The Merengue
As the national dance of the Dominican Republic and one of the most popular dances in Latin America, the merengue is an important asset to the culture, which combines both European and African cultures. It quickly became one of the most popular dances in the Dominican Republic because of the simple and easy steps and movements. Not only a type of dance, the merengue was also the official music of the Dominican Republic. Danced in pairs, participants move to the rhythm of music played on instruments such as the accordion, drum, and saxophone. In French the word “meringue” translates to, “a confection made from whipped egg whites and sugar”. The translation relates to the light and fluffy nature of the dance where one gradually
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shifts their weight from foot to foot in a very fluid motion, it refers to the dancer’s sweet and light rhythm. Through observation, participation, and imitation, individuals learn the skills needed to accomplish this dance.
The merengue brings individuals, groups, and communities together, promoting respect and coexistence. The dance having originated in the Dominican Republic has influenced other countries such as Puerto Rico, the United States of America, and the Caribbean region. There are two stories to the origin of this dance. The first story claims that the dance developed when slaves were chained together, while they would work in sugar fields they would be forced to drag one leg to the beat of drums.The second story tells of during the time of the many revolutions in the Dominican republic, a great hero was wounded in the leg. As a result, a group of villagers held a celebration of victory, and to welcome him home they danced, limping and dragging one foot, in sympathy. The merengue was one of the most popular dances in Dominican republic by the nineteenth century. Throughout the Caribbean and South America, it was also one of the most common Latin American dances, not only in the Republic. Used on every dancing occasion, there is a lot of variety found in Merengue music. A great variation of tempos provide Dominicans a shock of quickening pace at the ending of a song making it …show more content…
more enjoyable. The slow Bolera is the most popular routine at clubs and restaurants, breaking into the Merengue. The dance starts slow, then in the end becomes very fast, similar to a Jive. Unlike a ballroom Merengue, which is slower and has refined hip movements. Dances can either hold hands with their partners throughout the dance or if they choose not to they can still maintain close contact with each other. As such an open dance, dancers are free to add moves and steps, attaching their own individual style to the dance.
Once strongly influenced by European dance, the merengue adapted styles and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, livening up the dance, making it more popular. The original form of the merengue, called the merengue típico, emphasized its European influences, including a set framework. Beginning with a slower paced instrumental section, continuing into singing, introducing the lyrical section. The last section is a directional dance, including a call and response type event. This section allows the audience to participate, allowing them to dance a two step simple pattern to a quick tempo. To highlight the occurrence of the period of jazz, the merengue típico includes the distinctive factors of the use of the instruments, the accordion and the saxophone. One form of the merengue is the ballroom merengue, including the limping characteristic discussed in the stories of the dances origin, the steps are performed on an established beat. This form is a partnered dance, performed to simple choreography, partners maintain close contact, and can be seen twirling and spinning in slow circles. Even if the speed of the music increases, partners movements must remain leisurely,
controlled, and centered. The second form is club merengue, this type includes a more stronger sense of energetic and spirited feelings, while maintaining the same form development as the ballroom type. This form is mainly favored by the younger population. The last form is folk merengue, possibly the most similar to the original, merengue típico. In the Dominican Republic, it can be found practiced mainly in the rural areas. The folk merengue includes dancers avoiding the more common bodily back and forth movements, and taking part in full circular motions of their hips while maintaining and straight and upright body. The merengues rollercoaster like history was caused by the many societal and political barriers put onto the dance causing its quite upsetting history. The dictator of the Dominican Republic at a particular point in time was allowed to determine whether people were allowed to perform and practice the merengue, this is what caused the disturbance within the social classes of the Dominican people. Coming from a lower class, Trujillo disliked the upper class, often scrutinizing them. As a result, he made the merengue a huge component of his campaign and also his ruling. By doing what he did as dictator, Trujillo started to bring the merengue into a more popular and widespread setting. For the people of the Dominican Republic, the merengue of today continues to be a significant piece of their cultural pride. The dance strives to preserve its sense of uniqueness and individuality that helps make up its beautiful, tactile rhythms, making it the inspiring dance that is. Not only a style of dance, merengue is also a genre of music. During the first year of the Dominican Republic’s independence from Haiti, evidence suggests that in 1844 the first merengue song was written. During the Battle of Talanquera, a man named Thomas Torres had deserted his troops, a song was said to be written as a satire, in order to mock him. In 1927, as the merengue was just beginning to claim an emblem of national identity, this account surfaced. This song being cited as a patriotic song or ballad helped refute the thought of it being the first song to start the emergence of merengue. Typically played on stringed instruments, the oldest form of merengue began to evolve when the accordion was introduced to the island in the 1880s. Quickly becoming the main instrument, introduced by German traders, it is still to this day the preferred instrument in merengue típico. Eventually introduced to the drama were the piano and brass instruments. The three types of merengue played in the Dominican Republic today are the Merengue típico, also called perico ripiao, merengue de orquesta (big band merengue), and merengue de guitarra (guitar merengue).
Each movement of the work corresponds accordingly to a different country in Europe at the time known for a particular style of dance. The Intrada would be the opening of the program, followed by the French Basse Dance, the English Pavane, the Italian Saltarello, the Spanish Sarabande, and finally concluding with the German Allemande. Even though the work was performed by a modern ensemble, where many instruments had not even been invented when music of this type was originally composed, the instrumentation of the brass section versus the woodwind section and the artistry of the musicians performing are able to recreate a much older style. Overall, the piece Courtly Airs and Dances, is an emulation of a style dating back to the Renaissance period of music, with each movement reflecting a particular style of dance characteristic to the culture of individual European
The tradition still takes place today in many areas of Mexico. However, some parts of Mexico do the dance a little differently. The dance is more common in the central regi...
