Bailes de las islas del Caribe

Salsa, Bachata, Son, Guaguancó... a taste of the Caribbean

Long Story Short

The transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from the 16th to the 19th century, found millions of people taken from their homes in central and western Africa. They were shipped across the ocean to work in the Caribbean but also throughout the Americas. Toiling as unpaid laborers on sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton plantations, in gold and silver mines, and as domestic servants, these enslaved people took with them the rich and vibrant cultural traditions of their homelands. Over time, as slavery ended and governments changed hands, these cultures began to blend with that of their colonial rulers (the English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese). In some cases, they also incorporated influences from the area’s native Arawak Indian populations (the Taínos), forging new fusions that stand today as a testament to the beauty of integration. This is the reason why Caribbean music, dance styles and other cultural elements are so rich.

Casino or Cuban Salsa?

In Cuba, a popular dance known as Casino was marketed abroad as Cuban-style salsa or Salsa Cubana to distinguish it from other salsa styles when the name was popularized in the 1970s. There is however a growing consensus (https://sonycasino.com/) that Casino and Salsa are ontogenetically and structurally different enough to not be considered different styles of one and the same dance, rather two different styles of dances. This growing realisation is partly based on actual social science research on the subject matter such as Ariana Orejuela's (2006) thorough historiographic account of Cuban ethnomusicological and ethnochoreographic traditions. Dancing Casino is an expression of popular social culture; Many Cubans consider casino a part of their social and cultural activities centering on their popular music.

The origins of the name Casino are casinos deportivos, the dance halls where a lot of social dancing was done among the richer white Cubans during the mid-1950s and onward. Historically, Casino traces its origin as a partner dance from Son Cubano, fused with partner figures and turns adopted from the Cuban Mambo, Cuban Cha Cha Cha, Rumba Guaguancó and North American Jive. As with Son, Danzón and Cha Cha Cha, it is traditionally (though less often today) danced a contratiempo. This means that, distinct from subsequent forms of salsa, no step is taken on the first and fifth beats in each clave pattern and the fourth and eighth beat are emphasised. In this way, rather than following a beat, the dancers themselves contribute in their movement, to the polyrythmic pattern of the music. Casino dance is often intertwined with Afro-Cuban dance traditions, which many dancers spontaneously draw from in a more or less structured or ad hoc fashion, though this is not per se definitory of the dance itself. In the same way that a sonero (lead singer in Son and Salsa bands) may "quote" other, older songs in their own, a Casino dancer frequently improvises references to other dances, integrating movements, gestures and extended passages from the folkloric and popular heritage. Which also has lead to the developement of a new and more energic genra called Timba. Such improvisations might include extracts of rumba, dances for African deities, the older popular dances such as Cha Cha Cha and Danzón.

Merengue ♡

Merengue is a type of music and dance originating in the Dominican Republic, which has become a very popular genre throughout Latin America, and also in several major cities in the United States with Latin communities. Merengue was inscribed on November 30, 2016 in the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of Unesco.
Merengue was developed in the middle of the 1800s, originally played with European stringed instruments (bandurria and guitar). Years later, the stringed instruments were replaced by the accordion, thus conforming, together with the güira and the tambora, the instrumental structure of the typical merengue ensemble. This set, with its three instruments, represents the synthesis of the three cultures that made up the idiosyncrasy of Dominican culture. The European influence is represented by the accordion, the African by the tambora, which is a two-head drum, and the Taino or aboriginal by the güira.
The genre was later promoted by Rafael Trujillo, the dictator from 1930 to 1961, who turned it into national music and dance style of the Dominican Republic. In the United States it was first popularized by New York-based groups and bandleaders like Rafael Petiton Guzman, beginning in the 1930s, and Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño in the 1950s.

🔥 The African influence 🔥

Some modern caribbean dances/styles:

• Reggaeton
• Dembow
• Timba
• Dancehall

🤓 I want to learn more about the different dances
😍 I'm already a dancer and want to go to a latin dance festival