LATIN
DANCE HISTORY
INTRODUCTION
Many
dances popular around the world have originated in Latin America, for example
the Carimbo, Conga, Cueca,
Cumbia,
Joropo,
Lambada, Macarena, Mambo,
Merengue,
Rueada,
and the Salsa.
Many
Latin American dances evolved as a fusion from the poor Europeans and Negro
slaves dance forms. Dancing played
a substantial part in all cultures: European, Negro and Indigenous or poor. The
native dances were considered sinful by the Europeans and at different times the
authorities tried to suppress their popularity. Still, many became
popular amongst both blacks and whites. In 1569, the Viceroy of Mexico ordered the Aztec
Calendar Stone to be buried because the main recreation of the
Negroes had become dancing around it. Subsequently, Velasco decreed that dancing
be confined to Sundays and feast days only, and then only in the afternoons
between the hours of noon and 6 p.m.
Through
the 17th and 18th centuries, a gradual fusion of the three cultures occurred to
produce a new culture: Creole. As European dances were imported into Latin
America, they were adopted and 'creolized'. In Cuba, the
Contradance became the Contradanza Habanera (i.e., from Havana)
with the adoption of a syncopated rhythm.
Over the years, as the
dance evolved, its name became abbreviated to 'Danzon'. Complex
syncopated rhythms are a feature now of all the Latin-American dances. A slower
more refined version also evolved with the abbreviated name: the
'Son'.
BRAZILIAN
SAMBA
Danced on:
1 a2 3 a4 Shake it if
you got it!
In
the 16th century, the Portuguese discovered
a place they called the January River (Rio de Janeiro)
on the east coast of South America.
Colonists settled
and as the colony prospered, slaves were brought from south-west Africa to work
in the plantations of Bahia, in the north-east of what became Brazil.
To
members of the Afro-Brazilian religion Samba means to pray, or to call upon your
personal god. The African rhythms enveloped in Latino music came from the
Yoruba, Congo and other West African people, who were transported to the New
World as slaves. In their homeland the rhythms were used to call forth various
gods. These rhythms
heavily influenced Brazilian music making Samba a unique genre of music.
Samba is danced as a festival dance during the street festivals and celebrations. It is the main dance done at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, held on Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, however, its roots go way back with the Saturnalias and Baccanals (the Greek God of Wine) of ancient times.
The
music has a joyful contagious rhythm which makes even non dancers want to get up
and dance. It was first introduced in the U.S. in a Broadway play called
"Street Carnival" in the late twenties. The festive style and mood of
the dance has kept it alive and popular to this day and the rhythm pervades
popular music.
Rumba
Danced:
Slow Quick Quick Slow Quick Quick
41
2
3 41
2 3
Today's
Rumba is danced very slowly and has romantic, flirtatious and sensual overtones.
Many contemporary Top 40 love songs the intimate
sensuality of the Rumba mood. The dance incorporates knee bends and hip circles known as Cuban
motion and tends to have expressive arm styling to enhance the Latin aura of the dance.
MERENGUE
Danced on every beat 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8
The
Merengue is one of the most popular Latin dances. It is the national dance of
the Dominican Republic and
Haiti.
There are two popular versions of the origin of the Merengue. The first story
alleges the dance originated with slaves who were chained together and, of
necessity, were forced to drag one leg as they cut sugar to the beat of drums.
The second says that a great hero was wounded in the leg during one of the many
revolutions in the Dominican Republic. He was welcomed home with a victory
celebration and, out of sympathy, everyone dancing felt obligated to limp and
drag one foot.
The Merengue is a spot dance, meaning it doesn't move around the dance floor so it is ideally suited to small, crowded dance floors. Merengue is a fun dance with simple steps so it is easy to learn quickly and the "1-2" march-like rhythm makes it a favorite throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and South America. It is the perfect dance to learn for those planning a honeymoon in any of these regions of the world. The Merengue was introduced to the United States in the New York area and like the other Latin dances is here to stay.
AFRO-CARIBBEAN/ REGGAE
In the
old days, during the voyage from Africa,
slaves were forced to dance on shipboard to keep themselves healthy. Before they
reached America, however, many had absorbed something of European dances.
