When in Tiquicia Do as the Ticos: Dance!

I love salsa. I love the music and I love the dancing. It is my favorite style, so I am a little biased in saying it is the king of all latin dances.

Here is a history of salsa from Wikipedia.

The history of "Salsa" dance is peppered with hearsay and contradiction. Although few would disagree that the music and dance forms originate largely in Cuban Son, most agree that Salsa as we know it today is a North American interpretation of the older forms. New York's Latino community had a vibrant musical and dancing scene throughout the '50s but found limited success with the 'Anglo' mainstream. In the 1970s, adoption of the term "Salsa" reduced the linguistic and cultural barriers to mainstream adoption of Latin music and dance.

The modernization of the Mambo in the 1950s was influential in shaping what would become salsa. There is debate as to whether the dance we call Salsa today originated in Cuba or Puerto Rico. Cuba's influence in North America was diminished after Castro's revolution and the ensuing trade embargo. New York's Latino community was largely Puerto-Rican. Salsa is one of the main dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico and is known world-wide.

As for my favorite latin performers, you need to take a look at the lens I created called My Favorite Latin Music. My all-time favorite is Marc Anthony, but I also like Gilberto Santo Rosa, Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Victor Manuel, and also the old stuff, especially Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz, among many others.

Merengue was the first latin dance style I learned to do and that is the case for many gringos. It is much simpler to learn than other styles and involves less complicated movements of the feet, as compared with salsa. Nevertheless, merengue is a load of fun.

Here is a history of merengue from Wikipedia.

It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the Spanish name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar. It is unclear as to why this name became the name of the music. Perhaps, it can trace its meaning from the movement on the dance floor that could remind one of an egg beater in action.

This style of music was created by Ñico Lora, a Dominican of Spanish descent, in the 1920s. In the Dominican Republic it was promoted by Rafael Trujillo, the dictator from the 1930s through the early 1960s, and became the country's national music and dance style, while in the United States it was popularized by Angel Viloria and his band Conjunto Típico Cibaeño. It was during the Trujillo era that the popular merengue song, "Compadre Pedro Juan", by Luis Alberti, became an international hit.

As for my favorite latin performers, I really like Juan Louis Guerra, Joseph Fonseca, Eddy Herera and Evis Crespo.

Here is a post about Cumbia from my blog, 365 Reasons I Love Costa Rica that pretty much sums up my feelings about Costa Rica's most beloved (and unique) dance style....



Since coming to Costa Rica I have become a lover of latin music and latin dance. After many lessons and a lot of practice, I have become what I would consider an "adequate" dancer of salsa and merengue. However, I am most interested in learning how to dance cumbia, tico style. I was once at a bar/disco in the little Southern Pacific beach town of Dominical. I spotted this very lovely latin girl and I was trying to muster up the courage to ask her to dance. However, before I could make my move a local guy grabbed her and wisked her onto the dance floor. For the next half hour or so I sat mesmerized as I watched these two dance in tico cumbia style. It was almost like watching an olympic gymnastics routine. By the end of their dancing I was even sweating from watching the display. I decided then and there that I had to learn to do that. I am still learning, slowly. Cumbia is a form of music that is popular throughout the Latin world. If I am not mistaken I believe it originated in Colombia. However, ticos dance cumbia in a style that is unique to their culture. It requires a lot of hopping with complex turns. I have tried to learn it, but I have a long way to go to match what I saw on the dance floor that night. I was relieved that I did not ask this young lady to dance. What an embarassment that would have been! The cumbia music and dance here in Costa Rica is folkish and spirited. It reminds me of the clogging they do to bluegrass music in the mountains of the state where I was born, North Carolina. To me it is the music and dance that best embodies the spirit of Costa Rican culture. A culture that is unique in the Latin world, but also a culture that reflects a joy of living. I guess that is why only in Costa Rica do we say, pura vida, or pure life. Life here is pure and the dancing shows it.

History of Cumbia from Wikipedia.

Cumbia is a variant of the African Guinean cumbe music. Cumbia started in the northern region of Colombia, mainly in or around Cartagena during the period of Spanish colonization. Spain used its ports to import African slaves, who tried to preserve their musical traditions and also turned the drumming and dances into a courtship ritual. Cumbia was mainly interpreted with just drums and claves.

The slaves were later influenced by the sounds of Amerindian instruments from the Kogui and Kuna tribes, who lived between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Montes de María. Millo flutes, Gaita flutes, and güiros were instruments borrowed from these Native American tribes. The interaction between Africans and Amerindians under the Spanish caste system created a mixture from which the gaitero (cumbia interpreter) appeared, with a defined identity by the 1800s. (These gaiteros are not the same the Venezuelan Zulian gaiteros.) The European guitars and accordions were added later though Spanish influence.

Since Cumbia is such a tradition here in Costa Rica, most of my favorite performers are local bands like Calle 8, Los Huracanes, La Solucion and others.

Salsa, Merengue and Cumbia are your standards, but go to a traditional dance club in San Jose, Costa Rica, and you will also see other romantic dance styles like Bolero, Paso Doble, Bachata, and Vallenatos. These styles come from various parts of Latin America and in a cosmopolitan place like San Jose, you can see them all done quite well.