Social Dance Reaction paper

Submitted By : Chetan Bhasme UMN # Email Date : 4449489 :bhasm003@umn.edu : 25th April 2012

I begin to move my body side to side with the music. No boundaries, restrictions, or rules to abide by when I'm dancing. I chose to dance because it's a way of expressing myself through whatever movements I want. However, social dance was not always this causal. If we traveled back to a certain point in time we could find ourselves in France doing the waltz. On the island of Rarotonga among the Cook Islands, the men would be flapping their legs in and out while the women would be moving their hips side to side to the beat. We could travel to North Africa to the country of Morocco where we would see woman embraced by clothing, revealing nothing to the general public except for their eyes. We would find the men partaking in dances that involved items such as rifles, daggers, and swords. The idea of women and men danced together would be lucrative. The styles and types of social dance depend upon a certain societies culture and values. Dance is in a perpetual motion of change and as we look back among the years, we will engage in the differences and similarities of social dance between Rarotonga, North Africa, and times of the Renaissance to the late 19th century. My small research on dance and inspiration comes from the island of Rarotonga. The island of Rarotonga of the cook islands in the south pacific takes their dancing seriously. The significance of dance on this island is that it reflects upon a persons identity, both men and women. There are four main types of social dance that are expressed throughout the island. The traditional type of Rarotongan dance involves highly trained teams of both men and women. So, dance turns out to be your identity. Being Salsa my favorite among all social dances, I would like to describe about it . Salsa refers to a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the Caribbean (especially in Cuba and North America). The dance originated through the mixture of Mambo, Danzon, Guaguanco, Cuban Son, and other typical Cuban dance forms. Salsa is danced to Salsa music. There is a strong African influence in the music as well as the dance. Salsa is a partner dance, although there are recognized solo steps and some forms are danced in groups of couples, with frequent exchanges of partner (Rueda de Casino). Improvisation and social dancing are important elements of Salsa but it appears as a performance dance too. The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavor. The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and sensuous than its ancestor, Cuban Son. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin. That day , I went to LORINGS AND PAST BAR , the most happening salsa place in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday night. They have SASLA performances by SALSA POLICE and exotic Latin music by DJ OMARI OMAR. It was one of the most mesmerizing experiences among all others in past. I could see crowd of more than 50 couples dancing on floor with every salsa type. Most of them I observed was Cha cha, Bachata, Jive followed by little bit of Rueda. As soon as , I entered hallway at 11 , I could feel beats of music transferring into my body. Specially, songs by Sanatana Maria , Frankie Ruiz, Victor Manuelle are very famous in world of salsa.

As, I didnt have any partner, I just enjoyed being at corner and watching the different performances. I still remember, one couple trying amazing dips and lifts with musicality. Generally, salsa in pubs doesnt provide lot of space per couple. You have to dance in very limited space with short stepping. So, before describing my experience in details, I would like to point what salsa exactly means to me . Los Angeles salsa being famous of all, I would describe how can we form it in rhythm. Basic Step on OneOn counts 1, 2, and 3, the leader steps forward, replaces, and steps backward. On count 5, 6, and 7, they step backwards, replace, and step forward again. During these steps, weight of the body has to be transferred sideways with hips on the feet, so that it looks more natural and little bit feminine. The follower does the same, but with forward and backward reversed, so that the couple goes back and forth as a unit. This basic step is part of many other patterns. For example, the leader may dance the basic step while leading the follower to do an underarm turn. I never paid enough attention how open break steps work good in salsa. Finally, I observed that it serves two purposes in dance. First, the break step occurs on the same beat each measure and allows the partners to establish a connection and a common ground regarding the timing and size of steps. Secondly the break step is used in an open break to build arm tension and allow certain steps to be led. On which beat the break step occurs is what distinguishes different Salsa styles. Many moves are quick and fast which include the girl spinning repetitiously. It was almost an hour in pub and I felt like dancing so hard. And luckily I got partner too. Then, it started song by Gilberto Santa Rosa , one of my favorites. The lady dancing with me seemed to be intermediate dancer with precise ladies styling and poses. It was duration of 4-5 minutes when I never realized how it went. I was just trying to feel every beat of music, every beat of hammering sound, flute and saxophone in the song. The perfect 4 beat music was ideal for bachata and Jive. And yes, it was the best salsa ,I could have ever experienced. Suddenly, there was swap of partner and I went into center of the floor. The lady dancing with me was one of the advanced dancers and I could feel sometimes that shes rectifying me in steps. The second time I got to dance the cha-cha I managed to throw in slightly more difficult dance steps that start by doing a basic and when you are near the end of the basic, the lead steps back and drops the right hand, then comes back together to do side-togethers, hook-step half hook-step and finish whats left with side-togethers. So you basically spin around each other and end up facing the opposite direction you started in. So, finally it was time of master performances by SALSA police. I still remember, every second of those 4 performances. First was Rueda, and other two were jive and last one tango. Surprisingly, I could notice very strange relation between dancing couples that they were paired up according to their heights. This is very important in salsa, because sometime resistance

while taking underarm turn for a lady because of height difference may slow down your speed during performance. All performances were mixed with little bit of Jazz, so as to make it more showy to the audience. There was strong correlation between space, energy and time in all the performances. Dips and Lifts sequences, spins, hooks were performed really fast because, if you try to do that slowly, lady will lose the balance. At the same time, I realized notion of African aesthetics i.e. polyrhythmic, curvilinear, memory, repetition, polycentric etc. No doubt, every dance movement by master performers was coherent with these aesthetic senses. Music was heavily inspired by Latin and African style in all the songs. After performances, it was time of free salsa movers in which Bollywood and Hollywood music were played with heavy hammering beats by DJ Omrani followed by The Time of my life from Dirty dancing. I managed to do some waltzing in there as well and test out some of the Viennese Waltz moves, as well as brushing up on some basic waltz steps. This was a great experience being able to apply what I have learned in dance class, and I had a blast being able to show off what little dance experience I have gained. So, next day, I was just thinking about what was new experience among all experiences I had in past. The stark difference was salsa is now revolutionized from 7 beats LA style to 4 beats Jive and bachata, cha cha and tango. So, songs and music is evolving to support this new need among dancers and performers. Because of this revelatory dancing experience, I became more comfortable with my style than before, and because I felt so much stronger I began to act with much more confidence. I saw an entire new world, and whenever I heard music I would automatically pay attention to its instruments, its structure, and its organization. While I loved music before, I understood it to a greater extent now. It is more fun to dance to music when one understands it better, and it becomes easier to anticipate the part of the song that comes next when I freestyle. I had finally begun to realize that I could indeed be considered a dancer, and with this revelation I had a fantastic feeling of exultation. This kind of feeling was surpassed only by the knowledge that there was still much more to learn in the realm of dancing. Finally, I would like to thank this superb dance course Introduction to Dance in which I realized how to analyze dance technically and with notion of space, energy and time. Im looking forward to have many more awesome dance experiences like Lorings in future.