Ballroom dance cuba. Travel to Cuba: how do they dance Latin in their homeland? Cuban dancing is a way to release a burning fire

One of the most popular dances in Cuba is salsa - a dance that is notable for its bright, energetic movements and swaying to fiery intense music. This style emerged in the 1960s from a mixture of Cuban mambo and Latin jazz, while partially borrowing the choreographic and stylistic shades of Puerto Rican folk dances. In Colombia and Venezuela, salsa immediately became popular among marginalized people. People fell in love with salsa because its dancers constantly changed movements and invented something new. Unlike strict ballroom dancing, salsa was created for fun. In fact, this dance broke barriers of ethnicity and class and became a symbol Latin America. By the 21st century, salsa had become a worldwide hit.

The dream has become national dance Cuba before the Cuban Revolution (1959), but Fidel Castro's government preferred to see the rumba as the national dance because it supposedly emphasized Cuba's "African heritage." Rumba has three different shapes: Yambu, Guaguanco and Colombia. Yambu is a dance in which a single couple dances slowly and sedately within a circle created by conga drummers, singers, dancers waiting their turn, and spectators. Partners rarely touch each other, except when the man moves towards the woman and places his hand on her shoulder.

In Guaguanco, a man and a woman always dance facing each other, since this type of rumba is symbolic sexual game. Colombia is a dance for men who take turns entering a circle and competing with each other. They may use candles to balance on their heads or dance (performing semi-acrobatic movements) around a bottle or hat placed on the floor.

As for dark-skinned Cubans, their ritual dances formed a huge separate group Cuban dances They can be divided into four main groups, according to where the ancestors of the Africans who sailed to Cuba came from: dances of the Congo-Angolan peoples of west-central Africa, Arara (descendants of the Fon people and others ethnic groups from what is now Benin and Togo), Yoruba dances (mainly from Nigeria) and carabales (dances of people living along the Calabar River in Cameroon and Nigeria).

The most famous dances dark-skinned Cubans - a Yoruba dance called Santeria and La Religen Lucumi. Santeria is a mixture of African and Roman Catholic religious dances. Both men and women dance, and the musical accompaniment is provided exclusively by men playing the sacred bata drums. Santerías dance to please the orishas (deities) and persuade them to join in the celebration.

Cubans believe that if the deities pay attention to the dancers, they inhabit them. From the outside it looks like falling into a trance - the dancers’ movements change sharply, instead of the previously slow steps of the dance, the dancers suddenly almost fall to the ground and begin to shake. Then the rhythm of the dance becomes sharp and very fast.

Cuban salsa- it is incredibly popular all over the world social dance. In addition to the crazy mixture of energetic rhythms and emotions, Cuban salsa amazes with its plasticity, which is characteristic of all Cuban dances.

Merengue Hot, fiery merengue dance appeared in Dominican Republic, but almost immediately won the respect of the Cubans. Erotic hip movements, flirting and elements of improvisation are all an integral part of the real Cuban soul. According to legend, this dance was invented by slaves, but now it helps you feel truly free.

Rumba Everyone in Cuba knows how to dance rumba. This is the most interesting Cuban dance, which has nothing in common with ballroom rumba. Real Cuban rumba is a religious dance, its movements imitate either harvesting or sun worship.

Each movement is named after a patron God. At external simplicity, this is one of the most difficult Cuban dances. If you are choosing between a fitness room or a Cuban rumba, feel free to make a choice in favor of the rumba - the result will not be long in coming.

Reggaeton A relatively young dance of Cuban youth. The dance became popular due to its wild energy and sexuality. If bachata and merengue leave some understatement between partners, then in reggaeton anything is possible. It was reggaeton that gave birth to the famous twerk. It is performed both in pairs and solo.

Bachata So hot and passionate dance could have originated, perhaps, only in an equally hot and passionate country of snow-white beaches and azure sea. Bachata is a dance of love with which you can express all your feelings.

