Macarena Dance

Dance constantly shifts throughout time, and in the 1990’s, the Macarena dance created a “craze” that constructed a new way of viewing a cultural identity, therefore introducing a different social norm for dance. Through simple, inclusive, and fun dance moves, the Macarena represented a social dance, where a variety of people were able to participate, and the dance was capable of being slightly modified within cultures to expand from one cultural meaning and to create a similar, yet different experience for each person who participated. Many may simply see the Macarena as a fun dance, but the roots of the Macarena constructed a new normative for identity throughout dance. The Macarena dance originated in Latin America, by a Spanish duo named

Even though this was a fun, and good bonding experience, most people did not catch on to the meaning of the song. The Macarena is actually named after a woman, and discusses her actions of cheating on her boyfriend while he is away in the Army. The words of this song not only portrays morally unjust actions, but it also depicts the woman as portraying a sexualized identity through the way she tells men she knows they want her, but then winds up only teasing them. The good news about the Macarena and its lyrics is that although the Macarena uses sexual words to describe the woman in the song, it does not necessarily sexualize women’s bodies throughout the dance. In fact, the dance is so simple, that women who do participate are keeping themselves safe from the exposure of other dances that may be portraying women as sexual objects. The Macarena’s lyrics may have bad intentions, but the dance moves do not line up, allowing for women to stray away from any societal norms that say objectification of the body is good. “Modern industrialized society chronically and pervasively objectifies the female body, and many women have come to view themselves through the lens of an external observer, habitually monitoring their own appearance whether in public or private settings” (Calogero, Tantleff-Dunn, Thompson, 1). In this article, the authors

In Matteo’s article, he splits the different forms of Spanish dance into four, “Most of the entries fall into one of four categories: 1) terms with general application in Spanish dance; 2) those associated with escuela bolero; 3) regional dance terms; and 4) flamenco dance terms” (235). The Macarena falls under Matteo’s first category, the “terms with general application in Spanish dance”, because the song Macarena consists of Spanish vocabulary but also incorporates some English vocabulary, allowing for multiple cultures to understand and dance in sync with the music and the movements of the dance. The transformation between the Macarena in Latin America to the Macarena in America does not necessarily change in style, but it does create an environment where Latin American’s and American cultures are assimilating to one another as they each participate in the movement of the