What's up with merengue?

I cannot restrain myself any longer and must ask this question. I see okay salsa dancers, but they have no clue about merengue, or bachata, or cha cha... I could understand bachata, or cha cha, but merengue? What's up with that?!! :shock: :? The merengue beat is a driving 1 2, and that's all!! It is a step step dance, with each step taking the same amount of time... Why should it be difficult to do? And I'm curious. Is this something that you have noticed as well? Or, is it only an Ithaca NY phenomenon?

You'd be surprised... It really has nothing to do with dancers but people. Some people really don't have a sense of rhythm. It isn't a nock to them, the same way that some people are tone deaf, some people, for the lack of a better word, are "rhythm deaf". Or simply don't care to listen to the music...

I've danced with dominicans, ricans, cubans, colombians, non-dancers as well as dancers who've been dancing merengue all their life, yet to save their life, they can't figure out merengue rhythm. It's like they are truly hearing something that isn't there...

I'm baffaled, I've had girls step 4,5 times, before the second thump hits. It is incredible but not their fault, and happens very often. I usually tell them to follow me, not to go ahead or slow down. Just follow the sway that my lead is causing on their bodies. There have been times where they've actually told me I'm going too slow, or fast. To where I tell them, If that is the case then why is everyone else around us going at my speed?

Some people really have no idea what they should follow to dance in rhythm. Maybe they think they have to step to every sound they hear… I don’t know what causes it, but I know for sure that being latino or a salsero has nothing to do with feeling a rhythm.

Don't shoot me when I say this, but merengue is such a sweet dance. So simple and easy, that it gives me room to do all sorts of interesting stuff with my mid-section that I'd never even have time to do in salsa. And so simple that even a beginner can do it. While I'm bopping around doing syncopations and isolations, my beginner partner can just march. I can't understand why people don't like it, unless it's that they're impatient to hear even more salsa. :wink:

pygmalion said:

Don't shoot me when I say this, but merengue is such a sweet dance.

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Shoot down a "sweet" person, when she says a dance is "sweet"!! :shock: :wink: Never!! I like it too, which is the reason for my musing, though perhaps not as much as bachata. It is easier to do more complicated moves for merengue then bachata as I find that for bachata my partners get really flustered when I add spice to that dance. I'm changing that though, one person at a time, just as I'm working on converting those merengue-phobic dancers.

pygmalion said:

...So simple and easy, that it gives me room to do all sorts of interesting stuff with my mid-section that I'd never even have time to do in salsa. And so simple that even a beginner can do it. While I'm bopping around doing syncopations and isolations, ........

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Sometimes, the more simple dances are the hardest. What I've seen with merengue is the syncopations and isolations that throw people off. I do this alot too pygmalion and your right, there's alot more time to do the "hip action" than in Salsa. If you're not used to doing that, and you're watching/dancing with someone who is, it can be a little intimidating. Those extra steps could be a compensation for trying to get rhythm the hips. I've tried teaching alot of friends and family and that's what they say mostly throws them off.

Yup, peachexploration. You're right. Sometimes the complicated stuff can distract a newbie. If I see that happeneing, I either tone it down, ask them (charmingly, of course) to look into my eyes, or keep all the action in my middle. Fancy stuff with the feet throws off newbies a lot faster than fancy stuff in the rib cage.

Try it. Maybe you can get your family and friends merengueing with you. :wink:

pygmalion said:

Try it. Maybe you can get your family and friends merengueing with you. :wink:

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I do all the time. The thing is the basic "hip action" scares them to death. (Which in reality comes from just bending the knees for merengue). It comes natural to me but for them it's not natural at all so it takes a while for them to get it. Especially, if they don't know that that part of the body exists. I've seen alot of "Advanced" Salsa dancers with this problem as well.

I don't have a problem with the rhythm of merengue, at all, but I still feel that my merengue is not up to par with my salsa dancing, probably because I simply haven't worked on it as much. I feel that my style could be improved, though I'm not sure in what direction. (I've never learned how to do a pivot turn, which is very frustrating because sometimes merengue just makes you want to do that kind of turn.)

I learned merengue before I learned salsa. I was in a merengue rush for a while, I was one of those merengueros that salsa came on and I would feel insulted... Then one day I learned salsa, the intricacies of the dance, the music and soon after my taste changed so much that when I tried to merengue I would get blasting headaches from the constant banging rhythm. My taste has changed so much that now when I think of good music I think of the classics, jazz, and above all salsa. When I want to listen to 'simpler' music, I listen to son, son montuno, cha cha cha, etc... I noticed that anything that is rhythmically simple and doesn't have a feel of the clave completely turns me off. I need something deeper than 2 I guess...

Come find out one evening when I went on vacation, and the girls dancing with me asked if I was so damn passionate about everything I danced. I didn't understand what they meant, but when one of them asked me to merengue after a bachata. My dance face was on. I was all over the place, I had her doing things in merengue she’d never done before, (she is one of those trophy dancer brujo speaks of). Eventually I figured out that it really wasn't merengue that had me on a rush as a newbie... but the dancing part that really had me going. However, since merengue was the only out-let at the time, I figured I was a merenguero, now looking back, if It wasn't for the love I have for salsa, its history, musicians, dancers, singers, etc, I would just say that I love to dance regardless of music... But as I now realize, I didn't like merengue for its music but the means to open my doors to a newly discovered world of dancing. Now, salsa actually opens its doors to me to get lost in its world of dance, history, and lifestyle and why I finally figured out that merengue, nor bachata, nor cha cha cha, nor cumbia (which I'm all equally strong as in salsa), didn't really open doors to me, but me really opened doors to them... And why it isn't the same to feel loved and love, than to love and never feel loved... Isn't amazing to do nothing, ask for nothing, want nothing and still feel loved? Well, that is why I salsa!

When merengue is playing I take my breaks. Sorry, but the music does nothing for me whatsoever.

youngsta said:

When merengue is playing I take my breaks. Sorry, but the music does nothing for me whatsoever.

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I'm with youngsta on this one. The music just does nothing for me... so it's break time (or, at times, used to dance with a newbie or a non-"dancer").

Please don't laugh at me, but I like to do merengue ONLY in salsa outings. But I think it's unusual to find that it is listed as a syllabus event in collegiate competitions. What do you think?

If you can merengue, and you love to merengue, all the more power to you!! I do merengue with newbies/beginners as SD says, but I also do it with a couple people who just like it. That way I do not take a break. If I knew you only do merengue I would save a merengue dance for you, and when salsa comes on dance with someone else.

Hmm, you know I actually do the same when a Merengue comes on. The only time I dance them is if a lady asks (or drags me kicking and screaming). After working hard to learn the intricate rhythms of Salsa, Merengue doesn't seem to move me that much...like its missing something. Its a great time to go get some water, use the restroom or survey the room for your next dance partner.

They play a lot of it where I go...but so far I've only heard a Bachata played once...its rare and kind of mysterious, so that sounds good to me. :wink:

Good evening all,

I think its like comparing apples and oranges, both types of music/dances are energetic.

Most people I know like a variety and can do one or the other or both (merengue & salsa) heck some people can do all three/four salsa, merengue, bachata, & even cumbia!.

I think in order to satisfy everyone (at the club or party) you have to mix it up and play a variety. Most people I know get upset when only one kind of music is played. Merengue is fairly easy to learn just 1,2 1,2 and a little bit of hip motion and your rolling,.

I think salsa is the hardest to learn because you really have to know the rythm and the chance of error and getting off step is much easier.

It's pretty neat though to have to change up and go from one style to another (makes you really break a sweat!)

chow