Cuban cha-cha According to one version, cha-cha originated in Georgia during the reception of a delegation of Cuban communists at a winery. Wine and chacha flowed like a river and soon the guests began to dance. And the more they drank, the faster they danced. Very soon, the sensual salsa and bachata developed into the energetic, passionate cha-cha, which is now danced all over the world.

Guaguanco Guaguanco is a type of Cuban rumba. When Cubans talk about rumba, they mean this dance. This is a kind of competition between a man and a woman. The man tries to distract his partner and give him a vacunao, which literally translates as “injection” or “vaccination.”

In dance, the wacunao symbolizes sexual intercourse. Externally, a vacunao looks like an unexpected sharp gesture with a hand, a foot, or a wave of a handkerchief directed towards the partner. The partner must flirt and interest the man, but not allow herself to be “pricked.”

Salsaton It's a wild mix of reggaeton and salsa that was popular in Cuba. The fiery dance that once united Cuban youth quickly lost its popularity due to low musical value. But in Cuba you can always meet someone who will happily dance the salsaton with you!

Dream This is one of the oldest and most famous Cuban dances. Most new dance styles who appeared in Cuba came out of their sleep. An important part of this dance is interaction with your partner. And you definitely won’t be able to fall asleep!

Nowadays there are many hot and erotic dances, but what is their origin? The country of passionate temperament and scorching sun is Cuba. It was here that all rhythmic and fiery dances, which are now simply called Latin.

If you watch people performing this dance, you can see the confusion different traditions and cultures of people from different continents. Latin dances are usually accompanied by the melodic playing of the guitar and the beating of African drums. Hearing such music, you want to move, after which all movements develop into dance.

Popular dances of Cuba

Among the most common dances that originated in Cuba is the cha-cha-cha. This dance is the most popular.

In addition, this list is complemented by Salsa, which the Cubans themselves call the dance of love. This dance can sometimes be seen in clubs, which can be found on the website https://spb.tomesto.ru/categories/nochnoy-klub.

Tango is a dance filled with passion, which has now become a “classical” dance. This also includes the amazing and stunning rumba.

The dance that has received worldwide recognition is the mambo. And also unusual - danson. Exciting and incendiary - a dream. Those who have been to Brazil and attended the carnival will easily say that even in these dances there is a hint of Cuba.

History of origin

The roots are all incendiary and amazing Latin dances go to Africa. It is believed that Cuban dances became widespread in Europe because of the slaves who were brought in, who loved their traditions and culture and never betrayed them.

Folk dances and, indeed, music itself were not developed as a subject of entertainment and were religious character. The music contains drumming, which was performed according to a certain method to appease the gods.

Since the 19th century, everyone who visited Cuba was so imbued with local dances that they always took their memories and skills with them. And since the 20th century, all Latin dances have been included in the American program.

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"Since the mid-nineteenth century, Cuban popular music started playing important role in the development of Western urban culture. Cuban dance influenced everything from the habaneras that were danced in the New York salons of the sixties, to the congas, rumbas, cha-cha-chas, son-montunos and “young” mambos.

“Much of Cuban culture, including dance, is a derivative of what Fernando Ortiz dubbed “Cuban counterpoint”: a combination of Iberian and African components. One of best examples this is son-montuno. Depending on the specific region of Cuba, the dominant influence on music and social activities could be either Spanish or West/Central African. In the regions where tobacco was grown, many farmers were from Spain or Canary Islands. And where sugar cane was grown, the workers were mostly slaves brought from Western and Central Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Slaves brought to Cuba organized cabildos (religious brotherhoods) and protected the religious and secular dances of the Yoruba, Fon, Ejagham and Kongo-Angola peoples from extinction.
In the Yoruba and Fon religions, many gods were worshiped and invoked by performing various dances that captivated the dancers so that the gods seemed to "dance in their heads."
Ejagham people formed secret societies, Abakuas, whose members danced in secret rituals or carnival parades. They wore masks, i"remes, (or "diablitos", which means "little devil" in Spanish), depicting hereditary images. Cuban culture was heavily influenced by the Congo-Angolans with their non-ritual celebrations, congueri"as, at which makuta were danced and yuka.

