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Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba
Cuban Rumba

In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Spanish colonizers as well as Africans brought to Cuba as slaves....
, a highly complex rhythmic music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 and dance
Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to Motion of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of Emotional expression, social social interaction or presented in a spirituality or performance setting....
 style. The traditional line-up consists of:

Dance, lead vocal and quinto interact in a complex manner.

Some historians have suggested that the guaguanco may be derived from the yuka, a secular dance of the Bantu people. It became distinct from other forms of rumba, such as yambu and columbia, in the mid-1800s.






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Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba
Cuban Rumba

In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Spanish colonizers as well as Africans brought to Cuba as slaves....
, a highly complex rhythmic music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 and dance
Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to Motion of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of Emotional expression, social social interaction or presented in a spirituality or performance setting....
 style. The traditional line-up consists of:
  • three conga
    Conga

    The conga is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum of African origin, probably derived from the Congolese Makuta drums or Sikulu drums commonly played in Mbanza Ngungu, Congo....
     drum parts, namely the tumbadora (lowest), tres-dos (middle, playing a cross-clave counter rhythm), and quinto (highest, solo drum). These parts are also often played on cajon
    Cajón

    A caj?n is a kind of box drum played by slapping the front face with the hands....
    es, wooden boxes.
  • claves
    Claves

    Claves are a percussion instrument , consisting of a pair of short , thick dowels. Traditionally they were made of wood, typically rosewood, ebony or genadillo....
  • palitos
    Palitos

    A palito is a Puerto Rican music musical instrument typically 25 cm long and 3 cm in diameter made of wood. One palito is held in one hand loosely resting on the palm of the hand which is struck by the other palito in order to create a resonance sound....
     (wooden sticks striking the side of the drum) or guagua (kind of woodblock)
  • a solo singer
  • the coro (choir
    Choir

    A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, in turn, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform....
    )
  • two dancers, one male, one female


Dance, lead vocal and quinto interact in a complex manner.

Some historians have suggested that the guaguanco may be derived from the yuka, a secular dance of the Bantu people. It became distinct from other forms of rumba, such as yambu and columbia, in the mid-1800s. Usually danced by a male-female couple, it represents a flirtatious, sexual game and includes a distinctive body movement called vacunao (pelvic thrust) performed by the male dancer (also found in other African-based dances from Latin America). Remnants of guaguanco are evident in the hip and pelvic motions of modern salsa dancers, and references to guaguanco are often made in the lyrics of salsa music.

"The couple begins to dance -- the male dancer is more active as he circles around her without touching her. The dance climaxes as the male attempts to give the vacuano when the female is unprepared to avoid it. Much of her dancing expertise resides in her ability to entice the male while skillfully avoiding being touched by his vacunao." (Vernon Boggs, Salsiology, 1992)