Merengue hip movement?

Question

I hope I can explain this. When dancing the Merengue, do the right and left hips "lift" to the same degree?

The foot movement is sort of a step-close-step-close, so are both knees bending to the same degree (which would make the hip lifts even)?

Answer 1

Yes it should be completely symmetric for your right and left side in your legs and hips. It might feel that your right hip is doing more, but that's probably because your leader is doing more on one side than the other. Also when traveling to your left you might feel that right side is doing more.

Answer 2

yeah i do merengue...it has to be the same angle when bending alkl the movement wont work out as smoothly...

Answer 3

well i know how 2 dance merengue but i can't really explain it to u, it would b better if i demonstrate it. but since i can't u shold go on youtube.com and it will probably help u.

Answer 4

You really would do better not to think of the hips lifting at all. It'll make your bottom half too high. Rather think about going down with the knees and then back to neutral.

Most people dance the steps with roughly the same depth of knee-bend on each step. In clubs, you'll occasionally see an exaggerated flexion on the one beat, but not the three, with two and four being the same as three. This, of course, is assuming you're doing the standard one step for one beat of music figures.

Answer 5

The hips would "lift" but usually alternatively - one side then the other. In the merengue I find when I'm going in a straight line(opposed to doing a turn) one side is sometime more pronounced than the other. The "lift" should come mostly from the bending and the the straightening of  the knee.

I hope this helps!