Yuka, reminiscent of a modern rumba, consists of ronquido and campanero. Ronquido is a series of side steps, campanero is a figure eight. The dancers also perform the Congo war ritual dance, mani", similar to the Brazilian capoeira and congueri"as. Yambu", guaguanco" and Colombia are imitative dances that form the "rubma" and belong to the early dance forms of the Kongo.

Yambu" is a dance in at a slow pace, often associated with older people; it simulates their movements and difficulties in performing daily activities.

Guaguanco", modern version rumba, includes vacunao, movement of the pelvis, and consists of two parts:
In the first, there is an imitation of a man chasing a woman, they dance separately;
In the second, vacunao, the movements symbolize the victory of the man.
Although vacunao is similar to European couples dance zapateo and na umbigada, another hip thrust in early Angolan dances that influenced samba, it certainly belongs to the Congo family of dance styles.

Columbia, born in the countryside, represents the male solo dance, consisting of acrobatic and imitation elements that make it the most difficult of all types of rhumbas. A dancer can imitate a ball player, a cyclist, a sugar cane harvester, a cripple, or perform Abakua"n ireme" step dances. The dancer and the main drummer compete with each other throughout the dance.

But Comparsas is common name for mass street rumba dancing. Neighbors form a comparsa and perform at carnivals and other events. The dance is reminiscent of the Brazilian samba and is based on dramatic or allegorical patterns.

Conga is a simplified form of rumba that became popular in the United States in the late thirties. “The two main dances of Cuba, danzo"n and son-montuno, came from completely different social environments. During the movement from eastern to western Cuba, from Iberian places to Afro-Cuban ones, both dances changed dramatically." Danzon, a descendant of the French country dance, was brought to Cuba by French planters fleeing Haiti in the late 18th century and evolved into the simple danza or habanera by the mid-19th century.

In the late seventies of the 19th century, danza evolved into the new danzon, which is now considered the national dance of Cuba. Almost until the beginning of the thirties of the 20th century, danzon almost did not go beyond private clubs and societies of the upper classes. It then featured a more syncopated final section. And in 1938, Antonio Arcano created the mambo, a new danzon rhythm that included a more swinging, riff-based section played by charanga orchestras on flute and violins. Soon working class blacks and Cubans began dancing to this music. Perez Prado in Mexico and Machito in New York popularized the mambo with their big bands. From the mambo dance the cha-cha-cha grew, and thus the cha-cha-cha is also a descendant of country dance.

Son-montuno was born in Oriente, a Cuban province, as a couples dance. The accompanists were usually Spanish folk guitarists and Afro-Cuban percussionists. In its movement west towards Havana, music and dance styles developed and enriched with percussive sounds, especially in the last part of the montuno. This process became widespread in the thirties of the 20th century and received the erroneous name of rumba.

Spanish and African musical elements montuno form the basis of today's salsa and urban dance music on a global scale, including fundamentals of music from the French-speaking regions of West and Central Africa and the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

\CUBAN SLEEP AND NEW YORK SALSA - II

Cuban music is like salsa, like the roots of a tree. Salsa has many roots, but the style that nurtured it and gave it such a perfect form is a dream.

Son is the most important and influential music of twentieth-century Cuba. Armando Sa"nchez, leader of the Conjunto Son de la Loma, says that the dream is "the music of the people - a true manifestation of the history and way of life of the Cubans. This music, more than any other, expresses the spirit of the people of Cuba." The dream appeared in the nineteenth century in mountains of the Cuban province of Oriente. It originated from changui, a style related to African music brought to Cuba by African slaves in the early twentieth century and taken up by their descendants. As Africans migrated to Havana, son became a popular working class musical style. Musicians began to combine African and Spanish styles, such as rumba and santeri, decimal and guajira. And by the twenties, son was already the most popular music and dance form among Cubans of all levels of society.

