According to Holger Henke in his The West Indian Americans, Jamaican Rex Nettleford was correct when he said, “’dance was a primary instrument of survival’.” As such a vital part of cultural traditions, dance plays and integral role in the history culture. Three of the most influential styles of dance in the Caribbean are the Rumba, The Merengue, and the Salsa.
The word Rumba is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as “a ballroom dance of Haitian and Dominican origin in 2/4 time in which one foot is dragged on every step.” Here, however, Rumba is a collection of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The term spread in the 1930s and 1940s to the faster popular music of Cuba where it was used as a catch-all term.
There are two sources of this dance and genre: one Spanish, from the colonizers, and one African, beginning in the 16th century with the importation of African slaves. The native Rumba folk dance is essentially a sex pantomime danced extremely fast with exaggerated hip movements and sensually aggressive attitude on the part of the male partner and a defensive attitude on the part of the female partner. The music is played with a staccato beat, keeping with the vigorous expressive movements of the dancers. Emerging in the mid nineteenth century from the secondary neighborhoods of Havana and Matanzas, this percussion based music and dance was not widely accepted and was, in fact, often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd.
While Rumba was modified and adapted in other Caribbean countries, the majority of the development of Rumba took place in Cuba. The "Son...
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"Salsa - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/merengue (accessed April 1, 2011).
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Latin Jazz is a style of music that blends rhythms and percussion instruments of Cuba and the Caribbean with jazz and its fusion of European and African music. Latin jazz, also called Afro-Cuban jazz, was the culmination of the long interaction between American and Cuban musical styles. A distinctive syncopated rhythm and the Cuban habanera rhythm were endowed to American jazz music in the early 20th century. In the following decades, Latin American melodies and dance rhythms permeated the United States, while American jazz made its way into the Caribbean and Central and South America. In the 1940's the swing era expanded their repertory to include rumbas and congas. The d...
Ross, Karl. "Bachata: The Other Dance Music - Once Confined to Girlie Bars and Brothels, the Dominican Republic's Bachata Is Making Inroads in the Latin Music Mainstream." Billboard - The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment Apr 28 2001: Sec Latin Music 6,Pack: LM-36. ProQuest. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
At the University of Chicago, Dunham decided to study anthropology with a focus on African and Caribbean ritual dances. Here, she studied under many of the best anthropologists of the time, and in 1935, she was awarded a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study dance in any way she wished. So, she decided to use this money to travel to the islands of the West Indies and document the ritual dances of the people. She visited such islands as Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique and Haiti; however, she found a special connection with the people of Haiti and the dances they performed, particularly in their Vodoun rituals. In 1936, Dunham received a bachelor of philosophy from the University of Chicago, and after gathering her research and materials from her work in the Caribbean, she submitted her thesis, Dances of Haiti: Their Social Organization, Classification, Form, and Function,” to the University of Chicago in 1938.
15. Burton, Richard D.E. Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition and Play in the Caribbean. (1997). Cornell University Press.
However, out of slavery comes culture which is common for most countries who capitalized on it. Africans brought their religion and music on the slave ships and continued to practice their beliefs in their new locations. African culture can definitely be observed in Brazil, where some people have continued to keep their ancestral culture alive while making integrations of new practices that reflect their reality. Capoeira and candomblé are examples of this. Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines dance and rhythm in a coordinated fashion. It was initially practiced by slaves, as a way to teach others how to defend themselves with martial arts without the slave-owner knowing their actions; fighting was disguised as dancing. Candomblé is a dance to honor the African gods. Capoeira and candomblé both keep African heritage present in Brazil, passing this culture down as their ancestors once
Salsa is a well known dish that is made in many ways. In the original times, it was made with a coalescence of chilies, tomatoes, and other spices. The original way of making salsa has been altered since the beginning. It originated back in the times of the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca civilizations(“History Of Salsa Food”). According to “History of Salsa Sauce”, The origin of salsa came from the South American region, mainly from the Spanish speaking countries (Lifestylelounge,lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/history-of-salsa-food). The Spanish people found tomatoes and they added the ingredient into the
