Tell me what kind of music you dance to and I’ll guess whether you’re Hispanic

Besides being a fun and socially engaging way to exercise our bodies, dancing is an expression of our culture. It’s a non-verbal language that accurately portrays who we are and where we come from. Hispanic culture is a vast constellation that covers an entire geopolitical region, and its dances draw from a long-running socio-historical dialogue and cultural syncretism. The Hispanic diaspora around the world has birthed artistic offspring from the appropriation and interchange of influences, music, styles, and even distinct world views.

Punta, gusto, vallenato, paseo, bomba, puya, merengue, lambada — Latin American dance is varied, colorful, fevered, physical, and joyful — an expression of identity. Discussing every dance style would take more time and space than we have here, but the 10 styles presented here are an excellent representation of our character, personality, and sensibility.

1. Cumbia

Few musical styles are as broad, generous, and carefree as cumbia, a simple but distinctive dance rooted in a particular place.

Although cumbia’s heritage is proudly Colombian and African, indigenous and Spanish, it has spawned numerous and equally delightful variations like slow cumbia (rebajada), Amazon cumbia (amazonica), electronic cumbia, military cumbia (martial), space cumbia (espacial), Caribbean cumbia (vallenata), etc. There’s no limit to what we can do with cumbia, except stop dancing.

2. Salsa

Salsa is the product of the never-ending Caribbean discourse between Cuban son, montuno, bolero, danzón, guaracha, mambo, cha cha chá and even New York jazz. It’s dynamic, joyful, and as complex as you want to make it. While salsa dancing requires more concentration and coordination than cumbia, don’t let this stop you from getting out on the dance floor and letting loose.

Like cumbia, traditional salsa has given birth to new and different styles, like timba, salsa romantica (pop-oriented), and salsa dura (emphasizes instrumentals). Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and even the United States produce some of the best salsa in the world.

3. Bolero

The bolero is a direct descendant of romantic European during the colonial period and is not as danceable as the Caribbean music rhythms. But the easygoing dance accommodates even the clumsiest dancers who venture to explore the dramatic yet minimalist style. The bolero invites dancers to embrace a nostalgic intimacy that contrasts with the sizzling explosion of bodies of some other dance forms.

Perhaps the universal appeal of the bolero comes from the simplicity of its lyrics — direct, short and without much metaphorical complexity. The main message of bolero music is love, which explains its enduring popularity.

4. Cuban son

Another direct descendant of the Spanish and African fusion, the Cuban son is historically significant in Latin America. The music and dance styles have retained most of the original forms and expressions that invite physical contact, romance, and pleasure.

Though it was the predecessor of mambo fever, the Cuban son was often disdained as racy, working-class music. It was also considered highly provocative, as the dancers will grip each other tightly, intertwining their legs, while the woman moves her hips suggestively.

5. Mambo

Few dance styles are as fun and mischievously playful as the mambo. Like the Cuban son, the mambo suggests a sensual musical courtship. It invites dancers to move freely but entails a lot of energy and fancy footwork.

In the 1940s, the mambo in Mexico belonged to the working classes and was scorned for its poor taste. The style was invented in Cuba in the late 1930s by two brothers, Israel Cachao and Orestes Lopez, who sped up a traditional Cuban danzón, added some syncopated percussion, and created an essential piece of Hispanic cultural heritage. We love mambo!

6. Reggaetón

When it first broke out, reggaetón dancing caused the same uproar as mambo, son, lambada, and even the pelvic gyrations of Elvis Presley. It’s a dance that suggests sexual liberation, bad language, political incorrectness, and a dose of nihilism.

Whether you’re a lover or a hater, reggaeton is about to celebrate its 30th birthday and more than 10 years atop the music charts. The pounding rhythm of reggaeton comes from bomba, plena, dancehall, and rap, and the latest mixes make us want to dance to exhaustion.

7. Tango

To us, the tango looks elegant and precisely cadenced, but it was viewed as provocative and crass when it emerged from the slums of Argentina’s La Plata area and Montevideo (Uruguay). The tango position is well known — the couple stands cheek-to-cheek with arms outstretched and does the quick tango walk, then a cut move or a break, followed by improvised steps. Few Latin American dances are as seductive, intense, and dramatic as the tango, which can be difficult but gratifying to master.

The tango dance steps were born before the music. When local slaves were being freed, they created salons for dancing and entertainment called “academies” or “milongas”, where they developed a unique style that evolved into the tango.

8. Danzón

Born in Cuba in 1879 and spawned by another Cuban genre called danza, the danzón owes much of its sophistication, elegance, and precise cadence to the waltzes of the Spanish courts and other styles such as the minuet, the gavotte, the mazurka, the polka, and the contradanza. Then the French arrived and began to popularize the contradanza (which would later turn into the danzón), especially in southern Mexico where it became a genuine craze.

Technically tricky, the danzón is beautiful and rhythmically rich with its four-measure tempo, executed in eight beats with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s a structure that increases in difficulty and is a challenge for dancers. There are three ways to cover these eight beats: in-time, contra-time, and lost beats. No danzón is like any other because its rhythmic composition can be whimsical and variable. It is poetry for the dance floor.

9. Rancheras

A child of the Mexican revolution that was cross-bred with dances from the US-Mexico border region, ranchera (sometimes called grupero or regional Mexican music) dances can involve moves and steps from cumbias, ballads, tangos, polkas, and country. Rancheras are synonymous with raucous parties in northern Mexico and have become standard fare in many Hispanic festivities in the United States.

10. Samba

Samba — the pride of Brazil. It’s a precious and joyful cultural heritage that requires rhythm — a lot of rhythm. It’s a relatively simple tropical dance that doesn’t come from the Caribbean and doesn’t involve the typical Caribbean hip moves. But it does share some of the qualities of dances from the islands to the north: lithe couples pressed tightly together, swaying and moving to the rhythm. It’s one of the most supple and smooth of all the Latin American dance forms.