Merengue Partner Basics

Video Transcript

"Alright. So now that we know our basic step for Merengue, now we're going to show you how to do it together as a couple. So first things first, how to hold your partner. Gentlemen, we're going to take the right hand and place it on the lady's shoulder blade up here, not down here. Okay, you want to make sure that you're pressing up. And ladies, you want to press down so we don't have any gap in between our arms. We don't want it to look like that. We want it to look like this. So you lift up and support her arm. Okay, and the other side. We'll use our ballroom hold. Gentlemen, make a "v" with your hand. Ladies, rest your hand on top, and we're going to keep it up here at shoulder level. Okay, now we're just going to do our basic step. The key thing to remember is that you want to be on, you want to mirror each other. So when the gentleman's on the left foot, the lady's going to be on the right foot. We want to be going together the same direction. Not on opposite feet. Okay, so it's going to look like this. Got to start with the left. We go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And the nice thing about Merengue is that there's really no rules. So it's very, very unstructured. So with this basic, you can travel forward and you can travel back, you can turn around in a circle. Okay, you can really just kind of go wherever you want to go. No rules. Very easy. Turn it around. As long as we both stay on the same foot so we're going the same direction. Now gentlemen remember, you've got your hand on her back for a purpose. You're going to lead your girl. So even if she closes her eyes, I should be able to tell, even with my eyes closed, which direction I'm supposed to be going because he is leading me. Okay, so I don't need to look at my foot to know which foot I'm supposed to be on. Guys, it's your job to take her with you. Okay?"