The Waltz isn’t a new dance but the dance had evolved from what it was in the past and became less directional. The dance was meant to be a slower dance than all the popular dances of the 1920s and it was more passionate and romantic. The most popular ballroom dance style was the Foxtrot and it just so happened that it was the easiest dance also. This dance consisted of smooth walking and could be danced to both fast and slow jazz tempos making it easy to transition between the two whenever the music switches up. The Foxtrot can be danced with simple steps if that was how the person felt was better or it could be danced with a series of complex steps meaning that it was a customizable dance. The Tango is another popular ballroom dance and came from Argentina. It’s popularity skyrocketed after “Rudolf Valentino performed it for a movie named Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”(Nelson). The Tango arrived to the dance scene earlier than all the other dances, making its first appearance in 1912. The Tango was a passionate dance meant to be danced with a partner and the steps had a distinct vibe that added a sense of drama to the dance.There were also other popular mentions: The Shimmy which was banned from most dance halls because of its impurity and was also known in gypsy dances, The Black Bottom which eventually beat the Charleston and became the number
The history and development of salsa “cannot be separated from the history of migration”, meaning that the music developed and changed as it traveled the globe (Román-Velasquez: 211). Due to its global influences and popularity, salsa represents many cultures: “Initially associated with the Spanish Caribbean populations of Cuba and Puerto Rico, salsa was soon claimed as the voice of the New York City barrio and as representative of the experiences of the Latino community in the United States” (Román-Velasquez: 211). The term salsa describes more than just the music, but also “ a 'manner of making music' which is a flexible blend of many genres and which is continually reblended and given slightly different 'flavours' in different locations” (Román-Velasquez: 211). As salsa globalized, so did salsa dancing, adding another performance factor to the genre. Salsa clubs and fans in
All around the world, there are thousands of cultures. Although they are different, every culture partakes in dance. Dancing is something known worldwide. Every culture has traditional cultural dancing they partake in. Mexico has many cultural dances. La danza del venado is one traditional dance from Northern Mexico. La danza del venado, is known as the deer dance.
Salsa, tango, and bachata have very different historic backgrounds, but come from the same culture. Latin music is popular for various genres in Latin America, mainly in Cuba, and is unique for the type of rhythmic structure it builds. The music is so alive that is pulls at the feet and hips of dancers, driving them to the dance floor. When dancing to the music their hips sway in time, and their feet mark the beat. If people did not grow up with this type of music, its complex rhythms can be intimidating.
Rhythm is the pattern of music. It is one of the key characteristics to define music as what it is. Rhythm is valuable, and in both Cuban and West-African music, it is one of the most crucial parts of their music. Cuban music can be separated into many different sub-categories, one of them being the Son Cubano, a type of music that originated in Cuba, and is heavily influenced by African music. Son music has very few characteristics that fully developed by itself; the music has strong hints of Spanish guitar, melody, monophony and lyrical translation with African percussion and rhythms, all merged together to show that the music had developed traits that it had borrowed from other cultures, mainly Africa. This clearly demonstrates the distinct similarities between these two nations, and how one adapted a part of the others music. Another interrelation is how both culture's music is quite simple; no complex harmonies or complicated reading of music, but with decidedly trickier rhythms. In West-Cuban music, they have an element called polyrhythm, which means multiple or opposing rhythmic patterns played at the same time. Usually, there are multiple drummers to play the separate parts, so in the end it c...
Latin Jazz Last Sunday I went to a jazz bar in Manhattan and I listened to “Latin Jazz”. Latin jazz is “a fusion of African and indigenous rhythms from the entire Latin American Diaspora with the language of jazz”. It was first known as coop, but you are now familiar with it as afro-Cuban. When talking about afro-Cuban jazz, it is difficult to not mention certain turning points in history that made this music possible. The roots of much of the music might be traced back to African Cuban slaves.
Flamenco (may refer to ‘Flamingo’ - bird or the ‘Flanders’ region) originated (much later than Kathak) in 18th century Southern Spain-Andalucía . It was mostly performed by the Andalucía society that comprised Gitano (Gypsies). However, unlike Kathak, Flamenco dancers were from diverse professional backgrounds and the dance was not necessarily confined to a small group of people. Unlike Kathak, Flamenco dance lacked prestige because the Gitanos were discriminated and prosecuted because of their ethnicity. Flamenco mostly dealt with themes of hope/struggle/will power/bonding/patriotism - a representation of the general life of the gypsies. The early form of Flamenco solely consisted of verbal communication of stories carrying the mentioned themes.
The Latin Americans never wanted to be left in this music development. The Latin Americans had their own music, Jazz (Gordon, 2005). They wanted to influence in the development of the music. Soon, Salsa was born out if mixture from the Jazz music and Mambo. Salsa took the bodily movements and the Cuban beats as a contribution from the Caribbean culture. The Latin America contributed the wording of Salsa music. Diversity necessitated the growth of Salsa as Mambo had been viewed with suspicion as it was linked to ghetto status hence it was