"Any idiot can dance merengue" (was: Clave -Used to be" Salsa Wouldnt be so.......

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 11:15:20 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.arts.dance,rec.music.afro-latin
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"Rod" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:bbp3c4$fe2$email-address-deleted...
> <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
> news:bbm46o$2vu$email-address-deleted...
> > In rec.music.afro-latin Jacira <email-address-deleted> wrote:
> >
> > > Well, Once you learn to dance salsa, you won't want to go back to
> dancing
> > > merengue.... any idiot can dance merengue!
> >
> > Typical attitude. Where I go to dance, the band plays Salsa, merengue,
> > cha cha, and cumbia. And the Latinos/Latinas that go there never
> > dance to anything that isn't of "their" country. One group only
> > does merengue and another only does salsa. When "their" dance isn't
> > being played they sit like bumps on a log. And the band had better
> > split up the time evenly too or they'll hear about it too.
:
Not where I go. I guess at these places Latinos/Latinas are all from a
totally wrong country :-) and hence have no prejudices.
The dance both Salsa and Merengue with the same vigor.
> >
> > Seems like only us gringos go there and dance them all and
> > have a great time doing it!
> I think it's "any idiot can dance merengue, but not anyone can dance it
> well".
> This comes from someone who is not a merengue enthusiast, and someone who
> doesn't particularly enjoy dancing it. There's no doubt in my mind though
> that people who
> dance it well are not common, though anyone can dance it a bit.
:
If you learned Merengue at an Arthur Murray studio or from the likes, I can
believe that eventually hate it.
This is because you would have learnt its steps (and often of strange
appearance, too), but not how to DANCE.
IMO Merengue is unique in that you love it if you DANCE it, rather than
execute tricky steps to impress yourself, your partner, or spectators.
Of course, you can do *very* tricky things in Merengue, and spectacular, and
sensual, and sexy, and goofy, and silly, and athletic, and theatrical.
If you like DANCING, you can do anything what you want in Merengue. It does
not require refined techniques, watching for this misterious clave, or else.
You can easily adapt many patterns from Salsa or Hustle. You may play with
the rhythm, if you are bored with simple limping to and fro.
As I see it, for the dance to be Merengue all you need is proper music and
this peculiar 'gait'. The rest is up to your fancy.
As for me, I like to grab an occasion to go silly after some
SlowFox/Tango/Waltz.
And I understand why some may feel awkward with this dance.
;mikkalai
''''