Wisner, Heather. “With a Hop, A Kick, And A Turn, Cumbia Enters the Global Stage.” Dance Magazine 80.9 (2006): 64-68. Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 Dec. 2011
During my visit, I was able to observe different dances that were very interesting. Two dances that caught my attention were the “Toro Mambo” representing the state of Sinaloa and “Payasos of Tlaxcala” representing Tlaxcala. The “Toro Mambo” from the region of Sinaloa is one of the most popular dances in Mexico. The dance is really interesting for the reason that it represents a story in where a bull would dance on a place known as the “mambo.” In this folk dance the dancer do movements at the same paste while trying to imitate how the bull would dance. In this dance the women wear long colorful dresses to represent joy and in order to move the skirts higher. In contrast, the men wear light color shirts and jeans that matches with their partner. In the other side the dance of the “Payasos de Tlaxcala” represents a story of a festival in the region of Tlaxcala. To perform this dance men and women dress like clowns in colorful outfits to amuse the people in the festival. During the dance, the dancers try to satisfy the public by putting humor in the dance and doing crazy movements. This dances are both very great and enjoyable to watch. It is amazing how you could learn so much in a little bit of time and in a beautiful art
Foley, Eric. Cultures of the World Dominican Republic. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1995. Print.
Last is the danzon, with more Spanish origin that African. It consists of an orquesta made up of cornets, saxophones, clarinets and percussion. The horns make the danzon easily distinguishable from the rumba and son. In the middle of the danzon there is a percussion break, in which everyone begins to dance. It is a more respectable, less provocative dance with a much slower tempo. It was danced by the more upper class Cubans as opposed to the son and rumba, which were working-class dances.
Salsa is one of the most distinctive genres of the 1900s in the music industry; characterized by a very lively, powerful and danceable upbeat. Salsa is a fusion of many Latin musical genres that combines rhythms, instruments and musical elements primarily from the Cuban son based on a three-two beat with syncopation rhythmic pattern known as the clave and Afro-Cuban dance. The roots of salsa originated in Eastern Cuba, but by mid-century the Havana came to be home to this music and many foreign musical genres such as the American Jazz and popular music. Even though, salsa genre has evolved differently across Latin America with the unique sounds of their country of origin, such the Colombian salsa and Puerto Rican salsa, it is still today the most popular style of dance in many Hispanic communities
This dance they get into nature by way of rhythm and it can make your body
This paper will be a detailed description of what dance was like in the 1950’s specifically focusing on 1954 to 1959. It will also go beyond to demonstrate how the style of dancing is a direct reflection of the society during that time period. The topic will be presented in class and a brief reflection will be included in this paper.
In “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, the narrator attempts to understand the relationship between humans and nature and finds herself concluding that they are intertwined due to humans’ underlying need to take away from nature, whether through the act of poetic imagination or through the exploitation and contamination of nature. Bishop’s view of nature changes from one where it is an unknown, mysterious, and fearful presence that is antagonistic, to one that characterizes nature as being resilient when faced against harm and often victimized by people. Mary Oliver’s poem also titled “The Fish” offers a response to Bishop’s idea that people are harming nature, by providing another reason as to why people are harming nature, which is due to how people are unable to view nature as something that exists and goes beyond the purpose of serving human needs and offers a different interpretation of the relationship between man and nature. Oliver believes that nature serves as subsidence for humans, both physically and spiritually. Unlike Bishop who finds peace through understanding her role in nature’s plight and acceptance at the merging between the natural and human worlds, Oliver finds that through the literal act of consuming nature can she obtain a form of empowerment that allows her to become one with nature.
Another influential form of dancing is Irish step dancing. Irish step or clog dancers use wooden soled shoes and very little upper body mov...
All around the world, there are thousands of cultures. Although they are different, every culture partakes in dance. Dancing is something known worldwide. Every culture has traditional cultural dancing they partake in. Mexico has many cultural dances. La danza del venado is one traditional dance from Northern Mexico. La danza del venado, is known as the deer dance.
In New York, the dance is characterized with a heavy Puerto Rican rhythm and sound. The type of Salsa is metaphorically polished and smooth. Its structure is that of Jazz music with lengthy breaks of instruments. Some of well-known musicians who play this type of Salsa are Celia Cruz and The Spanish Harlem Orchestra. The dancing borrows Puerto Rican fast foot work. This type of Salsa is known as Salsa 2. Los Angeles doesn’t have its signature type of Salsa. Bands here adopt the classical Puerto Rican music. The dancing moves are both exciting and sexy. In Cuba, they dance to a type of Salsa Timba. The movement is fast as in Afro Cuban music. Cuban Musicians have blended in the popular Reggae and Pop music in between the breaks. The dancing style is called “Casino” simply because when it was started it was played in gambling joints or casinos. One notable difference is that Cuban Salsa is circular rather than linear. The man keeps moving around the woman. The Colombians have maintained their Salsa Dura up-to-date. The dancing style is spectacular with swift movement of feet and tight spins. The dancers stay close; bodies almost touching. The West Africans also have their Salsa. (Carwile, 2017)Traditional music instruments are relied upon to give the rhythm. The dancing style is what they call Salsa Mbalax more African than
If I were to take you back in time to Neolithic age you would see many paintings on cave walls that resembled today's dance and some that you would not recognize much because they were not passed on through time. Many of today’s dances were constructed in the Stone Age and evolved through time to what we have today and along the way many steps have been changed or added to spice up the dances.
The final type of dance that will be explored will be ballroom dancing. Ballroom dancing is a traditional type of dance usually performed with a partner. Types of ballroom dancing include the waltz, swing, salsa and latin dances however there are many other types of ballroom dancing.