noughties.

It's cringe-inducing to think back to line-dancing, the last social dance craze to sweep the country. Stepping forward and back to a Garth Brooks song, thumbs in belt, seemed cool in the 1990s.

Salsa is the line-dancing of the noughties, but a lot funkier, and Tasia Joshua (aka Dr Rumba) promises those who come to this weekend's third Salsa Congress of Ireland will hardly believe they're in Dublin. The congress isn't a collection of academic papers, but a weekend of classes, competitions, performances and clubs, where the emphasis is on having fun. "Salsa nights offer so much," Joshua claims. "You can get fit, meet people and have a good night out. None of this boring gym stuff to get fit, then off to socialise in a pub and end up dancing in a club. With salsa it all happens in the same place."

The nights normally start off with an hour-long class, for beginners or improvers, to master the basic steps. Anything after that is up to the individual.

"The music is amazing," says Joshua. "It's the type of music that will make you want to tap your feet, and creates a great atmosphere. So even if you don't dance salsa, you can still get up and have a laugh with people."

So it's not strictly ballroom? "No, not at all. But there is a competition for the more advanced."

It's this freedom that has made salsa so popular. It's easy to pick up the basics and improvise around them as the night gets later. And different age groups can hang out together and agreeably enjoy music and dance.

But there also seems to be a more general renaissance in ballroom dancing. In Britain the celebrity dance contest, Strictly Come Dancing, became a huge hit and spawned Graham Norton's Strictly Dance Fever. Pitting dancing couples against each other with routines and costumes we can love or loathe makes for easy television. Since most dancers work harder than Alan Sugar's wannabe apprentices, you are also guaranteed stressful and dramatic rehearsal footage, a prerequisite for reality television.

But are all those sequins and satin not pretty tacky? And are we going to look back at salsa with the same mortification as line-dancing? Puerto Ricans, who, along with Cuban emigrants, created salsa in the clubs of New York, seem to be turning their back on it already. These days salsa clubs are only frequented by middle-class couples and tourists, while the younger generation are drawn to new acts like Tego Calderon, who fuse salsa with Puerto Rico's bomba rhythms (of African ancestry) and hip-hop beats. Rap has also overtaken salsa and merengue and there is now a "Best Latin Rap Album" category in the Billboard Awards.

Nigerian-born Tasia Joshua points to the vitality of salsa outside of Latin America and to evolving regional styles. "Last year's Dublin congress concentrated on African salsa, and this year we will feature the cha-cha, with workshops by dancers from Los Angeles. The Los Angeles salsa style is more Puerto Rican, whereas the New York style is more mambo. There are so many regional variations right now you could spend your time going from one national congress to another and never learn them all."

Performances by "Edie The Salsa Freak" and "Al Liquid Silver" from New York, Mambo Dream Team from Canada, and Art in Motion from Philadelphia will offer stylistic subtleties for the keener eye. Salsa, along with mambo and cha-cha, is considered Latin street dance, so there is no formalisation as there is in ballroom dances. Whereas salsa is a 20th-century dance, mambo has darker roots. In Haiti, a "mambo" is a voodoo priestess, exorcist and spiritual adviser. She is said to have organised group dances that helped people converse with the gods.

Competitions look for more style than substance and technique requirements in competitions are broadly listed as "timing and rhythm", "footwork and leg action" and "body action and lines". Charisma and a bit of showmanship are gratefully rewarded by judges. Because clubbers are free to invent their own moves once they have mastered the basic steps, individual and regional styles will continue to develop. But there are only two rules: have fun and keep to the rhythm!

The Dublin Salsa Congress takes place from tomorrow to Sunday. Workshops are in SS Michael and John; club venue is the Irish Film Institute. Details: 087-2024573, www.irishsalsacongress.com