The Dances and Rhythms of Rumba By Alex Lieberman Rumba is a term that may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Rumba was originally used as another word for party or dance in Northern Cuba. In the late 19th century, rumba was a term to represent to the distinct music and dances of Cuban rumba. In the 20th century, rumba has been used in different countries for distinct styles of music and dance; but still when rumba is refered, it is mostly used to represent Cuban rumba. Rumba in cuba was introduced in the second half of the 19th century. In the poor neighborhoods of Havana and Matanzas, Afro-Cuban workers developed several earthly percussion styles. These styles would later be referred as rumba. The rhythms and dances that were …show more content…
The forebear of the urban rumba styles, yambú and guaguancó were the ones that many believed were developed at this time. The slaves would use boxes and drawers instead of drums, and sticks and spoons instead of claves. It was later in the 1880s during the time of the abolishment of slavery, where the beginnings of rumba really took off. The urban styles are rooted in the cores de clave which is a street choir derived from Spanish choirs that integrated drums and dances from yuka, dance and music of Congolese origin. The coros de clave evolved into the coros de guaguancó which comprised mostly of men and 4/2 style, and these ensembles gave rise to the first rumba …show more content…
I see the correlations because of how rumba continues to support old traditions and evolve it with the times much like the early slaves did for their culture. Rumba was created around a time of freedom for the african people, so the styles that were born can correlate with that. Rumba means “a dance/a party” and the modern performances show the enthusiasm of the participants having fun and flowing with the music. Since rumba likes to continue with the old tradition and introduce new concepts, maybe the old orishas of Ifa can be represented by the styles of