The document provides descriptions of several Latin American dances including: Samba, an African-influenced Brazilian dance performed at Rio's carnival celebrations involving elaborate costumes and themes. Cha-cha-cha originated in 1950s Cuba as musicians made dance music less syncopated, and dancers improvised triple steps called "cha-cha-cha." Paso doble depicts a bullfight with the male dancer as the bullfighter and partner as his cape, set to Spanish march music.

1. List of Latin-American Dances
Samba
Samba, an old Brazilian style of dance with many variations, is African in origin. It has been performed as a
street dance at carnival, the pre-Lenten celebration, for almost 100 years. Many versions of the Samba (from
Baion to Marcha) are danced at the local carnival in Rio. The ballroom Samba or Carioca Samba is derived
from the rural "Rocking Samba" and has been known for many years. (The Carioca is a small river that runs
through Rio de Janiero - hence the name Carioca refers to the people of Rio.) Today Samba is still very
popular in Rio. During carnival time there are "schools of Samba" involving thousands of elaborately-costumed
dancers presenting a national theme based on music typical of Brazil and Rio in particular.
Cha-cha-cha
In the early 1950s, Enrique Jorrín worked as a violinist and composer with the charanga group Orquesta
América. The group performed at dance halls in Havana where they played danzón, danzonete, and danzon-
mambo for dance-orientated crowds. Jorrín noticed that many of the dancers at these gigs had difficulty with
the syncopated rhythms of thedanzón-mambo. To make his music more appealing to dancers, Jorrín began
composing songs where the melody was marked strongly on the first downbeat and the rhythm was
less syncopated.[4]
When Orquesta América performed these new compositions at the Silver Star Club in
Havana, it was noticed that the dancers had improvised a triple step in their footwork producing the sound
"cha-cha-cha". Thus, the new style came to be known as "cha-cha-chá" and became associated with a dance
where dancers perform a triple step. Cha-cha-chá is danced to authentic Cuban music, although in ballroom
competitions it is often danced to Latin Pop or Latin Rock. The music for the international ballroom cha-cha-chá
is energetic and with a steady beat. The Cuban cha-cha-chá is more sensual and may involve
complex polyrhythms.
Paso-doble
The name'Paso Doble' in Spanish means 'Two Step'(Smith, 1971, 416), and maybe distinguishedfrom 'Paso aDos' which
means 'Dance for two'. "Two Step"refers to themarching nature ofthe steps, which may becounted '1,2' for 'Left, Right'.
This maybe contrasted with its description as the 'Spanish OneStep', so called because onlyonestep is taken to each beat of
music(Burchfield, 1976, III / 293).
The Paso Doblewas oneof manySpanish folkdances associated with various facets of Spanish life. In particular, the Paso
Dobleis based on theBullfight. It portrays theTorero (themaledancer) and his cape (his partner), and is danced to the
characteristic march musicused for procession at thebeginning ofa corrida. Bullfights dateback to ancient Crete, but onlyin
the 1700s were theyheld in Spain (Pitkin, 1996,30). The dance itself became popularamongst theupperclasses ofParis in the
1930's, and acquired a set ofFrench names for manyofthe steps (Lavelle, 1975, 77).
The dance has still onlylimited popularityamongst English speaking society. Theonly places in Sydney where it is played
regularly at social dances are theItalian and other European clubs.
The competition version ofthePaso Dobleis danced with a high chest, the shoulders wideand down, and with thehead kept
back but inclined slightlyforward and down, ("keep watching that bull"urged mylatin teacher). The weight is forward, but
most forward steps haveheel leads. Often it is choregraphed to thetune'EspanaCani' (theSpanish GypsyDance), which has
three crescendos in themusic. These highlights areusuallymatched in thechoreography by dramaticposes, adding to the
spectacular nature ofthe dance.
Rumba
The word Rumba is a generic term, covering a variety of names (i.e., Son, Danzon, Guagira, Guaracha,
Naningo), for a type of West Indian music or dancing. The exact meaning varies from island to island. The word
"rumba" comes from the verb "rumbear" which means going to parties, dancing, and having a good time.

2. There are two sources of the dances: one Spanish and the other African. Although the main growth was in
Cuba, there were similar dance developments which took place in other Caribbean islands and in Latin
America generally.
Rumba
The "rumba influence" came in the 16th century with the black slavesimported from Africa. The native
Rumba folk dance isessentially a sex pantomime danced extremely fast with exaggerated hip
movementsand with a sensually aggressive attitude on the part of the man and a defensive attitude on
the part of the woman. The music is played with a staccato beat in keeping with the vigorous
expressive movementsof the dancers. Accompanying instrumentsinclude the maracas, the claves, the
marimbola, and the drums.
Jive
In ballroom dancing, the jive is a dance style that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the
early 1930s. It was originally presented to the public in 1934 by Cab Calloway. It is a lively and uninhibited
variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance. Glenn Miller introduced his own jive dance in 1938 with the
song "Doin' the Jive" which never caught on.
The jive is one of the five International Latin dances. In competition it is danced at a speed of 176 beats per
minute, although in some cases this is reduced to between 128 and 160 beats per minute.