Latin Dance Workshop # 5

In the early 16th century, many Africans were brought as slaves to various Latin and European countries. The Africans brought their culture, especially their native rhythmic dancing with them. For recreation the African slaves would make drums out of whatever was available. They would tap their hands and feet, making rhythms no one had ever heard before. The Africans would then bring those rhythms alive with the native dancing! Europeans already had their own unique type of music and dance. Eventually, the natives of other Spanish countries immediately fell in love with the beautiful african dancing, and began to copy it, and fuse it into their own native latin dance. The result was variety of unique and beautiful latin dancing styles such as merengue, salsa, bachata, lambada, cumbia, cha cha, rueda, and many others. Many governments and religions tried to stop this fusion of African and European dancing. However they were not successful. Eventually as the centuries passed, latin style music and dancing branched out even more to different types of dancing. For example, the fusion of African and Brazilian dancing gave birth to “Samba”. The mixture of Haitian dancing in the Dominican Republic created “merengue”. The dances of the Africans mixed with the traditional dances in Cuba to create “cha cha”, and “rumba”. Today, latin dance is more popular than ever. It has even become a part of American pop culture. It’s important to appreciate it’s unique history.

The details… Latin dance comes under the dance style of ballroom. When: 16 th Century Where: Began when African slaves were brought to Europe. They used drum beats to dance. The Spanish fell in love with their dancing and made it their own. Styles: - African + Brazillian dance = Samba - African + Cuban dance = Cha cha and Rumba And so many more styles…