Bailes Populares Cubanos - book
María Antonia Fernández | 1980 | Editorial Pueblo y Educación | In Spanish
The classic Cuban reference on popular dance — written from inside Cuban dance culture by a Cuban scholar and practitioner. This is a primary source, not a Western academic interpretation.
What It Covers
Bailes Populares Cubanos documents the major Cuban popular dance forms: their origins, historical development, movement characteristics, and social context. It covers son, danzón, mambo"> mambo, cha-cha-chá, rumba, and other forms with the authority of someone who grew up inside the tradition.
Why Dancers Should Read It
Most English-language books about Cuban dance are written by outsiders. This book is the opposite: it reflects how Cubans themselves understand, classify, and describe their dance traditions. Reading it gives you the insider framework — how Cuban dancers and teachers think about what they are doing, not how Western observers interpret it from a distance.
The movement descriptions are practical and specific. This is a book for people who dance, not just people who study dance academically.
Note on Language
The book is in Spanish. For dancers with some Spanish reading ability, it is highly rewarding. For those without Spanish, it is worth reading with a dictionary — the vocabulary it establishes (names for steps, styles, and concepts) will appear throughout Cuban dance instruction.
AbeBooks | EcuRed
Mambo
In Cuban music, especially in salsa and son,
the " mambo" section typically refers to a brassy, rhythmically intense instrumental break,
often featuring repetitive horn lines, call-and-response patterns, and building energy toward the climax of a song.
Mambo
In Cuban music, especially in salsa and son,
the "mambo" section typically refers to a brassy, rhythmically intense instrumental break,
often featuring repetitive horn lines, call-and-response patterns, and building energy toward the climax of a song.
Son dance is the foundation of all Cuban popular partner dancing — smooth, intimate, grounded, and musical. Every Cuban dance style that followed ( mambo"> mambo, casino, timba"> timba) builds on the body vocabulary and structure established by son.
Lees meer >Son dance is the foundation of all Cuban popular partner dancing — smooth, intimate, grounded, and musical. Every Cuban dance style that followed ( mambo"> mambo, casino, timba"> timba) builds on the body vocabulary and structure established by son.
Lees meer >National dance of Cuba, evolved from danza.
Lees meer >A Cuban dance and music style created in the early 1950s by Enrique Jorrín, evolving from the danzón-mambo tradition in charanga orchestras.
Lees meer >Cuban rumba is an Afro-Cuban music and dance genre characterized by complex rhythms, call-and-response vocals, and expressive, often flirtatious movements, rooted in African and Spanish traditions.
Lees meer >Mambo was Cuba's first global music explosion — the form that put Cuban rhythms on dance floors from New York to Tokyo in the late 1940s and 1950s, and the direct ancestor of the Latin big band sound.
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