How to Alternate Steps in Merengue

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Rodney Lopez and this is my lovely partner Amelia Maldonado. We're here at Dance Manhattan Studios here in New York City, and today we're going to teach you the merengue. When you get the hang of your basic step in place and your traveling step, what you want to get used to doing is alternating the two. We can start with a step that goes in place. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, and now we can travel, 1, 2, 3, 4. Gentlemen in particular should still be leading this dance. You want to be able to alternate from just traveling to staying in place. That gives variety to your dance. You won't spend the whole dance stuck in one spot, but you won't spend the whole dance traveling on the dance floor. You want to make sure that you're opening, closing, moving, and then every so often just sort of stepping in place. Once again, you can travel around the floor a little bit. You can move. Let her know that you want to move by squeezing her on the back. Then when you don't want to move anymore, just sort of put the brakes on, but always keep moving and always keep the engine running. Alright, so you'll step in place. Left, right, left, right."