Congo is a popular dance performed mostly by Afro Panamanians from the Atlantic Coast, specifically in situated in Portobelo, Colón.

Its origins date back to the immigrants that were brought from Africa during the 18th and 19th century and they established in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Martinique.

These black immigrants were mainly used during the construction of the Panama Canal for hard manual labor and tasks, and due to their muscular tone and strong physical appearance they were mainly hired to perform intense physical labors.

Although these men were undergoing extreme emotional loss due to the fact that they were hundreds of miles away from home and their families, they seemed to always find time to rejoice, sing, laugh, talk, and dance to the drums of their native island tunes. 

It is an extremely erotic dance that in most cases represents the foreplay, flirting with the other person, but not getting too personal. Men pretend to gawk in front of the ladies, trying to get closer to their skirts, closer to the body, but women keep them apart.

Congo dances can get really hot, because it is actually an art of exotic dancing, where the dancers perform a private dancing for the partner, using the body as a seductive weapon with erotic moves, dancing when the drums guide the hips and the thighs, while the rest of the village just stares like voyeurs, surrounding a circle, a get together of physical love.