Thanks to the synthesis of African and Spanish music and the enchanting appeal for all Cubans, the dream has become national music Cubes.

After the First World War, crowds of wealthy tourists and white Cuban aristocrats and bourgeois flocked to Havana; this created the need for night entertainment. Sons were played in nightclubs, but, as Sa"nchez notes, “whites could not understand and feel African rhythms and the musicians had to modify them. ... We had to accept their standards and “whiten” the music.” The two most typical conjuntos of that time (ensembles) were Sexteto Habanero and Septeto Nacional By 1918. The first developed the son conjunto sound: three vocal parts, bass, tres (six or nine string guitar), maracas (gourd on a handle filled with pebbles or dried beans), bongos (small double drums ), claves (two striking bars), trumpet and guitar. In the late twenties, Septeto Nacional expanded the son style, introducing greater harmony into the vocal parts and increasing the complexity of the rhythm and the speed of the tempo. And this a new style has already become popular international level. However, in the late thirties, Arsenio Rodri "guez (one of the greatest Cuban musicians and composers) took up the task of restoring son's connection with its African roots. “Arsenio took us back to the beginning and thereby moved us forward," says Sa "nchez.

Through many innovations in design and instrumentation, Rodri "guez, focusing on African elements that were not present in the previous son or were only in simplified forms, significantly enriched the sound of the style. He connected Africa and Spain and did not allow them to be separated again. Here are some from his innovations:
Adaptation of guaguanco" to the style of sleep
Adding cowbell and conga to the rhythm section
Increasing importance of tres as a solo instrument
Introduction of a montuno or mambo section in melodic solos

Arsenio's songs contained philosophical statements about Cuba, public life And national pride. His style became known as son montuno; he laid the foundations for the mambo mania of the forties, influencing popular Latin music in New York. By the early thirties, son and mambo became popular in Puerto Rico, where musicians combined them with their own styles.

After migrating to the United States and taking the music with them, Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians began to create son conjunto (especially in New York). “Since the early sixties, Arsenio’s sons have been picked up and remade by salsa musicians.”

Although salsa has many roots and its main representatives are Puerto Ricans, there is no doubt that the Cuban son is its main basis. “Salsa is essentially the brand name of modern Latin pop music. It conveys a feeling just like other re-interpreted styles and traditions. In the late forties, the formation of Latin big bands was stimulated by African-American big band jazz. Cubans, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans began to play music that combined compositional ideas a big band horn section with an Afro-Cuban rhythm section, and this eventually led to the emergence of the New York Latin sound, which was heard mostly in Puerto Rican ensembles. Big band leaders such as Puerto Ricans Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Cuban Machito expanded the mambo section of the son, organizing their own style and form - the first serious crossover of Afro-Caribbean music.

The internationally popular cha-cha-cha and mambo also came into this style and became the basis of salsa. New York and Cuban musicians interacted with each other, creating parallel Latin musical styles, until the United States tightened diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1962. Then New York Latin music looked back at what was happening in musical world next to her, and, as a result, acquired a distinctive New York style.

One of the results of the interaction between the Latin and black communities was the Latin boogaloo, created from a popular African-American dance of the mid-sixties. Boogaloo relied on standard Latin musical instruments, but added trap drums to them. The lyrics were sung in Spanish and English.

Another result was the merger of cumbia, merengue and musical styles bomba, plena, jibaro (from the mountains) belonging to Colombians, Dominicans and other Puerto Ricans living in New York.

“The influx of Cubans in the early eighties and the arrival of some Cuban musical groups led to the resumption of ties with Cuban music restoring her influence on New York style. But salsa remains a unique New York phenomenon, and its main representatives are still New York's Puerto Ricans, despite the fact that musicians from all over the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as Euro-Americans, are also associated with it.

Constant noisy carnivals, crowds of frantic people dancing to the rhythm of the scorching tropical Sun - yes, all this is Cuba!

