Rumba

**Rumba** is a dance featured in *Strictly*.

A slow, romantic, and sensual Latin dance, born in the 1930s, taking elements from the Cuban Bolero. In this dance, both partners typically stand at close distance from each other, making slow and smooth movements throughout the dance.

It is one of the five Latin dances currently competed internationally by professional dancers, along with the Cha-Cha-Cha, Jive, Samba, and Paso Doble.

The Rumba has been a featured dance on *Strictly* since Series 1.

## Cuban Rumba

The Afro-Cuban rumba is entirely different from the ballroom rumba, both in rhythm and dance.

## Rumba Outside Cuba

The ballroom rumba derives its movements and music from the son, just as do the Salsa and mambo. The Peanut Vendor was the first recording of Cuban music to become an international hit: it was incorrectly described on the label as a rumba, perhaps because the word son would not be understood in English. The label stuck, and a rumba craze developed through the 1930s. This kind of rumba was introduced into dance salons in America and Europe in the 1930s, and was characterized by variable tempo, sometimes nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba.

### Early American Rumba

This kind of rumba was introduced into American dance salons at the beginning of the 20th Century, characterized by high tempo, nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba, typical examples being the The Peanut Vendor and Siboney.

### Ballroom Rumba

Two variations of rumba with opposing step patterns are danced around the world. American style rumba was imported to America by band directors like Emil Coleman and Don Aspiazu between 1913 and 1935. The film Rumba, released in 1935, brought the style to the attention of the general public. American style is taught in a box step, known for its slow-quick-quick pattern danced on the 1, 3, and 4 beats of 4-beat music. International style was developed in Europe by Monsieur Pierre after he compared the established American style with contemporary Cuban dancers. International style is taught in a quick-quick-slow pattern danced on the 2, 3, and 4 beats of 4 beat music, similar in step and motion to the Cha-Cha-Cha. Both styles were canonized in 1955.

#### International Style

The modern international style of dancing the rumba derives from studies made by dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Zurcher-Margolle), who partnered Doris Lavelle. Pierre, then from London, visited Cuba in 1947, 1951 and 1953 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time.

The international ballroom rumba is a slower dance of about 120 beats per minute which corresponds, both in music and in dance to what the Cubans of an older generation called the bolero-son. It is easy to see why, for ease of reference and for marketing, rumba is a better name, however inaccurate; it is the same kind of reason that led later on to the use of salsa as an overall term for popular music of Cuban origin.

All social dances in Cuba involve a hip-sway over the standing leg and, though this is scarcely noticeable in fast salsa, it is more pronounced in the slow ballroom rumba. In general, steps are kept compact and the dance is danced generally without any rise and fall. This style is authentic, as is the use of free arms in various figures. The basic figures derive from dance moves observed in Havana in the pre-revolutionary period, and have developed their own life since then. Competition figures are often complex, and this is where competition dance separates from social dance. Details can be obtained from the syllabuses of dance teaching organizations and from standard texts.

#### American Style

There is also a variant, commonly danced in the U.S.A., with box-like basic figures.