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. Gentlemen, breakaway step really prepares for lots of turns. There's a lot of variety here. The important thing is keeping the form and keeping the rhythm. My feet are always going to step in place. 1, 2, 3, 4, and my hands are going to remain low. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. You want to avoid raising your hands up to your shoulders every single time you send her out. This has a very sort of weird look. You're just sort of cranking her back and forth. Keep those hands low at her waist level and keep it at her center. It makes her feel good and it makes you sort of anchor her in place. Lots of turns come from this, and we're going to cover some of those shortly. Once again, this breakaways step. Gentlemen, you're just sort of hanging out in place, stepping in place, while the lady just walks forward and back. Right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right.
