Essay On Latin American Dance

I have always wondered about the history of Latin American dance. In this informational report, I am going to share with you the origins of the Latin American culture of dance.
Latin dance provides various styles of movements from different areas of Latin America. Latin American dance has three influences, which include: the African influence, the native influence, and upper class European influence. Around the 16th century, explorers traveled back to Spain and Portugal explaining to people about the intricate dances that they saw from the Aztecs and Incas. The dances that were observed by the explorers were ritualistic centering on hunting, astronomy, or agriculture.
In the early 16th century, European settlers began colonizing areas of South America and adopting the dance traditions aligning them the cultures of that specific area. Over time, the European folk dances and tribal dances would combine creating what we know as modern Latin dancing. The European influence involved group dancing until it evolved to male and female partnership through its

The first dance that many people have heard of is the salsa. Salsa originated in the 1920’s on the Cuba Island. The dance began spreading rapidly in local clubs as well as promoted on the local radio stations. Salsa is a partnered dance that incorporates the African influence of improvisation throughout various combinations. While improvising, the upper body remains still while the hips provide the most motion. The beat of the salsa music is 4/4. The next dance is known as the samba, which came about in Brazil in the 19th century. The roots of the dance are from the African influence. This type of dance was performed for certain celebrations as well as at street festivals. The samba is simplistic, but beautiful to watch in its rhythm. The beat is in 2/4 times and within each measure there are three