Rueda Hand Signs (Part 13) Tira La Sábana

There is surprisingly little information available with respect to the move Tira La Sábana even though it is a true Cuban classic arguably made famous by the "Salsa a la Cubana" DVD video series produced by Salsaville.com which was first released in 1999. According to their website, thousands of copies have been sold in over 75 countries making it one of the best-known sources for Cuban salsa moves. The move Tira La Sábana is the first move on DVD 4 of the series performed by two sensational dancers: Mario Charón Alvarez & Zoila Rizo Sánchez. Particularly Mario, who was born in Santiago de Cuba and spent 25 years at the Ballet Folklorico de Oriente, is well known in Europe for his workshop appearances and the fact that he lived in France and Germany. In France he is sometimes known as “diamant de la salsa” – the diamond of salsa.

Every time I have heard this move being translated in a class, the translation has been “throw the bed sheets”. This seems to be consistent with the fact that the way this move is generally pronounced is Tira La SA-bana with the stress on the initial syllable of the word so the move name should correctly be written Tira La Sábana with an accent on the a of Sabana. The "Salsa a la Cubana" DVD, which is the oldest reference to the move that I can find, confirms the translation as it is showing the same accent when introducing the move. That being said the majority of modern videos and sources referring to this move have removed the accent leading to a few sources claiming that the translation should be something like “Throw her to the Savannah”. To me this seems like a mistake that has evolved from the fact that Non-Spanish speaking dancers are referring to the move across the internet leaving out the accent for simplicity as it is harder to generate on non-Spanish keyboards which has subsequently led to an incorrect translation.

That being said, little seems to be known about how and where this move originated and why it is in fact called “throw the bed sheets”. Like so many older Cuban salsa moves, the lack of documentation makes it extremely difficult to gather additional information around the move which is a particular shame in this case as the title of the move is so bizarre that I am certain that there is some great Cuban humour hidden in the meaning of the move. If anyone reading this blog has any additional information around this move please do get in touch via our contact page as I have always been intrigued as to what exactly the name of the move refers to.

The hand sign for this move is a simple flick with the hand as if something is being thrown away as shown in our video at https://youtu.be/IYmhPPVCb-c

Cowbell (Part 1)

The cowbell is an idiophone hand percussion instrument used in many different styles of music including Cuban salsa. Its name originates from the fact that this bell has a similar shape to the bells that were originally placed around roaming animal’s necks so that they would make a sound and allow herdsmen to identify where the animal was. Most commonly they were used by cattle herdsmen and therefore became known as a “cowbell”.

It is made out of strong, hard metal and can either be handheld or can be mounted on other instruments. When held in the hand, the musician holds the cowbell in the palm of his left hand and strikes the rim of the bell with a wooden stick held in the other hand. When the cowbell is mounted on a stand, the clip on the top of the cowbell is used to fasten it on to a bracket on the timbales stand and both instruments are usually played by the same musician at different points during the song.

The cowbells can be used to make three distinct sounds depending on what part of the instrument is struck. When the flat part of the cowbell is struck horizontally with the tip of the stick, a soft, dry sound is produced. When the shaft of the stick is used to strike the same area, a louder sound can be produced, and when the shaft of the stick is used to strike the mouth of the cowbell, this produces the most powerful sound.

In Cuban music, the cowbell is usually played by the bongo player during the “montuno” section of the song and is guided, as is true for many other instruments, by the clave. The most powerful and distinct strokes of the cowbell are usually heard (for the purpose of dancers) on the 1, 3, 5 and 7 of an 8 count (although there are more complex arrangements of these strokes) where 2 of the strokes correspond to the 2 side of a 2-3 clave. Given that some musical pieces do not have an obvious clave rhythm or have an “implied” clave, some dancers may find it easier to keep on beat when using the distinct sound of the cowbell during the montuno section of a song. Ultimately, each dancer will find it easier to pick out different instruments depending on the song that they are dancing to and should not rely exclusively on one sound to guide their dancing, rather becoming more attuned to the emphasis of each instrument during the different sections of a song in order to make use of the changes in tempo, accentuation and feeling of the music.

