Ballroom Latin Dances
Rhumba
The earliest forms of Rhumba had Afro Cuban origins, but the popular social styles we know today evolved in America in the 1920's & 1930's.
There are several forms of Rhumba, the most popular are Box & Bolero.
At DanceFix we teach mainly Box Rhumba.
Rhumba is often called the 'dance of love' and has a sultry, seductive personality with smooth hip movements & a heavy walking action.
The Rhumba is one of the few dances suited to slow, romantic melodies & ballads & is perfect for small dancefloors.
Cha Cha
The Cha Cha has its origins in Cuba & was introduced in England & North America in the early 1950's.
It evolved as a hybrid of Mambo & Swing with a double step (the cha-cha) added into the middle of the basic Mambo pattern.
The Cha Cha has a fun, cheeky personality & is danced to a variety of upbeat pop, dance & Latin music.
It is full of energy & characterized by sharp, staccato body movements and hip motion.
Cha Cha can be danced compactly on small dance floors to most music with a strong & constant beat but shines when danced to slightly slower music with an emphasized syncopated rhythm.
Samba
Samba originated in Brazil and was closely linked to festivals and carnivals.
There are two main forms of Samba, one danced solo which is most often seen in Carnivales & one danced with a partner which is the stye DanceFix teaches.
The Ballroom Samba (danced with a partner) began as an exhibition dance in Paris in the early 1900's, became popular in England and Europe in the 1930's and was made famous in the US in the early 1940's by the actress Carmen Miranda in one of her movies.
It has a distinct appearance with its characteristic vertical bounce and pendulum body motion. It can be danced at medium to fast tempos & is particularly suited to the unusual rhythms found in a variety of Spanish, African, South American & Reggae music.
It can also be adapted to a lot of modern pop music. The samba can be danced as a spot dance on smaller and crowded dance floors or can be used to travel around larger dance floors.
Samba can also easily be used as a much less raunchy dance alternative for Lambada music as the basic rhythms the same in most cases.
Mambo
The melding of American Jazz/Swing music and Cuban music in the mid 1940's created new rhythms & an opportunity for new forms of dance.
Mambo originated in Cuba and is often attributed to Perez Prado who introduced a version of the dance in Havana in 1943.
A modified and less acrobatic version was introduced in the late 40's in New York and was very popular into the early 50's.
The Ballroom Latin style of Mambo is a very easy and extremely versatile dance. The freestyle form is a slow, precise spot dance. Its mostly linear movements make it great for small dancefloors.
As Mambo was one of Cha Cha's 'parent' dances the two dances share many similarities in steps & style. Given this close relationship, Mambo can also easily be used as a slower substitute for fast Cha Cha music.
In the 1990's, Latin American dancing enjoyed a revival and Mambo as a dance has again become popular. In its current incarnation, it is increasingly becoming known as LA Salsa.
In this form, it has a more sensual and fluid body rhythm and is danced more smoothly, quickly & compactly to modern Latin music, but still follows the general step patterns, timing and forward and back movements characterizing Mambo.
LA Salsa is related, but quite different to Cuban Salsa.