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Rumba (dance)

 
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Rumba (dance)
 
 
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Rumba is a dance term with two quite different meanings.

First, it means Cuban event of African style, organically related to the rumba
Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance. It originates in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves....
 genre of Afro-Cuban music. There are several styles of this rumba, the most common being the guaguancó
Guaguancó

Guaguanc? is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a highly complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three conga drum parts, namely the tumbadora , tres-dos , and quinto ....
.

Second, it refers to one of the ballroom dances which occurs in social dance and in international competitions. In this sense, rumba is the slowest of the five competition Latin and American dances: the Paso doble
Paso Doble

Paso Doble or pasodoble is a lively style of dance to the Metre march -like pasodoble music. It actually originated in southern France , but is modeled after the sound, drama, and movement of the Spain bullfighting....
, the Samba
Samba

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Brazilian Carnival....
, the Cha-cha-chá
Cha-cha-cha

Cha cha cha or Cha Cha Cha may refer to:*Cha-cha-cha , a style of Cuban dance music*Cha-cha-cha , Latin American dance*Cha-cha-ch? , a style of Cuban dance...
 and the Jive
Jive (dance)

In Ballroom dancing, Jive is a dance style in 4/4 time that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the early 1940s. It is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance....
 being the others.






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Encyclopedia


Rumba is a dance term with two quite different meanings.

First, it means Cuban event of African style, organically related to the rumba
Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance. It originates in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Spanish colonizers and of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves....
 genre of Afro-Cuban music. There are several styles of this rumba, the most common being the guaguancó
Guaguancó

Guaguanc? is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a highly complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three conga drum parts, namely the tumbadora , tres-dos , and quinto ....
.

Second, it refers to one of the ballroom dances which occurs in social dance and in international competitions. In this sense, rumba is the slowest of the five competition Latin and American dances: the Paso doble
Paso Doble

Paso Doble or pasodoble is a lively style of dance to the Metre march -like pasodoble music. It actually originated in southern France , but is modeled after the sound, drama, and movement of the Spain bullfighting....
, the Samba
Samba

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Brazilian Carnival....
, the Cha-cha-chá
Cha-cha-cha

Cha cha cha or Cha Cha Cha may refer to:*Cha-cha-cha , a style of Cuban dance music*Cha-cha-cha , Latin American dance*Cha-cha-ch? , a style of Cuban dance...
 and the Jive
Jive (dance)

In Ballroom dancing, Jive is a dance style in 4/4 time that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the early 1940s. It is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance....
 being the others. This ballroom rumba was also danced in Cuba to a rhythm they call the bolero
Bolero

Bolero is a name given to certain slow, romantic latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish people and Cuban forms, which are both significant, and which have separate origins....
-son
Son (music)

Son cubano is a style of music that originated in Cuba and was popular in the 1920s to 1950s worldwide. Son combines the structure and elements of Spanish language canci?n and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu peoples and Arar? origin....
.

Cuban rumba

Afro-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....
 is entirely different from the ballroom rumba: see Guaguanco
Guaguancó

Guaguanc? is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a highly complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three conga drum parts, namely the tumbadora , tres-dos , and quinto ....
.

Rumba in the U.S.A.

Ballroom rumba derives its movements and music from son, just as do the salsa and mambo. When son was brought to the United States it was renamed rumba. This kind of rumba was introduced into American dance salons at the beginning of the 1930s, characterized by variable tempo, often nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba (The Peanut Vendor
The Peanut Vendor

The Peanut Vendor is a Cuban song in the style of a street-seller, known as a preg?n. It is possibly the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician....
) and sometimes slower (Siboney).

Ballroom rumba

The rumba as a social dance was introduced first in Britain and America: the versions differ somewhat. It is a slower dance of about 120 beats per minute which corresponds, both in music and in dance to what the Cubans of an older generation called the bolero-son. It is easy to see why, for ease of reference and for marketing, rumba is a better name, however inaccurate; it is the same kind of reason that led to the use of salsa as an overall term for popular music of Cuban origin.

All social dances in Cuba involve a hip-sway over the standing leg and, though this is scarcely noticeable in fast salsa, it is more pronounced in the slow ballroom rumba. This, at least, is authentic, as is the use of free arms in various figures. The figures derive from dance moves observed in Havana in the pre-revolutionary period, and have developed their own life since then. Competition figures are often extremely complex, and this is where competition dance separates from social dance. Details from syllabi of dance teaching organizations and from standard texts.

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