5.10.10

After living in Latin America for 3 months, I think a good topic to write about is dancing. I have developed a theory that if you’re Latino, you can dance. And dance well. It has not been disproved yet. A common question I receive is “what do you like to dance?” At first, I didn’t know how to answer this question, my response was “what do you mean, as Americans, we just dance…anyway you want- move your feet a little, maybe clap once in a while...” Here they want to know, do you dance Salsa? Merengue? Reggaeton? During my time here, I’ve received a couple dance lessons in a formal setting but have learned a lot more by dancing at the discotecas with Latinos.
Here are some things I’ve learned:
If a Latino asks you to dance, you’re pretty much stuck dancing with him all night, choose wisely.
Latinos can move their hips in ways north Americans are physically incapable of.
Most North Americans insist they will only dance after some some social lubrication in their system aka alcohol. Here, alcohol is unnecessary for good dance moves. Even the people who say they can’t dance well, really can according to North American standards.
If you need to escape from the Latino who first asked you to dance, a perfect escape route is to say you have to go to the bathroom and never return, they’ll move on quickly.
You’re much luckier to be a girl when going to the discotecas- they rarely have to pay the entrance fee nor do they get frisked at the door.
There is a very wide range of levels of dancing here. From what I’ve seen it can be generalized by region: in the Sierras, I think the people are more serious. The dancing I witnessed there was a simple 2 step shuffle. Occasionally the party breaks into everyone moving in a big circle of shuffling dancing. In El Oriente, dancing is mostly done in pairs to Salsa or Reggaeton music at clubs. It’s generally socially unacceptable to dance solo especially if you’re a girl. Also no matter where you go in Ecuador, no eye contact is necessary when dancing with a partner. Also the noise level of the music is not going to allow for any sort of normal conversation. I feel like it’s necessary here to give whoever I’m dancing with a warning beforehand that I’m not a very good dancer. I don’t want them to be appalled. Recently I had a few different people tell me while I was dancing that it’s a good thing I’ll have plenty of time here to learn how to dance. While I took some offense to these statements, they are right, my white girl dance moves don’t compare at all to Latino standards.