Merengue Tutorials
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Course
Design
The
merengue is an extremely adaptable, expressive dance; and to enjoy it
at its best, dancers need to possess a degree of mental flexibility. Consequently,
any reliable course of instruction must be designed with this important
feature in mind.
We find that a traditional teaching system based
on dance vocabulary is unsuitable because it fails to stimulate this
flexibility. Students tended to end up “frozen”, locked into
using set patterns and unable to create their own dance.
Instead, our course is based on the learning
of a series of specific skill sets (see Tutorial Programme). They are
broadly grouped into three phases of development you would go through
from beginner to proficiency. The fourth phase (located in the Using
Rhythm tutorial group) comprises a series of short notes describing
how merengue can be reshaped into other dance forms, and are written
from the point of view of a merenguero/a who has mastered all the previous
tutorials.
- Phase I:
State of Independence
The bare minimum you would need to know to dance merengue socially.
- Phase II:
Understanding Dance Elements
The building blocks of every pattern - their size, shape, lead signal,
and how to perform them.
- Phase III:
Creating Combinations
Assembling elements to form a limitless vocabulary.
- Phase IV:
Transformations
Modifying the merengue into other Latin dance forms.
Mastering each tutorial in turn will lead you
step-by-step to generating your own movements and your own patterns.
Skills-driven learning is a very effective method in education; it is
already well established in the sports arena but is not yet a standard
in dance. So if you've been to dance classes before, you may find the
format a little unfamiliar at first. On a similar note, also bear in
mind that the moves we've included are there to demonstrate a particular
principle - they are not an end in themselves.
The online merengue lessons are flexible and
inclusive; they are designed so you can complement them with lessons
based on traditional teaching systems.
For further information about teaching and learning,
you may like to read our instructors
course manual.
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