Rhythm
Dances
Social and competitive dancing with a Latin flair! Unlike the Smooth dances, Rhythm dances generally stay in a smaller, confined area of the dance floor. As the name suggests, the rhythmical nature of these dances allow you to really get loose on the dance floor.
The term
comes from Haiti, and it refers to the part of a
bell that made a "cha-cha" noise when rubbed, but
the dance itself evolved from the Rumba and the
Mambo. Mambo was wildly popular in the United
States just after World War II, but the music was
fast and very difficult to dance to. Because of
this, a Cuban composer named Enrique Jorrin slowed
the music down, and the "cha-cha-cha" was born. By
1953, several of his songs were hits, and the
cha-cha became a sensation.
Rumba
has a rich history — it started as both a family of
music and a dance style that originated in Africa
and came to the new world with the slave trade.As a
result, rumba is highly polyrhythmic and very
complex, and has spawned many different dance
styles. These styles include the salsa, the African
rumba(popularized with the Spanish "Gypsy kings" in
the 1990s), and the Cuban rumba, which was later
imported to the States. Becoming the cabaret dance
that flourished in America during prohibition, the
rumba in all of its styles share similar movements
that have a wonderfully sensual, rhythmic
quality.
Swing
is actually a whole family of dances, all of which
evolved from the original swing dance, the "Lindy
hop" of the 1920s. Since then, more than 40
different versions have been documented, most of
them set to that great, big band sound. The most
common swing dance in competitions is the "East
Coast Swing," a style developed by Arthur Murray
and others in the years after World War II. With
its free-wheeling style and adaptability to new
kinds of music, swing has never gone out of style —
even disco-era dances like "the Hustle" can be
traced back to swing.
The
Bolero began as a dance form in the late 1700s, to
go along with the new Spanish romantic ballads of
the day. The Boleros we dance today have more in
common with a form developed in Cuba a century
later, but the themes of love and romantic longing
remained essential. The Bolero is a wonderful
hybrid of different dances. It uses a slowed down
Rumba rhythm, has the rise and fall of the Waltz,
and the contra-body motion of the Tango. This makes
it a favorite of professionals, who can use this
broad palette to create the slow, sensual, romantic
dance so many love. And who can resist an excuse to
play Ravel's famous ballet score?
The
Mambo is a Cuban dance, though the word comes from
Haiti. To the African slaves there it referred to a
voodoo priestess who could converse with the gods.
The first music called "Mambo" was written in the
late 1930s by a Cuban composer, but the Mambo craze
began in the late 1940s when a musician named Perez
Prado came up with a dance to go with it. Prado
took Mambo from Havana to Mexico, and then to New
York, where it became homogenized to suit
mainstream American tastes.
Social and competitive dancing with a Latin flair! Unlike the Smooth dances, Rhythm dances generally stay in a smaller, confined area of the dance floor. As the name suggests, the rhythmical nature of these dances allow you to really get loose on the dance floor.
ChaCha
Rumba
East Coast Swing
Bolero
Mambo
Please feel free to give us a call 617-492-2122 or send us an email for any questions.