Salsa World: A Global Dance in Local Contexts

6. Dancing Salsa in Cuba: Another Look - Bárbara Balbuena Gutiérrez (Translated by Sydney Hutchinson)

6 Dancing Salsa in Cuba Another Look Bárbara Balbuena Gutiérrez (Translated by Sydney Hutchinson) C asino, known internationally as the Cuban style of salsa, is a popular, tra­ ditional social or ballroom dance. It emerged in the late 1950s through the evolution and integration of Cuban and other nationalities’ music­dance genres. I describe it as popular not only because it was created by the people for their own enjoyment but also because it has maintained its popularity over four generations of dancers. Because durability of cultural manifestations is one of the principal traits defining tradition, casino may be categorized as tradi­ tional, but we must not forget the peculiar dynamic of this dance’s development through a continual process of assimilation, negation, renovation, and progres­ sive change toward new creations as it is passed from one generation to the next. International and Cuban Ballroom Dance It is essential to explain my understandings of the concepts of social or ballroom dance, since, on the one hand, the Cuban dance universe is broad and diverse, and on the other hand, two types of ballroom dance are currently in­ ternationally recognized: the social and the sport, or competition. Although both come from the same historical roots, there are palpable differences from the technical, stylistic, motivational, or contextual points of view. In Europe and elsewhere, competition ballroom dance is considered an athletic endeavor with artistic results for which the dancers submit themselves to rigorous, long­ term training. It was recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Com­ mittee in 1997. In turn, two subcategories exist under sport dance: standard, or international, dances (such as the Viennese or English waltz, the foxtrot, Dancing Salsa in Cuba 99 quickstep, and tango) and the Latin dances (which include chachachá [Angli­ cized as cha­cha], rumba­bolero, samba, jive, pasodoble, and salsa). Choreogra­ phies correspond to patterns preestablished by an expert jury that evaluates the performances, taking the program for the couple’s level into account. I believe these parameters diminish the spontaneity, freedom of expression, and creativity afforded by the improvisation of social dance or traditional ball­ room dance. The stylization and standardization of the Latin genres make some practically unrecognizable when compared with their original homologues, and in others the transformations are so profound that they have provoked the disappearance of their cultural identity or essence. Competitive dance has in­ fluenced how most salsa styles are danced socially around the world today: as styles introduced fundamentally through teaching. In Cuba, ballroom dance (baile de salón) refers to dances held in social cen­ ters in urban locations, such as recreation societies, social circles, clubs, caba­ rets, ballrooms in private homes, and public plazas. Ballroom dance is inti­ mately linked to social events where dance is the main attraction, although other collateral activities take place. The popular verbenas, carnivals, parrandas , charangas (all words for kinds of parties with music and dance), and all types of public or private parties provide the proper circumstances for couple dancing, which permits not only the free, sensual union of couples but also col­ lective solidarity with no distinctions between social class, age, sex, or race. Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Precursors Casino’s predecessor is the contradanza, introduced to Cuba via Spain in the eighteenth century, which was transformed into a creole contradance at the turn of the nineteenth century. The contradance contributed its four­beat, forward­and­back basic step to Cuban ballroom dance. This basic form was maintained in danza, danzón, son, and casino, although it changed in terms of bodily and rhythmic accents and the execution of new figures. The principal figures of the contradance include promenade, chain, hold, sieve, placing the dance, whiplash, lasso, allemande, throne, wings, turns, rounds, mills, and bridge.1 Its spatial designs include two rows of couples, cir­ cles, quartets, trios, and duos. Traces of contradance figures appear in the turns and spatial patterns of casino, both in the circle, or rueda, and in independent couple dancing. However, the contradanza was executed in the open social dance position. When the danza emerged in the early nineteenth century, it had a musi­ cal form similar to that of the contradance but modified its choreographic as­ pects. Its basic step was essentially the same as the contradance’s, and it was performed by free couples in an embrace. This disposition of the pairs resulted from the worldwide influence of the waltz and was used in danzón, danzonete , chachachá, son, and...