Video: History of Merengue Dancing

Learn about the history of merengue dancing with expert Caribbean merengue dancing instruction from a professional dancer in this free online dance lesson and choreography video clip.

Video Transcript

I want to talk a little bit about the music and the history of Merengue. Merengue originated in about the 18 century in the Dominican Republic. In the 1930s it became so popular that they actually coined Merengue as the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Since then it has traveled all over the world. It has become popular in the whole world. It's one of the most popular Latin dances in the world. I do think one of the reasons for that is the beat and the step are very basic, very simple, and they don't change, which you're about to learn some of the basic steps in the next clip and you will also learn some partnering. Let me just show you. It's comprised kind of a little drag. That's what makes it so easy. It's like a shuffle. Your feet never come up off the ground. It's kind of like marching, but without taking your feet off the ground. It just shifts, shifts, shifts. This is the basic movement. Also, what's going to help you is you bend one knee as you straighten your other knee, which gives you the Latin motion in the hips. In addition to that, you can also alternate the shoulders to give even more emphasize on the hips, the shoulders, and the feet all working together. That's the basic Merengue step. You want to learn more, check the next clip.

History of Merengue Dancing

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