Cuban dancing so sensual: sparkling, fiery and flirtatious - they quickly walked across the planet, collecting the hearts of more and more new supporters. And in general, in our time, the ability to dance Cuban dances is a sign of excellent taste, even though you can dance them at any age.

The school of Cuban dances itself is divided into several directions: rumba, salsa, mambo, pachanga, cha-cha-cha - all this seems exotic and outlandish at first glance. All this can be mastered after attending Cuban dance classes, watching the movements of professional masters. Each style is special and has its own charm.

Cha-cha-cha

This style is closely related to rumba. The peculiarity of its execution is the distance between partners - it should not exceed 15 cm. This task is by no means as simple as it might seem. However, by regularly studying at a Cuban dance school, you can master it without problems.

The cha-cha-cha dance is characterized by energetic movements of the hips, which are striking in their clarity and purity of execution of the elements. This dance gives off a certain audacity, passion and a little impudence.

Salsa

In general, the name itself translates as “sauce”. Oooh.. this is a calling card, truly Cuban folk dance! Passionate, risky and incredibly cheerful; it is full of all kinds of combinations of movements. Truly a sauce! Salsa is a kind of extravaganza where improvisation, demonstrated by skilled dancers, decides a lot. The Cuban dance school itself teaches two types of salsa: linear and circular. Of course, each direction has its own nuances, which cannot be avoided.

Circular salsa (also known as “salsa casino”) is not very difficult to perform. But how she rocks! All movements of partners are filled with dynamism, and this applies to both legs and arms. All kinds of feints, turns, laces... It is interesting that the skill of a partner is determined by her ability to feel her male partner and follow his actions.

Another type of circular salsa - rueda de casino - involves the simultaneous participation of several couples who follow the commands of the leader - the cantor. The cantor's responsibilities include, for example, monitoring the timely execution of dance elements. In addition, he takes care of the timely announcement of the new movement.

Line salsa. It is also very dynamic and fast-paced. It is filled with a variety of combinations. It differs from the circular geometry of the dance, based on its name.

Rumba

It is impossible to imagine Cuban dances without one more representative - the rumba. We warn you right away - this dance is very erotic, filled with emotions and demonstrates the various subtleties of gender relations. In this dance, unlike salsa, the leading role is played by a woman.

The partner’s task is to attract the man’s attention and lure him into her network. Having received what she wanted, the partner immediately loses all interest in her partner and begins her own game with another. A bunch of smooth movements body and hips are distinguished by this playful Cuban dance. It is worth noting that the tempo of the dance is relatively slow, but so sensual!

Pachanga

Some people begin their first steps in mastering Cuban dances with pachanga. Pachanga is characterized by steps that imitate the sound of horse hooves. Over time, other motor elements supplemented the pachanga, making it more rich and expressive.

True, the fashion for this dance has obviously ended. Only in some areas of Latin America is it still actively danced. If you happen to visit Colombia, you may well encounter the Pachanga Festival there.

Mambo

Cuban dances have been enriched by one of the most complex dances, which has become world famous is, of course, mambo. Sparkling, fiery, very fast - it has a lot acrobatic elements who require good physical training dancer

At first the mamba was dominated simple moves. Over time, this Cuban dance became more and more complex, acquiring a unique splendor, which is especially clearly manifested in slow performance.

In general, the goal of any Cuban dance is to liberate a man or woman, to free them from the power of complexes.

Cuban guitar dance

The musical accompaniment is, of course, the guitar. Musicians who wish to perform music for Cuban dances are expected to have a high level of technical performance. The composition does not have to be played in a strictly specified rhythm and tempo. In view of this, it was even introduced special term- “Rubato” - which implies some deviation from the rhythm.

The tempo of the performance is characterized by frequent syncopations, which can become an insurmountable barrier for an inexperienced guitarist, especially if he has not played similar compositions before. In this case, you need to mentally tap every eighth beat. After several trainings, all this will be brought to automaticity.