There is a new dance fever hitting the streets of Panama and it is called Passa Passa also known as dance hall. Passa passa is an addictive energetic dance which worked its way to the streets of Colon and various places in the city of Panama. There are even people dancing to this popular Caribbean rhythm in the outskirts of Panama where the smaller towns are located.

Dance hall originally came from Jamaica and started in the late 70s. This dance and music initially came from reggae and like reggae; dance hall brings many different people across the globe together. Although dance hall or passa passa dancing came from Jamaica, it has moved on to different countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and now Panama. Passa passa involves a lot of movement and difficult steps, but it can be learned with practice. Once you got the passa passa riddim you can pretty much learn to dance all the steps. There are very popular parties such as dutty fridaze where many people go to dance passa passa. Usually men like women go to these parties to compete with their rivals. There are many popular dance hall steps like hot wuk, tek weh yuself, willie bounce, dutty wine, and wacky dip that they dance when competing. These dance hall moves are a more decent way of dancing passa passa.
Others dance passa passa in a more sexual way. This usually involves the man and the woman dancing erotically. Not everyone likes this type of dance so a lot of people in the Caribbean and Panama prefer to dance Passa passa in the more decent version. The general attire worn by women dancers for this kind of dancing is more revealing and sometimes even R rated. Others go dressed normally but this doesn’t stop them from busting a move on the dance floor.

Everyday more and more dance steps are being created for dancehall. Some very popular dancers of passa passa are Ding Dong and his crew. They dance passa passa steps like the badman pull up, wacky dip and many more. Ding Dong also makes popular dance hall music which Panama enjoys listening to. You get different themes and tones from this kind of dance and music. A lot of passa passa rhythms’ are influenced by religion, sex, violence, social issues, and issues like women’s rights.

Panama dancers are catching up with the rest of the Caribbean pretty fast. Soon all of Panama will be dancing the difficult but fun steps to passa passa. Next time you go out, look for your nearest dance hall parties and learn the steps to the most popular dance in the Caribbean. In passa passa for every song there is a dance.

The Bullerengue is a sensual dance that means happiness and movements; the dance is originally from the Darienita black race. This kind of dance is made up only of turns and a dance step call “seguidilla”, where the main character is the women, the one who make with attitude and concentration the different displacements the make up the dance. The Bullerengue is danced by the women with their body in a straight position, doing slowly movements with lots of coordination and the man display all his energy in acrobatics steps and sensual gests. This folkloric dance has small and sliding steps, where the feet are leaning on the floor. The displacements are done joining the feet and bending the knees in order to maintain the grace and the posture of the body. The choreography is made up of straight lines and sometimes circles. This dance ends up in a huge whirl of couples. The instruments that are use in this dance, el Bullerengue are: the song accompanied by drums, the music box, maracas and slaps.

The Bullerengue is maybe one of the dances who puts more emphasizes on the black race culture. The Bullerengue is a ritual dance. This is a special dance that is danced especially when young people have the higher age. The Bullerengue also symbolize women fertility and its music was created for the pregnant women who couldn’t assists to the different dances. The costume is made up of “polleras” or skirts, barefoot women and a flower on their hair.

The bolero is a dance and a musical form. The bolero is the slowest of the Latin dances and it combines controlled movement with dramatic expression of the music.In Spain, the bolero is a 3/4 dance originated in the late 18th century, and it is a combination of the contradanza and the sevillana. In Cuba the bolero was developed into a different dance in a 2/4 time. Bolero is often referred to as ‘The Dance of Love’. The tempo for dance is about 96 beats per minute and you can dance bolero either a soloist or a couple. The bolero is danced in a moderately slow tempo to the music, because the bolero invites visions of emotions and love.

The American Style bolero is a low Latin ballad, very popular in the United States. Is a unique dance style that is considered a cousin of the Rumba and both dances share many figures. The bolero is usually played in 4/4 time with a slower tempo than that of the Rumba. While Rumba music is very rhythmical, the lyrical Bolero sounds more like a Latin Ballad. It was introduced in the United States some time in the 1930’s and is distinguished by its slow, sweeping, and with romantic motions.

Bolero is one of the five rhythm competition dances in American style ballroom dance competition. The basic step of bolero is a long, sweeping step to the side on the slow beat, followed by a step forward or backward. Because bolero is one of the most beautiful, graceful and romantic dances ever created, it is danced slowly with a romantic music, it gives dancers the opportunity to cling close to their partner and sway or make sensual movements. When dancing bolero, you must have a amount of body control due to the balance required to dance at this slow tempo. Learning the Bolero can be easy and fun.

Merengue Dancing is a Latin America style dance and it’s the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Merengue is a combination of two dances, the African and the French Minuet. Merengue dancing is a couple’s dance, eventhough the original was not dance by individual couples and the original movements were only the shaking of the shoulder, nowadays it’s dance in 4 beats or 8 beats, and with a sensual movement of the hips. The basic steps counting on 8 beats is the most popular (1, 2, 3, 4 – 1, 2, 3, 4) and only after completing those eight steps you can change to some other movement. Merengue dancing is composed of three basic movements; they are the Side Basic Movement, Forward Basic Movement and the Back Basic Movement. The combination of these three movements, with small variations in body position, makes up the steps of the dance. In this dance you move in every beat.

From all the dances, merengue is the easiest to learn, if you can walk you can dance merengue. One important rule of all Latin dances is “feel the music”, is important to enjoy the music in order to make your movements look natural. The music indicates what to do, just feel the music, because dance is based in listening and moving to the rhythm of the music. Another important rule is the tempo of the music, the tempo indicates dancers how fast or pause they should make the movements, displacements or turns. The tempo is the important component that differentiates merengue from salsa, mambo and other kind of dances. The music tempo is about 120 – 160 beats per minute.

Here in Panama City, Panama merengue is one of the most popular dances and there are many academies where you can go and learn in the different workshops, more of how to do the merengue dance, the important steps and movements such as the position,  the correct posture, and men’s and women’s basic steps. Learning how to dance merengue is a great way to start familiaring with Cuban Motion.