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Dominican Merengue Information
What
you want
to know about the Dominican merengue
The Dominican merengue is a style of music and dance that has its
origins in the Latin American culture. It is the national dance of the
Dominican Republic.
The purely traditional form of merengue is usually
played with
a two-ended tambora drum, a guiro, a box bass, a guitar, and an
accordion.
There happens to
be two versions of how and why the merengue came to be. First, it’s
said that the merengue was invented by slaves and that the dance was
developed because of two slaves chained together. The other was because
of a national hero that came home
from the war and that his limping
leg was the basis of the dance steps. There’s also the idea that the
merengue was developed due to the influence of Cuban music. All in all,
it doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is that the symbolic
imagery of the dance
steps pertains to legends (or facts) that happened
a long time ago and that it helped to define a culture.
Recent history
Around the 18th century, the merengue evolved to become rural music in
both Haiti and The Dominican Republic. It is noted that
Haitian
merengue tends to have a melancholic sound on the guitar, while the
Dominican
Republic sound tends to lean towards the opposite. The
representative form of this style still survives to this day and it
consists of the walks, body and jaleo. No one is really sure when, but
as time went by, the walk disappeared and was superseded with an
extension of the body and the jaleo had been alienated due to some
exotic rhythm’s insertions.
Remember when going to Punta Cana that dancing the Dominican merengue
means that partners hold each
other in a
vals-like position, stepping side-by-side, turning clock-wise (or the
opposite), while maintaining the closed dance position (or sometimes
only one of the dancers turn, particularly the female, while holding on
to the other partner who holds his position).
Famous artists
There are so many popular merengue artists. Here are some of them:
Frank
Reyes, Cherito, Los hermanos Rosario, Rubby Perez, Eddy Herrera. There
are also: Sergio Vargas, Milly Quezada, Julian Oro Duro and a lot
more.
The
Dominican merengue is never supposed to be
complicated. Whoever
originated this kind of style certainly had the idea of fun
in mind.
Basic tips
on dancing:
-
In a closed
position, partners usually hold each other in this way but
never close
enough to hugging.
- The
steps are fairly easy to master, since a grasp
of the basics is simply the bending of the knees to sway the hips in an
up and down motion.
-It’s
just like marching except that you only go
sideways and not for long distances.
Check out this video on how
to dance merengue:
Go ahead, find a partner and practice your merengue moves!
me
from the war and that his limping
leg was the basis of the dance steps. There’s also the idea that the
merengue was developed due to the influence of Cuban music. All in all,
it doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is that the symbolic
imagery of the dance
steps pertains to legends (or facts) that happened
a long time ago and that it helped to define a culture.
Basic tips
on dancing: 