Merengue vs. Hip-Hop

I'd like for everyone to please get out of your chairs and try a little something I discovered while doing Zumba, for the first time since that terrible flu-ish cold thing overcame me for a couple of weeks.

Everyone up?

I'll wait.

Okay. Do a V-step (men, that is a step forward with the right foot, then left, apart like the top of a V, then back with the right then left, together like the bottom of a V). Forward-forward-back-back, right-left-right-left...

Now, if you pop your left hip out when you step on your right foot, and then pop your right hip out when you step with the left, you are doing Merengue. Merengue is very smooth and wavy. If you pop your right hip out with your right step, then the left hip with the left step, you are more doing
a stripper move hip hop. It's sort of gritty and linear.

Holy frijoles. I actually managed to find on YouTube (in less than 2 minutes of searching... BOO-YAH) the actual clip that I was watching when I figured this all out. A snippet from a 45-minute workout video that happens to appear in this preview video.

*bows*

This is the Activate DVD Preview. V-step @ 00:13, the very first clip after they introduce the workout. Watch Tanya (in the pink pants) the first time through. When they put their hands up, they're done with V-step, so just click back to 00:13. Tanya does what I do there- the hip hop move, pushing out the same hip as the foot that is stepping. (Actually, her very last step goes just a tad Merengue...)



Now go through it again. The girl in the back, on the right, in the green shirt is doing the Merengue move, hip opposite of the foot that is stepping. See how different it is? Both cool. Very different. I just have to concentrate to do the Merengue wiggle there.

For some reason, I can very naturally salsa (which is also with the alternate hip from the stepping foot) all day long without wearying a brain cell.

Oh. I probably should have just let the men sit in their chairs and watch the vid of hot, gyrating chicks, instead of peer pressuring you to get up and do the steps yourselves. It was fun though, right? And now you know what a V-step is. You're welcome.

Incidentally, Tanya has inspirational abs. I mean, honestly. And Gina has the most gorgeous hair.