Latin Music And Dance

Many people realize that not many know what Latin music and dance is. I have been in and around it for 9 decades and I am not sure. But there is a lot of stuff that is definitely Latin coming from the ancient Mexican Indian Civilizations. They had real professional musicians and dancers in which all they did was play music and dance, seven days per week.

"In our dance world, rumors can be carried by haters,

spread by fools and accepted by idiots."

From there evolved most of the music and dance in the Americas. Then the Spanish. the first illegal aliens arrived and for the first  200 years they influenced the music more than any other group. They were the power and everyone tended to look up to them. The rest of the Europeans followed them in changing a little here and there. And the new music evolved into "Latino" but the fundamental remains, the Indian music and dance that had been there for hundreds of years in all of Latin America.

  

"How High The Moon" by Les Paul and Mary Ford

The Africans were not picked as slaves for their musical or dancing abilities. They avoided taking anyone over 20 years old so for sure the slaves had a very limited culture. Most of their dancing was just up and down like we see it on TV even today. They may have been ignorant but they were not stupid. They learned the Indian dances and the simple musical instruments used by the Indians. There may have been ten million native inhabitants in the Americas when all the illegals arrived. Ten thousand outsiders were not going to teach them much.

"Contigo A La Distancia" por Lucho Gatica

To this day, with all the choices in Mexico, the music and dance remains very fragmented. There are many styles and many are terrific for dancing. Even in the US, Latin dancing in Florida is very different than Texas and/or California. Mexican has been tried in Hawaii, but not enough people that are fans of so few styles. The best bet for Latino dancing is probably to accept most of the "Ballroom" styles as Latino and then let it evolve. Latin Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, Samba and let it roll. We can add the first solid one that appears. We will have our "Latino Music" night clubs for the over thirty, naturally, It is coming.

"Five rules for happiness: Free your heart from hatred - Free you mind

of worries - Live simply - Give more - Expect less."