Nortenas is a popular Mexican folkloric couple’s dance performed to norteña music, characterized by a bouncing step and continuous turning of partners in a slotted embrace. If you ever wanted to learn it – the time has come! Check out this video from the Youtube channel “Baila Facilito”, even though all the instructions are in Spanish, they are quite easy to understand. To make it a bit easier for you, we translated the main talking points in English, so let’s get started:
Our dance instructors today are Oscar and Luz, who will be teaching how to dance to Norteño music from scratch. The most important characteristic of Norteño dancing is the “rebote” – bouncing motion, where you bend your knees slightly and bounce up and down to the rhythm. They demonstrate the basic rebote step, emphasizing that the body should move up and down clearly. For beginners, they recommend focusing solely on the rebote first to get the rhythm before advancing.
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Once the rebote is mastered, they show two footwork patterns that can be added – either dragging/sliding the feet back and forth, or taking small walking steps forward and back without sliding the feet. The key is to keep bouncing while moving the feet, never transferring weight from side-to-side like in Banda music.
They note that the hip motion should be relaxed and natural, not exaggerated, to maintain the Norteño style. After practicing the footwork alone, they demonstrate combining the rebote with the different step patterns.
Transitioning to partner dancing, they describe the proper frame – the lead’s right hand on the follow’s back, left hands joined, with the follow’s left hand optionally on the lead’s shoulder. The lead can lightly elevate the follow’s right hand to allow more freedom of movement.
They cycle through practicing the rebote together, then adding the sliding/walking steps, emphasizing moving together smoothly while maintaining the bouncing motion. The leads should mark the steps clearly so the follows can move with them.
In closing, we would like add some more context to our today’s dance tutorial. Norteñas is a style of Mexican country music that originated in northern Mexico in the late 19th century. It since has become popular across Mexico, the U.S., and in both urban and rural areas. However, norteñas encompass many regional styles – Texan norteño incorporates American influences, while Nuevo León and Tamaulipas blend Caribbean elements. Other states like Jalisco and Sinaloa produce their own norteño variations alongside banda and duranguense music. So here you have it, now it’s time to practice so new moves.
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