Rueda Hand Signs (Part 12) Arco Iris

Once again it is the last Friday of the month and as usual we analyse another move as well as giving you a new video on our YouTube channel. This month’s move is from level 3 on the Tiempo España Dance Academy syllabus and it is one of the few moves that seems to be pretty much the same around the world with a few exceptions. As is common with these type of moves, different schools teach a different Alarde at the end but the base of the move tends to be the same internationally. When social dancing, it is completely irrelevant which type of Alarde is chosen to finish the move as Alarde – literally meaning “show” – is simply a way to make the move look nicer at the end without changing the structure of the move. It is completely up to the leader which type of Alarde they want to use to finish off a move and just by changing the Alarde at the end you can often make the same move look different when dancing to faster music as it creates a very visual effect that distracts from the fact that the steps are effectively the same.

This being said, while we occasionally teach a class on Alarde to give dancers the option to vary their moves when dancing socially, it is nice to have one standardised version where everyone does the same Alarde at the end of the move so that when the move is being called in Rueda there is a greater symmetry among the dancers. The Alarde shown in our video is one of the most common ways to finish the move and the one we use in our school for Ruedas. Other common variations include a Gancho or even a double Gancho at the end of the move.

Arco Iris literally means rainbow in Spanish which stems from the fact that the distinguishing feature of the move is the leader stretching out both hands and bringing them over their head while the follower turns behind their back so that the leader and follower end up in a back to back position. As the hands are stretched out and brought over the head they form the shape of an arch giving rise to the name Arco Iris. It is very important to stretch out the hands as high above the head as possible so as to distinguish the move from Juego De Manos type of variations where the follower will not be induced to turn. It is also important that the hands come straight up above the head rather than at an angle that makes either the follower or the leader lean backwards as this can lead to back problems and injuries.

While the move starts like Mini Setenta it is not usually included in the Setenta family of moves which is why the word “Setenta” does not feature in the name of the move. Therefore, we do not end the move with a Ronde in Rueda in our school like we would do for Setenta moves.

The hand signal of Arco Iris is the caller drawing an arch in the air with their flat right hand as shown in our video at https://youtu.be/Gs_z1mQa4g4.

Buena Vista Social Club (Part 1)

One of the first Cuban live bands I ever saw was a concert by the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club on their farewell world tour at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Seeing Omara Portuondo, Guajiro Mirabal, Barbarito Torres and Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos performing live and watching them create the music that I still use in my salsa classes today has been one of the best experiences I have had since I started my salsa journey. After 16 years of touring the world and mesmerising their audience around the globe I was thrilled to get the chance to watch them live before they retired in 2015 and they were nothing short of spectacular. Omara Portuondo’s performance at 84 years is something I will never forget and the ballads extending across most of what Afro-Cuban music has to offer was a delight to hear from this 12 piece band despite the fact that only few of the original band members were performing at the farewell tour.

Some of the songs made famous by Buena Vista Social Club have become instantly recognisable around the world even among non-dancers and people who have no particular interest in Cuban culture. They were among the first songs I recognised in my initial salsa classes and I continue to listen to them today despite the fact that they have been somewhat overplayed on occasion.

The name “Buena Vista Social Club” has become a brand that encompasses a number of things and it is confusing for most people to know what exactly it is that the term is referring to. Originally, the term described a member-only club in Havana with membership being determined by ethnicity in style of a Cabildo (African ethnic associations in Cuba that declined in the 19th century). Later on, the name became associated with a band (Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club), a documentary by Wim Wenders, an album released by the label World Circuit Records and the name of a song on that album written by Orestes López Valdés. There is also a famous CD called “A Buena Vista – Barrio de la Habana” by the Soneros de Verdad which is led by Luis Frank Arias Mosquera who had close ties to the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club being himself a former member and went on to record some of his greatest hits with another one of the Orquesta’s musicians Pío Leyva. This CD contains one of Luis Frank’s greatest hits confusingly called “A Buena Vista” to add another similar sounding song name to the list and many other songs exist that have used the term in their lyrics or titles making it very difficult to determine the boundaries of this brand name.

A musical named “The Bar at Buena Vista”, has become a worldwide success in recent years and has added to the hype surrounding this brand featuring Cuban stars like Siomara Avilla Valdes Lescay and Maestro Rubalcaba, known in Cuba as “The Hands of Gold”.

Guantanamera (Part 2)

The lyrics of the song Guantanamera based on José Martí’s poem as well as their English translation are as follows:

Yo soy un hombre sincero	I am a sincere man
De donde crece la palma	From where the palm tree grows
Y antes de morirme quiero	And before I die I want
Echar mis versos del alma	To let out the verses of my soul
Mi verso es de un verde claro	My verse is light green
Y de un carmín encendido	And it is flaming red
Mi verso es un ciervo herido	My verse is a wounded stag
Que busca en el monte amparo	Seeking refuge on the mountain
Cultivo una rosa blanca	I grow a white rose
En julio como en enero	In July just as in January
Para el amigo sincero	For the honest friend
Que me da su mano franca	Who gives me his open hand
Con los pobres de la tierra	With the poor people of the earth
Quiero yo mi suerte echar	I want to cast my lot
El arroyo de la sierra	The brook of the mountains
Me complace más que el mar	Gives me more pleasure than the sea

While the song is generally accepted to be patriotic in nature many opinions have been formed as to the meaning the lyrics are trying to convey.

In the first verse Cuba patriotism is introduced as we learn that it is about an honest dying man from Cuba – “the land where the palm trees grow”.

The "light green" part in the second verse is usually believed to signify Cuba’s nature while the "flaming red" may be interpreted as the red equilateral triangle of the Cuban flag which itself stands for blood and courage. The "wounded stag" is taken to be a symbol of Christ. Thus, the second verse shows that the narrator adheres to Christianity, Cuba’s prevailing religion.

The white rose in the third verse represents love and the purity of friendship as well as the narrator's appreciation of true friendship. The poem from Marti that this verse is based on “Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca” is one of his most famous poems and usually the first poem learned by school children in Latin America.

In the final verse, we learn that the protagonist wants to cast his lot “with the poor people of the earth”, and that he gains more pleasure from the simple wealth of "the brook of the mountains" than from the immense wealth of "the sea." It is this verse that has given the song a more global reputation amongst social equality movements.