About Latin American dances

By | April 6, 2021

Rumba

Rumba comes from Cuban dance and is the slowest of the five Latin American dances. The modern dance is based on the observations of the English dance teacher Pierre Zurcher Margolie, who went to Cuba in 1952. Rumban’s style is tight, with a distinct hip weakness and small ascent and falls from the dancer’s movements and ankles. Rumba, like the waltz and foxtrot, is a finished or progressive dance, where the dancers move around the dance floor.

Samba

Samba comes from the dance of Brazil in the early 20th century. Many steps, the dance has a jumping movement that comes from the dancers ‘movement’ knees and is remarkable for its often changing rhythms.

Paso Doble

Paso Doble Style Dance, whose name means ‘double step’ in Spanish, comes from the dance style in the south of France and is based on the sounds and movements of Spanish bullfighting. Paso Doble has less hip movement than the other Latin American dances and other characteristics that make it closer to the international standard dances. Like rhombus, cha-cha-cha originated in Cuba and the observations of Pierre Zurcher Margolia on his 1952 journey The name reflects the sound of a mixture of instruments and dancers. Like the rumba, cha cha-cha is dense and has little rise and fall.

Jive

Jive is a dance style from African American communities in the United States. It was developed in the early 1940s and is based on the jitterbug, a kind of swing dance. ‘Jive’ was then a word for meaningless conversation. The style of the dance was taken to England, where English dance teachers refined it and put it to slower music. The modern jive dance often has knee bending and hip movement. It became the fifth Latin American dance in 1968. Latin American dance is a category of ballroom dance. Like International Standard, it is a division of International Style dance. Since only three of the five international Latin dances actually originate from Latin America, the category is also called international Latin, Latin or Latin and American. The five dances included are rumba, samba, paso doble, cha-cha-cha and jive. Like all ballroom dances, they are danced with a partner.

Source:danspela.com