2009/12/27

perreo


this dance is called perreo and is a derivate of african-american grinding and booty dancing, jamaican reggaeton, hip hop and freak dancing and classical latin american dance moves from salsa and merengue. in many places, including cuba, perreo has been forbidden by the state, in atlanta they even closed a club and the club owners were sent to jail because the kids were dancing perreo. it´s mainly popular in latin america and the name alludes to "dog" (el perro) and all kinds of "immoral", "dirty" stuff. people also describe the dance as having sex in clothes. some prudish, puritan, eurocentric feminists or self-proclaimed post-colonialists consider it sexist and misogynic. but effectively it´s the woman´s but that rules the game. she defines the rythym and speed and the male just bounces behind her, mainly decorating her bum. it´s a dance that originates from the slums, from people who are mostly surrounded by poverty and crime. i guess you don´t give a dang about the promises of some kind of tomorrow you don´t know, when poeple are shot for some drugs just around the corner. maybe that´s also why perreo apostrophizes sex so much. because sex is life and that´s what they´ve still got, so they live it with every inch of their ecstatic bodies.