This is without a doubt the simplest of the Latin dances.
The only difficult part of Meringue is the Cuban hip action. You have to master the hips to do this dance because if you don’t, it will look like you’re just walking around in circles.
If you do Salsa with out the hips, you’ll look like a Gringo, but if you do Meringue with American hips you’ll look stupid.
In Cuba, Meringue is danced in a very close hold and is a sort of Latin blues dance, but here in California it’s basically swing moves in a one step rhythm.
Many advanced dancers find Meringue to be a boring dance because it is so simple, but if you do it the Cuban way, it’s not boring at all! Even the open style of Meringue affords a lot of variations, making it a great dance for beginners to get the feel of Latin dance, and for more advanced dancers to be creative without having to think too much.
You step on every beat in Meringue, and the music is slower than Salsa. There is no trick to the timing. You just walk through the moves taking as many steps as you want to get through them.
As with most dances, if you enjoy the music, you’ll enjoy the dance.
