But women can dance to it. It is a god who is in the drum. We are dealing with the orishas, that is the saints. One can play at an act around a death, to say good by to the dead. But in the ideas and the practices, it has remained pretty pure.
Dance represents different elements according to the saint involved.
The orisha can one or more different rhythms, which the dancer will adopt. The dance is learned to the rhythm of the drum and the chants in turn are based on the drum and the dance. The dancer adjusts to the variacions in chants, which are inherited from Africa and were brought over to Cuba. Before it was only blacks, now there are more whites than blacks. But we don't know how this is being carried into other countries and we are here to see how our religion is being developed.