Tumba-francesa

Tumba Francesa and Franco-Haitiano (Franco-Haitian culture/music/dance) are related but not the same thing:

Tumba Francesa is Cuban, created when Haitian migrants (both free people of color and enslaved) brought those traditions to eastern Cuba in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

• Tumba Francesa is both a dance and a musical tradition.
• Music: At its core, it’s a drumming and singing tradition, led by the premier (master drum), with call-and-response singing.
• Dance: The music is made for dancing, and the dances combine:
• French-derived figures ( contradanza, quadrille, minuets) — upright posture, elegant steps, couples in formations.
• African-rooted movement and rhythm — syncopation, footwork, body isolation, improvisation.

So when people say Tumba Francesa, they usually mean the whole performance practice: drumming, singing, and dancing together, preserved by sociedades de tumba francesa in Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo.

But if you’re classifying it strictly as “dance genres,” then yes — Tumba Francesa is recognized as a Cuban dance, though unlike salsa or son, it is more folkloric and ceremonial than social.