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Click on your chosen dance style to view a brief history and access short videos.
Choose from 'High' (broadband) or 'Low' (Dial-up) video links depending on your connection. All clips are Windows Media. |
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Clips edited by Bryan Crotaz & Susannah
Traill. Camera: Tim Harcourt.
Thanks to STOIC www.stoictv.com and to Renaissance Footnotes for
the Period Clip. |
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Latin American - dances
are extravagant and flirtatious. The five Latin dances are:
The cha-cha-cha - is a Latin
dance with four beats to the bar at a medium tempo. The actual "cha-cha-cha" is
heard in the music on the 4 & 1 counts, making it instantly recognizable.
While relatively simple and satisfying to learn for the beginner,
this is a dance that can be taken to the limits of energy and extravagance.
As a social dance, it is fun and flirtatious, and can be danced in
a fairly small space, since it does not move around the floor very
much. In competitive dancing, it just looks dazzling.
The Rumba - is a slow, sensual,
Latin dance.
The Samba - is quite simply
the carnival dance. It originated in Brazil and is the party dance
of Rio. It is still danced
extensively in Brazil, although the Samba that is danced in the Ballrooms
and International competitions around the world is a far cry from
the party dance of Brazil.
The Paso Doble - is a rather
different Latin dance, which depicts the scene in a bull fight. Here,
the man is the matador with his
cape, and the lady is the bull.
Jive - is quite simply the definition
of the word "fun".
It's basically rock 'n' roll crossed with swing, and is probably
the best social dance there is. The dance itself is quick and energetic,
but the steps are simple and easy to learn. The main difficulty is
developing a kind of "bounce", because the jive is not
something you can remain stationary for! Basically, if you can master
this dance, you will never stop wanting to dance it! |
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