The merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic, and the two main theories of its origins are steeped in the country's historical backdrop. One theory holds that the dance arose from the movements of slaves with one foot chained and thus forced to be dragged as they moved along the fields, working to the beat of drums to cut sugar cane, according to the Dancing Thru LIfe website. The second legend claims that a hero of one of the country's many revolutions returned home to a great victory party with a wounded leg. Out of empathy, the villagers dragged one foot while they danced.
Before the merengue took on characteristics of its modern form, it was a circle dance instead of one danced by couples and showed marked similarity to the "cake walk" dance of the American South. The merengue evolved from two dances, the French and African minuets, wed together by African slaves privy to European influences, according to the Central Home website. The merengue of yesteryear was danced by men and women at arm's length who shook their shoulders and took quick, spirited steps. Gradually the staid dance was enlivened with the beat of drums, and today the dance is characterized by sexually explicit hip movements.
By the time the dance resembling modern merengue debuted in the high-society salons of the Dominican Republic, it was 1850, and the urban elite classes responded unfavorably to the merengue's sexually charged rhythms, which by this time had taken on their trademark hip-undulating movements. However, rural populations responded favorably to both merengue music and its sister dances. The Dominican Republic's rural population made up about 97 percent of the country's total; thus, the merengue developed a grass-roots following.
Americans occupied the Dominican Republic from 1916 until 1924, and managed to (inadvertently) unite the country's classes under the guise of the merengue, which was suddenly a dance reflecting nationalism and resistance to the U.S. occupation, according to the Salsa & Merengue Society website. Merengue's popularity enjoyed an official surge under the reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who came to power in the 1930s. Realizing the dance's appeal to the rural aesthetic, Trujillo used merengue as a form of propaganda, renaming merengue bands after himself and broadcasting merengue music on state-sponsored radio. After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, merengue's popularity continued to flourish.
Merengue has replaced salsa as the quintessential Latin American dance in the contemporary scene, according to the Salsa & Merengue Society website. Purportedly easier to learn than the salsa, the merengue is easy to adapt to both Latin and non-Latin music, and the dance can accompany mainstream pop music.