Cali, COLOMBIA — It’s a long way to go for dance lessons, but that’s why French law student Graziella Giacomarra has traveled 6,000 miles to Cali, to learn some of salsa’s most intricate and ...

Wealth, like oxygen, can get thinner at altitude. The distribution of riches in big Colombian cities, for example, has been a surprise to me. I don’t mean economically. I mean topographically.

The dance that began as a folk tradition has exploded into the mainstream, from nightclubs to performance halls, senior centers and salsa schools. Today, histories and traditions are recounted on ...