learning salsa and merengue same time? but i want to learn merengue more?

Question

Im thinking about joining a salsa class but my main goal is to really dance to merengue or even just learn the basics or intermediate.This dance instructor teaches salsa as the main part, but not merengue. He does know how to dance merengue. doesn't merengue and salsa go together so should I join his club? I dont want to go 15 miles to another latin club.

Answer 1

I don't see why not learn them both at the samce time. Learning more than one dance actually helps to learn them faster because your brain and muscle gets used to the idea of moving to music. Merengue is very easy to learn. After you learn salsa you'll find that merengue is a piece of cake to learn.

Answer 2

If it were possible to find somebody who's been dancing International Latin ballroom and knows rumba but has never even heard of salsa or merengue, that person would know the basics of Latin motion, lead/follow, underarm turns, etc. it would take about thirty seconds to teach that person how to dance both salsa and merengue at an advanced level, the dances being at their basis very simple dances. Go ahead and take the salsa classes. The vast majority of what you need to learn is in the fundamentals of partner dancing, and the individual dances are trivial by comparison.

Answer 3

The really salsa instructor MUST TO can dance merengue. So I strongly recommend to you seek other instructor because merengue is one the basic dances to learn to dance salsa better. Many instructor don't move the hips when they dance. Sorry but in the Latin America the hips is the primordial in the dance, otherwise is only a "laboratory dance".
You can learn to dance salsa & merengue in the same time. It's need!
See you and welcome to the salsaworld!!

Answer 4

You can learn both at the same time. Merengue is easier than salsa becasue all you do is step 1,2 1,2 rather than 1,2,3 pause 5,6,7 pause. If you can walk you can dance merengue. It's just like marching in place. Of cousre as poeple have also mentioned. you need to move your hips, but the hip movement comes automatically if you do the steps correctly.

the key is in bending your knees. If you stand up in front of your computer right now...OK...transfer all your wieght to your left leg and bend your right knee a little. Your hio will automatically move to the left. Now transfer your wieght to your right foot and bend your left knee. Your hip naturally moves to the right. Thus the hip movement in latin dances somes from the steps and is not anything to do with "pushing" your hips out from one side ot the other.

You can find lots of merengue video, including instructional videos at youTube. Just search for merengue and dance or baile. But keep in mind that some of the dancers aren't good, some are dancing ballroom merengue as opposed to "social merengue" and some people say "merengue" in their title but are dancing salsa or bachata.