Why not let Arch 197's team of talented and experienced Latin dance instructors transport you in to a world of passion and infectious music.

We are proud to present the finest team of Latin dance instructors in London - you will not find more expertise anywhere.

We can provide the following :

Salsa and Rueda de Casino

Salsa is a dance for Salsa music created by Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean. Salsa dancing mixes African and European dance influences through the music and dance fusions that are the roots of Salsa: essentially Cuban Son, but also with influences from Guaguancó, Rumba, Boogaloo, Pachanga, Guaracha, Plena, and Bomba.[1]

Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms, line dancing (suelta), and Rueda de Casino where groups of couples exchange partners in a circle. Salsa can be improvised or performed with a set routine.

The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavour Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin.

Samba

Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in African and European roots. The word is derived from the Portuguese verb sambar, meaning "to dance to rhythm." It is a worldwide recognized symbol of Brazil and the Carnival and is the national dance of Brazil. Considered one of the most popular Brazilian cultural expressions, the samba has become an icon of Brazilian national identity.

Although samba exists throughout the country, especially in the states of Bahia, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, and Sao Paulo, in the form of various popular rhythms and dances that originated from the regional batuque, a type of music and associated dance form from Cape Verde, the samba is a particular musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro, where it was born and developed between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. It was in Rio that the dance practiced by former slaves who migrated from Bahia in the northeast came into contact and incorporated other genres played in the city (such as the polka, the maxixe, the lundu, and the xote, among others).

Bachata

Bachata is a style of dance that accompanies the music of the same name. It has its origins in the Dominican Republic.

The dance is a four-step beat achieved with a walking Cuban hip motion, and a unique “pop”. The dance is performed both in open position and in closed position depending on the setting and mood of the partners. Similar to Merengue, dips are not original to the dance and turns are done infrequently.

Tango

Tango is a musical genre and its associated dance forms that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, and spread to the rest of the world soon after.

Early tango was known as tango criollo, or simply tango. Today, there are many tango dance styles, including Argentine Tango, Uruguayan Tango, Ballroom tango (American and International styles). What many consider to be the authentic tango is that closest to that originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay.

Pachanga

Pachanga was invented by Latinos in New York in the 1950's and 1960's in response to the growing popularity of Jive in the white community.

The dance is referred to in the film Dirty Dancing. Outside of Cuba, a 'pachanga' is the Spanish term for an informal gathering or party, and in Spain, it is the popular term to identify the commercial Latin music usually heard in Spanish radios and discos.

Boogaloo

Boogaloo or bugalú a genre of Latin music and dance that was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other groups and is very closely related to Pachanga. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B and soul with mambo and son montuno.

cha cha cha

Cha-cha-cha is the name of a Latin American dance of Cuban origin. It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953. This rhythm was developed from the danzón by a syncopation of the fourth beat. The name is derived from the rhythm of the güiro (scraper) and the shuffling of the dancers' feet.

Mambo

Mambo is a Latin dance of Cuban origin that corresponds to mambo music. Mambo music was invented in 1930s Havana by Cachao and his contemporaries and made popular around the world by Perez Prado and Beny Moré. Mambo music developed from Danzon and was heavily influenced by the Jazz musicians that the Italian-American gangsters, who controlled Havana's casinos, brought to entertain their American customers.

In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico when the reactionary dictatorship at the time did not like his non-traditional style of music and expelled him. From there he moved to New York City. Along the way, his style became increasingly homogenized in order to appeal to mainstream American listeners.

Cumbia

Cumbia is a Colombian musical style and folk dance that is considered to be representative of Colombia, along with Vallenato. Cumbia originated from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, with folkloric variants in Panama.

Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the slave population that was later mixed with European instruments and musical characteristics. It was also used during the Colombian struggle for independence as an expression of resistance against Spain, therefore, most of its songs' messages were related to freedom or slavery

Merengue

Merengue is a style of Latin American music and dance with a two-step beat. Partners hold each other in a closed position. The leader holds the follower's waist with the leader's right hand, while holding the follower's right hand with the leader's left hand at the follower's eye level. Merengue was made the official music and dance of the Dominican Republic by Rafael Trujillo.

Some say merengue derived from the "paso de la empalizada" (pole-fence step). There are also legends about a limping war hero (or El Presidente of a banana republic himself, in some versions) who had to step in this way while dancing because of wounds, and polite (or clueless) public imitated

Links to other Dance styles:

Ballet
Belly Dance
Balkan Gypsy
Irish Dancing
Latin Ballroom
Movement to Music