Origins of Merengue by Carmen Vazquez

The origin of this dance, according to the Dominicans themselves, from a program shown on TV "SANTO DOMINGO INVITA".

Merengue is a combination of two dances, the African and the French Minuet, from the late 1700's - early 1800's. The black slaves saw the ballroom dances in the Big Houses and when they had their own festivities started mimicking the "masters' dances".  But the Europeans dances were not fun, they were very boring and staid, so over time, the slaves added a special upbeat (provided by the drums), this was a slight skip or a hop.

The original Merengue was not danced by individual couples, but was a circle dance, each man and woman faced each other and holding hands - at arm's length.  They did not hold each other closely and the original movements of this dance were only the shaking of the shoulders and swift movement of the feet. There was no blatant movement of the hips like there is today, as native African dances do not move the hips. In fact, African dances, as well as other Indigenous dances throughout the world, consist of complicated steps and arm movements. Tribal dancing does not have "primitive" sexual shaking of the hips,  this is only done in Hollywood movies.

So, the origin of the Merengue is very similar to that of the "Cake Walk" dance of the American South.