María & Jadrian

July 30 – August 1, 2021

Laurens, NY

Music

We love to dance and we hope you’ll join us! At the wedding, there will be lots of dancing and many different types of music. In particular, before the main night of dancing is underway, we’ll have three dance lessons so everybody can get comfortable and enjoy some music that might otherwise be unfamiliar. The three lessons will be:

  1. A guided contra dance
  2. A bachata lesson
  3. A salsa lesson

On this page we have explanations of contra dancing, plus four different Latin music styles: merengue, reggaeton, bachata, and salsa. I (Jadrian) struggled for a long time to tell the difference between different types of Latin music when I was first learning to dance to them — Maria would quiz me when a new song started, and I usually got it wrong! Hopefully, if any of these styles are unfamiliar to you, this page will help you get to know them a bit.

Of course, we’ll be dancing to loads of different types of music, not just the ones described on this page. Most of the rest, though, you probably already know — think Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Earth Wind and Fire, Mariah Carey, The Police, The Knife, Fela Kuti, Björk, Machine Drum, Snoop Dogg, Aretha Franklin, Daft Punk, What Cheer Brigade, and so forth. We don’t know special dances for these styles of music, but we’d love to see your moves!

Appalachian Folk Dancing: Contra

Contra is a style of group folk dancing that developed in the 1700s in New England, from the blending of Scottish, Irish, English, and French folk traditions of European colonizers. It spread up and down the Appalachian Mountains and is still enjoyed in much the same way 300 years later. Contra is nearly always danced to a live band playing instrumental music, usually with a fiddle, and often a banjo, guitar, accordion, flute, or piano. Here are some videos showing what contra dancing is like.

Contra dancing involves coordinated moves by the entire group to make large repeating patterns. Though it looks intricate from the outside, it’s surprisingly easy to learn, because every contra dance includes a caller, a person in charge of the dance who tells you what moves to do. You practice several rounds of the pattern until everybody gets the hang of it, and then the music starts. After a couple more repetitions, the music picks up and everything flows together. Jadrian calls the experience of dancing contra “a rollercoaster made of people” — it’s an invigorating rush, and you’re carried along by the pattern of the moves, the other dancers, and the music.

A contra dance pattern is a sequence of several building-block movements called figures. A figure is a simple coordinated movement of the whole body across the floor made by two or four people together. There is no fixed footwork in contra dancing, so the “basic step” is just smoothly walking, in time with the music, in the way dictated by the figure. For example, the do-si-do figure involves facing your partner, walking four steps forward so you pass them on your right shoulder, then walking backward four steps (without turning around) to pass them on your left shoulder, to end up back where you started. Once you’ve got the basics, you can dress up most figures with extra flourishes like spins, stomps, claps, and fancy footwork.

Structurally, the core of a contra dance is an 8-count measure, with a strong pulse on the 1. Most figures are danced over the course of an 8-count, and some figures include a single loud clap or stomp on the 1. The music is usually quite easy to follow once you find that 8-count.

When contra dancing, you and a partner are paired up and stay together for the entire song. In each repetition of the pattern, you dance in a foursome with another pair, also called a hands four. Your foursome dances the full pattern of figures together. At the end of the pattern, you and your partner move on to join with a different pair, and you dance the same pattern of figures again in your new foursome.

There's a lot of circular motion in contra dancing, which can get dizzying. The most important thing you can do is make eye contact with your partner or whoever is directly across from you in a circling form. See these videos for more tips:

At our wedding, the caller will explain everything that you need to do, so there’s absolutely no preparation necessary. If you’d like, though, check out some of these videos to see how other callers lead an introductory dance.

Latin Music 1: Merengue

Merengue is fast-paced music with a simple, propulsive, two-step beat. Of the four Latin music styles described here, it’s the easiest to dance to: you can dance however you want, even just bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other! It helps if you dance close to your partner, keep your hips moving, keep your steps small, and keep your hands above your waist. Check out all the different inventive ways that people dance to merengue in this video:

Latin Music 2: Reggaeton

Reggaeton is a Puerto Rican pop fusion of dancehall reggae, hip hop, and Latin American rhythms. It’s easily distinguished by the “dembow riddim”, a reggae rhythm that shines through clearly in almost every reggaeton track. It has a bass kick on the 1 beat and syncopated beats on 2-and, 3, 4, with strong accents on the 1 and 3. Below are a couple examples of the dembow riddim; listen to them, and then listen again to the reggaeton tracks linked above. Can you hear the dembow all through the reggaeton tracks?

Reggaeton does have its own dance styles associated with it, but we’re pretty ignorant of them and so we just dance however we want to reggaeton songs.

Latin Music 3: Bachata

The Music

Bachata is a Dominican music and dance style that originated in the mid-20th century. In the 90s in New York City, bachata fused with other musical genres to form a pop sound that is now popular around the globe.

Bachata is based around an easy-to-hear 4/4 beat played on bongos and a güira, a metal scraper instrument. In most songs it is revealed through the derecho ("straight") rhythm, with sharp bongo strikes on the 1-2-3, and a deeper strike on the 4. To me, the bachata derecho sounds like a ticking clock: tick - tock - tick - bonk; tick - tock - tick - bonk. Listen for that ticking clock in the chorus of "Mujeres que Matan" by Joe Veras.

A standard bachata band includes bongos, güira, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar. The lead guitar, or requinto, has a clear, picked sound that is higher pitched and easily heard over the other instruments, with quick arpeggios.

