Rueda Hand Signs (Part 22) Echevarria

Echevarria is believed to have been invented by someone whose surname was Echevarria, but the exact origin or inventor of the move is unknown. Even though Echevarria is a common surname in Spanish speaking countries the name itself is not derived from Spanish words but is rather a traditional Basque surname derived from Etxeberria, which is itself a derivative from Basque etxe "house" and berri "new". It has many variations both in the salsa context as well as a surname. Some common names and spelling variations that can be observed are “Echeverria”, “Echabarria”, “En Chavarria”, “Chavarria”, “Chaparia”, “Cheveria”, “Chaveria” etc.

Since the name is derived from a surname it has no translation other than the original Basque meaning and as such is usually simply left as Echevarria when referring to it in non-Spanish texts. I have occasionally heard the word “Chaparia” being translated as “plating” from the Spanish verb “chapar” – “to plate”, however this is a fallacy arising as a mere coincidence from the fact that one of the Echevarria surname derivatives sounds similar to another Spanish word.

Completely unrelated to these names is the description “Tres-Dos” which is used in some Rueda groups instead of one of the Echevarria derivatives. Tres-Dos meaning “three-two” is the name of a medium sized conga in Rumba which receives its name from the fact that traditionally the drum was beaten in a combination of three and two beats. As far as I am aware there is no deeper meaning to why this name has been borrowed as an alternative for Echevarria and is simply one of the many move names that have been named after a musical instrument in Cuban culture.

Echevarria is technically speaking not a move but rather a form of styling as it is not led and can be actioned both by the follower and/or the leader independently of each other as an enhancement to Paso Casino or Guapea. Even though it bears similarities on the surface to elements from the twist dance it is fundamentally different in that whenever one foot is being twisted the other foot is supposed to leave the ground rather than twisting on the ground at the same time. This is one of the most common mistakes with this move and is often explained wrong by comparing it to the twist dance.

The hand signal of Echevarria consists of the free hand forming a fist with the thumb and little finger pointing away from each other. The signal is completed by shaking the fist in the air which loosely resembles the motion of Echevarria.

To see a video of the move Echevarria as well as the hand sign, please click on: https://youtu.be/gIyU3KGYgws

Rumba (Part 3)

As discussed in this series so far the dance types people understand under the term
Rumba are predominantly modern dance inventions which are hardly related to the
original dance types that have been danced in Cuba for over a century and coined the
term Rumba. I cannot help but feel a sense of regret when time and time again I meet
people who are either completely unaware that Rumba has anything to do with Cuba
or almost worse, describe the original forms as “Cuban Rumba” and the version they
know as “Real Rumba” as if to say that the Cubans modified the international accepted dance form into some obscure version of their own when it is exactly the
opposite thing that has happened.

Instead of the term Rumba being internationally accepted as a classification for
dances developed in Cuba such as Guaguancó, it unfortunately means different dances
to different people and for the few people who actually do want to describe the Cuban
dance forms outside of Cuba there is very little they can do to make themselves
understood than using some qualifier such as “Cuban Rumba”, “Authentic Rumba”,
“Afrocuban Rumba”, “Original Rumba” “Folkloric Rumba” etc. rather than the new
dance forms being described as “French Rumba”, “English Rumba” etc.
This is absurd when we consider the fact that Cuba developed a number of dance
forms under this name decades before any other dance form was described by this
title. Imagine you study a dance form under the title Rumba for many years and all of
a sudden someone makes up a new completely unrelated dance borrowing this title
and telling you that the dance you specialised in which was called Rumba yesterday is
now called “Cuban Rumba”. It seems ridiculous but this is exactly what happened and
while some people may view this as a pointless discussion on semantics it is in fact a
mechanism by which Cuba which has influenced popular dance forms and music
around the world more than any other country is denied any of the credit it deserves.

Since there is so much confusion around this term, even among my own students, I
feel compelled to analyse some of the international dances that are referred to as
“Rumba” and how they relate to Cuba before describing the Rumba complex of
Afrocuban dances such as Yambú, Guaguancó and Columbia which is what this blog
series is really supposed to be about. What I will not do however, is dilute these
original dances with qualifiers such as “Cuban”, “Authentic” etc. but rather denote
any modern version of Rumba with a qualifier such as “Ballroom Rumba”, “Square
Rumba”, “Catalan Rumba” etc. to distinguish it from dances such as Yambú,
Guaguancó and Columbia. In this series as well as any future articles in this blog
when I use the word Rumba without any qualifier I will refer to the Rumba complex
developed in Cuba and nothing else which is maybe confusing to some Western
readers but in line with the historical development of the various dance forms and
certainly the way Cubans themselves would look at the collection of dances described
by this term. I.e. no one in Cuba would have the idea to refer to a dance such as
Columbia by the title “Cuban Rumba” which in Cuba is just called Rumba and I will
adapt the same terminology in any of the blog posts I write on the subject.

Trios de Casino (Part 3)

Learning trios de casino is one of the hardest but also one of the most aesthetic aspects of Cuban salsa. It is an element that is unique to Casino as a dance and something that is unparalleled in terms of the rules that guide dancers through the complexities in this style.

