The History of Latin American Dance
Latin dance is popular the world over for its flair, drama, and sensuality. Latin music is bright, passionate and soulful, and has an infectious beat that invites everyone to the dance floor, regardless of skill. Great Latin dancers are a joy to watch, and Latin dance has become a popular category of competitive ballroom dancing.
Dances like Salsa, the Merengue, and the Tango are a fusion of colorful cultural expressions, and tell a story of slavery, poverty and conquest in an evolving Latin America.
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Earliest Origins
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The story of Latin dance doesn't begin in Cuba or Spain, but in 18th-century England. In the 1700s, an informal English country dance spread in popularity across Europe. In France it was called the "contredanse", in Spain, the "contradanza", and in Portugal, the "contradanca". The Europeans eventually brought the dance with them to Central and South America.
Spanish Influence
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Because Spain controlled most of Central and South America from the 15th through much of the 19th centuries, Spanish culture has had the most influence over the course of Latin dance history. Spain can be credited for Latin dance's colorful flair, its graceful and dramatic hand movements and its flat-footed marching steps, which come from Spanish Paso Doble and Flamenco dances. Musically, Spain can be credited with the use of the Spanish folk guitar and troubadour song styles.
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African Influence
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Beginning in the 1500s, European conquerors and settlers brought large numbers of slaves to Central and South America. The majority of these slaves were from West African tribes like the Yoruba and the Bantu. These tribes used religious ceremonial drumbeats and dances to call out specific gods. They brought their religion and their drums with them to the New World, and their distinctive percussion rhythms are what gave Latin music its infectious and heady syncopation.
Cuban Influence and Salsa
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Cuba lays claim to such popular dances as the Salsa, the Mambo, the Cha Cha, the Rumba and the Bolero. When the Spanish brought the contradanza to Cuba in the 1700s, it became known as Danza. The arrival of Haitians fleeing Haiti in the early 1800s brought to Danza a Creole influence and a new syncopation.
Eventually the Danza became freer and livelier, and became known as Danzon. In the 1940s Danzon, blended with Cuban Son music and jazz, gave way to the Mambo. Salsa, the most well-known of all Latin dances, is a derivation of the Mambo. Salsa was given its name by Americans when it hit the New York dance clubs in the 1950s and 1960s.
Merengue
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The Merengue was created in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It began as a mimicry of the French Minuet by black slaves, who would watch their masters' ballroom dances and incorporate their steps into their own celebrations, while adding a lively drumbeat, skips and hops.
Tango
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The Tango was heavily influenced by the contradanza, the Flamenco, and Argentinian slave dances, although some of its earliest forms come from Cuba. The modern form of Tango is unique to Argentina, and was discovered in nightclubs in impoverished parts of Buenos Aires.
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