communities on an island off the coast." In 1923 the Charleston was made popular by African-American James P. Johnson. Other popular dances of the 19th and 20th centuries with African-American roots include the cakewalk, the black bottom, the lindy hop, the jitterbug, the twist, break dancing and hip hop. The African influence on Latin American dance included polycentric rhythms and movement, bent knees and a downward focus, improvisation, whole foot steps, body isolations, and exaggerated hip movements. These influences combined with indigenous and European traditions to create many of today's Latin dances, including salsa, samba, mambo merengue and bachata. Capoeira is a popular Brazilian dance and martial art form derived from the Engolo tradition of Angola that was originally brought by enslaved people to South America. Argentinian Tango was heavily influenced by the dance traditions of Africans in Argentina and Uruguay. The traditional Afro-Haitian dance Yanvalou has roots in the voudou traditions of Benin, West Africa. The dance, a fusion of multiple ethnic traditions, united diverse groups of African descendants in the fight against slavery, with its spinning, undulating movements echoing the flexibility necessary to resist slavery. Religion Traditional African religions were not similar to later practices, which were influenced by the monotheistic beliefs of Christianity and Islam. These traditional religions were not supported by doctrine and were practised through living experiences, rituals and ceremonies. Beliefs and practices of West and Central Africa included a respect for the spiritual power of the ancestors, the worship of a pantheon of gods who oversaw aspects of daily life, the importance of the natural world, physical and spiritual healing, folk tales and ecstatic dance and song. Some early enslaved Africans had been influenced by Portuguese Missionaries and brought Christian beliefs with them when they arrived in the Americas. But a scholar on the religion of enslaved people in North America, Albert J. Raboteau, has said "During the first 120 years of black slavery in British North America, Christianity made little headway in the slave population." Missionaries noted that slaves in the southern United States continued to hold on to African practices such as polygamy and "idolatrous dancing". During the Great Awakening religious revival of the 1740s, Christianity was increasingly adopted by enslaved people and used as a coping mechanism. Sects such as Baptists, Methodists, and Pentecostalists supported education, spirituality, and political views. Christianity offered a way for African-Americans to interpret their oppression, and