Dance & Culture

The roots of salsa originated in Eastern Cuba (Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo) from the Cuban Son (about 1920) and Afro-Cuban dance (like Afro-Cuban rumba). There, Spanish and Afro-Cuban musical elements were combined, both in terms of rhythm and the instruments used.

Lenguage: Spanish

Yvanna Collado

Merengue, French mérengue, couple dance originating in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, strongly influenced by Venezuelan and Afro-Cuban musical practices and by dances throughout Latin America. Originally, and still, a rural folk dance and later a ballroom dance, the merengue is at its freest away from the ballroom.

Language: English

Josue Hernandez

Bachata originated in the 1960's throughout the countryside of the Dominican Republic. The music was first developed with a heavy guitar emphasis and heartrending love stories as its basis. However, it grew primarily within bars and brothels, and this led to Bachata being held back for literally decades.

Lenguage: Spanish

Yvanna Collado

Reggaeton starts as an adaptation of Jamaican reggae (and later Jamaican dancehall) to the Spanish-language culture in Panama . Reportedly, the Jamaican reggae influence on Panamanian music has been strong since the early 20th century, when Jamaican laborers were used to help build the Panama Canal. 

Lenguage: english 

Josue and Yvanna 

HISTORY OF CUMBIA

It was born on Colombia's Caribbean coast where it was originally an African courtship dance that evolved with the addition of African, European and indigenous instruments and indigenous dance steps.

Lenguage: spanish 

Yvanna Collado 

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Angola and the Congo, through the samba de roda genre of the northeastern state of Bahia, from which it derived. 

Yvanna Collado