Latin Sensual Dance

Origins of Latin Somatic Sensuality and Social Class

During pregnancy, many mothers say they can feel their babies dancing in their wombs when they hear music. Throughout time, humans have felt an innate need to dance, interpreting music artistically through their bodies. Many cultures have developed wonderful forms of dance. Styles of dance have developed through groups of people repeating a set sequence of choreographed movements, reflecting culture, purpose and social class. Dance has become an activity which brings people together and gives them an aesthetic uniqueness. Latin dances, in particular, contains many different styles of dance with wide-ranging influences from native South American, European and African cultures. Three types

This style of the dance can be understood through it’s name, Cha-cha-cha, which is an onomatopoeia imitating the rhythmical sound of the dancer’s shoes tapping on the ground to the Cha-cha-cha triple step. The step is followed by two slower steps and this step can be found in dances of the Santeria religion among the west African descendants in the Caribbean. The dance is usually performed between two people, typically a man and a woman with the man guiding the dance. There is a great deal of hip-movement to this sensual dance, while the dancers playfully exaggerate dance gestures. This dance’s playful, flirty nature ensures the dance oozes with

Merengue began as a folk dance in which the technique consisted of men and women in a circle holding hands and shuffling simple, but coordinated footsteps, and moving their shoulders with no pronounced hip movements. Gradually the style developed into a couple’s dance with partners moving their hips in synchronistic movements, and dancing a simple side-step, called paso de la empalizada. The African influence can be sourced in the beats in music that accompany the Merengue. The heritage institute of Vancouver, Canada told the story of the legend surrounding the dance, stating that the style was dedicated to “a war hero,” who some say was a pirate “who had a wooden right leg,” and “would dance on the Dominican beaches and his style was soon emulated by the rest of the population.” Merengue was a rural dance and was considered unsophisticated until it was popularized by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who was in power from 1930 -1961. Merengue’s sensuality can be witnesses by the intensity that easily develops between the two dance partners dancing these straightforward steps in