Origins of the Latin Dance Merengue

The origin of the Latin Dance Merengue, according to the Dominicans
themselves.
Merengue is a combination of two dances, the African and the French
Minuet, from the late 1700's - early 1800's. The black slaves saw the
ballroom dances in the Big Houses and when they had their own
festivities started mimicking the "masters' dances". But the Europeans
dances were not fun, they were very boring and staid, so over time, the
slaves added a special upbeat (provided by the drums), this was a slight
skip or a hop.
The original Merengue was not danced by individual couples, but was a
circle dance, each man and woman faced each other and holding hands - at
arm's length. They did not hold each other closely and the original
movements of this dance were only the shaking of the shoulders and swift
movement of the feet. There was no blatant movement of the hips like
there is today, as native African dances do not move the hips. In fact,
African dances, as well as other Indigenous dances throughout the world,
consist of complicated steps and arm movements. Tribal dancing does not
have "primitive" sexual shaking of the hips, this is only done in
Hollywood movies.