Soft, elastic moves, sensual swaying, hips and arms almost “singing,” passionate eye contact within such a romantic melody – this is rumba, the dance of love.
Rumba is a Cuban dance with Spanish and African origin – this explains the emotional and spontaneous character of rumba dance. Rumba is danced within Afro-Cuban music type of 4/4 tempo, and three steps should be taken in four beats of music.
Rumba is rather slow, in fact, it’s the slowest of Latin ballroom dances, and this makes rumba especially difficult to perform. The thing is that no movement should be seen apart from another, all of Cuban motion must flow “to” and “from,” not even stopping for a moment.
Rumba tells a touching story of deceived love, of naive devotion and unfaithful cruelty, of an aroused feeling and a broken heart. Firstly the man sees the woman and becomes mad to possess her, so he is burning trying to persuade her, to approach her closely. The woman is resisting, doubting and finally accepting her partner’s attention. Now she herself is deeply in love, she is longing for the man’s embrace, but it’s already too late – she is no longer desired. So rumba ends in parting in pain and tears.
The aggressive actions of man and the defensive reactions of woman – both are performed by means of highlights in music and accents in moves. Thus rumba needs lots of artistic talent and expressive motion – when this is present, rumba for sure gets the deserved title of the queen of dance.
Photo © cleto2008
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