African
dance is frequently performed from a crouched position, with flexed knees and
the body bent at the
waist. The custom of holding the body erect seems to be principally European
(son, mambo and salsa). Latin American dances, as African dances, are
centrifugal. The legs move from the hips instead of from the knee. In fact, the
movements of the shoulders and head result from the hip motion: "Starting
with the hips and moving outward tends to make the dancing looser".
The
future of this mix of cultural styles, of which dance and music are but parts,
is the future of the Caribbean. It seems inevitable that the blending process
now molding a new race of people will continue and produce a new form, not
African, not European but fused from the meeting of two races in the world:
"African-American culture".
JAMAICA
AND THE REGGAE
Columbus discovered Jamaica in 1494.
The work reggae means: coming from the people. Reggae musicians became Jamaica’s prophets, social commentators and shamans. Reggae music is described as hypnotic, trance music, in which the anger and protest of the lyrics has typified Jamaica’s folklore culture
Danced: 2 3
4 &
1 2 3
4 &
1 or
2 3 cha cha cha 2 3 cha cha cha
Cha
Cha origins are traced back to the religious ritual dances of Cuba
and West Africa. There are three forms of Mambo: single, double,
and triple. The triple has five steps to a bar, and this is the version that
evolved into the Cha Cha. Sometimes
Cha Cha is described as a Mambo that is danced with extra beats. In the slow
Mambo tempo, there was a distinct sound in the music that people began dancing
to, calling the step the "Triple" Mambo. Eventually it evolved into a
separate dance, known today as the Cha Cha.
It
has also been suggested that the name Cha Cha is derived onomatopoeically from
the sound of the feet in the chasse which is included in many of the steps.
This would account for it being called the 'Cha Cha Cha' by some people
as opposed to cha cha. These differ only as to which beat of the musical bar is
stressed by the dancing: beat 4 in the first case, beat 1 in the second.
Danced on every beat with
one leg at a time
The
cumbia has its origin in San Basilio, a little town of Atlantic coast of Colombia,
South America. It was danced and created by the slaves to feel happiness and
forget the heavy work and hard life. It was also danced in celebration at
night in the Palenque de San Basilio behind the ocean walls, the place where the
slaves used to hide from the Spanish.
When
women dance cumbia, it is danced with wide and long white skirts, tropical
flowers in their hair and a candle in their hands. Men wear white
pants folded up, without shirt, with a machete to the side and sombrero hipihapa.
Sometimes a red panuelo (scarf ) was worn around the neck to add color. Cumbia
is danced barefoot because it was danced on the sand so close
to the ocean that the water reached up to touch their feet. Dancers perform around
the drums musicians and the fogata.
Salsa
Danced: 123
567 (holding beats 4 & 8)
Salsa
is not easily defined. Though many get caught up in the age old debate as to who
"invented" salsa (Cubans or Puerto Ricans), the truth of the
matter is that salsa has and will always continue to have a great number of
influences that have each played a large part in its evolution.
Salsa was born of the encounter of Cuban
and Puerto Rican music with big band jazz in the Latin barrios of
New York. Literally the word salsa means “sauce” and in Latin American
musical circles it takes its origins from a cry of appreciation for a particular
“piquant” or flashy solo. It was first used to describe a style of music in
the mid-1970’s, when a group of New York based Latin musicians overhauled the
classic Cuban big band arrangements popular since the Mambo era of the 1940’s
and 50’s. They set about reworking them into something tougher and more
appropriate to their modern, integrated, bicultural lifestyles.
Salsa
roots come from the Catholic holy days when slaves were allowed to dance through
streets to their own music. These ceremonies were called “Santerías”. Each
ceremony has a complex set of rhythms associated with him or her called
“toques”, which drums play out to call God down. In modern Cuba, carnivals
have been a training ground for many great musicians, particularly drummers. In
Puerto Rican town of Loiza, the legacy of the Africans is preserved in the
“bomba” dance, driven by a line of drummers.
Drummers sought to mimic the dancers’ body movements with their solos,
as opposed to today, where most dancers interpret the music with movements.