How To Perform the Mambo

The mambo is a sensual Latin dance that came from Cuba during the 1940s and became a popular dance around the world. Its music sounds like salsa, but with a different beat and tempo. If you want to learn how to perform the mambo, the very first thing you need to do would be to become familiar and comfortable with its music so that you can easily flow into its beat and tempo. It may help your learning greatly to observe the dance steps first; you will notice that forward and backward steps, as well as frequent hip movements, are common in mambo. The original mambo dance steps originating in Cuba, Mexico City, and New York were free-wheeling dance steps frequently described as dancing to the music. Many professional dance teachers felt that such kind of dancing was undisciplined. Today, the modern form of mambo is actually a standardization. In this article, you will learn the standardized basic mambo dance steps.

1. Stand in an upright position. Your feet should be close together.
2. Slide your right foot to the side. Keep your left foot in place. Shift your weight to your right foot. The shift in weight will make you appear like making a sideward rocking motion.
3. Shift your weight back to your left foot. Do this without moving your right foot yet. The shift in weight will again make you do a sideward rocking motion.
4. Bring back the right foot close to your left foot.
5. Shift the weight of your body to your left foot. Again, the shift in weight will make you do a sideward rocking motion in place.

6. Slide your left foot to the side. Keep your right foot in place. Shift your weight to your left foot. This will make your hips sway in a rocking motion.
7. Shift your weight back to your right foot. This will again make your hips sway sideward. Do this without sliding back your right foot yet.
8. Slide back the left foot close to your right foot.
9. Shift your weight to the other foot. The effect of this move will be the swaying of your hips as you stand in place.
10. Repeat the steps from the beginning as often as necessary.

The steps described above are for sideward movement of the feet. Each time you slide a foot or shift your body weight, your hips will almost naturally sway or rock. As you slide and shift weight, make your hips draw an imaginary number 8 lying on its side. That is, imagine your pelvis as the tip of a pencil, and with that pencil, draw a horizontal number 8.

Also, the steps described above can be altered slightly for a forward-backward movement. Instead of sliding a foot either towards the left or to the right, slide it either forward or backward. The shifting of your body weight and the closing of the feet remain unaltered.

With these basic mambo steps, you can start exploring variations or more advanced steps that almost usually combine these basic steps. Once you’ve mastered the basics, there’ll be no stopping you from having much fun in the ballroom or on the dance floor.