Son Cubano (Part 1)

Son Cubano refers to a type of music as well as a dance both of which have been instrumental in the development of Cuban salsa. The music emerged in Eastern Cuba in the late 19th century with the dance evolving shortly thereafter.
Musicologists generally pinpoint the roots of son to the Oriente Province, where it developed particularly in mountainous regions such as Sierra Maestra.

Cuban Son is pivotal not only for salsa, but for modern music and dance as a whole, influencing dances such as the American rhumba and introducing the Clave rhythm and the use of drums to a wider audience, aiding in the popularity they enjoy in mainstream music today.

Literally translated, the word son comes from the Latin “sonus” meaning sound. It is the voice of the Cuban people which gained significant popularity when it was played at the celebration of Gerado Machado’s birthday. The then president of Cuba had requested for La Sonora Matancera to perform at his birthday party which significantly aided in the acceptance of this new musical style, as it was met with scepticism by many people at the time due to its lower-class background mixing African and Hispanic cultures.

Cuban Son combines the Spanish canción and traditions of Bantu origin by mixing Hispanic components such as the lyrical metre, vocal style and the use of the tres with African characteristics such as the percussion section, a call and response structure and the general use of the clave rhythm.

The music and dance can simply be referred to as Son, however, to distinguish it from other genres such as Son Mexicano and Son Guatemalteco, the term Son Cubano has become the norm to describe the particular dance and music genre that evolved in Cuba. There are various regional varieties of the genre in Cuba which have long been analysed by researchers for their musical and cultural values. Some of these include Son Montuno, Son Santiaguero and Son Oriental.

One of the most famous and influential artists Arsenio Rodríguez developed the so-called conjunto (meaning group or ensemble to refer to a small band) by adding several instruments to the more traditional Son Cubano ensembles popular at the time. These instruments (bongo, double bass, tumbadora, trumpets and guitar) are still seen in Son Cubano derivatives around the world and in many ways created the template for modern salsa music.

How to Teach Cuban Salsa (Part 1)

While I respect every form of dance and am most certainly interested in getting a better understanding of other types of salsa I will readily admit that Cuban salsa has been my greatest passion since I discovered this dance form not only because of the music, rhythmic structure or simply the way it makes me feel but also because of its rich history and cultural values. I have always felt that some of these aspects have been neglected by most dance schools that I have been to and since I started teaching myself, I quickly discovered why. Most people, especially at the start of their dance training, do not want to come to a dance class that is essentially a lecture about history or practise the clave rhythm with claves for an hour without learning a single move. Instead, a lot of people come to salsa to meet some new friends and do something fun after work where they can listen to nice songs that make them forget about their workday.

The majority of people I have met become passionate about salsa very quickly but what they want to learn in class is one move after another, ideally something involving complicated looking arm movements, styling and body movement. In other words, many people are much more concerned with the way salsa looks rather than the way it feels and not everyone is immediately interested in learning a lot of technical details around its development. It is therefore no surprise that a lot of dance schools have started ignoring these aspects in an effort to attract more students which at least from my experience has led to two extremes: Dance schools which will almost exclusively teach different dance moves while not informing their students about the rhythm, history, culture, music etc. and dance schools which focus on these other aspects of dancing to the extent that they will only teach certain moves after these have been mastered completely. I.e. I have been to dance classes where people learned 5 new moves or more within the span of one hour feeling exhilarated about their apparent progress without having been taught anything about where these moves came from or even just what the moves are called and without being able to lead and follow these moves properly after the end of the class. While it feels great to be exposed to so many new moves in just one session it is almost impossible to retain these moves in memory the next time students go dancing and almost inevitably they will forget the moves they did even just 2 or 3 weeks ago if they learn this amount of moves every time they go to class. Similarly, I have been to classes where teachers spoke 50 minutes about the history and rhythm of the dance before playing music once at the end of the class or classes where students learned to play claves for an entire hour doing nothing but the basic step.

I have had some amazing dance teachers in both categories and even met a few teachers who were generally trying to balance all aspects of Cuban salsa in the majority of their classes, a skill that I still aspire to recreate even when the demand becomes rather one sided around a certain aspect of the dance.