The Dance

Watch these two videos to first get an introduction to the basics of bachata, and then to see how people who know bachata really well dance to it.

The basic bachata step closely matches the derecho rhythm, with the beats counted in groups of 8 across two measures. You take three steps to one side (leader's left, follower's right), leading with your outside foot — tick - tock - tick — then a light tap on the 4 — bonk. Then you repeat the pattern back in the other direction (leader's right, follower's left). Since you lead with the outside foot in the direction you're going, the leader starts out stepping with their left foot on the 1; the follower mirrors them, stepping with their right foot on the 1. On the 5, when they go back, the leader starts with their right foor and the follower starts with their left foot.

When tapping, your weight stays on the other (non-tapping) foot. For example, if you step with your left foot and then tap with your right, your weight goes onto your left foot when you step, and then remains on your left foot for the tap on the next beat. The tap is very light; some people don't even lift up the "tapping" foot, and instead just do a quick unweighted shuffle of it instead.

The bachata basic step is pretty simple, but here's one potentially confusing thing: you move the same foot on consecutive beats when you change direction. First the foot makes an unweighted tap (on the 4 or 8) and then you step on it to go back in the other direction (on the 5 or 1).

The following table shows the movement when looking from above, with the leader on the bottom and the follower on the top, both dancers facing each other. (So the "movement direction" arrows are from the leader's perspective.) For the first four beats, the leader moves to their left and the follower moves to their right; on the second four beats, they move back. Notice how the foot that taps is the same foot that starts the movement in the opposite direction at the beginning of each 4-count.

Beat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 ...
Follow
Weight		 R L R L R L R ...
Follow
Steps		 R L R L
(tap)		 L R L R
(tap)		 R ...
Lead
Steps		 L R L R
(tap)		 R L R L
(tap)		 L ...
Lead
Weight		 L R L R L R L ...
Movement
Direction		 ⟵ – ⟶ – ⟵

You can also do the same steps forward and back. On the 1, the leader steps forward with the left foot, and the follower steps back with their right. On the 5, the leader steps back with their right foot and the follower steps forward with their left.

Beat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 ...
Follow R L R L
(tap)		 L R L R
(tap)		 R ...
Lead L R L R
(tap)		 R L R L
(tap)		 L ...
Movement
Direction		 ↑ – ↓ – ↑

As in other Latin dance styles, you take small steps, feet close to the floor, avoiding moving you upper body up and down a lot, with your hands above the waist.

Latin Music 4: Salsa

The Music

Salsa is a musical genre that arose in the Cuban and Puerto Rican communities in New York City in the 60s. Salsa combines various older Cuban and Puerto Rican musical traditions, principally the Cuban son. The percussion in salsa is often more complex than in bachata, and various melodic instruments play intricate, intertwining rhythms. Salsa often features syncopated piano and bombastic horns.

I struggled for a long time to understand the way that dance instructors talk about counting the rhythm in a salsa song. To illustrate what I mean, listen for the very regular cowbell sound in the middle of Chayanne's song "Refugio de Amor". When I hear that cowbell, I count out four beats:

Beat
(in Jadrian's
imagination)		 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -

But the rhythm that you dance to is actually twice as fast as that:

Beat
(salsa
speed)		 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Salsa dancers instead count each of those "half pulses" as a whole count, and number them sequentially:

Beat
(salsa
count)		 1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 (8)

Beats 4 and 8 are deemphasized because, in the basic salsa step, you pause on them with your feet together. The following video goes into deep detail about how to count the salsa rhythm.

The Dance

Watch these videos to first get an introduction to the basics of salsa, and then to see how people who know salsa really well dance to it.

The salsa basic step is all about shifting your weight quickly and smoothly from foot to foot, with little actual movement of the feet. The neutral position that you start from, with your feet next to each other, is called center. The 8-count measure is split into two halves: 1-2-3 and 5-6-7.

Beat 1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 (8) 1 ...
Follow R L R – L R L – R ...
Lead L R L – R L R – L ...
Foot
Movement*		 ↑ – ↓ – ↓ – ↑ – ↑ ...
Weight
Shifting*		 ↖︎ ↘︎ ← – ↘ ↖︎ → – ↖ ...

* Movement direction and weight shifting direction are from the lead's point of view, or from the perspective of a camera overhead with the lead at the bottom of the frame and the follow at the top, facing each other.

On 1-2-3:

  • The leader:
    1. steps forward from center with their left foot, and shifts their weight onto this foot;
    2. shifts their weight back onto their right foot, without moving it from the center;
    3. brings their left foot back to center and shifts their weight onto this foot.
  • The follower:
    1. steps backward from center with their right foot, and shifts their weight onto this foot;
    2. shifts their weight forward onto their left foot, without moving it from the center;
    3. brings their right foot forward to center and shifts their weight onto this foot.

On 5-6-7, the couple moves in the opposite direction:

  • The leader:
    1. steps backward from center with their right foot, and shifts their weight onto this foot;
    2. shifts their weight forward onto their left foot, without moving it from the center;
    3. brings their right foot forward to center and shifts their weight onto this foot.
  • The follower:
    1. steps forward from center with their left foot, and shifts their weight onto this foot;
    2. shifts their weight back onto their right foot, without moving it from the center;
    3. brings their left foot back to center and shifts their weight onto this foot.