User:Ctysick/Latin dance

Article Draft Latin dance
Latin dance is a perfect mix of various dance styles from cultures around the world, creating a dance style encompassing this new age of Latin culture. Influences deriving from West African, African American, and European dance styles were all comprised in the making of many of these latin dances such as: Salsa, Mambo, Merengue, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, Bachata, and Samba. Not only has these cultures shaped this style of dance, but as well in the music made in Latin America. Music became the engine for Latin dancing because it guided the dance steps with its measure, speed, and the feeling it evoked, from energetic to sensual. Many of these beats come from European folk music, West African beats, and African American Jazz. Various Latin American regions developed independent styles, and from each genre, or combination of styles, a different genre was born. For example, the Mambo which was created in the 1940s emerged through the combination of American swing and Cuban Son music. Another example is the the Romani and Egyptian cultural dance of belly dancing, which has traveled it's way to Spain and gained it's influence in the repertoire of the latin dance known as flamenco due to the Moorish conquest of Iberia (Spain) in the Eighth-Century. Though Latin dance is a social dance that can be seen in Quinceañera's, parties, and in any social gathering there is no required cultural clothing required for these style of dancing. On the other hand, in the dance sport competition world of "latin dance" each categories in Latin dance has it's own unique styled costumes along with it. From short rimmed dresses, fringe hems, a skirt or dress, braided hems, and boa feathers and flowers can be seen throughout each costume designs.