National Geographic Traveller (UK) September 2017

Despite years of Strictly Come Dancing grabbing headlines and dominating Saturday-night conversations across the nation, we’re never really going to be a country of hot-blooded, passionate,
instinctive dancers.

Latin America on the other hand — and let’s, for a moment, accept a sweeping generalisation concerning almost half a billion people — lives to dance, or perhaps more precisely, dances to live. For many here, a life without music and dance would be no life at all.

From the countless community samba schools found across Brazilian cities and towns, to Colombia’s neighbourhood salsa clubs — seemingly more numerous than bus stops — dance here is part of the fabric of society, refl ecting the disparate infl uences of indigenous, African and European nations.