One or Two of Those Dances from
Latin America

While preparing a lecture and looking for video clips to demonstrate the difference in aesthetics and logics between social and competitive manifestations of the same ‘Latin Dances,’ I came across a video of Walter Laird (who wrote the standard technique book used in Latin Dance Ballroom competitions) introducing himself and his partner to a TV broadcasted variety show. To open, he said, “We’ve been asked to do one or two of those dances from Latin America.”  

 

I began to reflect: what ‘Latin’ dances do I know?  Salsa, bachata, cumbia, merengue, cha cha chá. But then I think about the rhythms that I learned from my mom. And how Mexican-ness is not always parallel with Latin-ness. It was my mom's participation in folklórico, that oriented her towards her Mexican origins. Folklórico is distinct in posture, movement, rhythm, composition, and costume from Salsa or other Latin social dances.  

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So, creating a series of footwork steps where a basic bachata step was followed by carretillas from folklórico became a literal interpretation to consider and critique the colonial (il)logic that homogenizes an incredibly broad and complex group based on a common colonizer—Spain.