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Latin Dance

United States culture teaches us to see the world through a neo-European lens, but like all things Latin in the Americas, “Latin dance” is a mix of Indigenous, European and African influences. Ballet, the science of dance, is also a Latin dance.

New York has ballet, flamenco, tango and folkloric dance theatre and dance festivals. There are also lively reggaeton, salsa, bachata and tango social dancing scenes.

Latin Dance NYC

Latin Dance Archive

Dance Festivals

Fall for Dance, Harkness, Flamenco Festival, Youth America Grand Prix, Battery Dance

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Dance Theaters

David H. Koch Theater, Metropolitan Opera House, New York City Center, Joyce

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New York City is home to Latin ballet, modern, contemporary and folkloric dance companies.

NYC Ballet

FALL September-October
WINTER January-March
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David H. Koch Theater
LINCOLN CENTER, NYC
George Balanchine (Russia) and Jerome Robbins (Broadway) built one of the world’s great ballet companies

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OCA Dance “Pal’Monte”

Tuesday, February 11, 2020
DIXON PLACE
Lower East Side, NYC
On the theme of “The Inner Strength”, Kennyth Montes de Oca and the fine OCA Dance dancers invoke the West African mother goddess of the sea, Yemayá, on their way to that special place in the mountains of the human soul. “Olo ho Yemayá, Olo ho Yemayá, O… ..”

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Latin Dance Stores

Latin Dancers

Julio Bocca

Friday, April 14, 2017
LINCOLN CENTER, ~ The Youth America Grand Prix tributes the Argentine legend, “the Baryshnikov of Latin America” at the David H. Koch Theatre

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Ballet, Country Dance, Contredanse, Contradanza, Danzón, Habanera, Tango, Swing, Salsa, Bachata, Reggaeton?

Latin dance, both ballet and social dances, derives from a blend of English country dance and Italian court dance in the court of French King Louie XIV. This is not an academic summary, but is our best understanding of the origins of our dance traditions for the moment.

We tend not to think of ballet, the science of dance, as a Latin dance, but it is. Ballet began as an Italian court dance brought to France by Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589), when she was queen consort and then Queen mother of France (1547-1589).

Italian Marie Antoinette Association dancing at Villa Sorra in Castelfranco Emilia, Italy (Zanico/Dreamstime)
Italian Marie Antoinette Association dancing at Villa Sorra in Castelfranco Emilia, Italy (Zanico/Dreamstime)

French King Louis XIV (1643-1715), the “Sun King” loved to party. Ballet developed in his court, but in a way, so did the social dances of the Americas.

English country dancing began influencing dancing in the court (1558-1603) of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England. It was later introduced to the court of Louis XIV where it became the French contredanse.

The Spanish brought “contradanza,” flamenco and Africans to the Americas. The French brought contredanse and the English brought country dance.

Africa has diverse song and dance traditions. African dances can be spiritual, healing or purely social for fun. Like many social dances, African dance is both an expression of belonging to a group and of one’s own individuality within that group. That probably became even more important during the time of human enslavement because family separation was a standard slaver’s tactic. Separated from family, we create our own families and that is still true in New York City today.

In Cuba Spanish contradanza and flamenco began mixing with West African movement into the “habanera,” the way they dance in Havana. Nobody claims Indigenous origins in the dances, but the music has some, so the dances must too. Colonizers didn’t control everything. If you got free, you fled to the mountains where free Africans and remaining Indigenous mixed together. Anyway, from all this we get danzón, the national dance of Cuba.

French Saint-Domingue was the richest Caribbean sugar colony so it influenced the entire region including Puerto Rico and Trinidad. The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) caused a French and African (Creole) diaspora which influenced the habanera and even New Orleans.

Out of the Caribbean we get cumbia, merengue, salsa, bachata and reggaeton. The habanera is the root of tango, the national dance of Argentina with origins in Uruguay. Cuban flamenco traditions even made the round trip back to Spain (flamenco ida y vuelta) and influenced flamenco there. Dictator Trujillo (ruled 1930-1961) liked his island’s country dance, merengue, and made it the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Swing was created by African-Americans in Harlem.

Ballet almost died when the French Revolution (1789-1799) ended the French court. It survived in the courts of Russia and Denmark and was reintroduced to the world by Ballets Russes of Paris on tours of the Americas (1909-1929).

Choreographer George Balanchine started his rise at Ballets Russes and in New York founded New York City Ballet. His first prima ballerina and the first New York City ballet star was Native American dancer Maria Tallchief. As the Sugarplum Fairy she helped make “The Nutcracker” the iconic ballet.

In New York Broadway dancing mixed together African-American, Jewish and other theater traditions. Modern dance pioneers include Alvin Ailey (African-American) and José Limón (Mexican-American). Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater popularized modern dance around the world. Contemporary dance follows.

In dance, as in most other things, to say this is mine and that is yours is usually ignorant and foolish. We are all mixes of each other.

“Just dance.”

Dance NYC (Konstantin Yuganov/Adobe)
Dance NYC (Konstantin Yuganov/Adobe)

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