Latin- and South-American dances
As Asia is famous for its various Martial Arts, so is Mid- and South-America famous for its enormous variety of dance types.
They are too many to name, but until now the Salsa, Bachata and Merengue has been most favoured. Coming up are now
the Brazilian dances, like Samba, Sambaerobics (Axé Bahia), Forró, and the newest dance craze next to Reggaeton is Zouk,
a variation on the Lambada. Other dances, such as the Tango, Rumba, Bolero and Flamenco are also back in favour. The driving
force behind this fast growing interest is the music, that fills the imagination. Proof of this is for example the
yearly Brazilian Carnaval, and the growing number of places, where you can dance on these types of music.
Partner dances
The last ten years partner dancing has become hot again, after solo dancing has been favoured for some thirty years.
The start of this has been the Salsa, now the Zouk (the modern Lambada). The hits of artists like Shakira have contributed
enormously to the last. We once more fully enjoy looking at couples that dance together beautifully, nicely or sensually,
and we find it even more fun to do.
Typical partner dances are Salsa, Bachata, Cha cha cha, Tango and Merengue, but also Forró, Bolero, Rumba, Samba de Gafieira,
Samba Pagode and Zouk.
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Solo dances
The Solo dances are still an important ingredient at parties. Typical solo dances are Square dancing, Belly dancing , Samba solo (Samba no Pé) and
Sambaerobics (Axé Bahia), which very much looks like Streetdance and is particularily favoured by the ladies. Reggaeton is
a dance that is danced solo as well as with partner and is purely sexually orientated. It is especially known from recent music clips on TV
and it is practiced with great pleasure by men and women. Hiphop or Streetdance is another very much favoured solo dance. Most solo dances are performed in a group.
Group dances with partner
In its own place are group dances with partner. A typical example of this is Rueda de Casino, a variant on the Salsa.
The partners stand in a circle and the group leader shouts commands while the partners execute these. The commands can
be a reference to a pattern you do with your partner, or to the way you dance on to the next partner, or to a group action.
Because the commands are executed by everyone at the same time, the whole group is moving dynamically and everybody dances with everybody.
The main necessity is that everybody in the group knows (and can hear) the commands of the leader and that everybody has a partner during
the performance. Even so Rueda de Casino is a favoured activity in most Salsa schools.
Dancing in the Netherlands
One of the nice advantages of the multicultural character of the Netherlands is that we come across the most various types
of exotic musics and dances and can fully enjoy them. Recent examples of famous artists in these genres are
Tarkan with his 'Aisha', Shakira with her 'La Tortura' and 'Hips don't Lie', and the band Aventura with its
Bachata-hit 'Obsesion'. Of these hits are now made also popular Zouk and Reggaeton versions.
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