Street Latin
Salsa
We teach both Cuban & LA Style Salsa.
The term 'Salsa' was originally coined in New York and largely referred to the resurgence of a variety of Latin American music.
The dances performed to this kind of music are often a synthesis of Mambo and Cuban Salsa. As the two share the same basic timing, many of the steps are interchangeable, however, the look and feel of the two dances can be quite different.
The history of Salsa as a dance is less clear though there are suggestions that it evolved from Afro and Caribbean dances and developed primarily in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Cuban Salsa is the style that first became popular in Australia in the mid to late 90's.
It has a significant focus on footwork, particularly as a means for improvisation & individual expression. There are also plenty of turn patterns to keep it interesting. The complexity & free flowing circular movement makes Cuban Salsa slightly more of a challenge to learn, but a fantastic dance to do & watch.
It is a flowing spot dance suited to small dance floors & generally has a circular feel with partners constantly turning around each other.
It is characterized by very free body movements and rhythms and fancy footwork and can be danced to a variety of Latin American rhythms & music.
More recently, the LA style of Salsa has become popular. While sharing the timing and many of the turn patterns of its Cuban counterpart, it has evolved as a much more linear dance, generally moving forward and back, and with simplified footwork. This style can be much more closely associated with Ballroom Mambo.
Merengue
Merengue originated in the mid 1800 in the Caribbean - specifically in Haiti & the Dominican Republic.
The original dance was fast and staccato with a focus on footwork and shoulder shimmying.
When the dance traveled to the US in the 1950's it became slower & under ballroom latin influences became focused more on an accentuated hip movement.
The Merengue is characterized by intricate turn patterns & the signature drag step - it often looks like a game of twister played to music.
It is an extremely versatile spot dance suited to all sized dance floors & is very easy to learn.
It can be danced at a range of tempos but is best suited to upbeat music with a steady, distinct & constant beat.
It can also often be used as a slower substitute for Cha Cha where the music lacks an obvious syncopated beat.
Bachata
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Modern Bachata is the most recent street latin dance introduced to Australia & has become very popular as it is an easy dance that can be styled up to be very sensual or styled down to be very social. It borrows its turn patterns from Salsa & its body movements from Zouk. DanceFix focuses mostly on this style in our group classes.
Traditional (or Dominican) Bachata originates from the Dominican Republic. It is a very social dance with minimal turn patterns & body movement as well as some tricky step patterns & timing. This style has not been adopted as widely in across Australia, though most studios including DanceFix often introduce elements of the original style in intermediate workshops.
Zouk Lambada
DanceFix teaches Brazillian Zouk Lambada which is a slow, graceful dance characterised by a wavelike motion through the body & step patterns. There is little to no resemblance with the fast, frantic and raunchy dance style known as Lambada in the 1980's.
Modern Zouk Lambada is a great example of how social dances evolve over time in response to changes in popular music. The term itself means 'party'.
Contemporary Zouk music is a fusion of several indigenous styles incorporating French Caribbean (particularly from the islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique), Latin, African and Jazz rhythms. It tends to be slow & sensual.
The two main forms of the dance are
Caribbean Zouk which is based on a two step pattern similar to Merengue &
Brazillian Zouk (or Zouk Lambada) which is based on a six step pattern.
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Zouk is suited to small dancefloors & slower Latin & Caribbean music.
The rhythm also pops up unexpectedly in a lot of modern chart music!