In “un hombre con dos mujeres” the leader will have to give two separate signals at the same time leading both followers simultaneously. In “una mujer con dos hombres” the leader to the left hand side will do all the parts that the left hand usually does including most of the signals while the leader to the right hand side will perform all the tasks that the right hand is responsible for. While the style “un hombre con dos mujeres” can be led by signals alone, it is not possible to rely on non-verbal communication for more technical moves in the style “una mujer con dos hombres” as the leader mimicking the right hand will not know what the left hand intends to do until it is too late. For this reason the style is led by signals as well as calls similar to the way a Rueda would be called. The rule is that it is always the left hand who calls the move although there is a very interesting move called “Cambia” that can be initiated by the leader to the right which will lead to the right leader and the left leader switching places at which point it will be the other leader calling moves.

Other elements that can be introduced into trio de casino is the move “Confusion” where similar to the version en parejas the follower decides to lead making the leader the follower. In “un hombre con dos mujeres” it is the follower to the left that can execute this move, making the leader the follower to the right and shifting the follower to the right onto the left hand side. For “una mujer con dos hombres” the follower will become the left hand leader, the left hand leader becomes the right hand leader and the previous right hand leader becomes the new follower.
It is even possible to switch between “un hombre con dos mujeres” and “una mujer con dos hombres” although this requires a lot of practice as it is very difficult to pull off smoothly.

One of the nicest but also very difficult ways of dancing in groups of three people is by performing a trio de casino Rueda which traditionally involves everyone from the start being in un hombre con dos mujeres” position or alternatively has the whole
Rueda dance as “una mujer con dos hombres”. One of the newest developments in this field which is attributed to Thomas Kupczok is the style trio caliente which involves a Rueda consisting of alternating trios of two leaders and one follower and two followers one leader.

Reflection on 2017

On Wednesday 13th December we will run our last Cuban salsa group class in 2017 after which we will stop for a short winter break. Our first group class in 2018 will be in Leeds on Wednesday 3rd of January and our first salsa social in the new year will be on Thursday 15th February from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at our usual party venue “Studio 24”. We will continue writing this blog on a weekly basis but may not respond to messages and enquiries as frequently towards the end of December.

This year has certainly had its challenges and we unfortunately had to close down some of our smaller venues. We are nonetheless immensely proud of what we have achieved this year and are very lucky to have had the help of some amazing friends in keeping this dance school alive. Not all of the projects we envisaged for 2017 came to fruition but it has been a beautiful experience to see some of our dreams come to life this year, growing our school into a hub for Cuban salsa that can rival with some of the biggest Cuban salsa schools in the UK.

We have expanded our social media network this year creating weekly blog posts and monthly videos having had 187 members on Facebook and 240 members on meetup join us in 2017 so far. Our biggest milestones however, are the addition of 9 teachers who joined us this year helping us with Cuban salsa classes across all our locations and providing a base for further expansions in the coming years. Their training and development has been one of our key focus areas over the past year and we are proud to see how well everything has come together to the point where we have several teachers attempting level 3 teaching at this stage.

Other achievements this year include the spin-off of our philanthropic activities into a separate community interest company called Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C. who launched its first successful project “Strictly Cuban Salsa” in Monk Fryston a few months ago. Moreover, we went from a dance school centred exclusively around teaching Cuban salsa to organising and managing events by providing entertainment and performances at various weddings and anniversaries last year as well as organising regular Cuban salsa parties in York and Leeds.

But most and foremost we are proud of our students who have come a long way this year to the point where some of our more advanced lessons are challenging even for the most talented and experienced Cuban salsa dancers joining our classes. It is a pleasure to see how many of our students now share our enthusiasm not just about the dance itself but aspects such as the history, culture, musicality etc. The trip we organised to Edinburgh to see Maykel Blanco and the subsequent dance collaboration with Salsa4Water in Glasgow was testament to how far we have come this year and we certainly plan on creating similar opportunities in the following years.

Rumba (Part 2)

From 1956 to 1958 and from 1961 to 1963 a quarrel emerged predominantly between Great Britain and France who were leading at least the European dance scene on a relatively new popular dance dubbed Rumba. There were two main styles that had emerged: A faster style often referred to as “Cuban Rumba” which was based to some degree on Mambo Bolero and a square style version of the dance often called Square- or Carrée-Rumba. Both of these variations have interesting histories and the quarrel around which one should be used internationally in an attempt to standardise the movements became so heated that these periods are often referred to as the “Rumba Wars”.

 
Eventually, an international committee decided that both variants would be accepted, however, the slower version eventually became less common and the faster version was adopted by many dancers as it was more difficult and was seen as less restrictive. Particularly, Nina Hunt and Dimitri Petrides influenced the dance scene strongly in favour of the newer and faster version as they felt that the square version limited their creative choreography.

Today, the version that most people think about when they hear the word Rumba is an evolution of this faster Rumba version which has been added to world-wide ballroom competitions under the name “International Rumba”. It is one of the five competitive international Latin dances and is one of the most clearly defined western social dances. The square rumba version has become much less common internationally but is still often seen in America.

Many other dance types around the world are referred to as Rumba making this concept even more confusing for dancers, musicians and spectators alike but almost all variations have two main aspects in common to the detriment of Cuban history and culture:

• Almost all rumba versions around the world are at its core derived from Cuban dances as well as musical and cultural aspects even though many of them have been changed to the point where this is no longer recognisable. 
• As far as I am aware, none of the dances that are internationally referred to as “Rumba” (aside from the rare occurrence of the actual original Cuban Rumba dances being taught internationally) are derived in any way from any of the original dances in the Cuban Rumba complex. The original Rumba dances were invented and danced in Cuba decades before any of the dances emerged internationally that were described by this term making this title even more tragic in its ability to overwrite one of Cuba’s core inventions with products that have next to nothing to do with it.